IWM sales policy

[Dragon]

I wrote to my MP, George Osborne, in 2014 when a petition was circulating about the issue of government funding cuts to the IWM and I received a personalised, constructive response.

 

After my introductory paragraph, I said that:

 

I believe that the IWM library is a highly specialised library of international importance and in the light of the huge government investment in refurbishing the IWM in readiness for the Great War Centenary, it seems a perverse response to the budgetary challenges.

 

I felt it was useful to make the point that his degree is in Modern History and that he "would undoubtedly have benefited from the easy travelling access between Oxford University and the IWM, probably making some use of its resources. Therefore," I said, "I would like to think that you will be as disturbed as I am at the alleged proposal that the library will close and its collection dispersed. However, as a member of the public, I am unable to reach verifiable facts about the proposals. You are in a position to do so." And I asked him to investigate. He did.

 

I tried to be measured, because after all an MP is human and has hundreds of items of correspondence to respond to, so to get past the filter of his personal assistant and have his attention I wanted to sound reasonable, so I used words and phrases like I am disturbed by or disquieting or [if true] this will be an extremely damaging and irreversible action. From my various campaigns to MPs, I think one's letter is more likely to be read if the text is kept to one side of A4, which means being focussed. Any extra or supporting detail can be added as an appendix on a separate sheet.

 

If you are intending to write to an MP, I think it's worth having a think about whether you can personalise her or his interest in the IWM (so I mentioned his own degree subject). It's also helpful to say why this matters to you.

 

I think a formula letter is likely to be regarded less highly than one written personally and it doesn't need to be long. Nor does it need to be perfectly expressed or eloquent - your sincerity will shine through. If someone would care to list a selection of important points from which writers can choose, it might help people to compose their own letters to their MP.  Once a dialogue has been established, subsequent letters can always develop the theme, or you could ask to meet him or her in person.

 

Gwyn

Edited 16 January , 2017 by Dragon

[David Filsell]

Mr D

Standard copies of the same letter are always spotted and thus their value diminished. However, I think it would be helpful to see your letter as a guide for others on this thread. I am planning a letter to a fellow trustee who is in the house.

Regards

david  

[Dragon]

Ok, but please bear in mind that this is about the petition in 2014.

 

Dear Mr Osborne

 

I am disturbed by the current petition which is claiming that the Imperial War Museum [IWM] is facing an annual deficit of £4m as a direct result of government funding cuts. I have not signed the petition yet because I prefer to find out facts before signing appeals. I have sent an enquiry to the IWM, but had not a reply, and I cannot find any independent information online. I am not a member of the union which is organising the petition and have no connections with the IWM or its staff.

 

The main points raised in the petition are disquieting. They include a claim that the IWM intends to close its library and dispose of the majority of the collection, that educational services will be cut and that between 60 and 80 staff will be made redundant. If this is true, this will be an extremely damaging and irreversible action. I believe that the IWM library is a highly specialised library of international importance and in the light of the huge government investment in refurbishing the IWM in readiness for the Great War Centenary, it seems a perverse response to the budgetary challenges.

 

I know that your degree is in Modern History and I imagine that you benefited from the easy travelling access between Oxford University and the IWM, probably making some use of its resources. Therefore, I would like to think that you will be as disturbed as I am at the alleged proposal that the library will close and its collection dispersed. However, as a member of the public, I am unable to reach verifiable facts about the proposals. You are in a position to do so.

 

I would be very grateful if you would investigate this claim and the other closures which the IWM is said to be planning.

 

Yours sincerely

Edited 16 January , 2017 by Dragon
Personal detail redacted

[Dragon]

 

.

 

Edited 24 January , 2017 by Dragon
Not wishing to 'talk at' people

[David Filsell]

Mr D

Thank you, Excellent. Most valuable for every member of this awkward squad of people who  care for history.

Regards,

David

[seaJane]

The core libraries catalogued were BL, Bodley at Oxford and Cambridge University Library. It was a surprise that there was only a 30% overlap in holdings between any 2 of those libraries.

Like Queen Anne's Occasional Conformity Act, her copyright Statute enacted in 1710, which included legal deposit, was probably the most disregarded law of England until the speed limit was introduced ...

