Guildhall Library Visit 12.09.2017

CILIPinKent invited librarians to visit the Guildhall Library on Tuesday, September 12^th. We were greeted by Dr Peter Ross, the principle librarian (and cookbook specialist), who spoke to us about the history of the library.

The library at Guildhall Yard has been rebuilt several times over the centuries. The first library was built to serve a college of priests in 1455. It was funded by Richard Wittington of the Mercer’s Guild who had bequeathed his fortune to The City upon his death.

Guildhall Library was a chained library, were books were chained to the shelves and read on adjacent benches. The texts were mainly in Latin and Greek on subjects such as history and philosophy. At this time, Guildhall Library is described as being, “a common library”, making it the oldest public library in the country.

Unfortunately, most of the original medieval books that were part of the library are now completely missing. During the 1500s, the first Duke of Summerset demanded to be given all of the books within the Guildhall Library and they were never returned.

In 1820, a collection was put together again and in 1870s the library was rebuilt so that the public could use it. This library was destroyed in the 1940s by bombing. The modern library, as it stands today, was built in the 1970s.

The Guildhall Library now has a very eclectic collection. There are over half a million volumes on London history, local history, and history of the British Isles. There is a collection on clocks and watches since London was the number one place for clock making. There are books on shorthand, bow making, the Lloyds marine collection, archives on the stock exchange, and parish genealogy. There are also around 11,000 cookbooks, which is possibly the largest collection of cookbooks in the country.

Mr. Ross also showed us a collection of items from the library. There was a 500/600-year-old book on the chronicles of France that has been in the Guildhall catalogue since the first library. There was the most important book in the history of printing, printed with a modern italic script. A record of diseases and number of people who died from plague. Lottery tickets and advertisements from the reign of Elizabeth I. Original Shakespeare folios, 17^th century broadsheets, cookbooks, and more.

The final part of the tour was provided by librarian, Ann Martin. She took us from the reading room, which holds only 5% of the library’s stock, to one of the store rooms. The majority of the library’s collection is housed in the storerooms that cover multiple floors. A librarian must wait at a terminal in the lower stockroom to receive cards to tell them which item has been requested to be sent up to the reading room. They must then go searching for the item.

It was amazing to see the breadth of subjects covered. There were whole sections on crime in London, a Thomas Moore collection, law books, guild books, House of Parliament party papers, the 1677 London directory, trade directories, medical registers, and the London metropolitan archives among other things.

By far the most surprising item, however, was a 350-kilogram book from 1862. Too big to move, it sits supported by heavy wooden boards in the storeroom. Amazingly, it is empty of content and was only used once in order to show off a company’s binding technique for an industrial exhibition.

Write-up by Nora Camann

Annual General Meeting 2017 at Kent History Centre, Maidstone

This year our Annual General Meeting (AGM) was hosted by the Kent History Centre in Maidstone on Friday 4 August.

 

Fantastic afternoon @kent_archives Thank you to everyone including @CILIPinKent for organising – and so easy to get to on the train pic.twitter.com/m8gXvYwALl

— Michelle Crowther (@HumLib_cccu) August 4, 2017

We last visited the centre on Wednesday 17 September 2014 and a summary is on our blog here. Since our last visit, there have been a number of initiatives:

• A captivating series of exhibitions and talks. Currently on show: Bawleys, Barbers and Crawlers: Life along the Kent Coast
• Kent on Film digitisation project. Films shown in the Centre on dedicated terminals.
• Pending implementation of bolt on to Calm (archive catalogue) to enable remote document orders. The team are currently working hard to barcode and index paper catalogues.
• Digitisation of postcards and maps of Kent
• 90 Years of Aylesham: volunteer-run project. View online.
• Kent and Medway in the First World War timeline online.

 

Following a tour of the library, the committee met for the AGM. The meeting minutes can be viewed here.

It has been another eventful year and a summary of our achievements are included alongside outreach statistics on the Chairs Report – read it here.

