Thursday, July 4th - Stratford-Upon-Avon

Today I visited Stratford-Upon-Avon, a town most famous for being the birthplace and burial site of William Shakespeare. We visited the house on Henley Street that Shakespeare was born in and grew up in. We know this because his father John Shakespeare was fined for leaving muck outside the dwelling in 1552. After the Shakespeare family moved to New Place, the property was converted to an inn run by Lewis Hiccox. The property eventually fell into disrepair until interest was reignited in the 18th century. Many famous authors visited the premises and scrawled their names on the windows and walls, including Charles Dickens and Sir Walter Scott. In 1846 the property was purchased by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and restored to period accuracy. They also recreated William's father John Shakespeare's workshop where he would have made gloves. Even the garden is filled with flowers and plants that would have grown in the area at the time.

Coming full circle, we also visited Shakespeare's funerary monument located in the Holy Trinity Church. The monument was particularly interesting because it was created with the input and approval of his wife, and therefore is considered to be an accurate depiction of his likeness.

In the evening we went to the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Measure for Measure. Set in 1900's Vienna, the Duke of Vienna departs, leaving his trusted and pious friend Angelo in charge. Novice Isabella approaches Angelo to spare her brother Claudio from execution, but Angelo will not unless she sleeps with him. The Duke disguised as a friar and Isabella hatch a plan to avoid Claudio's execution and preserve her virginity. In the end no one dies, but the Duke's proposal seems to negate how far we've come. Although filled with wonderful, compelling performances (especially Lucy Phelps as Isabella and Sandy Gierson as Angelo), the play hasn't aged well in the #metoo era.

 Visit Stratford-Upon-Avon's website here

Wednesday, June 26th - Idea Store Whitechapel

Today I ventured to Whitechapel to visit the Idea Store. The Idea Store project was initiated in 1999 in the Borough of Tower Hamlets. They wanted to “reinvent” the library as the community was dissatisfied with the current service. They partnered with the Learning and Skills Council and the Tower Hamlets College to revamp their strategies and spaces. What makes Idea Stores unique is that they are always located in areas with high foot traffic, as the community wanted their libraries to be more accessible and in areas they were already travelling in.

The physical space itself was really interesting. There are five levels with many areas for different uses, including:

• A outdoor terrace
• A dance studio (complete with changing room for performances)
• Conference room
• Learning labs (that can be booked for programs but also used as general workspace)
• Art gallery wall (with a rotating collection)
• Surfing spaces (seating with access to outlets, as well as nearby printing and copying stations)
• A cafe that also has a small “living room” area with a couch and television
• All gender washrooms
• A piano

I was impressed by the amount of comfortable seating available, as well as workspaces with outlets. The space reflects the variety of programming and events that take place here, including:

• Computer classes
• Dance classes
• Medical clinics
• Career and job search workshops

There are also displays with pamphlets from other community organizations.

One the first floor, along with familiar sections like Staff Recommendations, they have a designated Core Collection. This collection is defined as “a list of books, CDs and DVDs that are in stock at an Idea Store/library; the titles are classic, bestselling or well-regarded titles that should be in stock in any library in the country”. This list is always being added to and users can suggest new titles to be added to “the pantheon of literary classics”. It’s not just the classics, but new publications as well, and the community has input as to what gets added. I think it’s really awesome that people have a direct voice in deciding what they think is really important and should always be available. There is also a section dedicated to small independent publishers.

The Whitechapel Idea Store has a particular focus on the subjects of business and health, with a designated Health Zone and a Business Zone. Posters for related programs are posted in these areas and clear labeling means subjects are easy to locate on the shelf. It makes me wonder if this community has a particular interest in these subjects and therefore they're given more prominence.

Visit the Idea Store Whitechapel's website here

Tuesday, June 25th - Croydon Central Library

Today I took a trip south to visit the Croydon Central Library, located inside the museum and art complex of the Croydon Clocktower. The library is on four floors of the complex, which also houses the Museum of Croydon, a cafe, a bar, a cinema, Braithwaite Hall and connects to the Town Hall.

Some notable resources available include a special collection of Wordwise books for children with dyslexia, an extensive LGBTQ collection (the largest in London), and a newspaper archive dating back to the 90’s. They also have many online resources available to members, including

• Ancestry UK
• Theory Test Pro (online driving test and simulation)
• Ziptales (stories and games for children)
• Law & Rights (legal resources)
• Life in Great Britain (resource to prepare newcomers for life in the UK.

 

Their events are divided into 6 categories:

• Under 5’s
• Children 5-11
• Families
• Teenagers
• Adults

Some particularly interesting programs include the Croydon Story Telling event, in which guest presenters tell stories as well as any member of the public who wants to join in. I love the idea that this event isn’t just limited to presenters speaking, but is open to everyone. They also have a Film Club for Autistic Adults (co-organized with the INASPECTRUM Autism organization).

