LIBRARIAN'S REPORT FOR THE SESSION 2006/2007
As predicted in last year’s report, the end of this year’s session found the library still housed in temporary accommodation on the second floor of the North Block of Senate House, the previous home of the library of the School of Slavonic and East European Studies. Although originally intended as a six-month expedient while the South Block underwent refurbishment, delays and overrunning of the project made it seem likely that the stay would be extended for at least at least another two years to the end of 2009, making a total of four years in all. Once again, readers are to be congratulated for having adapted to difficult environmental circumstances – specifically, very high shelves, narrow bays, and cramped reader areas; at the same time, it must be pointed out that, as the statistics show, turnstile entries into the library continue to decline quite markedly. Pressure on space has become so acute that, despite attempts to free up book-shelving through a process of re-distribution and rationalisation of certain areas within the library’s collection, no further postponement could be contemplated without some relegation of stock.
Not only has the prospect of a return to the South Block receded, but a move to KCL’s premises in Drury Lane has for the time being proved unfeasible. In the course of further discussions with KCL, the Societies concluded that the refurbishment and running costs for the proposed new premises were currently unaffordable. Throughout the year, negotiations between the Societies and the University continued, with the aim of replacing the original Memorandum of Understanding by a new Service Agreement. This was because it was necessary to address the various contentious issues brought about by the University of London Research Library Services (ULRLS) convergence policy; these issues were highlighted in the public domain through an article entitled “Senate House Rules” in the Times Literary Supplement of 8 June 2007 by Professor John North, and through subsequent correspondence. The basis of the library’s future direction was encapsulated in resolutions taken by a Joint Council Meeting of the Societies at the end of May 2007, which for the purposes of clarifying the present position are worth recording here:
(1) The Societies enter into an agreement with the University of London for the continued housing of the Joint Library together with the library of the Institute of Classical Studies in the Senate House on the basis set out in the draft Service Agreement presented to the meeting PROVIDED THAT
(a) No later than 30 November 2007 the University has either (i) obtained all permissions and consents necessary for the installation of the library in the South Block space … [as defined by a drawing dated 20 February 2007] or (ii) made other proposals for the housing of the Joint Library which are satisfactory to the Councils of the Societies; and
(b) The Societies have obtained legal advice in form and substance satisfactory to them with respect to the proposed agreement.
(2) (a) The Societies explore what alternative arrangements can be made for the future of the Joint Library both as an independent operation and in collaboration with one or more other institutions AND THAT
(b) A working party be formed for this purpose which will report to the Councils.
These resolutions were subsequently endorsed by majority vote at the Societies’ AGMs, with the addition by the Roman Society of an extra clause that the Combined Library continue to be run by designated subject specialist librarians answerable to its Senior Librarian.
Last year’s report concluded that the library’s future was delicately poised, with KCL’s offer of accommodation in Drury Lane still on the table. Though this offer may now have receded into the background, uncertainties over whether Camden Council, with advice from English Heritage, would be able to give the University the necessary permissions and consents over the South Block Space, and several outstanding issues in the draft Service Agreement all meant that the library’s ultimate destiny was still very much in the balance.
Staff and staffing
In other respects, it was business as usual. Jennifer Monaghan, the 2005/2006 Winnington-Ingram Trainee, left to pursue an MA course in Library and Information Studies at University College London, but continued to help out on an occasional basis with shelving in the morning, and with late evening and Saturday duties; we are grateful to her and to our other casual library assistants – Anita Frizzarin, Rosario Rovira, Mary Ruskin, and Ruth Wood – for their invaluable services.
In Jennifer’s place as Winnington-Ingram Trainee we were pleased to welcome Claire Davenport, a recent graduate in Ancient History from the University of Durham. Amongst her other duties, Claire assisted with the contribution of updates to TOCS-IN, the on-line database of classical periodicals, and with the maintenance of an index to an accumulated file of press cuttings of classical interest on the library’s website. She had the opportunity of visiting other libraries with her fellow-Trainees from the other Institutes within the School of Advanced Study, and became the co-ordinator for the Graduate Trainee website of the School.