We are delighted to announce that Nora Camann has been confirmed as CilipinKent Chair. On accepting the role, Nora thanked the committee for their dedication to providing development opportunities to members:

“It’s hard for me to find the words to express how excited I am to have been elected as chair of CILIP in Kent. When I joined the committee three years ago, I was working as a health librarian and had just begun the chartership process. I was then and continue to be impressed by the committee’s activeness and dedication to serving library professionals. For me, CILIP in Kent has been instrumental in keeping my career on track and for helping me to learn and grow in the library profession.

The prior chair, Maria Centrone will be greatly missed. Each and every member of the committee has done such a wonderful job, but Maria has been the glue that has kept us all together.  

Although it will be a challenge to fill those shoes, I am so happy to have the opportunity to lead CILIP in Kent to future opportunities for growth.” 

If you are interested in being part of the committee, please get in contact with us at cilipinkent@gmail.com.

Visit to the Caird Library and Archive, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.

Monday 10 July 2017

Glorious sunshine accompanied our visit to the Caird Library and Archive this week. Housed in the Sammy Ofer Wing of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, the new library space opened in 2011. It comprises a group and quiet study area and offers 42 spaces for readers. Library and archive staff are available to assist visiting researchers with the open access collection and retrieval of items from the on and off-site stores. As well as the print materials, the day pass or three year pass include access to e-resources such as OED, BNB and family history databases.

Housed in the library are modern and rare book collections totalling 135,000 with the pre-1850 books making up part of the national collection. Sir James Caird, a Scottish shipping magnate acquired many early items for the collection. Additionally, there are 80,000 maps and charts, printed ephemera such as on-board menus, personal papers donated by the families of ships’ captains etc., Board of Trade documents from companies such as P&O and business collections detailing cargoes carried around the world by different vessels, all giving a rich resource to mine. The team also use the collection to contribute to the many exhibitions at the museum.

Subjects covered on the open shelves include medicine at sea, weaponry, dockyards, warships, fishing & whaling, discovery & expedition and ship building. In such close proximity to the Royal Observatory, books on horology and astronomy feature too. An accompanying journal collection included The Nelson Dispatch, Lighthouse Digest, Slavery & Abolition, Model Boats and Knotting Matters.

Visitors number 5,000 per year and are made up of researchers, students, Caird fellows and sometimes those inspired by shows like Who do you think you are?, who wish to research the naval connections in their family history and those interested in popular topics like the Titanic. The team are busy with over 300 written or telephone enquiries a month often focusing on the Royal or Merchant Navy.

Our hosts Stawell Heard, Librarian and Jon Earle, displayed a number of treasures from the collection for us to view. Highlights being a letter written by Nelson in 1797 asking for a frigate to bring him home and believed to be the first letter he wrote with his left hand, Captain Bligh’s copy of Domestic Medicine by W Buchan from 1779 which was on board HMS Bounty and a collection of miniature books bound in a ship’s wood.

Plans are in place to consolidate the collections in the four off-site stores in to one location and to make their artefacts, such as models of ships, more accessible to visitors. With this due to happen in the coming year, a repeat visit by CILIP in Kent is sure to feature in our programme of events.

 

Write-up by Kate Davies, CILIPinKent Secretary

Working at a Prison Library

On Tuesday, 30^th of May, Megan Silver was invited by CILIP in Kent to give a talk on her experiences working in HMP, YOI Rochester and HMYOI Cookham Wood prison libraries. Having worked with men, women, and young people in prison libraries for fourteen years, Megan has decided to change jobs to the school library sector. We were very lucky to book her for what may be her very last prison library talk.

The venue was the University of Creative Arts, Rochester. Because there were only a small number of participants, we all sat around a couple of tables to listen and have an informal chat. Megan began by talking about how she got into working in a prison library and what her first experiences were like back in the early 2000s.

Megan began working with women inmates first. These turned out to be easier than the male inmates she would later work with. Women, related Megan, just seem to accept their situation better. They hunker down and focus on doing their time. Men, on the other hand, don’t want to accept their sentence generally. They fight for a while before settling down and getting on with things.

Megan worked in three libraries. One prison had a library that was very small. It was the size of an office and had books crammed in shelves all around the walls. One library, previously run by inmates, was a bit of a mess. The third library was a good size and had computers, but no internet access—not even for librarians.

