National Archives of Scotland ~ 23 July 2007

Our guide at the National Archives of Scotland is the Education Officer, and her duties include teaching different age groups, leading workshops, and other educational lectures. I love to see examples like this of the harmonious relationship between information institutions and education.

The Archives are made up of three separate facilities: the General Register House, the West Register House, and the Thomas Thomson House. There is a van that goes back and forth amongst the three sites to deliver requested materials. The General Register House is the repository for holding official records of Scotland. In the Robertson Wing, there are computers for searching digital copies and the online catalog, as well as microfilm and microfiche. In the Historical Search Room, the patrons are able to look at the records for research. The General Register House is open to the public and its records date from the 12th century, with a total of 70 km of items. Its records include diaries, government reports, church records, wills, etc. I was very surprised to hear that the collection is still organized by a paper catalog!
The West Register House contains additional storage and was opened to the public in the 1970s. Its records include court records, business records, maps and plans, etc.
The third site is the Thomas Thomson House, which is only used for storage and sorting (not open to the public). The conservation department does a lot of their work at the Thomson House, which is named after Thomas Thomson, who had set up policies for cataloguing and conserving records. On the website, I appreciated seeing images of an old map, before and after conservation.

There are three overarching categories for the Archive's records: government; court and legal; and private. A recent development is their Electronic Ordering System in the search rooms, facilitated by archive attendants. Researchers must obtain a reader's ticket in order to see original documents, and they can only view three at a time. We were able to see several samples from the Archive's collection. A few of the most exciting were an original letter from Mary Queen of Scots written in 1550 and a scroll from 1495, in which a monk recorded the first known written reference to "whiskey."

Interesting aspects of the Archives: No pens allowed! [This I learned to be a typical rule in most archives.] Parking is a problem for the General Register House, which brings to mind the power of external issues to affect the accessibility and patrons' use of a facility. Our guide informed us about some of the National Archive's endeavors, including "Scottish Wills," a huge digitization project containing wills from 1500 to 1901. It was neat to find out how much organizations work together to meet common goals in the community, as demonstrated by all the national collections joining resources to support the national education standards. Our guide mentioned an area that captured my interest: paleography skills (the ability to read handwriting). When working with ancient manuscripts and handwritten records, it is obviously very important to have these skills. Now I am curious-- I want to learn about paleography!

National Library of Scotland ~ 23 July 2007

The National Library of Scotland adopted its current title in 1925. Before that, it was the Library of the Faculty of Advocates. In 1710, it became a deposit library for publications in Scotland, as well as Britain and Ireland. It not only receives books, but also music, official reports, and electronic publications, leading up to a total of 8,000 items per week! A large part of the library's collection includes maps and gazetteers, of which it holds around 3 million. One of the library's challenges is to try and promote wider access--to become more welcoming to the public. Their digitizing projects intend to meet this challenge. Another challenge to the library is the difficulty in getting funding, because the impact of the collections and archives is hard to measure and seems less obvious than other community institutions. To face this issue, the library has set up a new fundraising department with four staff members.

The focus of our visit was on the most recent treasure added to the library, the John Murray Archive. Both the senior curator of the archive (David McClay) and the education/outreach coordinator (Emma Faragher) shared a lot of valuable insight with us into the archive's history and the process of its design. The John Murray Archive contains 200,000 items from the John Murray Publishing Company that remained popular throughout its 167 years of existence. The National Library purchased it for £33 million with funding from the Heritage Lottery Grant and some state funding. There are currently three permanent cataloguers working on the John Murray project.

Ms. Faragher shared with us briefly about her duties: she teaches adult education courses on how to use the library and archives; she works with the core users of the library, university students; and she is involved with getting speakers to come in (writers, historians, etc.). She also spoke with us about the process of designing the John Murray Archive Exhibition and all the elements that went into the creation of its display. It took about 3 years to design the exhibition. I found it extremely interesting to learn about the task of transcribing manuscripts and interpreting them for the visitors. I also learned of the significance of exhibitions for the success of the library, because they are used to promote the collections and ultimately to raise public interest and increase access. A related challenge is that it is difficult to evaluate the visitors' learning from the exhibit and how it has affected them.

