View from London September 2003

The Library and archive 'crawl" continued

National Archives, London (visited regularly)
September 20th was 'Open Day' at The National Archives. The staff were there to greet the public from 10:00am with yellow numbered stickers for adults and blue for children. What a brilliant idea! No need to count heads just see how many stickers have been issued at the end of the day to gauge the public turnout.

The theme was 'spies' and there was a full range of activities for children and adults. These ranged from children's involvement in a play using semaphore, monologues by the spy who cracked Napoleon"s codes, makeup artists changing facial characteristics, displays on 'Enigma', to producing secret documents with invisible ink. A replica of the 'Enigma" machine was on display along with other information about the famous Station X or Bletchley Park.

For me the most interesting displays were in the preservation and conservation area. Here you could watch repair of documents and see documents that were beyond repair. There were displays about photographs, maps, seals, in fact all media stored by The National Archives.

This was another example of the success with which The National Archives involves the public.
UK Parliament (update)
The information services at the Houses of Parliament are
1. House of Lords Library
2. House of Commons Member"s Library
3. House of Lords Information Office
4. House of Commons Information Office
5. House of Lords Record Office
6. Parliamentary Education Unit
The first two libraries are for use only by the members of the respective House whereas the others are all part of the Parliament Information Office. Next month I will write an article on the conference I am about to attend 'Open Parliament: a Guide to Parliamentary Information in the 21st Century"' and tell you more about government information in the UK.
Bodleian Library
In my last report I was about to begin using the Bodleian collection.

After obtaining a readers ticket (there are charges which vary with use) I set off for the New Bodleian Library to request items I wished to see. This process involves using a MSDOS program which for younger users probably represents a very large hurdle. The items are bought to the reading room within 2 hours. You have to plan ahead.

The time delay gave me the chance to browse the shelves which are packed with all the newest publications. The Bodleian is a legal deposit library for the United Kingdom. This meant that during 2000-2001 items were accessioned to 3.3 km of shelving (what was that about electronic publishing and the virtual library!).

A few other facts for librarian trivial pursuit - the library houses over six million volumes needing 176 km of shelving, 398 staff service the library and on any given day 45 000 readers tickets are valid.
London School of Economics
This library is very close to Australia House and the law courts where the Hutton Inquiry into the death of weapons expert Dr David Kemp has been held. From the outside the library looks like any other university building, it is a multistorey rectangle. As you walk through the door into the general inquiries area this view is replaced by an open plan library. The design is centred on a very low angled spiral staircase which has one complete revolution between floors. The collections are easy to negotiate although the shelfmarking is one that I am not familiar with. There are adequate areas for research with special areas set aside for those who have laptop computers. The separation of clients using laptops from other users occurs in a number of large libraries. Unlike at the British Library in the LSE library this group of users are completely separated from other users. Like mobile phones in public places, there is nothing more distracting than 'click, click, tap, tap, Windows™ chime" while you are trying to read. To save energy costs the lighting in the stacks is movement sensitive, which is fine for those who find what they want and leave but not so good for the browsers. I quickly learned to walk a few paces in the aisles to keep the lights on.
Institute of Child Health Library, London
This library is located in the Child Health Institute which is adjacent to and associated with Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children. The institute is an arm of University College London and services researchers into child health. The library occupies a single floor in one wing of the institute and the first impression for me was positive when I opened the door to see a stair lift available for disabled clients. The staff (see image) John Clarke (librarian), Angela Jefkins (deputy librarian), Teresa Wood and Jing Ly were extremely helpful when I visited to look at the publications of the 'The British Deming Association" for business history. The layout of the library is standard and the research areas are very comfortable and well away from the photocopier and workstations. I have met other librarians in the Health libraries sector in London and they are very interested in networking with counterparts in Western Australia. I am happy to provide details to those of you who would like to communicate with health librarians in the UK.
Libraries of Helsinki
During my visit to Helsinki I was able to visit a number of libraries. The National Library (see image) is off the central square and houses many collections including a very large Russian Social Science collection. This collection is undoubtedly one of the best collections for anyone wishing to access Soviet literature. There are theses in this collection that are still not available for public viewing in Russia but are available to the international community in this library. My main visit was to the Herbarium Library, Helsinki University which is housed in a grand building in the botanic gardens. Once again the proximity to the former Soviet Union means that the collection contains literature which is not available in many other collections outside Russia.

Infor Centre Korona, Viikki, Finland
Viikki is a suburb of Helsinki and is the location of the science faculties of Helsinki University.

The Info Centre Korona is the main building on the campus and houses the Helsinki University Science Library and the Viikki Library of Helsinki. Campus administration is also in this building as are the main cafeteria, the University Bookstore and the University Press. The building consists of a three-quarter circle. It is named Korona after the double outer wall that surrounds the building. The outer glass wall that surrounds the Info Centre acts as an insulator.

The Viikki Science Library is the national science library. The librarians are quite pleased with the building although due to budget shortfalls the radius of the building was reduced by 1 metre on the outside which drastically reduced space for future collection building. This is one of the few libraries where I have seen a complete run of Biological Abstracts and Chemical Abstracts still available for reference.

The Viikki Library is a branch of the Helsinki City Library. This library shares the ground floor of the Science Library (see image) and allows both the residents of Viikki and the students on campus to experience academic libraries and public libraries. The two libraries co-ordinate their exhibitions as part of the public outreach.

I will continue with my library comments in 2004.

Lessons for you who wish to travel on the motorways in the UK especially in to, out of and around London.

always travel with a supply of water, breakdowns and congestion on the motorway is commonplace. My last visit to Oxford included seeing a 10 mile 'carpark" on the M40 heading to London, luckily all was clear when I returned to London.
keep an ear to the broadcasts of hold-ups on the radio and make sure you know which junctions you will be passing through or need.
have an alternative route in mind.

Roberta Cowan
Australian Botanical Liaison Officer
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

NB: Roberta's article in the September issue mentioned First Fleet to federation by Jarlath Ronayne. An Australian edition has been published as The Irish in Australia: rogues and reformers: First fleet to federation by Viking, 2003. Thanks to Clare Snowball for this information.

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