Being a prison librarian often felt quite isolated. Prisoners, Megan told us, can only come into the library if they are attended by a security guard and security guards are in short supply. Without the internet and ability to talk to other librarians, the days can certainly feel very long.

Eventually, changes started to take place. Megan explained how prisons change dramatically with shifts in politics and leadership. Libraries were given a bigger role in inmate rehabilitation. This meant Megan could petition for internet and more library programs.

Megan explained the satisfaction she got being able to provide programs for inmates—helping them learn to improve their literacy and take a real interest in reading. They had books clubs and role-playing to explore emotions. They had computers with software to teach driving instruction and other educational pursuits.

Ultimately, however, no matter how liberal the politics, prisons are about control. And what we all found most shocking about Megan’s talk, were her descriptions of what little control Megan had in her own library. We librarians tend to take for granted the ability to choose the books we want to have on the shelves. But prison librarians have a list of books that cannot be on the shelves, ever. And the security personnel can, at any time, come into the library and demand that the librarian remove certain books—without explanation. The flip side of this is that the librarian must purchase a book that a prisoner asks for, as long as it is not on the list of banned books. If the librarian thinks that book should not be in the library, they will need to get permission to add it to the banned book list.

Megan also couldn’t provide a library activity without getting permission from security. She recalled one instance where she had read about the usefulness of a certain library program in prisons, but came up against an Orwellian level of control when she asked to instate it. When she broached the subject with security, she was told that it wasn’t going to happen and that she might need to be “re-educated” for even thinking about it.

Megan ended her talk with accounts of working with other inmates: the good, the bad and the ugly. People might think that the type of people Megan has worked with over the years would upset her, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. She has worked with murderers, petty thieves and everything in between. But her readers are people, not crimes. Megan laughed as she said that most murderers she’s known have been lovely people.

It turns out that Megan is leaving her job of fourteen years, not because of the inmates, but because politics have gotten in the way once again. Rochester prison is closing for three years while it undergoes a bid to become a super prison. Whether or not it will get the bid is unknown, but three years is a long time to wait to get back to work.

However, this does mean that there will be a position open for a librarian at Rochester prison in three years’ time. That should be plenty of time to put a CV together.

Write-up by Nora Camann, CILIPinKent

 

Visit to the Burnell Library at The National Autistic Society

The Burnell Library is located on the fourth floor of the National Autistic Society’s (NAS) headquarters near Angel Underground in Central London. CILIPinKent were delighted to offer Information Professionals from across the region an opportunity to attend a guided tour just ahead of World Autism Awareness week 2017.

Resources

The collections comprise of approximately 1,000 books, over 100 DVDs, 24 journal subscriptions and NAS publications, including ephemera. The LMS in use is Soutron and the catalogue is available online. Catalogue records for journal articles include the abstract.

The library has the following open access resources:

• Autism Data: listing non-peer reviewed magazine or journal articles added in the last two months http://library.autism.org.uk/Library/WebServices/SoutronAPI.svc/searchcatalogues?usersearchId=74&ResultMode=3
• Current Awareness Service: listing peer-reviewed academic journal articles added in the last two months http://library.autism.org.uk/Library/WebServices/SoutronAPI.svc/searchcatalogues?usersearchId=75&ResultMode=3

Library staff also update an Autism Services Directory for the UK. This is a directory of over 7,000 services and support for people on the autism spectrum, their families, and people who work with them.

The Library have recently reclassified the collections and have published a report on the project in ALISS Quarterly.

Future projects include, reviewing the weeding criteria, providing eBooks for remote users and improving promotions to staff.

Study Space

Study space is available in the Library where the light can be dimmed to ease visual stress. The Library is open Monday – Friday from 10.00 to 16.00 for reference use and booking in advance is essential (email library@nas.org.uk).  Current users in the main comprise of researchers, parents, students and social carers. Lending is only possible for NAS staff and volunteers. Access is free and self-service photocopying costs 10p per A4 or 15p per A3.

Services

Aim of the Library: Help people to find information about Autism.

The Library support NAS staff and volunteers by offering an enquiry service, proofreading service and making sure that the information provided is based on the latest knowledge and evidence. NAS employ over 3,000 staff that work across 300 locations nationally.

