As for official events today, we began at the Barbican. The Barbican is a public library that was built before World War II and was rebuilt after it was bombed down in that same era. In 1964, they began acting as a lending library. The Barbican estate, the land that holds the library, is composed of a cinema, theatre, restaurant, the library, and more. It is know as a cultural heritage section, just as the Tower Bridge is. The library has several structural issues, such as columns, but makes up for that with its use of displays. These change often. The ones they had today included a section of e-book downloading, Superman, fiction, Crime Novels(with awesome covers), etc. The center has about 9,000-11,000 residents, fluctuating of the hours they are open, and sometimes 300,000. They are open consistently with two late nights alternating and not on Sundays. Their online catalogue is 24/7. They have an interesting security feature- putting labels in the back of the book. They have a scanning self-check in complete with dropbox, as well as a real librarian to do the same task inside. While in the US librarians seem to feel threatened by their lack of use at the desk, the Barbican seems to feel that this self-check allows them to be of use for other actions. In addition to the location we visited, they have three joint libraries. In the future they hope to be able to make better recommendations to their patrons, a feat most public libraries strive for. To entice the public, they use twelve artist slots a year- much vied for apparently, we had one setting up today- and this can be comprised of jewelry, sculpture, painting, or other. It gives the artist a showing platform in London. Their age range, statistically, is of mostly men and 25-40 years of age. Another interesting feature of this library is that it let's you not only hold but check out 1738 texts. They have a fiction section, large print, non-fiction, "london lost", DVDs, a music section of the library that works with the girl's school, a children's library, and much more. I was incredibly impressed with their Doctor Who collection(52 films/items). Oh, and no we did not see Daniel Craig today- a regular of the library.
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| 52 Doctor Who DVDs. |
Our second trip was the upstairs(perhaps middle floor) of St. Paul's Cathedral and into their library. There are 140 stairs to this trip, I believe we did half because there were more stairs above us. The "tri forium level", as it is called, has three arches, a tesserai mosaic by William Wren, a set of viking runes reading "caused me to be made", and much else that I am not sure I am suppose to discuss with outsiders. I can tell you there was a lot of latin(faciendi plures libros nollus est finis) as well as other "retired" religious artifacts. The library, however, focuses on the conservation of rare books- which to them is preventative. The tour guide, whom was very lively, discussed the needs of digital collections and the importance of the prints. Originally, the library was lost in the Great Fire of London and later replaced through donations and clergy members. Now, the leather is decaying and parts(holes) have been eaten in the works by worm type insects. While we couldn't see them, the awesome smell of books when you go in an old library(like St. Paul's) is marvelous, and also the smell of decaying bindings. They apparently are going for the wood under the leather or the animal glue. They now vary in age, 17th Century mostly, and are all cataloged in the database- which is not available for the public. Of this, our tour guide told us that the first rule of librarianship is to "never ever dispose of your old catalogs." He then called himself an old "fuddy duddy," a technical term of course. His favourite books include Tendall's New Testament and the Psalter of pre-reformation, two books he believes you could use to begin the world again. If you are curious how they arrange their items, it is first by case # and then by shelf letter.
During the day, I pondered my research paper some more. I am now thinking I want to combine my love of Sherlock Holmes and Alice in Wonderland with an curiosity in preservation & a passion for display making. One potential research question would be to ask "What do public libraries do to attract attention?" The answer, to me, would be to utilize displays.(See Greenwich Maritime & Barbican) Second, to as "How do the US and UK vary on this? How are they similar?" And thirdly, I noticed that the pubs and museums in England also contain script/text pieces of these authors(mentioned above) and I would then have to ask "What role do the pubs play in the preservation of these works? Do they affect or aide the public libraries cause?" Either way, these are some ideas floating in my head that I then wanted to see in text for later use or thought reflection. On that note, the 6:30 departure to hop on the Paddington train to Oxford comes rearly. Tomorrow is a full day and I really look forward to posting photos, whenever that happens. Also, I just purchased tickets to see the Harry Potter Warner Brothers Tour. So I will sleep extra well tonight, rest assured.