 

 

 

[Guest]

seaJane- Yes, I have a copy of the Report Select Committee on British Museum 1850 in my old stock-dominated by Panizzi. Not a very nice man, clearly an egomaniac-but by enforcing copyright deposit at mid-century he made sure that a class of publications is represented in BL that would otherwise be few and far between (Prices Current of the different London commodity merchants-Ok elsewhere as well but only in bits- scarce as rocking horse do-do anywhere else.No,don't ask why)

   The relevance of a Panizzi or the benefits of universal collecting via Copyright Deposit become apparent down the generations.  The problem with IWM is that it is also not now keeping up all the stuff pumped out for the centennial years.(No,I don't mean the populist tat and made-for-measure remainders).So IWMs problems now will be felt by researchers in decades to come, wherever the library ends up. All those little local printed rolls of honour, stories of small units, family members,etc.

    An example: My local Local Studies recently got some stuff from a neighbouring authority- One of the items was a parking meter ticket from 30-odd years ago-an old-time librarian (that is, someone chartered by LA-few public libraries have any now) had taken the trouble to keep one and file it as ephemera. The John Johnson collection at Bodley is a splendid example of what collecting the less-than-obvious can leave as a heritage legacy a few generations down the line.

     The malaise at IWM is also affecting what it does to continue the tradition of assiduous collecting of the unregarded trifles.A situation that must be resolved. Sooner the better

[Dragon]

Would it be helpful for someone who knows what they're talking about to compose a brief set of the important points from which people could choose ideas as a basis for writing to their MP?

 

Even better, perhaps someone could put together a handout which could be attached to a letter as an appendix. (One side A4, bulleted, clear.) I did this for a campaign and MPs said it was helpful to see the main points assembled together. The point is to make it easy for the MP (or letter recipient) to say,  "Yes, I can do that. I will help!"

 

 

When I did it, I headed it: As an MP, you are uniquely placed to: and I bulleted (obviously with details):

• join the All Party Parliamentary Group on XXXXX. The Group’s secretary is XXXXX email XXXXXX. - [For example:

  •APPG for War Heritage

  •APPG for Archives and History -

  •Look down the list and see if there are any more relevant APPGs ]

• raise [this issue] ...
• talk to...
• persuade ...
• publicise...

 

or whatever is suitable (eg Investigate...)

 

and you can go on to say that

 

The following key interventions are needed:

 

eg

• table an Early Day Motion to halt the dispersal of the library of the IWM (or some such wording)
• and / or whatever interventions you think are urgent and essential. (I think knowing what to ask the MP to actually do is something a lot of people find problematical, which is why a list from someone well informed would be really helpful.)

 

Edited 24 January , 2017 by Dragon
Adding links

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Dragon said:

Would it be helpful for someone who knows what they're talking about to compose a brief set of the important points from which people could choose ideas as a basis for writing to their MP?

 

 

      I regret that I am not experienced in Agitprop and have no family connection with Dave Spart. As you say, the key to this is the collection of accurate information. There have been helpful extracts from IWM Minutes, Charter etc,as well as its recent plant-article in the Museums magazine following on from the Sunday Times article. The one thing the Nomenklatura do not like is publicity- life is quite pleasant for them underneath their stones.

    I would suggest that we on this Forum gather information about what has been going on-what has been sold, whose authority, prices realised at auction,etc- A big gap in our knowledge is what the IWM plan for "refreshed" lirary provision is supposed to be.

     I have an FOI request in for figures on disposals of book but not photographs or film. Hopefully, IWM will respond with the info. in the FOI time (20 working days- always assume nowadays it is going to be the very last day,if not a little prod with a stiletto when the last day has gone by).

    I think some information would have to be exchanged by Member-to-Member communication.

Obvious targets for letters are any/all TRustees plus Chairman.

Sec State Culture,Media,Sport and Shadow (Is there one?)

Select Committee on ditto- Chairman Damian Collins, MP (Con) Folkestone)

Local MP for IWM area (Looks like its Kate Hoey???)

 

         Dearest Moderator, there is nothing "political" intended in the above- any of the offices could be held by little green men/women from Mars as far as I am concerned(Are they??)- it's the holder of an office that may be contacted on a matter pertinent to all users of the Forum. Does the management team have any feelings about piping up collectively on behalf of the Forum??

(KR- Better have a refill first)

[keithmroberts]

So far as I can see seeking to maintain the heritage of the IWM is not "Political" in the usual sense, and as long as the focus is on the actions of the IWM, and it's trustees in a non party political or ideological way there is no reason why Mods should do other, than as individuals, (because the GWF does not have policies in such matters),  wish the pressure to succeed.

