The Barbican Center Libraries, Thursday, July 10th

Thursday we visited the Barbican lending library, children's room, and music library. I really got a kick out of this visit, but then again, as an aspiring children's librarian and former music student I guess that makes a lot of sense.


THE CHILDREN'S ROOM

Our first guide was Ms. Amanda Owens, the children's librarian. The children's room bears a striking resemblance to the children's room in the Franklin Public Library (Franklin, MA) where I work now, so, personally, I thought that was pretty cool. The children's room is staffed by one full-time librarian and one senior assistant, as well as around six substitutes. They have 24,000 loanable items, 15,000 of which are on the shelves, with the remainder stored in the basement of the building. The children's room is primarily used by children between 2 and 10, but is modeled to work for children ages 0-14. The collection is arranged by age: Under 5, 5+, 10+, Young Teenage (12+), with young adult (14+) shelved just outside the entrance to the children's room as a buffer between the children's and adults' collections. I think that this catgorization is interesting, because the debate about labeling appropriate ages for materials is pretty heated back in the United States right now, with many librarians feeling that it is inapprpriate for librarians to decide which materials are appropriate for which ages. The non-fiction books are arranged in Dewey order, and all books are on lower shelves or in bins on the floor for greater accessibility. Parents are responsible for what their children can checkout, so even babies can have thier own library cards (tickets) if the parents choose to register their infants (Children ages 0-14 can open cards in the children's room). Items are checked out on a 3-week lending period, while CDs and videos are one week. Unlike the adult collection, all multimedia items in the children's room are available for check-out free of charge. Up to eight books can be checked out at a time.
The children's room provides outreach to the community by hosting class trips from local schools, nursery and playgroup visits, "babytimes" (singing, toys, etc.), and other programming like book discussion groups and a summer reading program. Additionally, the librarians will extend their services outside the library's walls to accomodate those who cannot come to the library themselves (book deliver, etc.). For the most part, the programming is on a fixed schedule. The children's room is also the contact point for the BookStart National Initiative, that states every child is entitled to 3 free book packs before the age of 5. These packets are picked up by residents in the community at the library. Nationally, distribution is around 90%.

Overall, as someone who would ideally like to become a children's librarian one day, I really liked this visit. I'm kind of disappointed that this was the only trip to a library that focused on children, as I'm really not that interested in special or academic libraries.

THE MUSIC LIBRARY

Our guide for the music library was Ms. Liz Wells, who reminded us that part of the reason the Barbican has such an extensive music library is because the Barbican is an Arts Center. The music library was built from scratch for the building in the 1980s, so the strengths of the library lie in its modern collection. The library's role is to provide materials and services for anyone who lives, works or studies in the borough. However, because the population of the City is relatively low, the library is primarily utilized by people who work there, as well as a large student population.
There are 16,500 CDs in circulation, and 60-70 CDs are added per month. Because the collection grows so quickly, it needs to be weeded regularly. It costs £0.40 to borrow/rent a CD for one week, and £2.75 to borrow/rent a DVD for one week (which I think is a little ridiculous). Patrons/Customers can also utilize the Naxos Music Library (very cool), which contains over 20,000 full CDs available for listening.
The music library is shelved and arranged by Dewey number for the most part, with some key exceptions in the collection of musical scores, which are more archival. According to Ms. Wells, there are very few good collections of printed music in the UK, because scores can go out of print very easily. This makes the Barbican Library's music collection a commodity, and also prevents them from extensive weeding, which makes sense. For the music scores, the librarians use the McColvin & Reeves classification system, which organizes music by how it is performed (string quartet, baritone solo, et cetera). The scores are mostly hardbound to extend their shelf lives.

Things about this collection I thought were noteworthy (aka, I thought were cool enough to remark about aloud during the tour):
* Master indices keep record of in which scores certain songs and musical pieces appear. This is especially helpful when looking for a song that may be listed in an anthology. The index has more than 60,000 entries and is owned by the Barbican, although other libraries can pay to use it.
* The electric piano next to the music scores that can be rented to practice playing or used to test out the music
* The collection of Smiths records, posters, and other memorabilia on display at the entrance to the music library. One of the librarians is clearly a humongous Smiths fan, as that collection was entirely impressive to me. Also, the library earns cool points for having such an awesome display. Way to break stereotypes, Barbican. Love it.

That's all I can really say, as I do not intend to become a music librarian.