The John Murray Archive Exhibition is in a creative facsimile of John Murray's Victorian home that immediately transports the visitor back in time. It is made up of 11 character pods that spotlight writers from the John Murray collection, including Lord Byron, David Livingstone, Sir Walter Scott, and Isabella Bird Bishop. Each pod has clothing and props related to the writer and a digital screen that allows the viewer to explore further: background information, manuscripts, etc. Although the John Murray Archive was the highlight of our visit, I did look through the other exhibits that were available in the library, including the "Scotland and India" exhibit. It contained several interactive areas and artwork and books relating to travel, medicine, the British Empire, and missions.

Museum of Childhood ~ 20 July 2007

In cooperation with the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Museum of Childhood is a collection of objects representing childhood from the 16th century to the present day. The museum's funding comes from a Victoria and Albert Friends grant as well as visitor donations. In the front gallery, there was an impressive temporary exhibition of children's clothes and accessories that were turned into works of art by students from London College of Fashion. In addition, there were displays of art (eco-friendly designs of clothes, lunch boxes, etc.) created by primary school students as part of an artist-led project. The front gallery also hosted the "Dreams of Flying" exhibition: Jan von Holleben's photographs of children in certain poses, interacting with objects in such a way that it gives the illusion that the children are flying (several inspired by classic children's books). These exhibits were an amazing introduction to the museum and drew me right in!

Here are some examples from the collection that stood out to me as I explored the three floors of galleries:
~Historic toys, including those from around the world-- It was so interesting to read about the origins of some of the toys, and it was quite nostalgic to discover that toys from the 1970s and 80s that do not seem far removed from my lifetime were there on display behind glass!
~Some artwork that supplemented the historical information about toys, etc.
~An interactive game simulation
~A giant Magna-Doodle :)
~An arts and crafts area-- It looked like museum staff members were leading a group of parents and children in an activity.
~Play areas (sand pit, puppet shows) and reading areas scattered throughout the museum
~Amazing doll-houses and models
~Dress-up items and children's clothing, displayed chronologically by time period
~Educational tools
~The "Good Times" section with games, crazy mirrors, and fun music playing in the background
~An exhibit about exploring the lives and families in London's East End community

The overall sense that I got from this museum is that it represents the celebration of children and imagination, as evident in the quotes about childhood that are worked into the museum's design and the numerous opportunities for visiting children to play, explore, and create. There is also a highly active education department within the museum, with an exciting schedule of teaching sessions and workshops. I felt that the museum was very open, well-designed, and very well organized. It provides a fun and educational activity for children and their families (or for anyone who loves children!).

Bodleian Library ~ 19 July 2007

The Bodleian Library of Oxford University is divided between the Old Library and the New Library. The Old Library was established in 1488. We saw its stacking system where the stacks are suspended from the ceiling in order to be moved easily. These stacks are able to hold 2 million books (mostly the smaller books of the collection). We also visited some of the reading rooms, where I noticed local catalogs and annotated booklists.

Next we moved on to the New Library, which was built in 1938. The facility contains 8 floors of stacks that are open to readers only and several specialist rooms (for example, Indian Institute Library, Geography and Map Reading Room, etc.). The stacks are climate-controlled for preservation purposes, and they are designed in order to fit the items that are being stored. Our tour guide emphasized the idea that the library is made by its smaller collections, as evident when it was named after Thomas Bodley, whose collection was added in 1602. Some examples from the general collection include a high concentration of literature from the Far East and theses, which are popular and highly frequented.

The library currently holds 12 million items, yet it continues to grow since it is a deposit library. Therefore, it has record of the history of printing and publishing in England from 1610 until today. Because of the constantly increasing holdings, the curators face the challenge of deciding what to keep, sell, or exchange, when working on acquisition. The Bodleian Library has a similar conveyor system as the British Library, and it connects 15 reading rooms, one for each subject area. A few differences are that the Bodleian's system is not yet operated electronically, and the students are able to hold books in a reading room for as long as they need them. The task of locating books to retrieve them for readers seems like a daunting one, but there is a whole culture of people, endearingly called the Troglodites, who "live in the stacks" and know where everything is. How fascinating!

