Maughan Library, King's College London

Maughan Library

This morning, our class had the option to visit Maughan Library at King's College London. Because this was one of the few academic libraries on our agenda, I jumped at the chance to go. The building was formerly a public records office, so the building is a bit like a maze. The old iron fire doors have been removed and retained by mounting them on the walls next to the doorways. They also have a round reading room that looks really impressive from the outside. Unfortunately we couldn't go in because the room was in use during our tour.

Laptop rental machine

I was most impressed with the technology and services the library provided. The library has an automatic book sorting machine that separates books into piles based on where in the library they need to be shelved. It was fun to see it in action, and I bet it saves their employees lots of time throughout the day. Another really cool service is a laptop rental system the library has in place. The laptops are stored in lockers that keep them charged, and students can check them out without the assistance of a member of staff. This is in addition to the self-checkout and self-return machines in the main lobby. Staff members are on hand at the Enquiries desk to answer questions, and machines like these allow them to devote their time to helping students.

Weston Room

Another gorgeous space in the library is the Weston Room, which was housing a World War I exhibit during our visit. The room is an old chapel space with stained glass windows depicting the coats of arms of previous Masters of the Rolls. The exhibit is one of several in London this summer commemorating the 100th anniversary of the start of the war.

After our tour through the library, we visited an area with several items from the library's collections on display for us to see and touch. King's mainly collects items related to theology, health, history, and foreign policy. They are also especially interested in where the items they collect have come from -- who they used to belong to and where the document has been during its life. There were many really cool items including a book called The Charters of the Province of Pensilvania and City of Philadelphia that had Benjamin Franklin's signature on the cover page. They also have a book on sanitary history with the first published colored graphs and an inscription by Florence Nightingale. My favorite item from the collection was a scrapbook of photographs and memorabilia from Queen Elizabeth II's coronation celebrations across the globe.

National Maritime Museum & Caird Library

View from the boat

As a special treat today, our class got to ride one of the Thames Clipper boats to Greenwich. Traveling by boat has been my favorite way to see the city so far because it's more scenic than the bus and a lot less stressful than the Tube. Plus, being from the coast I feel like anything on the water is the same as being at home. The scenery definitely changed from old world to new world as you moved eastwards down the Thames. We passed landmarks like the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, London Bridge, Blackfriars Bridge, Westminster Palace, and the London Eye.

Lord Nelson's letter

Our class visit in Greenwich was to the Caird Library and archives at the National Maritime Museum. The museum is an interesting mixture of classic and contemporary because the exterior is straight out of the 18th century while the interior is sleek, modern, and boasts state-of-the-art technology. Our guide for the morning was archivist Mike Bevan, who was wonderfully accommodating and showed us some of their world class collections of rare books and correspondence. One of the highlights was one of Lord Nelson's letters that was extremely well-preserved and still had the wax seal affixed to the page. It was suspended in a cardstock frame so we could lift it and examine the "GR" and crown watermark on the paper.


Another fascinating set of items were the travel journals of various sailors and explorers. One had such beautiful watercolor paintings of what the person had seen that it's a shame they could not be framed and put on exhibit. I particularly enjoyed flipping through these visual representations of the journey, and really wished I had time to read all of the stories behind the pictures.

One of the stunning watercolors

The most innovative part of the library itself was an interactive display that allowed the user to look up ships' plans and view or manipulate the images on screen. This would be an invaluable tool for researchers, and also is a fun way to view documents without placing stress on the originals. Another amazing aspect of the library's services is their phenomenal digitization and its presentation on their web site. Many of the letters and handwritten documents we viewed on our tour are available in almost better-than-life quality on the collections web site. This is another way to give access to thousands of people without harming the priceless original documents.

Elizabeth's song

My favorite part of our time in the museum was after our official visit was over. Mike took a few of the students through a "secret" door in the wall of the museum, which gave our whole side trip a decidedly Narnian feel. From there, we went into a part of the archives where they keep the story boxes, or ready-made collections of small items that are used at events. Although the box sitting on the shelf for "Lord Nelson's Women" looked intriguing, we were on a mission to see the contents of the "Spanish Armada" and "Pirates" collections. In the Armada box there was a celebration song written by Queen Elizabeth I to commemorate the Armada's defeat. I was so excited to see and touch (through the coverings, of course) something personally written by one of my idols! There was also correspondence to the queen in the Pirates box signed by her chief adviser William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley and her secretary/spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham.

