Open Doors to Closed Access.

Saturday, 27th September, 2014.

Today, we had a reasonably impromptu event at the library, and I just happened to be covering reception. The event was called Open Doors to Closed Access, and we had bunting and balloons.

I’ve never been much of a fan of Closed Access. My inner librarian has a firm belief in it – that books must be preserved and kept from the walking bags of water that are human beings. On the other side, however, as a human, I’m very much on Gladstone’s side. The point of the formation of the library was that he lamented what would happen to books upon his death – he didn’t want them to be put in a corner somewhere gathering dust. He believed that books should be read – and so do I. The other day, when I found Natalie D’Arbeloff’sRevelations book, the first thing the librarian said was that it should be put in Closed Access because it was 1 of only 150. It was interesting, because the very reason I showed him the book was because it was my gut instinct to show everyone – something like that shouldn’t be hidden away in an attempt to preserve it, because then what are you preserving it for? Who are you preserving it for if no one is ever allowed to see it? We came to a compromise; it’s now on display in the History Room, albeit behind glass.

Today’s event was when we got out some of the most interesting books, including one of our oldest ones from the 1400s. If you’ve been a long-time reader of my blogs then you’ll know that I relate everything to Keats; my six-degrees-of-Keats. I remember one of my earliest blogs when I found a book from the early nineteenth century in Lichfield Library, and I was amazed that the book existed at the same time as Keats was alive and writing. It’s strange to think of that now; I spend every day amongst 19^th century books – relatively speaking, they aren’t that old. On the tours, I see people everyday who are amazed at the age of the books – I have to go into Closed Access myself to see what I consider to be old. Even then, I remember showing the prospective interns around and telling them that our collection wasn’t that old – even the 1700s, it seems, is not quite old to me anymore. The book from the 1490s, however, is old. I only managed to put it in perspective with the aid of literature; Shadow on the Crown is set in the 1000s. This book was made only 300 years after that – 300 years beforehand, Vikings weren’t even close to dying out!

The day seems to have been a success. The figures aren’t finalised yet, but from reception I counted 130 people on the tours. Even with only a few days notice, the lure of old books brings people out in force. And here’s a little collage I did for marketing.