Edited on Thurs Dec 04 2008
This post has now been amended to reflect the subsequent announcements made by the Museum on Tues Dec 03, about revised plans. The orgininal post is retained at the end of this post for reference. I don't believe this edit invalidates any of the posts following it, but I know members won't be backward in coming forward if it does.
This (rather long) post contains a summary of the issues surrounding the previously planned imminent extended closure of the Caird Library at the National Maritime Museum, followed by greatly reduced service provision. The Museum has now revised its plans to avoid complete closure, but there is still no access to manuscripts for a period of 5 months, the greatly reduced service provision remains, and there are concerns for the long term future. The summary ends with a four part appeal to the Museum.
This post also summarises some of the discussion that has already taken place on this thread:
http://www.nelsonandhisworld.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=258 but is posted in this new thread for greater visibility
Having engaged in some off-site consultation, I know that the statements below have the support of some others, but it would be useful if members of this forum could indicate whether they support all or part of this:
National Maritime Museum
Caird Library Reduced Service Provision
What is happening
The Caird Library is closing all direct public access to its manuscripts collection on 5 January 2009 for five months (re-opening 1 June 2009) while the collection is moved to off-site storage to allow building work on the Sammy Ofer wing. The Caird Library reading room will be open two days per week, for a total of 13 hours per week for consultation of collections held in the reading room, namely printed books, journals and microfilm holdings. Rare books will also available for consultation if ordered in advance
After 1 June 2009, the library will re-open with reduced opening hours of approximately 20 hours per week from 2009 to 2012. This provides public access to the library and archives for approximately half the minimum of 40 hours per week promised and promoted in the Museum’s own current published Library Access policy. The service will be further limited by fewer document retrievals per day because of the retrieval from off-site storage.
There is concern that the reduced opening hours may become permanent as no commitment has yet been made to increase the opening hours when the new research centre opens in the Sammy Ofer wing in 2012.
Notice, Consultation and Planning
In August an announcement was made in the Caird Library blog of a two or three month closure planned for spring 2009, but this went largely unnoticed by researchers. However, only two months’ notice was been given of an earlier and greatly extended closure from December. After much protest from users, the revised arrangements above were announced on 3 December. Researchers querying the online catalogues for the Archive or the Library on the website are given no warning of the drastic cuts in service unless they also visit the NMM or Library home pages.
No consultation took place about the original plans for closure or the sudden earlier and extended closure now replaced by the arrangements above. No meaningful consultation has taken place about the reduced service provision upon re-opening. As yet the Museum has not announced details of the service to be provided such as the number of documents that may be ordered or the number of retrievals per day.
None of the £35 million project budget for the Sammy Ofer wing has been allocated to the strategic priority of maintaining the core Archive and Library service provision to researchers during the development.
The Impact on Researchers
Not only will the extended closure of access to the manuscripts collection bring much research to a standstill, but the short notice will have left many who are wholly dependent on access to the library and archives unable to take steps to mitigate this in any way. For many authors, historians, students and researchers, this is likely to materially affect the way they earn their living or continue their studies.
The reduced service provision from 2009 onwards will seriously hamper all users. With the reduction in service, it is difficult to see how the access to the Archive and Library collections over the next three years can reach even half the previous level.
The impact from 2012 onwards remains unknown, but there seems to be increasing emphasis on the Museum’s interpretation of its collections and on educational access for children, rather than on meeting the needs of researchers.
The Wider Issues
Both the extended closure closure of access to the manuscripts collection and the future reduced service are incompatible with the National Maritime Museum’s strategic priority of maintaining a core public offer providing opportunity for research to visitors during the development. This strategic priority is part of the 2008-11 funding agreement with the Government.
Of equal concern, for some time the Museum has already been falling behind its objective of increasing access to its archives.
While other publicly funded bodies have been increasing opening hours, the Museum has failed even to adhere to its own published policy of opening minimum of 40 hours per week. Even before the imminent closure and future reduction in hours, the Caird Library has been open only 32 hours per week. This failure to deliver an agreed level of basic provision does not instil confidence in the ability to deliver an appropriate level of services to researchers in the future.
