The library is located in the Barbican Centre, an arts center in the city of London. Because the library is part of an arts center, the collection specializes in the various arts, as well as being an all-purpose public library, and includes two spaces for rotating art exhibits near the entrance. There is currently a two year wait for the space.
The Children's Library
The children's library employs two full-time librarians and six part-time assistants. Their duties and responsibilities are the same as those of children's librarians in the U.S. They supply books and A/V materials to children, and offer a fairly full calendar of events, such as storytimes - to both the public and school/day-care groups - crafts, arts, and other learning opportunities, and a book discussion group for older children. They also make visits to nursery schools fairly regularly, since there seem to be frequent staff shortages, which prevent the schools from being able to bring the children to the library. The librarians do not want the children to lose regular contact with the library. The children's library is heavily used, with about 25 children attending weekly story times.
The library is also expected to carry out several government initiatives, some of which do not come with extra funding, and can therefore be a hardship for some libraries. One of these, Book Smart, provides three book/activity packs for all children born in Britain before they are 5 years old: for age 0+, 18mos+, and 36mos+
I did note a couple of differences in children's services. The first is in the ages served. This library serves children from ages 0-14, and after that, they are expected to use the adult collection. There is a YA collection, but it is very small (and consisting mainly of Graphic Novels) as it seems to serve only as a transition from children's to adult materials. With the abundance of books written for older teens, I wonder if those are kept in the adult collection. Unfortunately, I didn't think to ask.
The other notable difference is in how the children's staff deals with age-appropriateness of materials. According to Amanda Owens, the children's librarian conducting our tour, staff will go check with parents if children younger than 11 or so want to check something out from the adult collection, or maybe even if they are trying to check something out in the children's collection that is for a much older child. While our children's librarians will discuss book choices with children in order to help them be sure they are really getting what they expect and want, library staff certainly do not go get parents to approve choices at check out time, as this would clearly violate privacy laws. I wish the librarians had had enough time to discuss differences in attitudes towards privacy between the U.S. and Britain, pertaining to both adults and children.
The Music Library
Our tour of the Barbican Music Library was impressively conducted by Liz Wells, one of the two music librarians on staff. The Barbican's music collection is one of the two largest in London. As a result of the Barbican Centre's role as an arts center, the library alloted space to build a music collection from scratch. Because it was started in the 1980s, the collection consists mainly of modern materials, including recordings, scores, and books and periodicals about music. The facility is used heavily by students, due to the large number of colleges in the City of London.
The library owns approximately 16,500 CDs, covering as many genres as possible: classical, jazz, musicals, film music, country, world, folk, and pop/rock. They are arranged only by main genre, and not separated into subgenres, as this would certainly cause classification difficulties in the pop/rock collection. Within each genre, the items are simply arranged alphabetically. The librarians add approximately 60-70 new CDs per month, and must be diligent in weeding, because of limited space. The Barbican CD collection is not archival. Interestingly, patrons must pay a fee of 40p per item to take out CDs.
According to Ms. Wells, the library has recently experienced a reduction in CD circulation; as a result, they are looking at other options for providing access to recorded music to patrons. They currently subscribe to an online database called NAXOS Music Library, through which library card holders can listen to - but not download - tracks from 20,000 CDs.
As the service has only been available since January, and usage has already reached 700 per month, they are attempting to convince the library to subsciribe to another service, as well, whose holdings include the entire Smithsonian collection, as well as music reference materials. Ms. Wells believes this service would also be heavily used. Currently, users have access to Oxford Music Online for music reference.
The library has a music DVD collection, which is not particularly large nor well used. Ms. Wells believes this is mainly due to the very high cost of £2.75 per DVD for a one week check out period. This is much higher than what is paid either to video stores or online services. The only advantage the library has is that some of its items are not available for rental anywhere. The music librarians have been trying to convince the library's governing authorities to lower the cost to a more reasonable level, so more people will make use of the collection.