The team assist individuals external to the organisation too, answering enquiries, finding abstracts or book chapters and journal articles on topics relating to autism such as diagnosis, education and interventions. Remote enquirers can contact the team at nas@nas.org.uk

Autism Helpline

Whereas the Library process more research-based enquiries, general enquires are received by the Autism helpline on 0808 800 4104. The small team of Advisers answer more than 40,000 calls per year, with a majority of enquiries coming from parents, carers and relatives. At least 65% of callers are referred to the Directory. Niche enquiries often require assistance or information retrieval from the Library.

World Autism Awareness Week is an annual fundraising campaign and further information can be found on the NAS website: www.autism.org.uk/get-involved/world-autism-awareness-week/resources.aspx

The National Autistic Society website is www.autism.org.uk

Take a look at Network Autism where you can access Special Interest Updates at http://networkautism.org.uk

CILIPinKent would like to thank Alex, Anna, Cheryl and Philippa for their informative and inspiring introduction to the NAS Library.

Visit summary by Rebecca Daniels

House of Commons Library Open Day 2017

On Wednesday 15^th February our Web and Communications Officer, Philippa Rose (The King’s School, Canterbury), attended the House of Commons Library Open Day at Portcullis House, Westminster. The Open Day sparked a great many conversations among visiting library and information professionals from many different sectors. Here is just a flavour of the day’s proceedings.

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“Information and evidence is fundamental to a well-functioning democracy”

House of Commons Librarian, Penny Young

This statement has never felt more pertinent than in today’s political landscape with the rise of post-truth and alternative facts. It is a central message of the library service at the House of Commons and serves as a great introduction to their mission and values. For me, the relevance of this and of the library itself reignited an optimism about securing the future of all libraries. I hope that I can do justice to that feeling here, as well as to the great work that is done by the staff at the House of Commons Library every day.

I had very little idea about the kind of service the House of Commons Library provided before the Open Day. It is an unusual library in many respects. The work that they do is very specialised (more about this later) but among a large group of visitors to the Open Day from many different sectors it was easy to see the fundamental qualities each of our libraries shared. First and foremost we all aim to inform our users and to provide evidence or testimony to a variety of experiences and knowledge whether that be for scientific or historical purposes, empathic or imaginative adventures.

I am obviously preaching to the converted, but it is still necessary to state that libraries don’t just provide books. The Open Day was, in part, designed to open our eyes to the wealth of non-book related materials and services provided by the library, not just to it’s members, but to the wider community as well. It was this that inspired the most interest and conversation among our group of attendees.

Too often the value of libraries has been measured in their capacity to significantly reduce the cost of access to books, journals, audio and visual materials. This is a role that libraries fulfil very well and that is a necessary and beneficial service to provide. Nevertheless to appreciate the library only in as far as it fulfils this role has contributed significantly to the decline in appreciation for the value of libraries globally. Access to information is about more than just handing over a book, journal or DVD. It is about ensuring that the prospective user is able to access the content housed in whatever shape or form of resource is being passed across the issue desk. It is in understanding and continuously communicating this important distinction that the future of libraries will be secured. The House of Commons Library is doing fantastic work in just this way, and their annual Open Day is just one part of communicating that message.

We were introduced to a variety of ways in which the library serves the information needs of its patrons, including the provision of:

• books, official publications, journals, and online resources including specialist reference databases and an in-house database for Parliamentary and European material
• reading rooms for Members of Parliament to work away from their offices in a private, quiet space
• research briefings that offer impartial, comprehensive factual information on major pieces of legislation, policy areas, and topical issues
• debate packs that collate press and parliamentary materials for non-legislative debates
• subject-specialists who are on hand to inform on constituency casework, PMQs, programmes like BBC Question Time, and much more
• an in-house data and search service for born digital and digitized materials.

Research briefings, debate packs, and subject-specialists are all part of the impartial information and research service for MPs and their staff. It is one of the main services of the Library and they are available to members of the public via the library catalogue and webpages (see below).

