Publication approaches

… we’re dreaming a dream we never thought
Would ever quite come true for us,
Share with us, share with us please
(Noël Coward)

It is true: The Directory is due for publication in October. The advertisement for it on the Facet website makes the Directory seem very real:

http://www.facetpublishing.co.uk/title.php?id=300167

A huge thank you to everybody who has helped to make it happen!

Contributing libraries who buy directly from Facet will be entitled to the 20% publisher’s discount normally reserved for individual CILIP members. Good news indeed!

Nearly there

This blog has been silent for several months, as the priority for the Directory of Rare Book and Special Collections in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland has been to edit entries. Now it is nearly there, and the end of April (yes, tomorrow) is the agreed submission date. But several libraries did not answer repeated requests to update their entries. The economic situation is tough: some places run on volunteers, a huge amount of restructuring has taken place in the public sector, positions have fallen vacant and not been filled so that there has been nobody to do an update. So if you know anybody who works or has worked in any of the following libraries and can update its entry, please could you contact them and urge them to send an entry today? And if you know that a library no longer exists, please can you tell me, also today, at: RareBooksDirectory@outlook.com?

The libraries are mostly school libraries, public libraries, libraries in museums, and parish libraries.

All the libraries listed have received the text of their previous entry (published 1997). Instructions for entry are available via this page (see the bar at the top): they include an exploded entry.

Your research community needs you. Thank you!

