Further update on 4 December 2008: New Caird Library opening hours
With plans progressing on the £35 million redevelopment of the museum, to include a modern research and reading room and improved storage for the paper-based collections, we are pleased that the building work will begin earlier than initially planned. The move of the archive and library collections currently stored in the South West Wing of the museum to temporary offsite storage will therefore begin earlier.
Because of the revised schedule, the Caird Library will close to all our users on Saturday 20 December 2008. The Library will reopen in late spring/early summer 2009.
Access to online catalogues and electronic resources such as Ancestry will still be available from the E-Library which will be open from Monday to Friday, 13.30-15.30, telephone 020 8312 6516. General enquiries will also be handled at this time. Although staff cannot undertake extensive research, we will endeavour to advise about the archive and library collections during this period. Please contact library@nmm.ac.uk or manuscripts@nmm.ac.uk.
We will continue to provide a copying service (digital scans) for master’s certificates and crew lists during this period. However, as most of the collections will be in transit, they will be unavailable for copying until after the move.
We will publicise the Caird Library’s reopening date as soon as we can. When we reopen, the service provision will be revised: the Caird Library will then be open by appointment Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and the first Saturday of every month. Information on how to make an appointment and how to order items in advance will be published soon.
To find out more about the Sammy Ofer Wing development, please see our website, which is updated regularly http://www.nmm.ac.uk/about/sammy-ofer-wing/
If you have any comments or feedback on the proposed development, please let us know here on the blog, or see ‘Tell us what you think’ on the Sammy Ofer pages above.
Eleanor (Head of Archive and Library)
Further update on 4 December 2008: New Caird Library opening hours
October’s item of the month is a journal from our manucript collections, kept by Laurence Millechamp during his time in Commander Anson’s squadron in the Pacific in 1740.
Millechamp gives an account of the difficulties faced in the voyage (including death from scurvy), but also pays particular attention to the wildlife encountered on the voyage, which he illustrates with charming watercolours.
You can see more images and read extracts from Millechamp’s journal on the item of the month webpage.
Renee (Digital Resources Librarian)
Further update on 4 December 2008: New Caird Library opening hours
With the exciting news of the HLF grant towards the building of the Sammy Ofer Wing, the project, to include state of the art library and archive facilities, is firmly on track to open in 2012.
It now seems likely that building work will begin earlier than we originally thought. If this happens, the Caird Library may have to close temporarily to all readers earlier than the previously anticipated date of spring 2009. In order for the building work to start, the Library must relocate the collections currently stored in the basement of the museum, and move them temporarily to our offsite storage.
It is now probable that the Caird Library will close at Christmas 2008 rather than early spring 2009, and reopen in early summer 2009. As soon as dates are confirmed, we will publicise them as widely as we can. Many of the archive and library collections will be offsite by the time the Caird Library reopens in early summer 2009, which means that we will be unable to offer our usual service and so we will be open by appointment three days a week (Tuesday to Thursday) and the first Saturday of the month. Details on how to make appointments, requirements for advance ordering, and the number of items that can be requested at one time will also be widely publicised as soon as possible.
We are sorry for the inconvenience this will cause, and appreciate your understanding and co-operation. As we said before, the long-term gains of the project – improved physical and virtual access to the archive and library collections – will be immeasurable.
Eleanor (Head of Archive & Library)
Further update on 4 December 2008: New Caird Library opening hours
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A searchable database of names of immigrants from Britain to Victoria, Australia between 1839 and 1871. These immigrants were ‘assisted’, meaning in most cases that their passage was subsidised by the Victorian Government.
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A searchable database of names of passengers who boarded ships to Victoria, Australia from overseas ports between 1852 and 1923. ‘Unassisted’ passengers’ fares were not subsidised by government. There’s also an index for ‘assisted’ passengers.
The Museum has an ambitious project to re-house core archival collections on-site and build a research and reading room in a major new wing. This project has just received a substantial boost with a commitment of £5m from the Heritage Lottery Fund. This support, together with the substantial £20m gift from international shipping magnate and philanthropist Sammy Ofer, sets the project firmly on track to open in 2012.
The new wing will feature more than an archive research centre. There will also be a dedicated space for special exhibitions, a new café, brasserie and shop, a much-needed new entrance from the south, and a new orientation gallery featuring key iconic objects from the archives and our 3-D collections.
You can find out more about the scheme from a small exhibition just outside the Caird Library, and online at www.nmm.ac.uk/seachange. We welcome your comments.
Margarette Lincoln (Deputy Director)