As well as introducing the work of the Library and Parliamentary Archives, and taking a look at some of the interesting older material held in both (the archival collection includes the death warrant of Charles I and a collection of photographs of MPs arranged by beard type), attendees took part in a focus-group research session intended to bridge the gap between the library service and its wider community, such as the library sectors represented at the event. As a school librarian, the apparent ease of researching via google, compared to understanding the wider environment of information providers (such as the House of Commons Library service) was a conversation we kept returning to. It’s seems like a case of the hare and the tortoise. You get quick results from google, but it takes much longer to make something out of them, whereas the briefings and constituency tools are harder to find but launch the calibre of research beyond what the top google results can provide. But we are drowning in data and google tempts us with that quick fix. This is why library visits and open days are so important, not simply as a networking opportunity or a chartership box ticked, but as a vital part of our role to continuously expand and curate our map of the information landscape that surrounds us but is too often drowned out by search engines.  This is precisely why I found the House of Commons Library Open Day so exciting and so inspiring. The service is obviously key; but outreach and engagement is really where it’s at in successfully navigating today’s information society.

Our day ended with a visit to the Commons Library (a magnificent suite of rooms designed by Charles Barry and Augustus Pugin in the mid-nineteenth-century) and a tour of the Palace of Westminster, which included Westminster Hall (the oldest part of the Palace), St Stephen’s Hall (where Walpole, Pitt and Fox debated; William Wilberforce argued against the slave trade; and a suffragette chained herself to the statue of Lord Falkland in protest against the refusal to grant women to right to vote), the House of Commons and the House of Lords Chambers, the Royal Gallery and Queen’s Robing Room. It was such a pleasure to be able to explore a building with such immense historical and cultural significance!

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Interested in education, politics, or news and current affairs? Try these free resources provided by the House of Commons Library:

• Lords Library Notes: Leaving the EU: The UK and Ireland
• POSTnotes: Nuclear Security
• Commons Debate Pack: Iran’s influence in the Middle East
• Visit the Constituency Explorer website or download the Myconstituency app on your tablet or smart phone for current statistics in your area

The House of Commons Library blog includes regular analysis from their specialists.

Follow @commonslibrary for alerts on the latest Library legislative briefings.

Visit the House of Commons Library webpages or email: hclibrary@parliament.uk

Many thanks to the House of Common Library team for organising such an interesting and inspiring day!

Visit to Hall-Carpenter Archives and Women’s Library at LSE

February is LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual and Transgender) History Month in the UK. To celebrate this national awareness campaign, we invited Librarians from across the region to join us on a guided tour of the Hall-Carpenter Archives and the UNESCO-recognised Women’s Library collection. Our timely visit took place on the heels of a record-breaking International Women’s March and immediately followed the enactment of the Alan Turin Law .

“Yes we shall win in the end; but the road will be long and red with monstrous martyrdoms”  – Oscar Wilde

The Women’s Library collection began in a converted pub in 1926 and has since been housed at a number of locations. London School of Economics (LSE) has been the custodian since 2013 and the material currently resides in the University’s Library located near the Strand. Our tour began in the Library’s Gallery and we were guided by Dr Gillian Murphy, Assistant Archivist and Curator for Equality, Rights and Citizenship.

The current exhibition Glad to be Gay: the struggle for legal equality is the 6^th  exhibition curated in this space and the first to raise awareness of LGBT History Month. The exhibition also marks the 50^th anniversary of the 1967 Sexual Offences Act. The material is on display until 7 April and includes:

• Cross-dressing Actress, Suffragette and Women’s Reserve Volunteer Vera Jack-Holme’s jacket and love poem to her partner.
• Urania- publication promoting a genderless society. Transgender is often considered to be a recent phenomenon, however throughout history many individuals have identified with a gender that differs to their assigned sex.
• Responses to the Wolfenden Report (1957) that decriminalised homosexual behaviour between two consenting adults.
• The meeting minutes of the Homosexual Law Society
• The risqué imagery of Nova Magazine that aimed to incite debate amongst its female readers.
• Photos, badges and ephemera of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) that formed in 1970 at LSE.
• Appeals against Section 28 of the Sexual Offences Act- photos, badges and press coverage of demonstrations.

 Listen to Gillian discuss the exhibition in this podcast.

