As some of you know already, the Caird Library will close from 2 July to 4 September inclusive due to the preparations and holding of the Olympics equestrian events in Greenwich Park. See temporary closure of Library http://www.rmg.co.uk/researchers/library/visiting/caird-library-temporary-closure-due-to-olympics for more information. The Library will reopen on Wednesday 5 September at 10.00. Written and telephone enquiries, and the remote reprographics service will also resume from this time.
Last order dates for viewing offsite material in the reading room, and for reprographic orders, is 12.30 on Thursday 21 June.
Last order dates for viewing prints and drawings and charts and maps in the reading room is 15.30 on Thursday 28 June, for viewing in the reading room on Friday 29 June. The last day that the Library will be open is Saturday 30 June.
We’re sorry for the inconvenience caused to Library users. Archive & Library staff will be using the closure period to rehouse offsite collections to bring them onsite, and to reorganise other stored material to make future retrievals more efficient.
Eleanor (Head of Archive & Library)
Inspired by discoveries made on a recent holiday to France, May’s item of the month is a look at a rare book from the Library’s collection. The Voyage of La Perouse round the world in the years by Jean-François de Galaup, Count of Lapérouse, is a finely illustrated account of an eighteenth-century exploration.
Eleanor (Head of Archive and Library)
We are delighted that the move of the collections into the new archive stores is on schedule to be completed by Christmas, so the full Library service and access to the collections will start in January 2012. Please see the latest update on the website.
The full Library service will begin from Tuesday 17 January 2012 on a trial period, when the Library will be open from Tuesday-Thursday. During this time, we ask that you bear with us as we’ll also be continuing to update locations in the stores, training staff and getting used to the new ordering system and retrieval process.
From Monday 30 January 2012 the Library will be open six days a week, Monday to Friday 10.00-16.45, late night Thursday until 19.45 and Saturdays 10.00-13.00 and 14.00-16.45. Please note that to use the Library and access the collections, you must register online for a new style three year reader’s ticket. Guidance on how to request items using Aeon will be posted on the Museum website shortly.
We look forward to welcoming you to the Caird Library in 2012.
Eleanor (Head of Archive & Library)
This month’s item of the month is a recently acquired prize ledger compiled under Sir Coutts Trotter and dating from 1786-1792. It illustrates the workings of the administration of the Royal Navy, and how the prize money system was managed during this period. In many ways it is an early example of ‘bonus culture’, a very topical subject!
Eleanor (Head of Archive & Library)
The work on the Sammy Ofer Wing, including the new research and reading room and archive stores, is progressing well. We’ve updated the information about the project on the website, so please take a look. The information will be updated every two months, so please check the blog and website in the future.
Eleanor (Head of Archive & Library)
Normally the Library is open by appointment on the first Saturday of the month from 10.00-16.45, but because of Easter, this year the Library will be open on Saturday 10 April, rather than Saturday 3 April. Details of last order dates for Saturday 10 April are on the website, as well as how to make an appointment and pre-order material in advance.
Eleanor Gawne (Head of Archive & Library)
As the building and plans for the new research and reading room in the Sammy Ofer Wing have developed, we wanted to alert you to some information about the project’s progress which has just gone up on the website. The information will be updated every two months, so please watch this space.
Eleanor (Head of Archive & Library)
We are pleased to announce that six of our most popular Research guides have been revised and are available on our website, see http://www.nmm.ac.uk/researchers/library/. Researched and written by the highly respected merchant naval historian and genealogist, Dr Christopher Watts, they have been updated to include new online resources such as those in DocumentsOnline at the National Archives and commercial websites. They also contain detailed information, including the NMM’s records of the deaths of seamen (C9 & C10). The six guides are:
Research guide A3: Tracing family history from maritime records
Research guide C4: The Merchant Navy: Sources for enquiries
Research guide C5: The Merchant Navy: Sources for ship histories
Research guide C9: The Merchant Navy: World War One
Research guide C10: The Merchant Navy: World War Two
Research guide H5: Lloyd’s: Registers held by the National Maritime Museum
We hope you find the new guides useful.
Eleanor (Head of Archive & Library)
Hunting through the long galleries of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York a couple of months ago, looking for an exhibition on Calder jewellery, through the 20th century paintings, I found a room full of pieces from the French 1930s liner, the Normandie. Some of the exhibits were magnificant, such as the 20 foot high wall mural entitled ‘The History of Navigation’ by Jean Dupas, from one of the ships’ first-class salons. Other things on display from the ship included silver soup bowls and tureens, embossed with the stylised CGT logo (standing for Compagnie Generale Transatlantique, the ship’s owners).
The next day it was déjà-vu, because at the Museum of the City of New York, far uptown, there were more relics and an original model of the great liner on show in an exhibition called ‘Paris/New York: Design Fashion Culture’. The French Line used the most fashionable designers of the day to create the splendid interiors of the Normandie. She was described as ‘Paris afloat’ and fitted out in the extreme of moderne luxury, the style we nowadays call Art Deco.
Double-page spread of the brochure ‘Normandie: Compagnie générale transatlantique’,1935 (PEA0488)
The Normandie was built at St Nazaire, and was the world’s largest passenger liner. Launched in 1932, she didn’t make her maiden voyage across the Atlantic until three years later, because of the Great Depression. At the time all the great nations competed for the coveted Blue Riband for the fastest transatlantic crossing – the Normandie won this prize in May 1935.
