I begin my day by checking our general library inbox for any enquiries that we might have received over the weekend. This morning [as usual] there were quite a few but they were mercifully straight forward so didn’t take too long to answer. Next, I spent a very enjoyable hour squirrelling away through our old photograph drawers for some interesting images to share with everyone during this Museum Week UK on Twitter and what treasures I have found [but more of that to come via Tweets from @amgueddfa_lib during the week]!
I begin my day by checking our general library inbox for any enquiries that we might have received over the weekend. This morning [as usual] there were quite a few but they were mercifully straight forward so didn’t take too long to answer. Next, I spent a very enjoyable hour squirrelling away through our old photograph drawers for some interesting images to share with everyone during this Museum Week UK on Twitter and what treasures I have found [but more of that to come via Tweets from @amgueddfa_lib during the week]!
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| Vintage albums and photographs |
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| Main Library photograph drawers |
I also took some photographs of
the pages of a giant old scrap book full of museum ephemera; it contains
tickets, pamphlets, public announcement posters, order of services, lists of lectures and just
about anything else [museum related] you can stick down with heavy duty glue and sellotape…
However, my day begins in
earnest with the post – as Assistant Librarian one of my main priorities is to
manage the journal subscriptions. We maintain around 700 titles, a combination of paid subscriptions, exchanges and gifts. Therefore, after our Administration Assistant has opened and checked it, I weed out all the
journals and record them onto our database. By doing this I am
alerted to previous issues not received and will then chase them up with relevant
suppliers. This time, there are no missing issues to chase but we have received
a few duplicates, and [as always] these are from suppliers who categorically promised that
no further duplicates would be sent out! Next, I count and measure the post so
that at the end of the year I am able to supply our Principle Librarian with
the total number of actual issues received and the meterage of space they will
have covered. For instance, our statistics for 2013 were 1972 issues received
that covered just over 11 metres of shelf space
Next, I date stamp and separate them into departments. Our subscriptions naturally correspond with the curatorial departments, so we receive journals on the following disciplines: Art, Archaeology, Zoology, Botany, Geology and Industry and we also subscribe to more general subjects kept here in the Main Library. Once all this is done, it’s time to go and shelve them in the departmental libraries. These are dotted all around the museum so I wait until I have a little pile, normally a few days’ worth, before I go on my shelving travels.
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| The "ordered chaos" of journals management! |
Next, I date stamp and separate them into departments. Our subscriptions naturally correspond with the curatorial departments, so we receive journals on the following disciplines: Art, Archaeology, Zoology, Botany, Geology and Industry and we also subscribe to more general subjects kept here in the Main Library. Once all this is done, it’s time to go and shelve them in the departmental libraries. These are dotted all around the museum so I wait until I have a little pile, normally a few days’ worth, before I go on my shelving travels.
My next task is to work through any invoices
received in the post and this morning there quite a few. The way I process
these has changed recently and whereas it has taken a little time
to get used to the new system, it is much more straightforward and done in no time at all.
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| Walking into town for lunch, looking back over my shoulder... |
After lunch, it’s all about the
special collections! I begin by photographing books for a new post on the Museum Blog; I have been posting articles for some time now and really enjoy it.
This next post I’m working on concerns books with “marginalia” and we have some
excellent examples so here is a little sneak peak…
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| Cambria Depicta: a tour of North Wales by Edward Pugh [1816] |
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| Instructions for collecting and preserving insects; particularly moths and butterflies by William Curtis [1771] |
The last few hours of the afternoon are spent working on a talk I will be giving in April as part of the Museum’s Behind the scenes series where the curatorial departments allow groups of visitors in to show them what goes on behind the scenes. My working title is “Curios” and the talk will be based on a small selection of our more unique items, such as fore-edge books, annotated books, and books made from unusual materials and bindings!
On my way out I leave via the art
galleries, it does take a little longer to get out going this way but it gives me the chance to browse and see what's on display and today there were two things in particular I wished to see. First, the new exhibition Wales Visitation:
Poetry, Romance and Myth in Art which includes works by David Jones, Graham Sutherland
and Richard Long. And also the new Constable painting [currently on
loan from the Tate]; Salisbury Cathedral
from the Meadows is a stunning work and I particularly like the dark
storm clouds brooding behind the rainbow.
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| A selection of books on WWI all ready for the 1914-2014 Centenary |
This post has been produced as part of the Twitter event #Museum Week UK [24-30 March 2014]
All photographs in this post taken by the author
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