The information on our website about access to Archive and Library collections during our collections move has been updated.

Please check these pages for the latest information on the availability of public records and access to Archive and Library collections until 2012.

Renee (Digital Resources Librarian)

Have you used electronic resources here at the Caird Library, or indeed at any London museum archive or library?

Here at the library we’ve been trying to increase the amount of information that you can access online, and over the past year have added several new resources to our electronic collection.

This is the result of a pilot project, funded by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA), that we’ve been working on together with other museum archives and libraries. We’re about to start evaluating the project, and would like to know what you think, so if you have 10 minutes to complete a short electronic survey we’d really appreciate it.

Renee (Digital Resources Librarian)

The start date for the move of material out of our onsite store is rapidly getting closer (Monday 2 March). Whilst Archive, Library, and Documentation staff have been beavering away in the store preparing for this, other museum departments, together with contractors, have been putting a lot of work into preparing the new offsite store.
As you know, all material currently stored onsite is being moved offsite to allow work to begin on the Sammy Ofer Wing. The site chosen is already owned by the Museum but needed some alterations to make it work for the 3000 or so shelves of material it needs to contain for the next three years.

The store originally had a lobby and several small rooms inside it.

These had to be demolished to create one large open space. The floor was then recovered and the lurid yellow walls repainted in calming magnolia.

Meanwhile, the contractors chosen to provide the new racking puzzled over how best to fit in as many bays of shelves as possible and which way round to run them. The solution was to have lots of shorter runs across the store but this then had an impact on the lighting, which ran lengthways down the long narrow space. So our electricians came in and changed all the lights round, also making sure that they would be above the aisles and not the bays of shelving. Just in itself this is such an improvement to the existing store where we sometimes have to get torches out to see what we are doing.

The IT Department have also been involved, installing a new and faster data link from the main museum site, more telephones and a wireless network. We are going to be working on the collections there a lot over the next few years so this is of great benefit. A small office-cum-workroom has also been redecorated and fitted out for us.

The contractors have spent a few weeks building the new racking and have finished ahead of schedule. 

Some final cleaning is taking place after which various colleagues will be onsite labelling the new bays so we will be able to track and document exactly where material is placed once moved and unpacked.

Hannah (Archive and Manuscripts Manager)

Any researchers interested in the merchant shipping movements of British registered and allied vessels engaged in the second world war effort may like to know that you can now access records online from Documents online at The National Archives website.

Taken from the series of cards within BT 389, information available includes the ship’s name, any former name it had, its tonnage, who it was registered to, its destination, date of arrival and sometimes its ports of call. The cards also show what cargo the vessel carried on board and whether it was torpedoed, damaged or sunk during the war.

The Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen were responsible for the introduction of the merchant shipping movement cards. Researchers should be aware that the cards only account for the details of the ship and for security reasons do not have any information regarding passengers or crew on board the vessel. As with all records in the Documents Online database a fee is required to view the full record but you can search and view introductory information for free.

Follow this link for more information, to view a case study (SS Athenia) and to start your search now!

Mary (Information Assistant)

After a hectic, not to mention snowy, start to my new job I’ve finally found a moment to introduce myself to readers of the blog. I’m Richard Wragg and I have recently taken up the position of Assistant Archivist. Before coming to the National Maritime Museum I worked at London Metropolitan Archives and, more recently, the Archives and Chapter Library of St George’s Chapel in Windsor.

One of the items that most interested me in the collection at Windsor was an image of a medieval ship and it was perhaps fitting that one of the first boxes I opened at the NMM contained a notebook full of sketches of Windsor Castle. Although we’re all working hard as we move towards the opening of the Sammy Ofer Wing in 2012 I’m looking forward to many more unexpected finds amongst the fascinating manuscript collections.

Richard (Assistant Archivist)

As plans for the new Sammy Ofer wing take shape, we have updated the information on the website about the Library’s future opening hours, see http://www.nmm.ac.uk/researchers/library/visiting/library-opening-hours-from-2012.

In case you haven’t seen this update, the Library opening hours from 2012 will be 40 hours a week, including every weekday and every Saturday, and one late night a week.

We will continue to regularly provide news on future opening hours and services on our website, and here via the blog, as these become available. Please watch this space.

Eleanor Gawne
(Head of Archive & Library)