Sue Willetts, Senior Library Assistant, attended a workshop at KCL, organised by the Centre for Humanities Computing, about the production process of Thesaurus Linguae Latinae, the printed version of which began over 100 years ago; while the CD version had specialised software which gave access to articles in a variety of ways. Together with Lois Woods, Library Assistant, Sue also attended the Digital Classicists Seminar on The new AV Classics database: a community-annotated resource, given by Janice Siegel (Hampden-Sydney, VA): this was of particular interest, as Sue had once produced an AV guide for marketing on the library’s behalf.
Both Claire and Sue had a hand in rendering accessible the bequest of Mr G.M. Haddon (reported last year) comprising newspaper cuttings on Roman Britain from 1925 to 1984: Sue by arranging the 53 files in 17 archive boxes, and making a link to the archive on the ULRLS Archive Database (http://archives.ulrls.lon.ac.uk/); Claire by devising an Access database, and thereby enabling search by date, site, county, keyword or type of evidence – e.g. mosaics, architecture, pottery etc. Access of a similar kind was also made possible to the slides in the David J. Smith Mosaic Archive by Sophia Fisher, Library Assistant, who devoted much energy to identifying and recording them in a database with a structure comparable to that used for the Societies’ own slides collection, under the curatorship of the Joint Library.
Finally, in a repeat of last year’s successful experiment, the library gave a week’s unpaid work experience at the end of June to a school student, Andrew Kirk, from Berkhamsted Collegiate School, who was intending to read Classics at University. As well as participating in a range of practical library work, including the use of specialist e-resources to answer a specific enquiry, Andrew was shown the wider picture of the library’s activities and operations.
Acquisitions / Donations
Electronic resources: By far the major part of the library’s budget for electronic resources was spent on continuing subscriptions to the most important and well-used products, such as Gnomon, L’Année Philologique, Library of Latin Texts Online, Bibliotheca Teubneriana Latina, Dyabola, and Bibliographie Papyrologique: a complete listing may be found under “Computer Resources” on the library’s website (http://icls.sas.ac.uk/library/Home.htm). (This is perhaps an opportune moment to report, as an aside, that this website received 24,000 “hits” between May 2006 and March 2007.) As ever, numerous CD-Roms were received as accompaniments to books, and these were installed on the PCs in the library’s Computer Room. One CD-Rom is notable enough to be singled out as an active purchase: Liddell & Scott Greek-English Lexicon; while a pre-publication order was submitted to its sister product, Oxford Latin Dictionary. Written instructions for use of the replacement version of Epigraph (Volume VI of Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum), donated by Professor John Jory, were compiled by Lois Woods.
Slides: In May 2007, the Joint Library received a bequest of c.10,000 slides from Charles Richard Babington Elliott, once Head of Classics at Nottingham High School and a former member of the Hellenic Society. The slides are the result of his visits to Greece and Italy and which he used to illustrate teaching, or talks given by the East Midlands Classical Association.
Printed materials: Despite its straitened circumstances, the library continued to benefit hugely and gratifyingly from its loyal supporters, both financially and materially. Because of the unresolved political situation, the practice of selling Joint Library review books at half price to the Institute Library was suspended, but an anonymous benefactor kindly agreed to make an annual donation which would recoup the consequent decrease in the Joint Library’s revenue for book purchases.
Once again, Classical Review was good enough to forward the books surplus to its review requirements which the library could then add to its collection or sell as duplicates. Good progress was also made with sifting through the sizeable bequest of Michael Comber’s books, with a number of valuable additions as a result.
