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Library Work 1955-1977 After
nine months engaged in general library duties in Islington Public Libraries I
moved to the Medical Section of Birmingham University Library where my duties
consisted of cataloguing and classification,
preparation of binding, supervision of the duties of the Medical Library's
junior staff, and assistance to readers. At Birkbeck College Library I
was involved mainly in cataloguing and classification, supervising
inter-library loan work, and assistance to readers. I
was initially appointed at Essex University Library for cataloguing and
classification duties but after a short
time I became the Assistant. Librarian in charge of Reader Services, a post
which involved the organisation and supervision of the shelving staff,
stack maintenance, assistance to readers, and direct responsibility for the
work of the Inter-Library loans Department and the Circulation Department. I also organised the library tours
for freshmen and seminars of library instruction for first year
students. As an extension of these schemes to assist readers in the use of
the library I compiled in 1966, a series
of bibliographies of reference material relating to the Schools of Study at
Essex (see under Publications for their
titles) designed to be used as manuals in connection with seminars of library
instruction for second year, third year, and postgraduate students. Apart
from work relating specifically to readers services I was also involved in
various administrative duties delegated by the Librarian, including the
compilation of all duty rotas. I
took up my appointment as Deputy Librarian at the New University of Ulster
(incorporating Magee University College,
Londonderry) in 1969, a year after the Library there was first opened to
readers. Apart from deputising in the Librarian's absence, assisting
in the appointment of staff, and acting as
Secretary of the Library Committee, my initial years there were mainly spent
streamlining library routines and introducing new ones, assisting in
the administrative planning for a new library extension and in 1973 organising the move of some 100,000 books to
this building. After 1 973 a considerable proportion of my time was
devoted to directing and co-ordinating the activities of an automation team
consisting of a Systems Analyst, a Programmer, two punch operators, the Chief
Cataloguer, the Periodicals Librarian, the Circulation Librarian, and the
staff of the Acquisitions Department. The
progress achieved by this team in the development of automated systems in the
fields of ordering, cataloguing, and circulation was first publicly described
in Vine, no. 12, March. 1975, and later in the
periodical articles on automation cited in the section Publications. My pioneering use of the
Plessey automated circulation system* in Northern
Ireland and the work I carried out there in the field of library automation
and computerisation transformed the Library at the New University of Ulster
into one of the most technologically advanced libraries at that time in the
United Kingdom. 1 977-1 996 (Work at Royal Holloway Library) When
I became Librarian of Royal Holloway College (RHC) in 1977 the College was
beginning to enter a period of mounting financial difficulties and I soon
found that I had to focus my attention on preventing the library services
from being seriously damaged by cuts. I did this with some success in the
area of book and journal provision with the help of powerful support from the
Library Committee. For most of the period I was in office the Library's share
of the total College recurrent income remained consistently above the
national average and higher than the percentage achieved by the Libraries of
most of the other Colleges and Insitututions of the University of London. As
a result the library budget for books and journals rarely fell below a
reasonably adequate level, although, as
happened in virtually all academic institutions, some severe cutting of
journals was necessary during the period when the prices of journals,
particularly those in science, rose astronomically. This was a source of
considerable satisfaction to me as I always strongly held the view that the
library budget needed to be maintained consistently at a level that would
enable Royal Holloway to be as self-sufficient as possible in its book and journal
provision in view of the fact that its students did not have the same ease of
access to the library resources of central London as enjoyed by the students
of other Colleges and Institutions of the University of London. The
years between 1982 and 1985 represented a dramatic watershed in my work at
Royal Holloway. During these years the merger between Royal Holloway College
and Bedford College got under way and I was inevitably primarily absorbed
with complex problems related to the accommodation and organisation of a
greatly expanded stock on the Egham campus and the staffing, financing, and
computerisation that would be required in the future merged library of the
two Colleges. I was heavily involved in particular in providing advice on the
amount of temporary accommodation required, working out detailed plans for
the arrangement of staff and stock within it, and linking it with the local
campus computer and the library computer in the Senate House shared by the other major Colleges of the
University of London. At the same time I had to grapple with the problem of
phasing out Royal Holloway College's departmental libraries in preparation
for the ultimate integration and rationalisation of the collections of
the two Colleges at Egham. In 1985, when Bedford College (BC) and Royal
Holloway College were legally incorporated as a new institution (RHBNC), I
was appointed as its Librarian with the immediate task of finalising and
implementing plans for the accommodation, organisation and rationalisation of
more than 400,000 volumes from the differently classified book stocks of the
two former College Libraries of Bedford College and Royal Holloway College,
and also from some sections of the book stock of Chelsea College, Kings
College, and Westfield College relevant to the academic staff transferred
from these institutions to the new institution at Egham as part of the
universal restructuring being carried out at that time in the University of
London. From the outset I took the view that it was grossly impractical and
inefficient to accommodate the greatly expanded stock (a large part of which
was then in temporary prefabricated
buildings, collectively known as the Orchard Library) by means of extensions
of the Founder's Library to be achieved by making use of adjacent
rooms and floors of the Founder's Building. I was convinced that the most
efficient, and ultimately most cost-effective, way to proceed was to erect a purpose-built new library in
which all the stock which had been brought together at Egham and future
additions of it could be integrated under its one roof. The University Grants
Committee (UGC) the funding body for universities at that time, concurred
with my view that it was impractical to extend the Founder's Library but,
unfortunately, although it approved a new library building, it recommended
that it should only be of sufficient size to supplement the Founder's
Library, which was to continue to accommodate part of the stock. The UGC
could not be budged from this position
even after a further case, in which I was involved, was subsequently made to
the UGC for a larger new library capable of housing the entire stock.