Somehow, the revised building schedule for the Sammy Ofer wing has resulted both in the short notice of closure of access to the manuscripts collection, and the much more extended period of closure. The reasons quoted by the Museum for the revised schedule are “to make the overall building works period shorter”, “to achieve more with the funds in this period of global financial downturn”, “the Olympics” and “the wishes of the major donor to the project”. The revised schedule has a major detrimental effect on the Museum’s core service to researchers, and yet none of the reasons are connected with the Museum’s core objectives. There are major public accountability issues that arise from a publicly funded body being diverted from its core objectives by the Olympics and by the wishes of a private individual who has donated money.
The National Maritime Museum appear to be undertaking a major redevelopment of the area of the building in which the library and archives are located, without any prior concept of what levels of service will be available in future, or without consulting on the purpose the library improvements will serve for core users.
The Way Forward
The National Maritime Museum is the publicly funded keeper of a unique and important national library and archive, which includes public records. We appeal to the Museum to take into account the needs of its many historians, teachers, students, writers and researchers by reconsidering its plans for service provision over the next four years and beyond. A significant delay to the start date of the project to allow for the proper planning of service provision is highly desirable, but may no longer be practical. But we appeal to the Museum to take steps to mitigate its impact on researchers. In particular we ask the Museum:
1. To reconsider the plans for the temporary closure of access to manuscripts and to consider a shorter closure and/or partial closures. For example, to consider phasing the removal of the manuscripts collection to the off-site location whilst keeping access open to the remainder of the manuscripts and clearly publicising these phased changes to service in advance to minimise disruption for users.
2. To reconsider the service provision from 2009 to 2012 to allow researchers to work more effectively. On re-opening in 2009, the number of document retrievals per day will be reduced from an already low grade provision, because documents have to be retrieved from off site. To mitigate the impact of this, the number of days or hours of opening could be increased, rather than reduced. Arrangements for the method and number of documents that can be ordered could be finalised now in a way that provides for effective working by users.
3. To commit now to providing greater access to the archives after the opening of the new Research centre in 2012, and in particular to commit to extending opening hours, and to making progress on the published objective of digitising the Manuscripts collection.
4. To engage now in a meaningful public consultation with both users and potential users about service provision for researchers for the next four years and beyond.
Additional Background Information
The Caird Library Blog
Announcements and comments by the public:
http://www.nmm.ac.uk/library/2008/11/up ... losur.html
http://www.nmm.ac.uk/library/2008/10/te ... _dece.html
Main Index Page:
http://www.nmm.ac.uk/library/
‘Nelson and His World’ Internet Forum
Discussion by library users:
http://www.nelsonandhisworld.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=258
National Maritime Museum
Library and Manuscripts Access Policy:
http://www.nmm.ac.uk/upload/pdf/Library ... Policy.pdf
Archive and Library Copying Policy:
http://www.nmm.ac.uk/upload/doc/Archive ... r_2008.DOC
National Maritime Museum Funding Agreement 2008-11:
http://www.nmm.ac.uk/upload/pdf/Funding ... -%2711.pdf
Trustee Board Minutes (Minutes of the last three meetings have been withheld from publication):
http://www.nmm.ac.uk/about/the-organiza ... es/minutes
Annual Report and Accounts:
http://www.nmm.ac.uk/upload/pdf/HC-801-Nat-Maritime.pdf
Caird Library information:
http://www.nmm.ac.uk/researchers/library/
Sammy Ofer Wing information:
http://www.nmm.ac.uk/about/sammy-ofer-wing/
End of amended post.