Great liners like the Normandie never made any profits but were powerfully symbolic of their home nation. The Queen Mary was the prime British vessel at the time – she now rests in dry dock at Long Beach, LA, as a tourist attraction. The Normandie is sadly no more. Having been caught in harbour at New York in 1939 when the Second World War broke out, she was impounded by the US and was being converted to a troopship in 1942 when a fire broke out and she sank at berth. The interiors had been removed before work began on her conversion.
The Caird Library holds a number of books and ephemera relating to the Normandie, including this attractive brochure published in 1935 by CGT (PEA0488), describing the facilities on board, with many full colour illustrations of the decorative schemes.
Eleanor (Head of Archive & Library)
Further update on 4 December 2008: New Caird Library opening hours
Firstly, we are delighted to announce that by special arrangement, the Foyle reading room at the Royal Geographical Society, 1 Kensington Gore, London, SW7 2AR, will be made available to all users of the Caird Library on production of a valid Caird Library reader’s ticket from 5 January 2009 until the Caird Library reopens in late spring/early summer 2009. Further details about this benefit will be publicised shortly. Please watch this space.
Below are responses to comments posted on the blog since my last post. I have put a title in the form of a question above each response, so you don’t have to refer back to the original comment for each question.
1. When were announcements made about the temporary closure of the Caird Library?
A prior warning about the forthcoming closure of the Caird Library was made during 2008. An announcement was made on the National Maritime Museum’s website in early August 2008 (this linked to the post: Library provision update). Other notices that appeared on the website, on printed notices in the Caird Library itself, and were sent to institutions such as the Greenwich Maritime Institute and to the Library’s regular users, notifying users about forthcoming closed periods for the preparation of the move of the collections in 2009 (the short closed weeks were 11-22 February, 30 June-4 July, 29 September-10 October). These notices referred to the forthcoming building work, and disruption caused by the move of the collections to temporary offsite storage in 2009. However, no specific closure date of the Library could be confirmed at that time.
2. What consultation took place with users about the temporary closure?
We held a consultation in June 2008 on our website and via regular users of the Library (see post: Library provision 2009-20012) when we asked which days of the week our users would prefer the Library to open during 2009-2012 while the building work is in progress. The results of the consultation was that most users preferred us to open Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday.
3. How much of the development budget was allocated to maintaining library services?
None of the budget for the redevelopment has been specifically allocated to maintaining library services. Rather, the Museum has allocated staff time into the move and the enhancement of the collections.
4. When will the Library reopen?
The Library is closed from 20 December 2008 until late spring/early summer 2009 while we move the archive and library collections from the south west wing of the museum to temporary off-site storage, so the building work can begin. The Library will reopen as soon as possible after the move of the collections, in late spring/early summer 2009.
5. What kind of services and opening hours will operate during the redevelopment period?
When the Library reopens in late spring/early summer 2009, it will be open by appointment every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, from 10.00-16.45, and the first Saturday of each month, 10.00-13.00 and 14.00-16.45. This is one week day less than currently provided and three Saturdays less per month than current provision. We have not yet confirmed the number of requests per day that users will be able to make, but will do so in early 2009. The reduced opening hours will be in place until the new Research centre opens in the Sammy Ofer wing in 2012. We have not yet confirmed the opening hours for the new Research centre from 2012.
6. How will the new Research centre improve access to academic researchers?
In the newly opened Research centre in 2012 there will be better access to many of the museum’s paper-based collections, including the archive and library collections, prints and drawings and sailing navy ship plans. Specifically for academic researchers, we will have more retrievals than is currently provided (because more of the frequently-requested collections will be held on-site), there will be easier access to the collections through enhanced online catalogue records, there will be more electronic resources for academics, and a quiet study area within the reading room for academics to use, separate from the less quiet zone for more casual visitors.
7. Is digitisation of the collections a greater priority than physical building improvements?
To digitise all of the manuscripts collections (over four and a half miles) is not affordable, and we do not have the resources available currently to digitise even the most frequently accessed material. We do not consider digitisation to be a greater priority than the physical building improvements and improved physical access to collections. The new improved storage accommodation will also provide better long-term preservation for the collections. However, the South West Wing Project does has a strong digital component, which will improve global access to documents.
8. Will manuscripts be digitised whilst stored off-site?
We are committed to making the collections, especially the manuscripts collection, more accessible via digitisation. We are currently seeking fund-raising opportunities to raise funds to digitise certain heavily used archival collections. The opening of the new Research centre in 2012 is a great incentive. Some of the paper-based collections, such as over 7,000 sailing navy ship plans, have already been digitised, and these will be available to view in the new Research centre. We have also digitised certain manuscripts for online resources such as ‘Stories from the archive’, and will continue to develop these.
9. In what ways is the Library closure and reduced service compatible with the strategic priorities of the museum?
We would argue that by keeping the archive and library collections accessible during the next three years, we are conforming to a key strategic priority ‘to maintain, during this project-rich and change period, a core public offer to the on-site and online visitor that is stimulating, enjoyable and offers opportunity for research and learning’. Many specialist and academic libraries have had to close for a considerably longer period during their building work. For example, the Royal Geographical Society Library closed for approximately 18 months for redevelopment, reopening in June 2004; similarly, the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Library & Information Centre closed in May 2008 for approximately 12 months for redevelopment.
10. Are there any plans to reconsider opening the Library during the move?
Due to lack of resources, there is currently no possibility of the plans being reconsidered or alternative means of access provided during closure. It is unfortunately not possible to provide access to the manuscript collections while they are being packed up and in transit to the temporary store.
We welcome your comments and feedback about our closure. We’ll be continuing to post regular updates about the redevelopment to keep everyone informed.
Eleanor (Head of Archive & Library)
Further update on 4 December 2008: New Caird Library opening hours
