View from the Hill

A Night in the Museum

The London and South East Divisions of the Career Development Group put on a fantastic social event last night - a Night at the Museum. We were divided into groups of 4 and expected to find information about certain artefacts in the British Museum, having been given a map and some clues.

I am absolutely dreadful at these sort of tasks however, I was armed with a group of fabulous library and information professionals, who are experts at searching for information, so I was feeling very positive about our group's chances of success! We answered all our questions very quickly (with very little input from me thankfully) and our last challenge was to come up with a team name. No-one in our team could decide on one, so I made an executive decision to call ourselves "The Winners", as I was feeling very sure we would be the first team back. Sadly, it turned out that we were the fourth team back, and "the Winners" did not win anything!

What followed was a fabulous evening of networking in a nearby pub. A big thank you to the Career Development Group for organising another great event.

- Lizzie Russell

"Oh these, these are only incidental"

The British Library have realised that they have a new collection.  They have about 300,00 rarely seen images from the early days of photography.  Apparently the collection is "incidental".  About 250 of the images will feature in a new exhibition, focusing on the social aspect of photography. 

Looks quite interesting, for an "incidental" collection.

- Katharine Liu

Pop up Restaurants, Pop up Museums - why not Pop up Libraries?

Why do I never have the good ideas first?

Last week I went to a pop-up bar, and have been hearing wonderful tales of pop-up restaurants.  I even contemplated having one in my house to raise funds for charity.

I belong to the Guerrilla Gardening Group who brighten up those dull bare plots on road sides, roundabouts and in Council estates with glorious flowers.  This is a cause I support with all of my heart.

Today I see that at the Musuem Association's event for emerging museum professionals(now there is another great idea) a Dragons' Den type event was won by a team whose one minute pitch entailed setting up Museums in the many vacantshops that blight our town centres.  Bringing exhibits that otherwise languish in basements straight to the eye of the public can only be a good thing. More can be read at the Museum Association website.  A brilliant idea and well done the winning team.

Now - come on Libraryland.  Let's get out there and have pop-up libraries in the vacant shop next door to our museum colleagues.  Perhaps even put the mobile library in the car park (I know some of you do already).  Sell off your excess books - raise funds.  

Friday to day so off to the pop-up cafe bar on the top the multi-story car-park in Peckham again tonight to admire the sunset while sipping a welcome Campari. Plenty of room there for some books. - Sue Hill

Quintessential Englishness

I'm currently reading "Adventures on the High Teas" by Stuart Maconie. He is travelling the length and breadth of the country in search of Middle England.

A particular section in the book caught my eye. I'll quote: "Like Libraries, museums in the daytime are still a great place to spot that saying English species, the unfathomable, inexplicable solo eccentric whom Larkin celebrated/bemoaned in 'Toads Revisited.'"

You do see all of life in libraries and museums. I remember once when I worked in a public library, we caught a homeless guy cooking sausages on the old cast iron radiators.

Are libraries and museums the places which define our country, in all its quintessential glory?

- Katharine Liu

When disaster strikes...

A story on the BBC website on Friday caught my eye - National Library hit by flooding. For the second time in two years, the National Library of Scotland has been flooded after a pipe burst. Thankfully there appears to be only minor damage and I'm sure this is in no small part due to the efforts of the fire crews and library staff.

I got to thinking about other libraries affected by disasters.

Reading February's edition of the Society of Archivists' journal ARC magazine, I learnt about the efforts to rebuild the Iraq National Library and Archives (INLA) after it was ransacked and looted in 2003. Dr Saad Eskander, Director of the INLA explained that 95% of the rare book collection had been lost. Since then the building has been restored, morale has been raised amongst staff and over 900 people per month now use the reading rooms. Dr Eskander is described in the article as inspiring and has reminded us of "the importance of archives and libraries in underpinning a free and fair society" and he was recently awarded Fellowship of CILIP.

Has your library been hampered by disasters, natural or man-made?

Library offers hints for Credit Crunch Christmas Lunch

I varied my usual Google news search on the word "library" by adding in "Christmas", just to be topical!

Having been wowed by Delia and her £28 Christmas lunch for 4 I was intrigued to see a much earlier version of the Credit Crunch lunch offered up by Cambridge University Library's Darwin Correspondence Project. "Mrs Charles Darwins' Recipe Book" is a new publication of a very old book, housed in Scientific Manuscripts at Cambridge, and it tells us how to broil mushrooms and make turnip cresselly (any suggestions?!) but also teaches us to be frugal and make our own snacks like cheese straws and ginger biscuits. Good skills for all. The original book is used by researchers and proceeds from the new publication will be going towards funding more research into Charles Darwin's letters.