If it is of any help to anyone, with thanks to Tycho, the summary above is now available for download as a Word document or PDF:
Word:
http://www.nelsonandhisworld.co.uk/file ... vision.doc
PDF:
http://www.nelsonandhisworld.co.uk/file ... vision.pdf
Feel free to use it whole or in part for any purpose, edited to reflect your own views
--------------------------------------------------
Original Post follows for reference:
This (rather long) post contains a summary of the issues surrounding the imminent extended closure of the Caird Library at the National Maritime Museum, followed by greatly reduced service provision. The summary ends with a four part appeal to the Museum.
This post also summarises some of the discussion that has already taken place on this thread:
http://www.nelsonandhisworld.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=258 but is posted in this new thread for greater visibility
Having engaged in some off-site consultation, I know that the statements below have the support of some others, but it would be useful if members of this forum could indicate whether they support all or part of this:
National Maritime Museum Caird Library closure and future service provision
What is happening
The Caird Library is closing completely to researchers on 20 December 2008 for approximately six months (re-opening late spring or early summer 2009) while the collection is moved to off-site storage to allow building work on the Sammy Ofer wing.
After the closure, the library will re-open with reduced opening hours of approximately 20 hours per week from 2009 to 2012. This provides public access to the library and archives for approximately half the minimum of 40 hours per week promised and promoted in the Museum’s own current published Library Access policy. The service will be further limited by fewer document retrievals per day because of the retrieval from off-site storage.
There is concern that the reduced opening hours may become permanent as no commitment has yet been made to increase the opening hours when the new research centre opens in the Sammy Ofer wing in 2012.
Notice, Consultation and Planning
In August an announcement was made in the Caird Library blog of a two or three month closure planned for spring 2009, but this went largely unnoticed by researchers. However, only two months’ notice has been given of the now revised earlier and greatly extended closure from December. Researchers querying the online catalogues for the Archive or the Library on the website are given no warning of the closure unless they also visit the NMM or Library home pages.
Neither a firm date for re-opening, nor a latest guaranteed date for re-opening has yet been announced.
No consultation at all has taken place about the original plans for closure or the sudden earlier and extended closure. No meaningful consultation has taken place about the reduced service provision upon re-opening. As yet the Museum has not announced details of the service to be provided such as the number of documents that may be ordered or the number of retrievals per day.
None of the £35 million project budget for the Sammy Ofer wing has been allocated to the strategic priority of maintaining the core Archive and Library service provision to researchers during the development.
The Impact on Researchers
Not only will the extended closure bring much research to a standstill, but the short notice will have left many who are wholly dependent on access to the library and archives unable to take steps to mitigate this in any way. For many authors, historians, students and researchers, this is likely to materially affect the way they earn their living or continue their studies.
The reduced service provision from 2009 onwards will seriously hamper all users. With the extended closure and subsequent reduced service, it is difficult to see how the access to the Archive and Library collections over the next three years can reach even half the previous level.
The impact from 2012 onwards remains unknown, but there seems to be increasing emphasis on the Museum’s interpretation of its collections and on educational access for children, rather than on meeting the needs of researchers.
The Wider Issues
Both the extended closure and the future reduced service are incompatible with the National Maritime Museum’s strategic priority of maintaining a core public offer providing opportunity for research to visitors during the development. This strategic priority is part of the 2008-11 funding agreement with the Government.
The closure and subsequent reduced service are also incompatible with the Museum’s duty to provide public access to the public records in its collection.
Of equal concern, for some time the Museum has already been falling behind its objective of increasing access to its archives.
While other publicly funded bodies have been increasing opening hours, the Museum has failed even to adhere to its own published policy of opening minimum of 40 hours per week. Even before the imminent closure and future reduction in hours, the Caird Library has been open only 32 hours per week. This failure to deliver an agreed level of basic provision does not instil confidence in the ability to deliver an appropriate level of services to researchers in the future.