(Dr) Karen Attar, editor

Ardrossan	Cunninghame District Library
Armagh	Armagh County Museum
Banbury	Bloxham School Library
Belfast	Ulster Museum
Berkhamsted	Berkhamsted School Library
Beverley	Beverley Local Studies Library
Bishop Aukland	Library of the See of Durham
Bognor Regis	West Sussex Institute of Higher Education, Bognor Regis College Lib.
Bolton	Bolton School (Boys’ Div.) Library
Bournemouth	Lansdowne Reference Library
Bradford	Bolling Hall Museum
Bridlington	Bridlington Library
Brighton	Preston Manor
Bristol	John Wesley’s Chapel
Bristol	University of Bristol Spelaeological Society
Cambridge	Scientific Periodicals Library (closing)
Canterbury	Franciscan Central Library (now Franciscan International Study Centre Library)
Cardiff	South Glamorgan County Libs.
Cardington	Cardington Parochial Library
Carmarthen	Carmarthen Museum
Cashel	G.P.A. Bolton Library
Chatham	Royal School of Military Engineering
Cheltenham	Cheltenham Divisional Library
Chertsey	Chertsey Museum
Christchurch	Red House Museum Art Gallery
Colchester	Essex Libraries, Local Studies Department
Connemara	Kylemore Abbey
Cultra	Ulster Folk & Transport Museum
Darwen	Darwen Library
Derby	Derby Central Lib. (Local Studies Dept.)
Dorchester	Dorset County Museum
Dorchester	Dorchester Reference Library
Dublin	Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland
Durham	Arts, Libraries and Museums Department, Durham County Library
Durham	Bibliotecha Fransiscana
Farnborough	St Michael’s Abbey
Farnham	Forestry Commission Lib.
Farnham	Museum of Farnham (Waverley Borough Council)
Felsted	Felsted School Library
Gateshead	Gateshead Libraries and Arts Departmet, Central Library
Gillingham	Gillingham Central Library
Glasgow	Library of the Religious Society of Friends, Glasgow Meeting
Godalming	Gerald Coke Lib., King Edward’s School, Witley
Grantham	Grantham Public Library
Grantham	St. Wulfram’s Church
Guernsey	German Occupation Museum
Guildford	Guildford Institute Lib.
Haileybury	Haileybury and Imperial Service College
Harrogate	Harrogate Lib.
Harrow	Harrow Public Libraries
High Wycombe	The Library, Watson Hawksley
Holt	Gresham’s School Library
Hull	Hull Maritime Museum
Hull	Wilberforce House
Aberystwyth	Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences, Aberystywyth University
Illford	Redbridge Public Libraries
Isle of Man	King William’s College
King’s Cliffe	Law’s Library, The Library House, King’s Cliffe
King’s Lynn	King’s Lynn Museum Library
Kingston-upon-Thames	Kingston Libraries
Kingston-upon-Thames	Museum and Heritage Centre
Lansdown	Kingswood School Library
Leeds	Leeds Incorporated Law Society
Leeds	Leeds (Roman Catholic) Diocesan Lib.
Leeds	Trinity and All Saints’ College
Leominster	Lord’s Day Observance Society
Lewes	Lewes Area Lib.
Lincoln	Lincolnshire Archives
London	Army and Navy Club
London	Art Workers Guild Library
London	Bank of England Reference Library
London	Barnet Public Libraries Archives and Local History Department
London	British Institute of Radiology, Mackenzie Davidson Library
London	Business Archives Council Library
London	Camden Public Libraries (CPL) – Swiss Cottage Library
London	CPL – Holborn Library
London	CPL – St Pancras Reference Library
London	Catholic Central Library
London	Chelsea Physic Garden
London	Franciscan Friars Minor Provincial Archives
London	French Protestant Church
London	Woolwich Reference Library
London	Plumstead Library
London	Guildhall School of Music and Drama Library
London	Gunnersbury Park Museum
London	Hackney College
London	Hammersmith and Fulham Archives and Reference Libraries
London	Institute of Army Education
London	Institute of Cost and Executive Accountants Library
London	Islington Central Library
London	Islington –Finsbury Library
London	Kensington and Chelsea Public Libraries – all
London	Labour Party Library and Archives
London	Marx Memorial Library
London	Merton Public Libraries
London	Marylebone Cricket Club Library
London	Newham Public Libraries
London	Polish Library
London	Royal Artillery Library and Archives
London	Royal College of Music Library
London	Royal Free Hospital and School of Medicine Medical Library
London	Royal Institution Society
London	Royal Naval College Library
London	Royal Opera House Archives
London	St Joseph’s College
London	Savage Club
London	Savile Club
London	Socialist Party of Great Britain Library
London	Society of Chiropodists Library
London	Southwark Pub Libs: Newington Library
London	Southwark Pub Libs: John Harvard Library
London	Stationers’ and Newspaper Makers’ Company
London	United Oxford and Cambridge University Club
London	United Reformed Church History Society, W B Shaw Library
London	Civil Liberties Library
Loughborough	Co-operative College
Luton	Luton Museum & Art Gallery
Lytham St. Anne’s	Guardian Royal Exchange Assurance Archives
Manchester	Royal Northern College of Music Library
Middlesbrough	Cleveland County Library
London (Harrow)	Middlesex Yeomanry
Newburgh	North East Fife District Lib. Service, Laing Lib. and Museum
Newbury	Newbury Library
Newcastle	Society of Friends Library
Newton Abbot	St Augustine’s Priory Library
Newtown	Powys Lib. Service
Northampton	Northamptonshire Record Society
Old Heathfield	All Saints Church
Oxford	The Feneley Library (Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies)
Oxford	Greyfriars Library
Plymouth	City Museum and Art Gallery – Cottonian Collection Library
Plymouth	Devon Library Services – Local Studies & Naval History
Pocklington	Pocklington School
Pontefract	Ackworth School Lib.
Portsmouth	City of Portsmouth Museums and Art Gallery
Portsmouth	Portsmouth Central Library
Richmond	Richmond upon Thames Public Libraries
Salford	Broughton Library
Salford	Walkden Library
Sandy	RSPB
Sheffield	Ecclesfield Parish Church
Southampton	King Edward VI School
St. Albans	Museum of St. Albans
Swaffham	Church of St Peter and St Paul
Swansea	Central Lib., West Glamorgan County Lib.
Thetford	Thetford Library
Torquay	Torquay Natural History Museum
Totnes	Totnes Museum
Newark	British Horological Institute (formerly at Upton)
Uxbridge	Hillingdon Public Libraries
Wakefield	Queen Elizabeth Grammar School Lib.
Waltham Abbey	Abbey Church of Waltham Holy Cross and St Lawrence
Waltham Abbey	Waltham Abbey Historical Society Library
Welshpool	Powysland Lib.
Weymouth	Weymouth Library
Winchester	Winchester District Library
York	The Bar Convent, Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary

 

Updates from you?

