Disposal of Special Collections

It was thoroughly invigorating being able to attend the Historic Libraries Forum Annual conference on Tuesday. It is not every day you can attend a conference on the topic of “guarding against the disposal of collections” with a long list of guest speakers from special collections.

We had a Pressi presentation from Katie Flanagan (who was ill and couldn’t attend but still sent a copy of her speech) setting the scene about the need to build awareness of inappropriate disposal of special collections and the need for libraries to become watchdogs of this active through increasing social media campaigns. Also highlighting the idea about having a more pragmatic approach to ensure that there are less secretive sales of books and keep collections together in the public domain, if they do indeed need to change hands. 

After such an introduction I just knew I was in for a good debate. A lot of problems that libraries face is the need for more storage and space and the lack of money to invest in core library collections. I was therefore completed enthralled by the following speech from David McKitterick, keynote speaker on this topic. After speaking at length about the University of London blunder to sell several Shakespeare’s folios to where public opinion through newspapers and social media mobilised to act on the provocation of such a valuable collection, David laid out some truths that some libraries try heavily to avoid or are in denial about.

Whether it is the story of Wigan Public Libraries or Birmingham Law Society, quite simply all libraries have to discards books! However, he pointed out that libraries change with each generation and it is important for collection policies to be updated to reflect this. Lastly, he pressed the matter that we as librarians should remember that libraries are not museums. Where museums have “one-off” special items that can never be duplicated or found anywhere else in the world; books have a contextual value in a holdings collection. Therefore, it is important to avoid bulk selling decisions without consultation as it is most likely result in wasteful mishandling by the library and antiquarian booksellers that acquire them or lead to auctioning in fear of scarcity of space which may only raise funds and create space for the short-term. 

Not your ordinary music library

I always thought that a "music library" was just a place to store all your music on Itunes, but I definitely got a different idea of a term, while visiting Surrey Performing Arts Library for "CILIP in Surrey" event.

After trekking through the beautiful scenery of Denbies Vineyard in pouring rain, me and my colleague arrived at the library which houses a large collection of music, dance, theatre, and cinema in print and digital format.

With over 4000 play sets and 6000 music sets in rolling stacks from Christmas carols, modern plays and pantomimes, available in different languages with individual scores for every part of an orchestra it is no wonder it is pretty large. I think one of the things that shocked me the most that even the book collections included notes on the techniques used to not only play the music but to the way in which a theatre set can be made and drama costumes can be designed.

The collections are classified and catalogued with a combination of ANSCR and Dewey Decimal Classification System and there has a catalogue available through Surrey Libraries. When you have one of the last remaining music sets from famous artists within your collection, you really wouldn't dream to make that so easily accessible. However, with a 6 months reservations period, items can be on loaned to orchestras, choirs, schools etc for 2-3 months at a time. 

This was astonishing to me and a lot of librarians at the talk, because with a reduction in print-based material, just how do you deal with loss or damage? You can imagine that having an item on loan for 3 months that it isn't going to come back your library in one piece, especially if the user doesn't have proper handling training.

I have to say that I was pleased to know that the performing arts library didn't have to bear the brunt of this. Within its collection policy, anything can be loaned without charge but any damaged or lost items would have to be bought and replaced by the user. When a library has shrinking budgets, this is an effective method. The library also has a stock replenishment system that for any play set, score etc. there are always multiple copies e.g. one copy for every member of an orchestra for multiple requests.   

I thoroughly enjoyed learning about this library and it specialist collection.