Generous financial donations were received from Sir Kenneth Jacobs, Dr Joan Alcock (for books relating to Rome or Roman Britain), Mr G.G. Aperghis, Mr Richard Stogner, Miss Sushma Jansari (for books relating to India vis-à-vis the classical world), and from the Cotton Foundation (for the purchase of Fundus cum vadis et alluvionibus: gli incrementi fluviali fra documenti della prassi e riflessione giurisprudenzale romana, by Marco Pavese, 2004).
Multiple items were thoughtfully presented from their own collections by several readers: Professor John Barron and Dr Alan Johnston (pamphlets and offprints), Mr Mark Mildred, Dr David Goodfellow, and Miss Oonagh Lahr; the Leventis Foundation also donated books on ancient Cyprus.
Finally, individual items of note were given by Mrs Margaret Mountford: P. Terentii Comœdiæ sex, tum ex Donati commentariis, tum ex optimorum, præsertim veterum, exemplarium collatione, diligentius quam vnquam antehac, emendatæ. Ælii Donati ... aliorumque veterũ in easdẽ, quicunque extant, comẽtarii ex veteri codice manu descripto, græcis etiã repositis, accurate castigati. Calphurnii in tertia comœdiam doctissima interpretatio. Indicata sunt diligentius carminum genera, & in his incidentes difficultates, correcta quædam & consulum nomina, idque studio & opera Des. Erasmi ... non sine præsidio veterum exemplarium. Eorum, quæ in commenturiis sparsim annotata sunt, index amplissimus (Parisiis : Ex officina Roberti Stephani, 1541); and by Mr S. Wolfson: Longinus - [Dionysiou Longinou Peri hypsous hypomnēma]. = Dionysii Longini De sublimitate commentarius, / quem nova versione donavit, perpetuis notis illustravit, plurimisque in locis, partim auctoritate optimorum manuscriptorum, partim conjecturâ, emendavit (additis etiam omnibus ejusdem auctoris fragmentis) Zacharias Pearce,... (Londini: Ex officinâ Jacobi Tonson, & Johannis Watts., 1724).
To all of the above the library is greatly indebted, as indeed to the following donors of books, periodicals, and pamphlets:-
Dr E. Bakola, Professor N. Birgalias, Mr D.W. Blandford, Professor J.M. Blázquez Martínez, Dr S. Blundell, Professor D. Boteva-Boyanova, Professor D.J. Breeze, Ms R. Brewer, Mr G. Brisch, Professor K. Buraselis, Mr C.A. Burns, Professor P. Cartledge, Dr J. Chrysostomides, Dr S. Constantinidou, Dr H.E.M. Cool, Dr S. Corcoran, Professor T.J. Cornell, Professor M.H. Crawford, Mrs C. D’Albiac, Professor J. Davidson, Professor G. De Bonfils, Miss A.C. Dionisotti, Mrs J. Dudley, Dr J.-L. Ferrary, Mr R. Frost, Professor A. Gavrilov, Mr D.P. Georgides, Dr P. Gilabert Barberà, Mr R. Goodburn, Dr A.P. Gounaris, Dr C. and Mrs S. Grocock, Dr L. Guido, Fr. Paulinus Greenwood, Professor E.W. Handley, Mr G. Harrington, Mr F.D. Harvey, Miss A.E. Healey, Mr R. Higginson, Dr E. Isayev, Mr P. Izworski, Mr P.L. Jackson, Professor A.C. King, Miss E. Kosmidou, Professor D. Kovacs, Professor Dr C. Kunst, Dr F. Ligonnet, Professor M.J. López Medina, Dr N.J. Lowe, Dr A. MacMahon, Mrs M. Maehler, Professor J. Makkay, Professor C.N. Mann, Mr N.P. Milner, Professor T. Minamikawa, Mr A. Minchev, Professor S.Y. Monakhov, Mr T. Morton, Professor E. Moutsopoulos, Professor J.A. North, Professor M.J. Olbrycht, Professor J. Ortalli, Professor S. Perea Yébenes, Mr D. Porter, Professor D.W. Rathbone, Mr D. Reidy, Mr D. Ridgway, Mrs C. Roberts, Professor J.F. Rodríguez Neila, Professor C. Römer, Professor C. Roueché, Professor Z. Rubin, Mr P. Salman, Dr F. Santangelo, Professor N. Sekunda, Mrs E.J. Shaw-Wright, Mr R.W. Shone, Mr C.J. Sparey-Green, Professor B.A. Sparkes, Dr A. Stähli, Dr E. Stafford, Dr M. Sylwanowicz, Professor A. Verhoogt, Dr A. Vicente Sánchez, Dr T. Vorderstrasse, Rev. Canon B. Walshe, Mr G. Whitaker, Ms S.J. Willetts, Professor G.D. Woolf.