 

Keith Roberts

[Guest]

27 minutes ago, keithmroberts said:

So far as I can see seeking to maintain the heritage of the IWM is not "Political" in the usual sense, and as long as the focus is on the actions of the IWM, and it's trustees in a non party political or ideological way there is no reason why Mods should do other, than as individuals, (because the GWF does not have policies in such matters),  wish the pressure to succeed.

 

Keith Roberts

 

      Thank you Keith. You are allowed an extra half-but no more

[charlie962]

Board Minutes- just a note that the Trustee Board Minutes for 2016 are now available up to Sep2016. They've appeared in the last couple of days?

Charlie

[Muerrisch]

Letter writing to get your own way [as oppsed to getting your rocks off, the two are incompatible]:

 

emulate the military by stating an objective up front, and then summarise it at the end.

 

As in: "the purpose of this letter is" 

 

and then, after keeping middle bit to a minimum compatible with making a case for action,

 

"please help by [doing something] to achieve this worthwhile aim"

[Dragon]

I'm not asking for agitprop or anything complicated. My experience tells me that a lot of people don't know where to start and what to say. A lot of people haven't got time to trawl the Internet looking for material. I'm asking for key points, a summary of facts as they are known.

 

What you / we want is readers of this thread to feel that they can write to their MP and that they will actually do it. I haven't been following events at the IWM and quite honestly I would feel overfaced and overwhelmed if someone told me to go and look at minutes, specialist publications, a business's accounts or an entire long and expanding thread on a forum. I am left quite confused by some of the posts in the thread because I am starting from a position of unawareness.

 

A compromise between standard copy-and-paste letters (which don't work) and leaving people adrift to find their own material (and often give up) is a summary of the important points with links to further details if wanted. If there is anxiety about being compromising, then if someone put together an information sheet it could be sent by email or personal message to anyone who requested it - though that in itself has potential problems.

 

Believe me, I have written and run a national charity's campaign in which every MP in the HoC and National Assemblies received a personal letter about a specific issue. It actually ended up in an EDM, an Adjournment Debate, a Written Question (that was my MP) and funding in response to the request. The absolute key is making it easy for people to write a letter, making facts accessible and helping them to believe that their voice matters. And then making it easy for the MP to agree to do something.

 

Gwyn

 

Addendum:

 

Re GUEST's comment #112:

Quote

Sec State Culture,Media,Sport and Shadow (Is there one?)

 

Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport is Karen Bradley

Shadow is Tom Watson

LibDem MP who often asks questions on Culture, Media and Sport is Alistair Carmichael

 

Links given to their email addresses from Parliament website.

[Guest]

Your Humble put in a Freedom of Information request to IWM  regarding book disposals in early January. IWM have replied, in good time, today. IWM has a policy of retaining copyright in it’s responses but the information is outside copyright restriction. It has not responded to a request to publish the response in extenso. Thus, I put the guts of the response below with “fair use” extracts where needed.

    If any member wants fuller details  of the IWM response, the please contact me by message and it can be done as a private communication.

 

     The response is signed off by Jon Card, Executive Director, Collections and Governance

 

    Alas, I feel sure that the response will sound alarm bells for concerned members.

 

 

1)      PROTOCOLS AND SAFEGUARDS FOR DISPOSALS

 

Mr. Card has responded and I quote:

 

“You will notice that the term ‘exit’ rather than ‘disposal’ has been used to refer to the process of removing items from the Library collections. This is because disposal, when used by museums, has the specific meaning of referring to the permanent removal of items from the accessioned collections. IWM’s Library collections are not accessioned and are therefore not subject to the disposal procedures outlined in the Collections Development Policy.”

 

   COMMENT: This suggests that the library is not considered part of the IWM’s “collections” and is subject to no safeguards as to how it is treated. It suggests that the entire library could go in the skip tomorrow morning and the IWM Board and Trustees would have broken no safeguards- as there are none

 

2)      NUMBER OF VOLUMES DISPOSED OF  (“EXITED”)

   30,959  volumes have been approved  for exit since the financial year 2012-2013.  This includes :

 

i)                    18,524 items have been taken by an Internet lister for sale on the Internet.

ii)                      8,925 items have been consigned for sale at auction

iii)                 1,086 items have been destroyed by a contractor. In fairness, IWM stresses that these are items in very poor condition.

iv)                 2,431 items have been “approved for consignment “ to the Internet lister or auction in the financial year 2016-2017. As the financial year is not yet over, it is unclear whether any/all of this material has left IWM as yet.

v)                  17, 174 items have been “designated for exit” but have not yet left IWM.