Barbican Library

Barbican Library entrance

Today our class went on some of the best class trips we have had so far in London. The first was to the Barbican Library, which is one of the City of London's three public libraries. The Barbican immediately won me over because it was a beautiful, modern space with low wooden shelving and cutting-edge technology. Their self-checkout machines can scan a whole stack of items at once! Seeing how nice this public library is makes me a little jealous on behalf of the main branch of the CCPL back home, which before now I thought was a pretty nice facility.

The Barbican charges for CD and DVD rentals, which is a trend I am noticing is very popular in the UK. Educational DVDs are free to check out, but there is no completely free movie rental system like I have become accustomed to in both the public and membership libraries in Charleston. Two of the notable collections in the library are the London collection which is made up of items related to the city and a business library that holds market reports and information for people looking to start their own business.

Children's Non-Fiction

The Barbican has separate areas for the Children's Library and Music Library. The Children's Library is a welcoming, closed-off space where children can be loud and find materials just for them. The library holds fiction, non-fiction, graphic novels, picture books, books on parenting, audiobooks, and access to ebooks. During our visit, the staff members were preparing for a summer reading program and the decorations were phenomenal. The maze painted on the glass in the library was beautiful!

Portion of the CD collection

Unsurprisingly, my favorite part of the library was the Music Library. This area is filled with biographies and periodicals related to music, but the best part is the vast collection of scores (approximately 16,000) they have on hand. These are sorted into sections by instrument rather than by genre or composer. They also boast the biggest CD collection in London and have a program to feature local artists by having their albums available in a special display for users to check out. These CDs cost 55p to check out for one week, or £1.65 for three weeks. There are two public use keyboards in the library for use and listening booths for users who want to listen to items before checking them out.

An intriguing exhibition was taking place outside of the Music Library during our visit to the Barbican. An artist had done extensive research about several bands and made up "family trees" of each band's members, feeder ensembles, and changes throughout their career. These were both informative and visually interesting, so I wish I had a picture to share (no pictures were allowed of exhibitions). I can't remember all of the bands represented, but I do remember there was a poster for Fleetwood Mac, as I studied that one for a while.

London Archaeological Archive and Research Centre

Archaeological Archive

Today was a really special journey into the Museum of London Archaeological Archive, also known as the London Archaeological Archive and Research Centre (LAARC). LAARC is the world's largest archaeological archive; they have the Guinness World Record to prove it. The facility is where items from archaeological digs around London are cataloged and stored. There are millions of objects in the building that date anywhere from prehistory to World War II, but only 253,000 are available for researchers to inspect. Because of London's wet climate, materials that are rarely found preserved in other areas like leather, fabric, and wood are more commonly found here. This makes some of the objects in the archive especially important to understanding everyday culture throughout history.

The Museum of London also uses part of the Mortimer Wheeler House for storage, so we were able to see some awesome non-dig-related items on or tour like their toys and games acquisitions and the telephone switchboard from Buckingham Palace. One of the more interesting yet completely random items was the king's urinal from the Royal Opera House.

Pilgrimage tokens

Several items from different digs were on display for us as we toured the facility. One collection of items that was exciting for me personally (to most other people probably not so much) was a set of silver platters from Nonsuch Palace. These are particularly special because the palace was started by Henry VIII and was called Nonsuch because there would be no such place that could rival its grandeur. Unfortunately, Charles II gave the palace to one of his mistresses who demolished it and sold the parts to pay her debts. It's one place in this world I can never visit, so I want to go ten times more (kind of like Cuba). But there were several other really interesting items, all of them metal and small. These were tokens from pilgrimages that people would purchase and then throw into the Thames. One was identified as a figure of Thomas Becket, the sainted Archbishop of Canterbury who was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170.