American Center of Oriental Research; American Classical League; American Philological Association; American School of Classical Studies at Athens; Anglo-Hellenic League; Archäologische Gesellschaft Steiermark; Archäologisches Institut / Archäologische Sammlung der Universität Zürich; Ashmolean Museum; Association of Ancient Historians; E.J. Brill Publishers; Jean-David Cahn AG; Classical Association; Committee for the Preservation of the Acropolis Monuments, Athens; Committee for the Research / Restoration of the Theatre and Sanctuary of Dionysos and the Sanctuary of Asclepios at the Southern Slope of the Acropolis, Athens; Comune di Albano Laziale: Musei Civici; Council of University Classical Departments; Charles Ede Limited; Egypt Exploration Society; English Heritage; Epigraphical Museum, Athens; Friends of Classics; Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies; Institute of Historical Research; International Institute of Ancient Hellenic History “Sosipolis”; International Plutarch Society; Israel Museum: Samuel Bronfman Biblical and Archaeological Museum; Istituto Papirologico G. Vitelli; Joint Association of Classical Teachers; P. & E. Michelis Foundation; Musée Gallo-Romain de Lyon-Fourvière; Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Fondo Editorial; Römerstadt Augusta Raurica; Senate House Library; Sir John Soane’s Museum Library; Society for Libyan Studies; Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies; Trimontium Trust; Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Buenos Aires: Centro de Estudios de Lenguas Clásicas; University of Stellenbosch; Utopica Verlag; Vindolanda Trust; Rupert Wace Ancient Art.
Statistics (2006/2007)
Figures for acquisition and usage (with 2004/2005 figures in parentheses) are as follows:-
Expenditure on purchases (books and periodicals): Institute: £18,271 (c.£22,888); Joint Library: £20,271 (c.£24,425). Total value of combined Institute and Joint Library acquisitions (including purchases, review copies, exchanges, gifts and bequests): £103,527 (c.£111,181).
Books and pamphlets added: Institute 312 (464); Joint Library 2,696 (2,290); Total: 3,008 (2,754); Net gain, allowing for replacements: 2,873 (2,654). Current periodicals: Institute 184 (180); Joint Library 455 (445); Total: 639 (625), of which 418 (406) were acquired by exchange, and 221 (219) by gift or purchase. There were 29 (33) Institute and 32 (28) Joint Library exchanges for books and dissertations; and 11 (11) more exchanges were made on behalf of other libraries.
Expenditure on binding (books and periodicals): Institute: £7,818 (£6,387); Joint Library: £8,047 (£7,268). Books bound or rebound: Institute: 150 (101); Joint Library: 163 (166); Total: 313 (267). Periodicals bound or rebound: Institute: 76 (102); Joint Library: 235 (155); Total: 311 (257).
Borrowers: 1,213 (1,155); Books borrowed: 12,409 (13,080). Library swipe-cards issued to date: Institute: 1,550 (1,354); Societies: 2,933 (2,643). Turnstile count: 39,005 (45,930) entries; Temporary visitors: 285 (222). Book parcels sent: to members: 236 (214); to reviewers: 194 (130). Xerox copies made: 6,895 (7,432) for 138 (103) members and institutions.
Colin Annis, Librarian