On departing the gallery, we descended the Library’s central cylindrical staircase (designed by Foster + Partners) to the Women’s Library Reading Room where Gillian discussed a showcase of the Archive collections.

Hall-Carpenter Archives

The complete collection comprises of 2,000 boxes of primary source material relating to LGBT rights. Material includes correspondence, photographs, legal documentation, badges, journals and ephemera. Also the photographic archive of GLF Activist  John Chesterman (pictured).

Of interest for researchers of the decriminalisation of homosexuality, legislative changes, political activist groups, and lesbian history. Includes information on Anthony Grey, GLF, Peter Tatchell and Stonewall.

Women’s Library

Emily Wilding Davison (1872 – 1913)

On 4 June 1913, the militant Suffragette Emily Wilding Davison famously stepped out in front of King George V’s horse at the Epsom Derby. She suffered fatal injuries and died four days later. Emily’s race card from this event has astonishingly been preserved (pictured). The Archive also contains the police report (pictured), a letter from her distraught mother (pictured) and hate mail addressed to Emily in hospital from disgruntled sport-enthusiasts and anti-suffrage campaigners.

Prior to this brave act of defiance, Emily had been imprisoned nine times and whilst incarcerated protested through hunger strikes. Her diaries are in the archive and they provide an emotional insight into her experiences, beliefs and response to the trauma of being force-fed.

Hugh Franklin (1889 – 1962) and Elsie Duval (unknown – 1913)

The Labour Politician Hugh Franklin and his wife Elsie Duval fought for women’s suffrage through rallying, hunger strikes and other militant acts. The Archive collection contains a file of correspondence, photos, a medal and badges.

Votes for Women

A newspaper published by the Women Social and Political Union between 1907- 1918. This poem is from the 18 February 1910 issue.

Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp (1981 – 2000)

The Archive contains newspaper clippings, correspondence and hand-drawn posters from the women-only camp set up in protestation of Nuclear Weapons sited at Berkshire.

Photographs and satirical postcards

A number of photographs from this Archive have been digitised and made available to view online at Flickr.

The satirical postcards document responses to the suffragette movement and evidence efforts to suppress its progress.

Medals and Badges- a variety of designs that were thought to be of potential interest to the Fashion students supported by one of our attendees.

We were provided with ample time to peruse the collections on display in the reading room. Viewing and handling these historic documents was a privilege and CILIPinKent are grateful to Gillian for the fascinating overview.

This event was fully booked and we will schedule a repeat visit as soon as possible.

If you are interested in coming along to any of our events but are worried about the associated costs (including travel) then we may be able to help. CILIP members living or working in Kent can apply for our Professional Development Grant. Click here for more information and the application form.

 

Visit to the Stanley Kubrick Archive, London College of Communication

INT.

On a cold and drizzly Monday morning in April a group of Information Professionals congregate at the London College of Communication.

SETTING

A selection of Archive materials are presented on tables in the Archive and Special Collections reading room.

The archive adheres to National Guidelines to preserve and protect original material (PD5454). Bags and pens are safely stored away.

DIALOGUE

Georgia and Sarah greet the group and provide an inspiring account of the Stanley Kubrick archive; the history, acquisition, preservation and use.

BACKGROUND

The University of the Arts (UAL) acquired the Stanley Kubrick archive in 2007. This coincided with the establishment of a reading room which brought together approx. 30 collections from across the University’s six campuses. A number of collections remain in the libraries, i.e. Artists’ Books at Chelsea College of Art.

A growing emphasis on object-based learning is evident with inclusion of the archive in a number of course syllabuses.

The archive receives 1,400 – 1,700 visitors per annum. The reading room accommodates up to 6 researchers.

Stanley Kubrick was born in New York in 1928 however lived most of his life in the UK where he made a majority of his films. In total Kubrick completed 12 films between the 1950s- 90s, spending an increasing amount of time on pre-production research. Kubrick passed away in 1999 soon after completing the post-production of Eyes Wide Shut. The archive documents Kubrick’s work (both released and unmade films) and does not contain material pertaining to the director’s personal life.

For more on the history of Kubrick’s archive see this insightful documentary by Jon Ronson:

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PROPS

Lolita (1962)

Press Invitation. Flatpack cube featuring Bert Stern’s risqué photographs of Sue Lyon as Lolita at aged 16. Stern’s transparencies were also on display.