I was frankly surprised to see that there was a usage fee for any of the materials at all, but one of my classmates on the tour told me that her library charges for movies, as well. I wonder now how common that is in the U.S. and if it is common here. That is not something I looked for on my tours of the Idea Stores, but I would like to know now.
In their collection of scores, the library tries to cover all genres, as in their CD collection, and also all skill levels. Unlike their CD collection, however, they try not to weed their scores, since so many go out of print and therefore become unavailable elsewhere. One thing I found particularly interesting and appealing was that all of their scores are bound. It is very expensive to bind them, Ms. Wells said, but it obviously extends their lives dramatically, as well as making them very much easier to shelve. Even small, individual works are bound in clear-fronted report covers.
While the books about music are arranged by Dewey, this system does not work as well for musical scores. For this collection, the library uses a system called McColvin and Reeves, which breaks items down by the type of score. So at the beginning, scores are divided by individual instrument, building up through duets, trios, etc. to large orchestral pieces. This same pattern is used for vocal music.
The librarians have to do a lot of original cataloguing, since there are no records available through the usual sources for many of their materials.
Possibly the most unusual feature for a public library is the electric piano, which can be listened to only through headphones, and can be booked for practice sessions.
The library owns approximately 16,500 CDs, covering as many genres as possible: classical, jazz, musicals, film music, country, world, folk, and pop/rock. They are arranged only by main genre, and not separated into subgenres, as this would certainly cause classification difficulties in the pop/rock collection. Within each genre, the items are simply arranged alphabetically. The librarians add approximately 60-70 new CDs per month, and must be diligent in weeding, because of limited space. The Barbican CD collection is not archival. Interestingly, patrons must pay a fee of 40p per item to take out CDs.
According to Ms. Wells, the library has recently experienced a reduction in CD circulation; as a result, they are looking at other options for providing access to recorded music to patrons. They currently subscribe to an online database called NAXOS Music Library, through which library card holders can listen to - but not download - tracks from 20,000 CDs.
As the service has only been available since January, and usage has already reached 700 per month, they are attempting to convince the library to subsciribe to another service, as well, whose holdings include the entire Smithsonian collection, as well as music reference materials. Ms. Wells believes this service would also be heavily used. Currently, users have access to Oxford Music Online for music reference.
The library has a music DVD collection, which is not particularly large nor well used. Ms. Wells believes this is mainly due to the very high cost of £2.75 per DVD for a one week check out period. This is much higher than what is paid either to video stores or online services. The only advantage the library has is that some of its items are not available for rental anywhere. The music librarians have been trying to convince the library's governing authorities to lower the cost to a more reasonable level, so more people will make use of the collection.
I was frankly surprised to see that there was a usage fee for any of the materials at all, but one of my classmates on the tour told me that her library charges for movies, as well. I wonder now how common that is in the U.S. and if it is common here. That is not something I looked for on my tours of the Idea Stores, but I would like to know now.
In their collection of scores, the library tries to cover all genres, as in their CD collection, and also all skill levels. Unlike their CD collection, however, they try not to weed their scores, since so many go out of print and therefore become unavailable elsewhere. One thing I found particularly interesting and appealing was that all of their scores are bound. It is very expensive to bind them, Ms. Wells said, but it obviously extends their lives dramatically, as well as making them very much easier to shelve. Even small, individual works are bound in clear-fronted report covers.
While the books about music are arranged by Dewey, this system does not work as well for musical scores. For this collection, the library uses a system called McColvin and Reeves, which breaks items down by the type of score. So at the beginning, scores are divided by individual instrument, building up through duets, trios, etc. to large orchestral pieces. This same pattern is used for vocal music.
The librarians have to do a lot of original cataloguing, since there are no records available through the usual sources for many of their materials.
Possibly the most unusual feature for a public library is the electric piano, which can be listened to only through headphones, and can be booked for practice sessions.
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