What other credit-crunch-beating tips or Christmas hints can be found in your libraries?

A limbo of libraries

Two subjects that are very important to me joined forces yet again today - no, not shoes and champagne, but Photography and Libraries. I logged on to Flickr to see what people have been saying about my photos (they liked them, you'll be pleased to know!) and was presented with a Ralph Waldo Emerson quotation about libraries and an intriguing link. I followed it. It introduced me to the New York Public Library and a fascinating array of photographs. The Library is hoping that anyone and everyone will be help to tag the photos and that this will provoke activity and debate in this area of Flickr - The Commons. I've mentioned this initiative before and had hoped to see some more UK libraries joining in. Our NZ contingent here will be pleased to see The National Library of New Zealand is part of the Flickr Family.

Have you joined the Flickr Family yet?

Museums Vs Libraries

I recently attended a training day regarding Museums and the structure of the work force within.  What I found particually interesting was how closely related to libraries museums can be yet there is some sort of invisible force which keeps them apart.  They seem so familar yet so divided.  Having worked in Public Libraries myself and on many occasion worked closely with museums on various events, I have always put the two together.  Whilst I do appreciate the different disciplines and skills required to work in these 2 fields surely there needs to be more synergy and partnership working in order to bring us all together.  Or is that just a romantic view?

Flickr your archives

My regular Google News search on the word "Librarian" this week brought a new aspect of Flickr to my attention, thanks to ITWire . I'm an avid Flickrer...Flickr-er... is there a word for this? Ok, so I'm an avid Flickr Fan and enjoy uploading lots of my own photographs. This article showed me a new project called Flickr Commons  - an online initiative to share the collections of cultural institutions world-wide and increase acccess to historical photos. So far eleven institutions world-wide have signed up including two here in the UK - National Media Museum in Bradford and National Martime Museum in London. Is this a resource that will be well-used? It's a great opportunity for information professionals to diversify and bring to the fore skills that they may have developed in their home. Is it something your library or archive is considering?

Phil Redmond CBE - Captain of Culture - Liverpool

Segueing neatly from the Museums Association Conference in Liverpool (Mon - Wed) to the Public Libraries Association Conference in Liverpool (Wed to Fri) a little further up the Mersey I was slightly dismayed to see Phil Redmond was again the keynote speaker.  Twice in 24 hours could be too much of a good thing.

I need not have worried.  Phil, Deputy Chair & Creative Director, Liverpool Culture Company, in the year of Liverpool European Capital of Culture 2008 is an interesting, informative and accomplished speaker.  He spoke both times without notes and gave two quite different presentations using a common theme.  He made much of the fact that Liverpool and its wealth of cultural and far reaching world changing history had made him what he is today.  Today he spoke eloquently about how access to libraries after work progressed him, just a bloke from Huyton, from almost failed comprehensive boy to quantity surveyor, media entrepreneur, Professor and more. (After work access he wryly commented is probably less feasible in this age of 24/7 availability of other things).

Liverpool was founded on commerce, 10.5 miles of docks were built in 60 years to conquer trade. Some sniff at the fact that Liverpool's early sons were the instigators of the slave trade, but conversely were also the early abolitionists.  Something he advised us we could explore in depth at the excellent International Slavery Museum part of the National Museums Liverpool group.  Interestingly the successful conquering of the world by trade has left a wonderful legacy of philanthropy and thus a heritage of museums, galleries and libraries that punch above their weight.  Commerce led to philanthropy, which in turn created now culture.   Now culture is more likely to drive commerce.  (The wheel is turning?)

It was a measure of how warm and inclusive Liverpool is, he told us, that as part of this year of culture a Beatles tribute band from Manchester could sell out several nights in a row at the fabulous new Arena and BT convention centre. It only took 25 years from first thinking about it to build it!  Worth the wait.  He is rightly proud that Liverpool is now the third most visited city in the UK after London and Edinburgh.

The week isn't over yet and both conferences are still going strong. I am confident that many library and museum folk will take away  excellent insights and tips on what can be done for the future of our cultural heritage based on what they have learned here.

Watch this space for more on culture, museums and libraries in Liverpool.