I knew that one of these trips would try to sway me away from my LIS concentration, and this site was it. Seeing the work that goes into the storage and maintenance of these items made the job seem daunting, but it also seems like an amazing place to work. Touching and working with bits and pieces of history every day would be so rewarding. Even if it is something seemingly insignificant, it may be the only mark someone has left on the world and that makes every item special.

British Library

The King's Library

Model of the British Library

Visiting the British Library proved to be one of the best experiences I have had in London so far. Upon entering the library you see the six-story King's Library, which houses a collection of about 65,000 books gifted to the nation by King George IV as well as the Thomas Grenville collection. This structure, designed by architect Colin St. John Wilson, is stunning and interestingly the only place in the library where you can see books on shelving. Unfortunately, only staff can enter the structure. One of our first stops on the tour was near a model of the building, which clearly reflects Wilson's time in the Royal Navy as it resembles a large ship. This also shines through in the building's details like the porthole-style windows in the doors. The ceilings and walls in the building are designed to reflect natural light, and as a result the main room almost glows.

Much like the Library of Congress, the British Library receives copies of everything published in the UK, which leads them to receive about 400 new items per day, which amounts to 9 miles of material per year. The items in the collection cover every known language on Earth (including Klingon for all the Star Trek fans in the UK). About 40% of their collection is on-site in the basement levels, including high-traffic materials and rare or fragile items. These materials are delivered to the main floor via ABRS (Automatic Book Retrieval System), which consists of 1.2 miles of track throughout the building. A book's journey from basement to the reading room is approximately 70 minutes long. The library uses their own system of shelf marks to delineate an item's category, size, and location. With the vast amount of materials available, having this intuitive system probably helps employees locate items more quickly.

Entrance to the "Treasures of the British Library" gallery

All of the experiences in the British Library so far were great, but a visit to the Treasures Gallery proved to be even more exciting. No pictures were allowed in this section of the library because of the value and rarity of the items contained within. The Tudor enthusiast in me was thrilled to see the prayer books of Elizabeth I and Lady Jane Grey and the handwritten letters of Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, and Edward VI. There were pages from da Vinci's notebooks, Michelangelo's letters, Jane Austen's writing desk, an early Beowulf manuscript, and so many gorgeously illuminated manuscripts. The music collection was quite extensive and held a copy of the first printed music as well as handwritten scores by Mozart, Beethoven, Handel, Purcell, Bartok, Vaughan Williams... I have studied and adored so many of these composers over the years. This room is quite possibly my version of heaven.

The last little room in the Treasures Gallery is a low-light area holding two copies of the Magna Carta. This is an important document for England, but also significant to me because I am a direct descendant of King John and five of the 25 Magna Carta barons. To be so close to a document that was most likely touched by six of my ancestors was especially moving. For anyone who may be interested in the barons, here is some light Wikipedia reading on my ancestors:

• Hugh Bigod, 3rd Earl of Norfolk
• Roger Bigod, 2nd Earl of Norfolk
• Saher de Quincy, 1st Earl of Winchester
• Richard de Clare, 3rd Earl of Hertford
• William de Mowbray

London - First Impressions

When the plane was coming in over London, I didn't think the city looked that different in the air than any other city -- until we turned and I saw the Tower Bridge. Then it seemed so much more magical.

Getting here has been very anticlimactic so far -- lots of waiting. Queues are everywhere: customs, baggage claim, bus line... I guess what they say about the British loving to form lines is true. This has very much been a case of "hurry up and wait" as you rush to get to one place to find that you need to stand in a long line to continue on your journey. Once we were able to get on the bus, we rode out of the airport and into a traffic snarl because it is the morning rush hour in London. We were warned that it would take a while to get back to the dorm, but I was hoping that would be because of distance, not traffic.

On the way in we got to see some of regular old London (not the tourist parts), which I was surprised to see has a lot more green than cities in America. Even though there are so many people and buildings here, there are still big, green fields and playgrounds in the middle of the city. I'm sure this will taper off as we approach the city center, but it's nice to see pieces of the natural world peeking through the city streets.

On our ride to Stamford Street we were able to see several London landmarks -- the London Eye and Westminster Palace (Houses of Parliament) being two of the major ones. It was so great seeing how close we are to all of these amazing places... My list of things to do is long and having everything close by will assist me in completing it all!