Week 1 - Blogging Experience

As far as my former blogging experience goes, this is not my first blog, but I have only created and maintained blogs for educational purposes. I have always entertained the idea of starting a personal blog, but I never manage to start. I read a variety of blogs daily, with topics ranging from librarianship and education to food and DIY. I enjoy seeing the variety of opinions that are expressed and the topics that are covered on blogs. I can't even tell you how many wonderful ideas I have found on blogs, for both personal and professional purposes! I use Google Reader to keep up with the blogs that I read, and because I don't always have time to catch up on my favorites I like how it tells me exactly the number of posts that I have missed. I like that blogs can provide up to the minute information, personal opinions, and provide a forum for discussion on a variety of topics. I dislike blogs that are overly commercialized and don't seem to express the writer's genuine opinions on topics.

Optional Visit - Zoological Society of London

The London Zoo was so much fun! We spent the morning touring the Zoo, and were able to go on an exclusive tour of the Zoological Society of London in the afternoon. Their website has tons of information and can be found here. The morning went by far too quickly, but I have found that it always feels like that when I go to the zoo. My favorites were the white pelicans, giraffes and the monkeys with mustaches, which I believe are the Emperor Tamarin monkeys. At the Zoological Society (ZSL), we spoke with John Edwards, who showed us his book on photography at the London Zoo. I loved seeing the photographs, and hearing why zoo photography is so important! Its something I never would have considered. Being a zoo historian, he also gave us some background information on the ZSL. Sir Stamford Raffles founded the ZSL in 1826. He was impressed by the Paris Zoo that began as a garden, but later had animals when the Versailles menagerie was brought there. The Paris Zoo also had a library. Raffles expected government assistance with his project, but never received any. Two months after becoming president of the ZSL, Raffles passed away. His successor was the society’s treasurer, Joseph Sabine, who kept the society going. Originally there was a library and a museum kept in the offices, but the museum’s artifacts eventually went to the Natural History Museum. The Duke of Wellington was present on the Zoo’s opening day, and Queen Victoria visited on her birthday in 1828. The Zoo’s collection was built very slowly, and originally consisted of bears, birds, and llamas. The first publications by the ZSL were minutes of their meetings, then transactions reports. Eventually a journal was published, which greatly helped the growth of the Zoo. Now it is the largest privately owned zoological collection in the world.

In the library, we spoke with Emma, the retrospective book cataloguer, about her project. She is cataloguing the collection from 1860 to 1993. They are doing the project in house so that they can check for correctness and check the stock at the same time. This also provides an opportunity to weed through the collection. She is working on the title cards from the catalogue, and completes between fifty and seventy books per week. Ruth showed us the information that the library holds on zoos themselves. They have journals and newsletters from zoos around the world. These are useful for best practices information. They collect all books about zoos from around the world and in all languages, as well as books about zoo animals. She showed us an old zoo guide, with an animal on the cover that is now extinct. They have annual reports, conference proceedings, stud books, husbandry material, and of course the ZSL Journal of Zoology. Zoo workers or anyone interested in the history of zoos will find these materials useful. I had no idea how much information this library would have on zoos worldwide, and I enjoyed seeing just what kind of work they do.

Optional Visit - Stratford upon Avon

While we were in Stratford upon Avon we stopped by the Public Library. The library does not have its own website, but some information, such as hours of operation, can be found on the Warwickshire website here. One of the main functions of this library that I noticed is researching family history. This has been a trend in many of the libraries and archives that we have visited, and the librarians have told us that it is greatly due to the television program, Who Do You Think You Are? People are more interested in finding their family history now. Each library specializes in its own area for genealogical research, and the Stratford library was no different. The library has brochures that show the various resources it has including: parish registers, census returns, electoral registers, local newspapers, maps, trade directories, monumental inscriptions, CD-ROMs, books, and the Internet with links to local studies and family history websites. The sources are specific to the area, and can help family researchers find the information they are searching for. There are local studies librarians to provide further assistance as needed. There is even a family history group, which meets on the first Friday of the month at the library. All of the genealogical resources that we have seen have made me consider looking into my own family history when I return to Florida!

Optional Visit - The American Library in Paris

The American Library in Paris was a brief, but exciting visit! When we walked up to the library the first thing we all saw was a cart full of free books! Obviously we were powerless to resist and grabbed some reading material for the bus ride back to London. I was very interested in the history of the library. We were only able to stay for a short time, but we were so warmly welcomed that I wish we would have been able to stay and tour the library further. The library was established in 1920, with the backing of the American Library Association. The library was created for American soldiers to use. Although the ALA no longer backs the library, it has become the largest English-language ending library on the European continent. In addition to English-speaking patrons, those who are learning English also frequent the library for assistance. There are many interesting facts in the history of this library! Ernest Hemingway and Gertrude Stein were regular contributors to the monthly review Ex Libris. The Library staff provided an underground lending service to Jewish members during World War II. In 1955 The Library launched the English Language Library for the Blind, which was the first collection of Braille books in English on the continent. The Library was given Marlene Dietrich’s personal library in 1992. These and many more interesting facts can be found on The Library’s website here!