I had to plan, therefore, for a library which would only accommodate part of
the stock but it remained my ambition, and the College's (regrettably not
fulfilled in my term of office), that the building would ultimately be
expanded to encompass the entire staff and stock of the Library. The plans
for Phase I of a new library were
completed in 1985/86 and the building was scheduled to be erected by October
1987 but because of financial problems it was not built until 1993, being
opened in October of that year. In spite of the fact that the building
was planned in 1985/86 and that I was only allowed to make very minor
alterations to the plan in 1992/93 because of severe financial restrictions I
believe the building, which came to be known as the Bedford Library, was
successful and one of which the College could justly feel proud. Although it
was similar in size to the temporary Orchard Library, which it replaced, it had double the number of seats for readers, lent
itself to far greater operational efficiency, and provided an
infinitely superior environment for working and studying. Only those who had
had experience of conditions in the Orchard Library caould fully appreciate
the significant difference the new library building made to the quality of
the service Royal Holloway was subsequently able to afford its students and
staff. Although it was planned in 1985-1986 and only minor alterations to
these plans could be made when it was built in 1993, particular attention was
given in its original design to wiring it for the full range of IT facilities
(such as on-line catalogues, CD-ROM and audio-visual equipment, and clusters
of networked PC workstations) and to providing it with the scope and
flexibility for further expansion of IT in the future by installing a
trunking system which had the potential to accommodate additional IT
equipment on every floor of the Library. The completion of the new library in October 1993
and its official opening by HRH Princess Anne in April 1994 represented the
culmination of years of intense activity and hard work by members of the
Library staff in the most trying of conditions. Between 1985 and 1993 part of
the Library was housed in the Founder's Building and the Music Department,
and the rest of it (the largest part of it, including all its technical
departments) were housed in the temporary prefabricated buildings of the
Orchard Library, which had been erected in phases between 1983 and 1985. In
this period the Library operated under conditions made enormously difficult
by reason of the limited number of staff
to man three separate buildings, the unsatisfactory nature of the temporary
library buildings, and the immense amount of additional work generated
by a dramatically expanding student population. Nevertheless, it was during
this period that the collections of several institutions were merged together
at Royal Holloway, reorganised, rationalised, and brought under the control
of a computerised system which ensured that the Library would be able to
provide a service capable of taking full advantage of the technological
benefits of the emerging electronic age. In the particularly difficult and frustrating circumstances of that period
in the history of the Library these achievements were remarkable. I
believe that they can be attributed in some measure to the degree of success
I was able to achieve in moulding and organising staff from different
institutions and backgrounds of experience into a homogeneous and
co-operative team motivated to work with real effort, goodwill, and
dedication to meet the targets which I and the College set it. A major element of my policy as Librarian of Royal
Holloway was to involve the Library closely in the activities of the
University of London's Library Resources Co-ordinating Committee (now
University Libraries Committee) in the area of automation and
computerisation. For this reason I ensured that the Library participated
actively from the outset in all the relevant federal projects such as the Union list of Serials, the University
of London Shared Cataloguing System, and the shared GEAC
Automated Circulation System. As a result of this participation the
Library gained valuable experience and developed computerised databases for
cataloguing and circulation purposes which placed the Library in an excellent
position to take full advantage of the potential of the University of
London's federally organised Libertas Library Management System - the
most significant of all the federal initiatives in the area of automation and
computerisation at that time. It was in this context that I was able to
persuade the College to provide the very substantial funding needed to buy the software, terminals, and dedicated
library computer which were the essential prerequisites for the
Library's participation in the federal Libertas system. The
involvement of Royal Holloway Library in this system from the outset was of
enormous importance. The entire operation of the Library was fundamentally
transformed by Libertas. Its introduction and development had the effect of dramatically increasing the
efficiency and speed with which books were catalogued and ordered, and loans,
reservations and renewals were transacted, with the result that the quality
of use which readers were able to make not only of Royal Holloway
Library but also of all the other libraries of the University of London
participating in the Libertas system was significantly enhanced. From my experiences at the New University of Ulster
(now absorbed in the University of Ulster) I was very aware when I came to
Royal Holloway of the importance of the
Library establishing a close liaison with the College's Computer Services.