Thank you very much to everyone who sent an entry, new or revised, for the forthcoming edition of the Directory of Rare Book and Special Collections in the UK and Republic of Ireland. As I write this, final edits are going ahead and I am firing off numerous emails to request clarification about particular collections. Thanks to everyone who is responding to queries quickly and with good humour.

If anything has happened with your collections since you submitted your entry – for example, if you have acquired any new printed special collections of any vintage (including 20^th-21^st century), disposed of collections, if you reported collections as uncatalogued that are now catalogued, etc, or indeed if you have moved location, changed telephone number or email address etc, please could you let me know by emailing RareBooksDirectory@outlook.com by 31 January 2015?

(Dr) Karen Attar
Editor, Directory of Rare Book and Special Collections in the UK and Republic of Ireland

Draughts in Glasgow

Most Scots are completely unaware that there’s a game at which they were world champions for over a hundred years – the game of draughts. Often regarded as a simple children’s pastime, it is in fact a deep and complex game, every bit as subtle and sophisticated as chess. Between 1820 and 1930 Scotland dominated the world of draughts and produced no less than 6 world champions. This ‘flowering’ of the Scottish game was reflected in the quantity and quality of the literature produced at the time, and in 1898 Glasgow Corporation purchased the collection of a young draughts enthusiast, James W. Hillhouse, for the sum of £70. This important collection includes early works by Joshua Sturges, a notebook detailing the matches between Andrew Anderson and James Wyllie for the Scottish Championship in 1847, and an outstanding collection of newspaper columns.

Thus writes Linda Burke, Librarian at the Mitchell Library in Glasgow. The Hillhouse Collection is just one of the special collections at the Mitchell Library: a significant library with getting on for 1.25 million volumes, but one which may be off the radar for many users in the academic community because its holdings are not yet on Copac. It is a perfect illustration of the value of collection-level descriptions over a broad spectrum of libraries.

Directory recommendations

What senior librarians and academics say about the Directory of Rare Book and Special Collections in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland:

The new edition of the Directory of Rare Book and Special Collections is a long-awaited reference work which will help researchers identify the UK and Republic of Ireland’s great collections of research materials. It provides detailed and authoritative information and is a must for all serious researchers.
Librarians, archivists, and curators should make sure they provide the fullest and most current information for the Directory of Rare Book and Special Collections. This reference work – which has not been superceded by the provision of online information – is still a very  useful and much-consulted work of reference. Take this opportunity to help drive use of your collections!
Richard Ovenden, Bodley’s Librarian, Oxford

Together, institutions in the UK and Ireland hold unrivalled special collection.  From our great National Libraries, through university collections to the smaller collections of specialist societies, cathedrals, historic homes, and museums we have a centuries-old tradition of collecting, preserving and giving access.  Scholars from around the world and across disciplinary differences rely on the treasures held by libraries listed in the Directory to pursue their research and help us make sense of the world in which we live.  Inclusion in the Directory aids researchers discover collections of interest and allows librarians to ensure that their collections are publicised and well-used.
David Prosser, Executive Director, RLUK

Consulting the invaluable Directory of Rare Book and Special Collections in the UK and Republic of Ireland is often a critical first stage in developing a worthwhile research project in the humanities. Its thoroughness and comprehensiveness serve both the scholar and librarian well. As long as the library is recorded in its pages, the researcher can speedily identify relevant materials, and the librarian can be sure that the collection will receive proper public recognition.
Simon Eliot, Prof. of the History of the Book, University of London

A milestone: National Trust libraries

Generally preserved in the places where they were originally assembled and read, the historic libraries of the National Trust provide an unparalleled resource for the study of private book ownership in Britain and Ireland from the fifteenth to the twentieth century. Together the libraries contain well in excess of 250,000 titles in c. 400,000 volumes, held in over 160 properties in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. They range from the grandiose collections of aristocratic bibliophiles, through to more humble libraries assembled by ordinary gentry families. The earliest collections have their roots in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, but most were assembled between about 1660 and the middle of the nineteenth century. More recent collections include the personal libraries of literary figures as diverse as Rudyard Kipling, Thomas Carlyle and Agatha Christie; and of public figures, notably Churchill and Disraeli. Some of the libraries are quite modest in size, but the grandest equal or exceed many university rare book collections, cathedral libraries and even the libraries of some Oxford and Cambridge colleges. Naturally the libraries are dominated by books which belonged to wealthy men, but the shelves are also contain books which belonged to people whose historical experience has traditionally been more marginalized, including women, servants, and a family of yeoman farmers. The overwhelmingly majority of the Trust’s libraries are indigenous to their houses; only a small proportion have been brought in to dress empty shelves, though some even of these may be of interest to researchers.