I was surprised by the organization of the Bodleian's collection. The books are partially organized by the Dewey Decimal System, but primarily according to size. As we wandered through the dimly-lit, musty stacks, I got the impression that I was walking through the old basement of an avid book collector. Our tour guide admitted to us that certain items are not easy to find unless a Troglodite happens to know where they are. Although the intrinsic historical value of the Bodleian collection is incomparable, I felt like the operation and organization are not up-to-date in the areas of technology and access. The catalog is now on CD, but students can only search by author, not by subject. This seems like it would make research very difficult, since students must consult a catalog elsewhere to find resources within a certain subject, then return to the Bodleian to search its catalog by the resulting authors.

The Jane Austen Centre ~ 18 July 2007

Visiting the Jane Austen Centre was a lifetime landmark for me and so much more than just an academic experience. The Centre is located in a house in Bath that is similar in style to the home in which Jane Austen and her family lived while in Bath from 1801 to 1806. The Centre's exhibitions focus on Jane Austen's life and works as well as historical information about Bath during the Georgian and Regency periods. Some of the Jane Austen Centre's features include: Regency tea rooms; a gift shop of Austen-related gifts and books; an annual Jane Austen Festival; and walking tours of Jane Austen's Bath. The Centre also produces a magazine entitled Jane Austen's Regency World.

We were welcomed into the Centre by a gentleman dressed in Regency clothing, and we were immediately transported back to the end of the 18th century. Our visit began with an introductory talk about Jane Austen's history, her family and her career, with a special emphasis on her time spent in Bath. The guide was very informative and gave me a deeper glimpse into Jane Austen's life than I had received from any other biographical source. I learned more about her personality and her relationships-- to see her as more than just a writer, she was a kind and clever young woman, beloved to many. An interesting fact I learned is that when she was originally published, she did not use her real name. Instead, her books were ambiguously authored "by a lady."

There was a temporary exhibition called The Costumes of ITV's Persuasion. It displayed costumes from the recent film productions of Persuasion and Mansfield Park. And, there was an accompanying short film on how the costume designer was inspired to produce the costumes, based on the historical context. In the permanent exhibition, some examples include: a few portraits of Jane Austen (all based on the original in the National Portrait Gallery); Regency artifacts, circa 1800-1820; a sample of a letter Jane wrote to her sister, Cassandra; a representation of a Georgian garden; information on social life in Bath during Jane Austen's time period; and the influence of the Navy in her works. The artifacts and displays worked together to paint a picture of what life was like for Jane Austen while she lived in Bath, what inspired her and what was important to her, and how her experiences influenced her writing. I appreciated the design of the exhibit; it was small, pleasant and well-organized, with music from the time period in the background. The only aspect that I did not like as much was the abundance of pictures from the movie representations of her novels. I wanted to stay immersed in the year 1800, but those pictures distracted me and brought me back to the present day. I would rather have focused more on her books than on the movies that attempt to portray what she expressed so well in words.

The Jane Austen Centre seems to be a fairly small organization with a small staff (for example, our tour guide was also working in the gift shop). However, it is operated very efficiently, run by competent, knowledgeable staff members. And, it seems to have quite a far reach, as its Jane Austen Festival in September is an internationally popular event, and fans from all over the world make pilgrimages there year-round (myself included).

St. Paul's Cathedral Library ~ 17 July 2007

The St. Paul's Cathedral Library is a relatively small, but immeasurably valuable, institution. It has been the cathedral's library for nearly 300 years, and it holds 13,500 volumes. The librarian, Joe Wisdom, gave us some historical background before taking us to the library. They believe that originally, the library's collection may have been stored along the length of the triforium. Also, the library was in the west end of the cathedral, where it expanded vertically rather than horizontally so as to conserve space. The room where Christopher Wren's great model of the cathedral from the 1670's is displayed used to be a library chamber, based on the book-related objects carved in the room's columns.