Quigley’s Suggestions. Document advising Kubrick on which changes should be made to ensure the film passes the certification process. Evidence of how morals have changed over time, for instance it is recommended Kubrick cut a scene showing an insult to a police officer,an incident not uncommon in contemporary cinema.

Dr Strangelove or: How I Learnt to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

Press Invitation. Top Secret dossier containing press release and Nuclear Bomb Effects Computer. Build your own.

Space Odyssey 2001 (1968)

Set and Prop Design Drawings. Kubrick approached large corporations inviting each to design products they envisioned would be marketable in 2001. These products were used on set and the inclusion of brand logos is an early example of product placement in film.

IBM designed the on-board computers however later withdrew upon reading the plot. It is rumoured that the Kubrick changed the brand to ‘HAL’ (1 letter difference) in response.

Clockwork Orange (1971)

Annotated Script. Corrections aptly handwritten in orange ink. Kubrick was quarrelling with Anthony Burgess at the time and has crossed his name through. Insight into the process of film-making and example of Kubrick’s methodology. The script does not lead Kubrick’s process.

Barry Lyndon (1975)

Source Material. Ringbinder containing fabric cuttings and reproductions of 18^th century portrait paintings. Described as Kubrick’s most painterly film, the research material demonstrates the importance of authenticity on set.

Also known for its unique lighting- filmed using adapted lens designed by NASA. Shot in natural daylight and by candlelight, cast required to traverse set in slow motion as if they had ‘swallowed a broom’.

The Shining (1980)

Advertising Campaign in collaboration with Saul Bass. From early sketches to final film posters. Early mock-ups inspired by Hitchcock evolved into a modern aesthetic. Displayed alongside correspondence between Kubrick and Bass.

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy handtyped papers. The Archive owns several copies of these papers. For continental releases, Kubrick’s team researched proverbs on work and diligence and replaced the original phrase for this key scene to preserve impact.

i.e. Spanish release translates to ‘Waking up earlier won’t make the sun rise any quicker.’

Italian release translates to ‘the morning has gold in its mouth’

Costume: Danny Torrance. Jacket and jumper. Originally purchased from high street stores and packed away in cardboard boxes. UAL conservation students worked in collaboration with Archivists to pack costumes in tiered conservation boxes.

 

Full Metal Jacket (1987)

Location Photographs decorated with art department’s annotations and proposed additions to transform London industrial estate to Vietnam warzone.

Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

Architectural model of New York street. Highly detailed with miniature newspapers inside shop window.

File of photographs. Gates of stately homes in the UK taken by Kubrick’s nephew as part of pre-production location research.

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Art inspired by the Archive

Foundation degree students produced a set of colouring-in books based on Kubrick’s films. Each page shows an illustration of a film still.

Jane and Louise Wilson film project based on Kubrick’s Aryan Papers project- http://www.animateprojects.org/films/by_project/residencies/kubrick

Copyright Permissions

The rights are owned by the Kubrick estate. Researchers wishing to use photographs of items from the collections in publications are requested to submit an application.

Recommended Publication

Stanley Kubrick: New Perspectives. ISBN: 9781908966421

Travelling Exhibition

A selection of material from the archive forms part of a travelling exhibition that is currently on display in San Francisco. The next venue will be Mexico City. UAL representatives attend the private views and occasionally organise research symposiums to coincide.

Other Collections of interest to filmmakers at UAL

Tharold Dickinson (1903 – 1984) Film director and educator.

John Schlesinger (1926 – 2003) film director and author.

Tom Eckersley (1914 – 1997) graphic designer and educator.

Clive Exton (1930 – 2007) screenwriter for armchair theatre, work includes Poirot and Jeeves and Wooster.

Sound Art Archive: ‘HerNoise’ Sound Art Archive containing 60 videos, 300 audio recordings, 40 books/ catalogues and 250 Zines. Inclides ‘Reverse Karoke’ inviting observers to produce sound not lyrics.

London Musicians Collective research into sound art practice.

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Donations Policy

UAL consider the size, material and significance of material to decide whether to accept. They also require support from academic colleagues as material must be of use to staff and students.