Books at Townend; picture copyright of the National Trust

Since the last edition of the Directory of Rare Book and Special Collections was published, the National Trust has done a great deal to raise the profile of its library collections. Catalogue records for most of Trust’s books are available via Copac (results can be confined to individual houses if desired by using keywords). Articles and treasures volumes have appeared about specific libraries. There have also been articles and books about National Trust libraries more generally: for example, Nicolas Barker’s Treasures from the Libraries of National Trust Country Houses (1999) and Mark Purcell’s The Big House Library in Ireland (2011). The Directory reflects advances made. Some National Trust properties were represented in the 1997 Directory. An additional thirty-eight are represented in the 2015 Directory, from Cumbrian and other chap books (plus much else) in Townend in Troutbeck, Cumbria, in what is essentially a seventeenth-century yeoman farmer’s house, to the remnant of George Bernard Shaw’s books at his country home near Welwyn in Hertfordshire. In a single volume, the Directory alerts researchers who might want books in National Trust properties for the following reasons:

Books at Townend, with titles written on the fore-edges; picture copyright of the National Trust

• To investigate books which are not readily available elsewhere, and which have not yet been digitized;
• To study whole collections or to investigate features peculiar to individual copies;
• To conduct a census of a particular book.

There are various milestones in preparing the Directory, and gathering all the National Trust entries – a sterling effort over an extended period by Libraries Curator, Mark Purcell, and Assistant Libraries Curator, Nicola Thwaite – was definitely one of them.

(Thanks to Mark Purcell for contributing much of this blog post.)

ABA support

Like all academic books, the new edition of the Directory of Rare Book and Special Collections began with a proposal for the publisher detailing aim, scope, market and so forth. The heading “Market” listed among potential purchasers antiquarian booksellers, and noted the Directory’s value for vendors offering collections (or, indeed, single items) to libraries on the basis of existing strengths.

Support from the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association (ABA) was evident early on, as an encouraging comment on this blog. Offered to publicise the published Directory, the ABA has stated: “it’s obviously a book every serious bookseller should have.” (May every acquisitions librarian feel the same way about libraries!) Beyond that, the ABA is helping to ensure that the Directory will be as good as it can be, in two ways:

• Encouraging its members to submit entries of their own collections where relevant. This can be very important indeed, as individual booksellers may have marked-up copies of their own catalogues – and sale catalogues, whether marked up or not, are not always easy to find. Their value for provenance research, book trade history and library history is obvious; and as booksellers’ archives are not research libraries, they not to be found on Copac, and arguably constitute “hidden collections”. Sotheby’s had an entry in the 1997 Directory, which will not appear in 2015, because the archival set of its sale catalogues has been transferred to the British Library in recognition of its significance. Other booksellers may yield treasures.
• Asking members if they know of any very obscure, low-profile and local libraries with special collections which might conceivably get overlooked in the Directory. I have appealed to the library, archive and museum field for new entries, but appeals via standard library lists can easily miss precisely the kind of low-profile and local libraries it is desirable to reach.  Booksellers represent another way in, and the assistance is very welcome.

“I am sure that with our members’ input we will be able to enhance the already considerable value of the Directory”, wrote one member of the ABA. I, as editor of the Directory, am sure of it too.

Hurrah for conferences!