 

COMMENT: The most important point to note is the use of the word “item”. It does not mean “volume” or book. eg The 13 physical volumes of Gooch and Temperley “British Documents on the Origins of the War” count as ONE item-as that is what it’s entry would be in the catalogues. A complete set of Army/Navy/Air Force lists- 1 item. I am sure members will be alarmed at this use of the word “item”- It means that the number of physical volumes disposed of (or set for disposal) is far greater than 30,959.

 

3)      TRANSFER TO OTHER LIBRARIES

 In 2015-2016, 618 “items” and 5 boxes of material were “exited” by gift to the library of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. In the 5 years since the beginning of the financial year 2011-2012, no other institution or library has been offered any material, either by gift, transfer on loan or sale.

 

COMMENT:  Although IWM has excused itself from “accessions” protocols about offering materials elsewhere, the lack of transfer is disappointing- No other institution or library has a chance to strengthen it’s  holdings by back-filling- It goes straight to auction or the Internet.

( Aside: I was unaware that CWGC had a library:it is not featured on it’s website. Alas, further information is problematic,as CWGC is not covered by FOI)

 

     Overall, a bleak picture –far worse than I thought-lots gone, lots to go, nobody else gets a chance at the stuff “in the public interest”. I, for one, will be strategically deaf when IWM next comes round with a begging bowl for some project-either for my money, my work or my time. The use of the word “exited” is redolent of some dreadful euphemism from the American prison system to describe “execution”- and it seems the moral mindset is as bleak in Lambeth as anywhere in the US prison system.

 

Edited 8 February , 2017 by Guest
restore underling, for comprehension

[Dust Jacket Collector]

Thanks for your efforts, GUEST. It's good to get the evidence in black and white. I suppose my main question would be 'Why'. Are they ashamed of what they're doing or just plain incompetent. If this were the National Gallery dumping half their stock at a boot fair there'd be a nationwide outcry. It would be interesting to find out what the university libraries at Leeds or Birmingham think. I doubt they hold more than a fraction of what's been sold.

To say that the books were never 'accessioned' to the museum seems most peculiar. As they've got rid of films, photographs & maps as well then presumably these were never 'accessioned' either which begs the question as to what items have been?

Interestingly since I first raised this topic the internet bookseller doesn't seem to have put up any more ex-IWM books for sale. Maybe the museum has had a quite word with them to keep a lower profile for a while!

[Loader]

So basically they can do as they wish with the library items & answer to nobody for it? Sickening state of affairs indeed & frankly a %*$^&%$# shame!

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Dust Jacket Collector said:

Interestingly since I first raised this topic the internet bookseller doesn't seem to have put up any more ex-IWM books for sale. Maybe the museum has had a quite word with them to keep a lower profile for a while

 

     Well, at least you spotted the stuff coming through- good for you (which is why I have not named the Internet bookseller). It is not a good sign that the new listing has stopped- when libraries are "outed" doing this sort of thing, they tend to clam up- and the books become expendable. When it comes to a straight choice between a career move for an apparatchik and books going in the landfill, then guess who loses?  Books,like the dead, tell no tales. I have seen it before (British Library Booknet). I suspect that the 17,000 -odd items tallied as being ready for "exit" are on hold until people like you and I go away.

    So the trick is-don't go away. 

Personally, I was disappointed that I e-mailed one of the Trustees-a man of integrity - and received no response. You can work out who it must be.

So,there we have it-the library is not part of the IWM "accessioned" collections- it is outside of "heritage" and it's public interest responsibilities. A century of donations and goodwill wasted on the altar of a re-jigged theme park masquerading as a museum-and a"national" museum to boot.

     I think now is the time for letters- the treatment of it's library must have a knock-on effect on gifts and goodwill in other area-especially small donations (which IWM probably doesn't want anyway). I will give it a week or so and see what pops out of the woodwork-or out of the newsagent- and then my first choice will be Sel.Cttee. Culture,etc. I would pay good money to see the Chairman of the Trustees and/or the Chief Exec. before a Commons Committee explaining this lot away-the more so in the middle of the centennial years.

    DJC-Thanks for raising this important topic in the firt place..

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Loader said:

So basically they can do as they wish with the library items & answer to nobody for it? Sickening state of affairs indeed & frankly a %*$^&%$# shame!

 

   Pretty much. But they answer to you and me-and especially the Court of Public Opinion. The trick now is persistence.

    Apparatchiks come and go, but old fashioned grumpy Kiplingesque Anglo-Saxon peasants standing in the furrow behind the plough grumbling 'Tain't Fair" are,if properly done, the real repositories of public policy in this realm- not a bunch of "next-interview bureaucrats". 