Before the closure and subsequent reduced service, users have reported that it has been more difficult to carry out research in the Caird Library than in other comparable archives such as the National Archives, the British Library or the Royal Naval Museum. The reason is the combination of the limited opening hours and the difficulty of copying from the Archive and Library collections. The latter arises from the Museum failing to follow its own published policy on copying, in that readers are prevented from using their own cameras to photograph manuscripts, even when the manuscripts clearly fall into the categories where photography is allowed. Contrary to the published policy, enquirers have been consistently informed that these manuscripts and books must instead be copied by the Museum at a price of £50 per page. This set price is applicable for both commercial and personal use.
Somehow, the revised building schedule for the Sammy Ofer wing has resulted both in the short notice of the Caird Library closure, and the much more extended period of closure. The reasons quoted by the Museum for the revised schedule are “to make the overall building works period shorter”, “to achieve more with the funds in this period of global financial downturn”, “the Olympics” and “the wishes of the major donor to the project”. The revised schedule has a major detrimental effect on the Museum’s core service to researchers, and yet none of the reasons are connected with the Museum’s core objectives. There are major public accountability issues that arise from a publicly funded body being diverted from its core objectives by the Olympics and by the wishes of a private individual who has donated money.
The National Maritime Museum appear to be undertaking a major redevelopment of the area of the building in which the library and archives are located, without any prior concept of what levels of service will be available in future, or without consulting on the purpose the library improvements will serve for core users.
The Way Forward
The National Maritime Museum is the publicly funded keeper of a unique and important national library and archive, which includes public records. We appeal to the Museum to take into account the needs of its many historians, teachers, students, writers and researchers by reconsidering its plans for service provision over the next four years and beyond. A delay to the start date of the project to allow for the proper planning of service provision is highly desirable, but may no longer be practical. But we appeal to the Museum to take steps to mitigate its impact on researchers. In particular we ask the Museum:
1. To reconsider the plans for the temporary closure and to consider a shorter closure and/or partial closures. For example, to consider phasing the removal of the archives to the off-site location whilst keeping access open to the remainder of the archives and clearly publicising these phased changes to service in advance to minimise disruption for users.
2. To reconsider the service provision from 2009 to 2012 to allow researchers to work more effectively. On re-opening in 2009, the number of document retrievals per day will be reduced from an already low grade provision, because documents have to be retrieved from off site. To mitigate the impact of this, the number of days or hours of opening could be increased, rather than reduced. Arrangements for the method and number of documents that can be ordered could be finalised now in a way that provides for effective working by users. The ease of copying from the Archive and Library collections could be easily transformed by relaxing the current restrictions on digital photography. This would not even involve a change of policy – merely implementing the policy already published.
3. To commit now to providing greater access to the archives after the opening of the new Research centre in 2012, and in particular to commit to extending opening hours, and to making progress on the published objective of digitising the Manuscripts collection.
4. To engage now in a meaningful public consultation with both users and potential users about service provision for researchers for the next four years and beyond.
Additional Background Information
The Caird Library Blog
Announcements and comments by the public:
http://www.nmm.ac.uk/library/2008/11/up ... losur.html
http://www.nmm.ac.uk/library/2008/10/te ... _dece.html
Main Index Page:
http://www.nmm.ac.uk/library/
‘Nelson and His World’ Internet Forum
Discussion by library users:
http://www.nelsonandhisworld.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=258
National Maritime Museum
Library and Manuscripts Access Policy:
http://www.nmm.ac.uk/upload/pdf/Library ... Policy.pdf
Archive and Library Copying Policy:
http://www.nmm.ac.uk/upload/doc/Archive ... r_2008.DOC
National Maritime Museum Funding Agreement 2008-11:
http://www.nmm.ac.uk/upload/pdf/Funding ... -%2711.pdf
Trustee Board Minutes (Minutes of the last three meetings have been withheld from publication):
http://www.nmm.ac.uk/about/the-organiza ... es/minutes
Annual Report and Accounts:
http://www.nmm.ac.uk/upload/pdf/HC-801-Nat-Maritime.pdf
Caird Library information:
http://www.nmm.ac.uk/researchers/library/
Sammy Ofer Wing information:
http://www.nmm.ac.uk/about/sammy-ofer-wing/