Classification

The Stanley Kubrick Archive is shelved according to the production process: Research> Pre-Production> Production> Post-Production>Promotion>Post-Distribution.

Recommendations for Starting an Archive Collection

• Be flexible – allow room for growth
• Have a range of storage facilities: hanging walls, plan chests and rolling stacks
• Monitor environment regularly – use devices such as a humbug

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The Archives and Special Collections website:

http://www.arts.ac.uk/study-at-ual/library-services/collections-and-archives

The Archives and Special Collections Catalogue: http://archives.arts.ac.uk/Calmview/default.aspx

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Towards a Rhizomatic Library

Following the Archive, I visited the Library where students has organised a ‘string experiment’. In this participative experiment, Interaction Design Arts students had asked their peers to leave post-its in sections of the library where they stop. These ‘stops’ were recorded and visually translated using string.

‘Our installation aims to remind us about the many users and uses of the library, celebrating it as a place where connections are made.’

Write-up by Rebecca Daniels, CILIPinKent Communications Officer 

Visit to Maugham Library 26.10.15

During the October half term, The King’s School Archives opened its doors to CILIP in Kent to showcase its world-class collections. The School Archivist, Mr Peter Henderson, previously a history teacher at the school, gave a private tour of the Maugham Library and opened up some of the significant items from the Hugh Walpole Collection to view.

Somerset Maugham was a boy at The King’s School from 1885-1889. Maugham wrote about his school days in ‘Of Human Bondage’. The Maugham Library is a collection of books, manuscripts, photographs, and other items that were gifted to the school, together with the finances to house the collection, by Maugham to Canon Frederick Shirley when Shirley was Headmaster. The library is now a teaching room for English lessons. Looking at the shelves gives you a sense of the man himself. This was his personal working collection of books, some of which are annotated (in pencil!), providing clues as to his writing practice, particularly his pieces of literary criticism.

The Walpole Collection represents manuscript works from most of the major writers of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Hugh Walpole attended The King’s School from 1896-1898. In the 1920s and 1930s he made a collection of English literary manuscripts, which was presented to the school in 1938. Seeing a small portion of the extensive collection out on display, together with an Augustus John portrait of Hugh Walpole himself was impressive! Highlights of the collection included Walter Scott, Charlotte and Emily Bronte, Wilkie Collins, Christina Rossetti, Lewis Carroll, George Eliot, Rudyard Kipling, M R James, W B Yeats, letters from First World War poets, and Eric Gill’s ‘Four Gospels’ – which was just beautiful to see up close! Just to name a few!!! Peter Henderson provided wonderful anecdotes of how the collection came together, and the stories behind individual acquisitions. This was a real literary feast for the eyes and ears!

write-up by Philippa Rose, CILIPinKent

‘Visitors, Residents and user-orientated online communications’ & visit to University of East London Stratford Campus

Last week Ian Clark, subject librarian at the University of East London, welcomed us at the Stratford Library and Learning Centre Campus. The campus had a very vibrant feel to it. The Library building looked stunning

The building opened in June 2013. It offers:

Three floors of social, quiet and silent learning space and 8 online-bookable group study rooms

130,000 books and journals covering Law, Social Sciences, Health, Sport and Biosciences, Psychology and Education

A help desk for library enquiries (an IT support desk has now been located next to the help desk)

Self-service facilities with an automated book returns sorter

A café (just outside the turnstile gate since food is not permitted in the library)

A beautiful landscaped internal bamboo garden with inspirational quotes

Tablet devices for loan

Self-service reservation shelf

After a tour of the Library, Ian talked to us about ‘Visitors, Residents and user-orientated online communications’.

This is his presentation: https://t.co/o0hHaH9pZH

It was all very interesting. As part of the presentation, Ian used https://www.mentimeter.com/. It was a great way to make his talk more interactive and for us to find what social media tools our fellow participants used.

If you want to learn more Ian’s take on the Visitors and residents model, this is his recent article for InfoToday: http://www.infotoday.eu/Articles/Editorial/Featured-Articles/Visitors-and-residents-understanding-digital-behaviours-105217.aspx