     So the furrow is deep, the earth is muddy, the plough is heavy and if I am to be a ceorl, then I might as well grant myself the liberty to be churlish in a good cause.

   Gosh-what would the men of 14-18 have made of all this!!

[Guest]

Full FOI response listed below, following IWM permission(for which,thanks)

 

Thank you for your enquiry. Your questions, together with the Museum’s responses, are given

below.

You will notice that the term ‘exit’ rather than ‘disposal’ has been used to refer to the process of

removing items from the Library collections. This is because disposal, when used by

museums, has the specific meaning of referring to the permanent removal of items from the

accessioned collections. IWM’s Library collections are not accessioned and are therefore not

subject to the disposal procedures outlined in the Collections Development Policy.

1) How many volumes have been disposed of in the last 5 years? (Either

calendar years 2011-2016, or financial years last 4 plus 2016-2017 to date.

Please specify)

30,959 items have been approved for exit across this period since the year 2012-13.

The answers below break this down by financial year and exit method.

2) How many volumes have been transferred to other non-IWM libraries?

In the year 2015-16 IWM exited 618 volumes and 5 boxes of material.

3) How many have been transferred to each library in 2.)? Please list other

libraries that have taken material.

All of the material listed in the answer to question 2 was transferred to the

Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s library. IWM has not exited items to

other libraries during the period specified.

4) How many have been sold?

Please see table below. Note that the information given in the table reflects the items

consigned to sale by IWM, and may therefore include items that have not yet been

listed or sold by the seller.

5) In 4) by what method ? eg auction, sale to public, sent to Internet lister.

2012-13, 2013-14 and

2014-15

2015-16 2016-17

16,808 items approved for

consignment to Anybook

1,695 items consigned to

auction

618 volumes and 5 boxes

of material exited by gift to

CWGC

1,086 items destroyed by a

contractor

1,716 items consigned to

Anybook

6,600 items consigned to

auction

2,431 items approved for

consignment between

Anybook and auction

18,503 10,025 2,431

6) How many have been destroyed?

In 2015-16, 1,086 items were destroyed by a contractor. These are the only items to be

destroyed during this five-year period.

Items are only destroyed when they are in very poor condition and could not be used

in the future, or when they have no preservation value as the content is preserved

elsewhere and is widely accessible (for example, photocopies of newspaper articles

and newspaper clippings).

7) How many volumes does the IWM still physically retain which have been

designated for disposal but not yet processed?

17,174 items have so far been designated for exit and not yet exited IWM custody.

If you are unhappy with the way your request has been handled, you should contact the

Museum’s Director General, Diane Lees, at the above address. Any appeal will be

considered and replied to within 20 working days of receipt unless otherwise notified.

Should you be dissatisfied with her response, you can then take the matter up with the

Information Commissioner, who can be contacted at Wycliffe House, Water Lane,

Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.

Yours sincerely

Jon Card

Executive Director, Collections and Governance

[Steven Broomfield]

Far be it for me to finger M Arouet, but I noticed that the current edition of Lord Gnome's organ has a piece in the Literary Review section about this, and quotes a member of the GWF as having received feedback following an FOI request.

 

Well done, sir.

[Ron Clifton]

While not condoning the apparent attitude of the IWM, remember that copies of books printed and published in the UK are (or should be) already held by the copyright libraries, so the texts are still available for researchers to use. This does not of course apply to the German regimental histories and similar books. A number of online initiatives such as Project Gutenberg have also saved many important texts from irretrievable loss, but these depend largely on institutions such as American universities being able and willing to fund the scanning or digitisation.

 

Cambridge UL's Great War collection is accessible for reference (not borrowing) in the Rare Books Room where I have spent may happy hours perusing and copying material ranging from King's Regulations to the French equivalent of Becke's orders of battle. My interest in War Establishments began in the UL about fifty years ago and, thanks to later visits to the PRO (as it then was) I have been able to compile a database of unit sizes (officers and men) covering the whole period of the war, with more detailed breakdowns of the major types of unit. The only real setback is that you need to know, in a certain amount of detail, what you are interested in, before you can find it in the catalogues.

 

Ron

[Guest]

11 hours ago, Steven Broomfield said:

Far be it for me to finger M Arouet, but I noticed that the current edition of Lord Gnome's organ has a piece in the Literary Review section about this, and quotes a member of the GWF as having received feedback following an FOI request.

 

Well done, sir.

