The Caird Library held its first bloggers preview event last Saturday. We’ve been scouring the blogosphere in the last few weeks for bloggers who we thought would like to see what we have in our Library and our archives. We hoped that this would help us spread the word about our Library and our collections, which are free for anyone to come and enjoy. Our guests were enthusiasts and experts on a huge range of subjects, from local history to genealogy; from naval history to contemporary culture, and more besides.

We’d asked our guests in advance to vote for the objects they’d like to see from a shortlist of some of the treasures in our collections. We had the most popular on display to see, including the Aurora Australis, the ‘first book ever written, printed, illustrated and bound in the Antarctic’ by Ernest Shackleton and his team, 1908; Captain Bligh’s copy of Buchan’s Domestic Medicine of 1779, kept at Pitcairn Island; a manuscript diary kept by Alfred Withers of a voyage from Liverpool to Melbourne in 1857, and plans of Deptford Dockyard from the 1770′s. Images of these manuscripts and books can be seen in our previous items of the month.

We were also able to give some exclusive tours of our new stores allowing our guests to see how our collections are arranged and cared for, and to see how much work we have put into managing our archive and library material in preparation for the new service that we’ve just launched. Our guests were also lucky enough to get a sneak preview of a short film of the archive and library move, which is due to go on our website in the coming weeks.

For any of our guests that have blogged about the event that we may have missed please do let us know by posting a comment below, or you can tweet us @NMMGreenwich and mention #CairdLibrary. Please don’t be offended if you weren’t invited, why not drop us a line and tell us about your blog if you think you should be on the guest list for future events?

Thanks to all who attended for a great afternoon!

Mike
Assistant Archivist

Guest blogs:

Sign of Penguins, http://0tralala.blogspot.com

National Maritime Museum and Library, http://catsmeatshop.blogspot.com

The Caird Library at the National Maritime Museum, http://deptforddame.blogspot.com

The Old Order Changeth, http://gentlemenandtarpaulins.com

The National Maritime Museum holds in its chart, map and atlas collections a substantial amount of material related to various conflicts through the ages. Amongst these are the charts and plans associated with the late 18th century War of American Independence. January’s Item of the Month shows three items from our collections related to the Battle of Bunker Hill.

Brian (Curator of Hydrography)

As many of you will know, Tuesday saw the return of manuscripts to the Caird Library. Rather, the first appearance of manuscripts in our new reading room.

The first item to be retrieved from the store was a lieutenant’s log, that of HMS Valiant from the 1790s (ADM/L/V/14). The image on the right shows Mark, one of our retrieval technicians plucking the volume from the shelf.

We’re still learning about the new Caird Library and the systems that support access to our collections but it’s been cause for celebration that the reading room is finally being used in the way it was intended. Hopefully the readers who visited on Tuesday found things to be running relatively smoothly!

Richard (Assistant Archivist)

Taking my new desk in the Library Office on Monday, finally I found a quiet moment to introduce myself to readers of the Caird Library Blog: I’m Gregory Toth the new Assistant Librarian.

My key responsibilities will be providing specialist information services for the Archive and Library collections, answering public enquiries and contributing to the cataloguing of modern library collections. I will also look after the Museum’s pre-1850 printed rare book collections and the Library’s ephemera collections.

I have to admit that I am not that new to the National Maritime Museum having worked here for more than four years. I love working with people here in Greenwich; the Museum has a fantastic world-class collection and I have met researchers from all over the world, as well as family historians and university students.

Working in the Caird Library is so exciting because you never know what you will be asked – apart from of course about the correct time.

I look forward to meeting you!

Gregory (Assistant Librarian)