I actively encouraged appropriate members of my staff to achieve such a
liaison and I myself set out to establish strong links with the Head of
Computer Services. This soon bore fruit. The success of the early pioneering
work I inaugurated at Royal Holloway in the area of online literature
searching and the development of computerised databases of journal, audiovisual,
and restricted loan materials can be attributed to a large extent to the
excellent way members of the Library and the Computer Services co-operated on
these projects. Later, the assistance of members of the Computer Centre was
of immense importance in the development of the Libertas system which
I introduced in 1989. Although the bulk of the system design for Libertas was
implemented by a member of the Library staff, the Library relied crucially on
Computer Services for the maintenance and running of the dedicated library
computer on which the system software was mounted. In the early 90's the way libraries operated and the
way students gained access to information was steadily being transformed by
the possibilities opened up by locally and globally networked PC's and the escalating production of electronic
databases. It became increasingly apparent to me that the ad hoc and
unofficial co-operation which existed between the Library and Computer
Services, successful as it had been in the past, would not suffice to
cope with the radically new situation which was developing. I felt that it
was necessary for the expertise and financial resources of the Library and Computer Services to be brought
together in a formal, official relationship which could be recognised
by the College as the means by which the needs of students in an increasingly
electronic environment could be efficiently addressed. I had no difficulty,
therefore, in wholeheartedly supporting the idea of the formal integration of
the Library and Computer Services which became an important element in the
College's Information Strategy. Indeed, I played a substantial and
enthusiastic part in the drafting of the plans for the merging of the Library
and Computer Services under the name of
Information Services and for the new committee structures associated
with it, all of which were fully implemented soon after I retired. By
fostering effective co-operation between the Library and Computer Services in
the College over many years and ultimately lending wholehearted support to
the formal integration of these services I believe I left the Library in
excellent shape to meet the technological challenges of the late 90’s and the
new millennium. Opportunities for Royal Holloway Library to purchase
important special collections were primarily hampered by lack of money for
this special purpose, but also by lack of space. In the case of potential
donations of large special collections the main stumbling block had been the
distance from London as well as lack of space, a combination of handicaps
which deterred some major donors who had considered depositing their
collections at Royal Holloway from doing so. Nevertheless, some important
special collections were acquired during my term of office. The most
important of these was the Dom Aselm Hughes Library. In 1982 I made a
successful case for a number of special grants from the University of
London's Central Book Fund to enhance the research potential of Royal
Holloway Library's collections in music and drama. The benefit which this produced for the Music Department was
particularly significant because with one of the grants I had acquired
from the Central Book Fund, together with a substantial bequest from a former
student of Royal Holloway College, I was
able to negotiate with Nashdom Abbey for the purchase of the Dom
Anselm Hughes Library, a collection of immense value for postgraduate
research in the field of mediaeval liturgical music. In this case space did
not prove to be a problem because I had previously arranged with the Head of
the Music Department to transfer the Music section of the Founder's Library
to the Music Department and to integrate it there with that Department's
audio equipment, records and scores to form a Music Library under the
supervision of a new post of Music Librarian which I had been able to create.
This Library was subsequently expanded by my acquisition of additional
adjacent rooms in the Music Department. This enabled the Dom Anselm Hughes
Library to be adequately housed. Of the special collections which were acquired by
donation the largest was the personal library of Edward Haddakin (1906-1969),
the eminent ballet and dance critic who wrote under the name of A.V. Coton.
This library (known as the Coton
Collection), which consists of
the books, periodicals, programmes, souvenir items, and photographs
collected by Edward Haddakin during his career as a ballet and dance critic
from 1938-1968, was donated to Royal Holloway by his wife, Dr. Lillian
Haddakin (1914-1982), formerly Senior Lecturer in English at University
College, London. No less important, although representing a far smaller
special collection, were 35 box files of papers donated by Sir Alfred Sherman, relating to his
activities at the Centre for Policy Studies in the period from 1974 to 1983.