 

    Well, Lord Gnome frequently says we must do all we can to maintain his enormous organ.  Yes, t'was I. Private Eye have run stories about IWM before that are nothing to do with me. I did the FOI-published here- and asked for the copyright permission given in the disclaimer-which was freely and speedily given (a plus to IWM for that). Thus, off to the "Eye". Have not yet seen it.

    Alas. the issues raised still remain. Just what is the endgame of IWM policy is still not clear. If it is culling of dupes and irrelevant stuff, then keep going-OK,as DJC has noticed, some treasures escape as well. I am informed by a friendly hand that the efforts to park the library with KCL foundered on the poor overall condition of the library-so disposals seem to be merely following on from a long period of neglect. More's the pity that it is the centennial years.

 

     PS I must make it clear and on the record(Moderators please note) that  I wrote to Private Eye in a private capacity, without mentioning Great War Forum. I have not, nor would I put up, any connection with GWF in any communication I had with the "Eye". That would be wrong. However, I believe that Lord Gnome does have the services of Mr. Google in his employ- and ,presumably, having rum IWM stuff before, that the reliable Mr. Google will throw up some stuff on GWF.

    Again, for the record and for the attention of our Moderators, I enclose the full text of my covering letter to the "Eye"

"

Dear Mr Strobes,

                  Good to see you are keeping well. You have run stories about the decimation of the library of the Imperial War Museum in the past. I enclose the response by IWM to an FOI request on what has gone -and how it has gone. There are no restrictions on it's publication.

 

    Please note:

1) That IWM has side-stepped all protocols relating to the disposal/exiting of books by not classifying them as "accessions"-which may be a disappointment to the many who have donated to it over the past century.

 

2) "Item" is not the same as "Book". An "item" can be a set of books-thus, the number of physical books removed is much higher than the figures quoted in the FOI response.

 

(I am informed, albeit anecdotally that long runs of the "Air Force List" and "Hart's Army List" have been dumped in a skip at Duxford, where much of the IWM material is kept. These are, obviously, considerably more than 1 book being an item)

 

3) Another 17,000 items to go!!

Edited 26 February , 2017 by Guest
Extra info

[Guest]

5 hours ago, Ron Clifton said:

While not condoning the apparent attitude of the IWM, remember that copies of books printed and published in the UK are (or should be) already held by the copyright libraries, so the texts are still available for researchers to use. This does not of course apply to the German regimental histories and similar books. A number of online initiatives such as Project Gutenberg have also saved many important texts from irretrievable loss, but these depend largely on institutions such as American universities being able and willing to fund the scanning or digitisation.

 

Cambridge UL's Great War collection is accessible for reference (not borrowing) in the Rare Books Room where I have spent may happy hours perusing and copying material ranging from King's Regulations to the French equivalent of Becke's orders of battle. My interest in War Establishments began in the UL about fifty years ago and, thanks to later visits to the PRO (as it then was) I have been able to compile a database of unit sizes (officers and men) covering the whole period of the war, with more detailed breakdowns of the major types of unit. The only real setback is that you need to know, in a certain amount of detail, what you are interested in, before you can find it in the catalogues.

 

Ron

 

     It's a fair enough point that the copyright libraries ought to have all UK printed items under legal deposit. But they don't All libraries overlap-with Great War materials,they will be well represented in each of the deposit libraries. Other stuff is unique (usually) to that library. One solution would be to park the non-BL stuff with BL or KCL (which they would probably accept). But then what? Any books left-in the skip? Off to an Internet lister??

   IWM has to be an integrated system- Of course, the Museum function comes first- the "M" in IWM is a bit of a clue. Reliance on just deposit libraries is restrictive- Libraries grow organically around their main themes.The library must not only stand as a working library in itself but also to service the requirements of the Museum element and the archive research.

    Another worry in the centennial years is whether the IWM is up to snuff in collecting newly published materials. There is no overall lack of goodwill to the place- but if the IWM continues to behave as the prodigal son and squander it's inheritance, then that is a difficult situation to either retrieve or remedy

(PS Ron- What with the "Eagle" as well-did you find any time to study-well,study what you were supposed to?? Also-is it just me or is Cambridge University Library the long-lost twin of the ossuaire at Verdun??)

[Kitty55]

The problem probably began several years ago (more like a decade or two now thinking about it) when they brought in the new system where all had to be classed as either museum, library or archive. Each was given special collections that they could keep and others that they would have to dispose of within a set time limit.

Afraid it's always too late by the time the ordinary average person gets to hear about it.