The Sir Duncan Rice Library at Aberdeen, venue of the 2014 RBSCG annual study conference

Last week was the CILIP Rare Books and Special Collection Group’s annual study conference at the Sir Duncan Rice Library in Aberdeen. It was a good conference: very well organised; a gorgeous location, from which a sparkling blue sea was sometimes visible; interesting papers on “New Space for Old Books”; and the pleasure of catching up with known colleagues and meeting new ones. Directory-wise it was very productive too. I gave a fifteen-minute update on the Directory of Rare Book and Special Collections in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. Results of that, and of conversation at the conference generally, were:

• An offer of an entry from Homerton College, Cambridge. Homerton College was not represented in the 1997 Directory, and has been developing special collections since, notably a children’s literature collection.
• Awareness of a post-1992 University with special collections, the Hive (as a new building, discussed at the conference) at Worcester. An intriguing aspect of the Hive is that the building is shared by Worcester County Council and Worcester University. Worcester County Council had already submitted an entry describing its collections: for example, over one thousand books about Britain in the Stuart period, several hundred of them contemporary. The conference paper was a good reminder to chase the University for extra collections.
• Suggestions of other libraries that might not have been in the 1997 Directory or responded to general calls for entries and that would be worth contacting.
• Meeting the librarian of the Priaulx Library in Guernsey, who offered/agreed to chase libraries in the Channel Islands that have not yet submitted entries. Such willingness is always a godsend: a known local person can encourage more effectively than a distant, unknown editor who is obviously going to promote her own project. Similar offers came for libraries elsewhere.
• Two separate offers to facilitate contact with government libraries and with school libraries. These are challenging sectors to reach: government libraries because contact information is geared towards the assumption that the reason for desired contact is their primary functions; school libraries because I am not sure how far queries necessarily go beyond busy admissions offices or school secretaries. So entries via personal contacts are very welcome.
• An offer of general help.
• Agreement that the CILIP Rare Books and Special Collections Group would provide financial assistance to enable me to take three weeks of leave without pay from Senate House Library, University of London, in order to work on the Directory, should the Library be willing to support a national project in this way.

Progressing the Directory in this way was a salutary reminder that conferences, in addition to raising knowledge about the theme of the conference, are brilliant for networking and general sharing. I am very grateful for the awareness of the Directory as a collaborative effort, and for the tremendous amount of practical good will.

Karen Attar, editor

Email addresses, please!

Recently I have been sending frantic reminders to organisation which have not yet submitted entries for the Directory of Rare Book and Special Collections. The body of the reminder email includes the entry from the 1997 Directory, and asks for salient features absent or potentially absent from the 1997 entry: a url and an email address for enquiries, and the subject matter, date range, and approximate number of items in each collection recorded.

Not until I was checking my instructions to see whether the email address should precede or follow the url in the heading did I realise that the initial instructions did not include a request for a generic email address at all – rather unfortunate, as it’s going to mean going back and doing a lot of looking up of email addresses for the libraries that submitted their entries on time and followed the instructions. Fortunately I did include an email address in the sample entry that went out to libraries as a shortcut in case contributors did not get around to reading the full guidelines.

If you are reading this and have not yet submitted: on the whole, do please follow the guidelines (available from the bar at the top of this page) – but do please deviate from the guidelines by including a generic email address. It’s a standard way to get in touch after all, and helping researchers is what the Directory is all about. And, incidentally, the email address should go immediately after the telephone number, preceding the url.

Lights on the way

Hurrah! Last Thursday the School of Advanced Study (SAS) at the University of London mounted a blog post about the Directory of Rare Book and Special Collections, outlining some of the challenges experienced in such a project. The post is the second of a planned series of four. Why the post, and why the pleasure? The answer to both questions is the HEFCE term “research facilitation”: in a combination of definition and mission statement, the School of Advanced Study proclaims itself to be “the UK’s national centre for the support of researchers and the promotion of research in the humanities”, and the Directory’s main purpose is to support researchers and promote research, either directly or via librarians. We hold rare book and special collections as part of our cultural heritage but also for research value, and the more awareness academics have of where special collections are and what they can do for them, the better.

The post is one of two recent excitements. The other is Facet’s advertisement of publication of the Directory, now scheduled for May 2015. From an editorial viewpoint, seeing an announcement of fruition is a bit scary while I am still frantically garnering late entries, with masses of work still ahead. But it is also both salutary and heady to see a tangible glimpse of the goal.

Karen Attar, Editor