In an article on these papers (Contemporary Record, November, 1990,
pp. 14-15) Simon Burgess and Geoffrey Alderman describe Sir Alfred as
"the moving force behind the setting up of the Centre for Policy Studies
(CPS)", and the release of this set of his working papers as affording
"a unique and fascinating glimpse into the making of the Thatcherite
era". A special collection (known as the Oliver
Collection) which I acquired on loan during my period
of office contained a great deal of archival material (including legal
documents, house auction records, sale
catalogues, manuscript letters, photographs, engravings, newspaper cuttings,
maps, and a large collection of postcards covering the late 19th
century to recent times) to a large extent related to the local area (Egham,
Staines, Virginia Water, Chertsey, Thorpe, Windsor, etc) and neighbouring
towns and counties. Part of my motivation in providing temporary storage for
the Oliver Collection (and in due course arranging for it to be catalogued
with funds provided by the S.A. Oliver Charitable Settlement) was to help the
College in its public relations with the local community. These relations had
become somewhat strained over the years as the student population had
expanded. Providing the local community, as well as staff and students of the
College, with access to a collection with a strong local history content
(although it also has a considerable amount of other material of interest to
academic researchers generally) seemed to me to be a way of expressing
goodwill and of demonstrating that the College did not simply clutter local
streets with students' cars and develop plans to put up buildings to which
local residents objected but could also provide the local community with a
positive service. The Oliver Collection is now permanently housed in the
University of London Depository Library and administered and financed solely
by the S.A. Oliver Charitable Settlement. Membership of College and University Library Bodies Advisory Board of
Librarians (University of London), 1977-1996 Advisory Committee on
Recurring Expenditure (SCONUL**), 1982-1986 Advisory Committee on
Investigatory Studies (SCONUL), 1982-1985 Archives Advisory
Group (RHBNC***), 1993-1996 Committee of the
Advisory Board of Librarians (University of London), 1978-1980 Depository Library
Board (University of London), 1977-1985 Federal Library System
Steering Group (University of London), 1987-1988 Joint Library
Committee (RHC**** and BC*****), 1982-1985 Library Committee (RHC
and RHBNC, Secretary), 1977-1996 Library Committee
(Westfield College), 1977-1984 Library Planning
Committee (Sub-Group of RH and BC Joint Planning Committee). 1982 Library
Resources Coordinating Committee (University of London; became University Libraries Committee),
1984-1995 M25 Consortium of
Libraries, 1994-1996 Staffing Sub-Committee
(LRCC), 1989-1994 Standing Advisory Panel on Staffing Matters (LRCC),
1984-1988 University Libraries
Committee (University of London), 1995-1996 University Library Board
(University of London), 1981-1984 Working Party on Library Automation (University of
London. Join Planning Committee), 1986-1987 Membership of other College
and University Bodies Academic Board (RHC and RHBNC), 1977-1996 Archives Advisory
Group (RHBNC), 1993-1996 Computer Facilities
Committee (RHC).,1982-1984 Computer Users'
Committee (RHC), 1984-1991 Computer Policy
Committee (RHBNC), 1992-1996 Joint Committee of the
Academic Boards (RHC and BC), 1982-1985 Residence Committee
(RHC), 1979 Membership
of External Bodies Runnymede Local
History Forum, 1995- Post-Retirement, 1996- Since I retired in September 1996 a considerable amount
of my time has been absorbed on a number of projects. Apart from working on a
bibliography of aspects of the First World War which have interested me I have also, on a voluntary basis, catalogued a
special collection (the Coton Collection) for Royal Holloway Library
and provided an information service on the internet related to the contents
of the Oliver Collection held in the University of London Depository Library
at Egham. The main object of my
work on the Coton Collection was to catalogue and make available that part of the donation of the personal library of A.
V. Coton (relating to programmes, souvenir items, and photographs on
ballet and dance) that the Library had hitherto been unable to process
because of the pressure on limited staff resources and the need to
concentrate on other priorities. My work on the internet in relation to the
Oliver Collection is designed to increase public awareness of its contents by
providing bibliographical lists of material from the Collection related to
the local history of towns within the vicinity, and also records of the
material from the Collection exhibited in the Egham Museum. Judging by the
number of e-mail enquiries relating to the latter Collection that I have
received over the years it is evident that advertising its contents on the
internet has had the desired effect. |
* Plessey at N.U.U. Coleraine, New University
of Ulster, 1975. 80 slides, 35 minutes. (Tape-slide guide to the automated circulation
system at N.U.U., designed for in-service training purposes and presented at
the Irish National and University Library Staffs Conference, Queen's
University, Belfast, March 21-23,1975, and at the annual Joint Conference of
the Library Association, New University of Ulster, Coleraine, June 26-28,1975)
** Standing
Conference of National and University Libraries
*** Royal
Holloway and Bedford New College, publicly known as Royal Holloway, University
of London
**** Royal Holloway College
***** Bedford
College