Walking into The National Art Library located at the Victoria & Albert Museum is like walking onto a movie set for a period film. If it weren't for the contemporary and studious patrons, seated at the desks with their laptops and smartphones, it would seem like an untouched time capsule.
We were separated into two groups and off we went on our tour of the back rooms of The National Art Library. My group's guide, Cassandra Gilbert-Ward led us to the rooms that house the majority of the collection and from which the librarians retrieve materials. There are 25 staff members and they fall under the Word & Image Department within the museum and there are about 10 individuals staffed daily public retrieval. She went on to tell us that the collection is publicly accessible and all an interested researcher needs to do is become a registered member. The library is also highly used by museum staff for exhibitions. The library also collects books as objects in their own right if they hold particular significance.
There are 11,000 periodicals on the shelves and they are still receiving new publications of 1,000 of them. Cassandra told us that most items in the collection are kept on site and not in separate offsite storage, which therefore leads to the issue of space and storage. Due to the stacks being closed, a request must be made online (the catalog is accessible anywhere) and the turnaround time is 90 minutes if not faster. Only 8 items may be selected at a time.
One thing that was interesting was that they save shelf space by shelving books based on height and therefore have saved 100s of linear meters! This does call for a very particle retrieval practice that must be adhered to or items could be lost for ages.
One room holds part of the collection but also houses exhibition gallery space. Although the library would like it to be used for their own collection it does help inspire traffic into the The National Art Library for those who are unaware of its presence within the museum.
It was seen on the shelves that some books had been conserved and re-shelved in boxes but they are more focussed on preservation than spending time and funds on conservation.
Their website is another example of not only a beautiful layout, but also a user-friendly and informative site that is accessible to and appropriate for a wide array of researchers.
My undergrad BA in the History of Art & Visual Culture made this particular site-visit quite enjoyable and it was lovely to be able to get a behind-the scenes look at some of their collections after our tour. Frances Willis showed us some very interesting items, and although I was too busy looking to take pictures, please head over to my friend's blog (mdoyletravels) to check out some great images of the items!
 |
| The reading room, which was the first room in the V&A to have electric lighting. (Image source: Megan Doyle) |
We were separated into two groups and off we went on our tour of the back rooms of The National Art Library. My group's guide, Cassandra Gilbert-Ward led us to the rooms that house the majority of the collection and from which the librarians retrieve materials. There are 25 staff members and they fall under the Word & Image Department within the museum and there are about 10 individuals staffed daily public retrieval. She went on to tell us that the collection is publicly accessible and all an interested researcher needs to do is become a registered member. The library is also highly used by museum staff for exhibitions. The library also collects books as objects in their own right if they hold particular significance.
There are 11,000 periodicals on the shelves and they are still receiving new publications of 1,000 of them. Cassandra told us that most items in the collection are kept on site and not in separate offsite storage, which therefore leads to the issue of space and storage. Due to the stacks being closed, a request must be made online (the catalog is accessible anywhere) and the turnaround time is 90 minutes if not faster. Only 8 items may be selected at a time.
 |
| A room that still stores the collection but below is gallery exhibition space for the museum. |
One thing that was interesting was that they save shelf space by shelving books based on height and therefore have saved 100s of linear meters! This does call for a very particle retrieval practice that must be adhered to or items could be lost for ages.
One room holds part of the collection but also houses exhibition gallery space. Although the library would like it to be used for their own collection it does help inspire traffic into the The National Art Library for those who are unaware of its presence within the museum.
 |
| Fit-to-size shelving |
It was seen on the shelves that some books had been conserved and re-shelved in boxes but they are more focussed on preservation than spending time and funds on conservation.
Their website is another example of not only a beautiful layout, but also a user-friendly and informative site that is accessible to and appropriate for a wide array of researchers.
My undergrad BA in the History of Art & Visual Culture made this particular site-visit quite enjoyable and it was lovely to be able to get a behind-the scenes look at some of their collections after our tour. Frances Willis showed us some very interesting items, and although I was too busy looking to take pictures, please head over to my friend's blog (mdoyletravels) to check out some great images of the items!
Comments
Post a Comment