Visit the Croydon Centreal Library website here

Wednesday, June 19th - Middle Temple Law Library

Today we visited the Middle Temple Law Library. Our guide Renee explained the Inns of Court which was really helpful in understanding the law societies of the UK. They are the four professional associations for barristers in the UK, Gray’s Inn, Lincoln’s Inn, Inner Temple and Middle Temple. The different Inns have their own halls, libraries and churches (with some crossover). Middle Temple deals primarily with American law and EU law. There have been lawyers in the Temple since 1320.

The Middle Temple library was founded in 1641 by Robert Ashley. About 3,700 books from his private collection were gifted to Middle Temple. Funnily enough, the collection did not have a lot of law books and wasn’t fully established until space was found in 1680. The original library was bombed during the war. Architect Edward Maufe designed the new building which opened in 1958. Because of this, Middle Temple was one of the few libraries we visited that isn't dealing with storage issues. 

My favourite part was the main hall with all the coats of arms lining the walls. It was a multipurpose space used for lectures, dining and performances. The first recorded production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night happened there. Barristers frequently took part in performances and the back of the hall was used as the stage so performers could enter and exit. It's always fascinating to me to see how spaces are transformed for different needs.

Visit the Middle Temple Law Library website here

Tuesday, June 18th - National Museum of Computing

Today we visited the National Museum of Computing located in Bletchley Park, which has the worlds largest collection of working historical computers. 

We got to see many historical computers including:

• Lorenz SZ42 (used by German high command during WWII).
• The original Tunny machine (which was a recreation of the then unseen Lorenz SZ42).
• The Heath Robinson (one of the early attempts at automated code-breaking).
• A reconstruction of the Turing-Welchman Bombe (which was used during WWII to break Enigma-enciphered messages).
• Colossus (the worlds first electronic computer created to decipher Lorenz encrypted messages).
• First Generation Computers like the Harwell Dekatron Computer (aka WITCH, the worlds oldest working digital computer) and the original HEC prototype. 

It was fascinating to hear about how human error tipped the allies off to decoding messages. In 1941 a German officer sent a 4,000 character message but it didn’t go through properly. Instead of entering a new key, the officer reused the same key to resend his message. This was a critical mistake as changing the key was what kept the system secure.

I also found it interesting when our guide described how our access and attitudes towards computers have changed over time. We’ve gone from there being one computer in the world, to one per country, to one per town, to one per street, to one in every house, to carrying them around in our pockets. Looking at how physically massive computers used to be this idea would have been inconceivable! As he said, when you “live in a box where that’s all that’s possible” you’ll never see the true possibilities of the future.

Visit the National Museum of Computing website here

Friday, June 14th - National Maritime Museum

Today we visited the Caird Library at the National Maritime Museum. The “old” Caird library was used from 1937-2011 but there was not enough storage space (which has been a theme throughout our visits), so the library was moved to a new space in 2011. The new space is divided into a reception/group work area, a quiet reading room, and storage space on the second floor. Although it doesn’t have the same grandeur as the old building its much more accessible and functional. 60% of the collection is stored onsite. They have about 5,000 visitors a year, with about 50% of those being academics, 40% family researchers and 10% other. Their catalogue is separated into Library and Archive and they have a staff of 2 librarians and 2 archivists.

The collection consists of manuscripts and original documents, service history (though most of these records are kept at the National Archive), a business collection, and board of trade deposits. Printed material is divided into four categories, rare (up to 1850) and modern (1851 onwards), periodicals and ephemera.

Some highlights of the materials they showed us included:

• Ptolemy's Cosmographia from 1482
• Ciphered letters to Edward Montagu, 1st Earl of Sandwich from 1656-1667. 
• Plans for the “Boat Cloak” (complete with umbrella sail) 
• Letters from Napoleon’s captor 
• Certificates of competency for Edward Smith (captain of the ill-fated Titanic)

Visit the Caird Library at the National Maritime Museum website here

Thursday, June 13th - V&A Art Library

Today we got to visit the Victoria & Albert Museum Art Library. The collection matches the museum’s collection, which focuses on the history of art and design. Their users include students, art dealers and members of the public. Materials are shelved by height so the collection is not browesable. They utilize an automated request system and aim to fill requests within an hour and a half. I found it interesting that all staff work with the public and split tasks. I think this teamwork allows for all staff to have a better understanding of how the library can serve its users. Like many of the sites we’ve visited, they do face challenges being in an older building, including leaks and water damage, and lack of storage space. Much of the collection is not digitized so finding onsite space for everything can be challenging.

Some highlights from the collection they brought out for us to see included:

• Shakespeare’s First Folio from 1623
• History of British Birds (which is referenced in Jane Eyre)
• An illustrated Jane Eyre
• Unfinished illustrated manuscript (showing the work of different people at different stages in its creation)
• 1914 copy of Gazette du Bon Ton

The collection walks an interesting line between the book as a object with a designed purpose and the book as an art object itself. 

Visit the V&A National Art Library website here