Onwards and upwards, Mr. Wisdom brought us to the library, a single room filled with ancient manuscripts that are under constant conservation. After the Great Fire, the library lost most of its books, so they had to be replaced with other collections (for example, Henry Compton, the Bishop of London, donated his entire collection). The domed ceiling of the library, Mr. Wisdom explained, simulates the feeling of a tent, so the reader's thoughts can soar! Wow, the architecture of a library has a lot more depth and significance than I realized. He also pointed out the iconography of the carvings in the library's columns: a skull above a book, surrounded by wheat and grapes, symbolizes how the library supports the church's message of Christ's triumph over death. One part of the library's collection that was interesting to me was a large Bible from the 16th century that was laid out on a small table, rather than on the shelves. We learned that this is used as an object lesson, to show how some books have the potential to cause damage to other books, because of the large brass knobs and buckles that embellish the cover.

The cathedral library is a private library, but it is open to anyone who will make good use of it. The librarian must be cautious and find out why exactly the person needs to use particular documents, as library security is certainly a major issue with a collection of this age and value. Therefore, patrons may only look at three documents at a time. Another issue which Mr. Wisdom informed us about is conservation. While we visited the library, a conservation exercise was currently in progress, led by conservators and assisted by a team that performs cleaning and minor repairs. The conservation projects are typically funded by grants.
It is also important to preserve the environment in which the books are stored, in addition to conserving the books themselves. As part of the library environment issue, I learned that there are actually specific types of bugs that destroy books, depending on the climate and location. Mr. Wisdom emphasized to us that with early printed texts, having duplicates does not decrease the value of the copy (as it may seem with current texts). Each copy is just as significant; they wouldn't dare to dispose of one copy because they already have another! This makes perfect sense, but it is another area which I was not aware of before this tour. I also learned the difference between conservation and restoration: Restoration involves making a change to the document, while conservation simply maintains the document. Joe Wisdom spoke vehemently against restoration, as he stated that any alterations done to a document should always be reversible.
This is an inspiring library and our tour was incredibly informative. :)

Museum of London ~ 16 July 2007

The Museum of London was established in 1976, and it is considered to be the largest urban history museum in the world. Some of its funding comes from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, the City of London, the Heritage Lottery, as well as donations from the Friends of the Museum community. There are about 150 staff members working at the main site and 150 staff members at the London Archaeological Archives Center. The Senior Curator of Prehistory, Jon Cotton, was our tour guide, and he explained to us how the design team and the curatorial staff work alongside each other to create new exhibits. They maintain a database as an internal record system in order to keep track of objects. There are computer terminals located throughout the museum which visitors may use to access the online catalog. They can search for items by keyword, time period, and subject. And the results indicate where the items are on display. I thought this was an extremely helpful feature!

The exhibits included: Pre-historical London; the Great Fire of London; Roman London (focusing on homes and life); Medieval London; and Tudor and Stuart London. I loved the models and dioramas that are frequently used in the exhibits. They provide visitors with a big-picture perspective while offering so many interesting, intricate details. I took note of the museum's vision as it made the museum come alive to me as more than just an institution; it is a moving force within the community: "Inspire a passion for London;" "London only has one museum." The goal is to create a dialogue with the visitors, instead of simply passing down facts. This is evident, for example, when the captions pose questions to the visitors, causing them to stop and think about the relevance of the item on display.
I became fascinated with learning about the issues and challenges that the museum staff faces. Our tour guide, Jon Cotton, let us into their world of decisions that I had no idea existed. One challenge is that England's National History Curriculum does not include pre-history (it begins with the Roman invasion). So, the pre-historical London exhibit carries a heavy responsibility to present new information in a way that provides sufficient context to an audience that is generally unfamiliar with the time period. Similarly, the staff must make sure to avoid the use of historical jargon when creating the labels and captions, keeping in mind what the audience will be familiar with. A related issue is the amount of text included in the displays; Jon Cotton believes that reading should not distract the visitor from the objects. I completely agree! It seems that the visitors' needs, knowledge, and interests must be central during the design process. One final aspect of design, which I'm sure leaves room for constant debate, involves the ethical issues surrounding the display of human remains. The human skulls that were part of the pre-historical exhibit were displayed because of their cultural context. But I understand the director's hesitancy to put everything on display without respect and some solemnity.