Maughan Academic Library

Our very last visit was to the Maughan Academic Library at King’s College. This library serves the Strand Campus of the college, but provides services to all King’s College students. Strand Campus is the only campus that is north of the Thames. It had four different libraries, which were not in a very good state, and did not have room for expansion. The current building was taken over in the late nineties. The building is not owned, because it is on royal land, but is on a long lease. The Queen is the patron of King’s College, so this is fitting. All four libraries were consolidated into this building. It is a cross-disciplinary library, which allows them to have longer hours than when there were four separate libraries. During exam time this year, they were able to stay open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. This greatly benefits the students!

The building that the library is located in used to be the public records office. It was built in the 1850s. It was the first building in the country that was built to be fireproof. It is located in the heart of legal London. Due to its important historical significance there are many restrictions on what can and cannot be changed in the building. The building was used for storing paper records, so it was easily converted to a library, but there were few public access areas before, and that had to be changed for student access. We were given some statistics regarding the library. There are over 1,000 reading spots throughout the building, and 330 computer terminals. The library contains 750,000 items. They are particularly strong in war studies and theology materials. Maughan has 1,000 registered visitors. They are open seven days a week, and many items are available electronically if a student cannot make it to the library. We were able to tour the library, and it was interesting to see how they have worked with the restrictions to create an academic library that meets student needs. Information on the Maughan Library can be found here.

National Archives of Scotland

Our final stop in Scotland was the National Archives. Margaret McBride, the Director of Education spoke to us a little about the history of the archives and what they do. Their mission is to preserve, protect, and promote the nation’s records. They are headed by the Keeper of the Records of Scotland. The archives are housed in three buildings with 140 staff, and they manage eight websites, all of which can be accessed from the main website here. The main building, which we were in, is the General Register House. The National Archives are divided into two divisions, record services and corporate services. They house over seventy kilometers of records from the twelfth to the twenty-first century. The online catalogue contains over three million entries.

In 1774 Lord Frederick Campbell laid the foundation stone for the General Register House. Robert Adam designed the building. It was opened in 1789, but not completed until the 1820s. The West Register House contains the West Search room with modern records. It was converted from St. George’s Church and opened in 1971. The Thomas Thomson House holds the conservation department, and was opened in 1994.

Some of the developments currently in progress are availability of access to Scottish wills from 1500 to 1901, the digitization of the Church of Scotland records, the Register’s Archive conversion project, the valuation rolls project, and the Scotland People’s Centre. The National Register of Archives for Scotland is where items that are still with private owners can be found. There is an online catalogue of these items. Most of the inquiries received are through e-mail, and the majority of these are family history questions. When people come for research they must register for a reader’s ticket and be able to present two forms of identification. This is similar to what we have seen in similar facilities.

After our tour of the building we were able to browse through some documents and have hands on experience trying to decipher them. Some were very easy to read, such as a log of crewmembers and their wages, and some were difficult, such as a list of patients and their ailments. I loved holding the documents and trying to read them! In some cases it felt like trying to solve a puzzle. I enjoyed our last stop in Scotland.

Dunfermline Library

The third library that we visited in Scotland was Dunfermline Library. The town of Dunfermline was beautiful, and we had lots of fun exploring it while we were there. The library was the first Carnegie Library and was built in 1883. In the lobby you can see a bust of Andrew Carnegie’s mother Margaret. The first day that the library opened all of the books went, which shows how needed and appreciated the library was. A reading room was established for ladies, which only contained material considered suitable for them. This reading room was eventually to become the Murison Burns collection, but more on that later.

Today, the library is a mixture of old and new. The lending area has new shelves, but the original shelving is also still in use. This can create difficulties on occasion, because craftsmen have to be called in when any of the original shelving breaks, due to its age and condition. Large books are kept on the bottom shelf, because it is too dangerous keeping them up higher. The layout of the building cannot be changed, which forces the staff to be creative in planning. All of the original fireplaces have remained unchanged in the building. Dunfermline used to receive every non-fiction book published and was required to shelve them, but now they are classified as a branch library and can store books that aren’t circulating. This has freed up some space on the shelves for more popular books.

The children’s section was open and light, and the librarians were very welcoming. The children’s library was opened in the 1930s. Prior to this most children’s libraries were in community centers. Today, they have programs for the children, such as storytelling, school visits, and nursery rhyme time for the youngest. They are also participating in the Space Hop program, along with the other children’s libraries in Britain that we have visited. They arrange author visits, and zoo labs where insects are brought in for the children to interact with.

The Scotland Room was fascinating to tour. We were able to go in the closed access room, which is climate-controlled to protect the materials stored there. Everything is cataloged with either D or F, for Dunfermline or Fife, then further cataloged into sections such as industry or municipal. The materials here are in the process of being entered into an Internet database, but currently can only be searched with the computers in this room. They are not available for loan, only reference. Materials needing conservation are sent out, no in-house work is done.

The special collections room here was very interesting. The bulk of this is the Murison Burns collection. John Murison collected anything related to Robert Burns that he could find, and the collection is housed here in Dunfermline. It is very extensive, containing many editions of Robert Burns’ work, as well as representations of him. We were able to peruse the collection, and I was amazed by the size of it. It is a living collection, and is still being added to today. The FifeDirect website has more information on the collection here.