National Maritime Museum Library, Greenwich

The National Maritime Library in Greenwich is the largest maritime history library in the world, a fact not so unlikely for a country with such a mighty seafaring history, in spite of its size. Their collection covers all manner of relevant subjects, including immigration, navigation, piracy, astronomy, and financial records of shipping companies. I was surprised to learn from our guide, Archive and Manuscripts Manager Hannah Dunmow, that many people come to the library to research family history through these maritime records.

The current building, housing both the museum and library, opened in 1957. The space for the library, named for James Caird, a philanthropist who not only helped fund the facility but also donated a portion of the core collection from his own library, was planned into the building design. A brand new building, with much more space for the library's sizable collection, is planned for 2012.
The library owns over 100,000 open-access books (post-1850); 20,000 pamphlets, only some of which are catalogued, due to the enormous number of staff hours required; 20,000 bound periodicals, approximately 200 of which are current; and 8,000 rare books (pre-1850), which are kept in secure stacks. Use of rare books and manuscripts requires two weeks notice, since the specialist staff have to handle them in a particular way, and many of them are kept off-site.
The library's catalogue is online, so most people come in already knowing what they want. This has been true at many of the libraries we have visited, since their focus is research, often with specialized collections. Currently, the manuscripts are included in the regular catalogue with the books, but the library is working on a project to catalogue them in a special database more suited to manuscripts. This will allow for better searching.
3-4,000 vistors per year grace the library, but they receive 15-18,000 questions, sinde most inquiries are made via email or post. Around 7,000 items are used annually, including those in the library and manuscripts, etc. A total of 12 staff members, full- and part-time, handle this workload.

The most fascinating part of our visit was when two of the specialist librarians, Mike and Renee, showed us some of their special favorites from the collection. Some of my favorites are described below.

• "Journal of Capt. Charles Carlile, Francis, relating the burning of the Trompeuse, 1683": What impressed me so much about this one was actually the incredible penmanship of the captain. I know we always think old handwriting looks beautiful, but that's mainly due to the flourishes and the effect of quills and fountain pens. This man had truly impressive penmanship.
• "USS Chesapeake: A set of signals presented to the Navy of the United States by John Barry, Virginia, 1800": This signal book was captured along with the Chesapeake by the HMS Shannon in 1813. This small book has a row of musket balls sewn onto the binding with a strip of cloth (probably sailcloth), so it would sink rather than be captured by the enemy in just such a situation. Obviously - and fortunately for us old book lovers - nobody managed to throw it overboard in this case.
• "Victualling Account 1558": Large and beautiful, bound in vellum, this account book includes some marvelous details, such as a leather, belt-like strap with criss-crossed gut stitching as a closure, and a cut up section of an illuminated, Latin manuscript as spine reinforcement. This use of the manuscript reminded me of the Islamic bindings we saw at the art library, from which the book blocks were cut out as unwanted, or to use the pictures from the texts.
• "Domestic medicine: or a treatise on the prevention and cure of diseases by regimen and simple medicines/William Buchan dated 1779": While the text itself is not uncommon, this particular copy was owned by the doctor on the Bounty. The cover, sporting a sailcloth binding, has the words "H.B.M.S. Bounty" on the back. The name of the unfortunate doctor, who died during the voyage, is written - and crossed out - inside the front cover.