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| St. Paul's Cathedral |
St. Paul's Cathedral- The Library
I began my library adventures in a truly spectacular fashion. Our first destination was the library of the awe inspiring St. Paul's Cathedral. The library is housed above the ground floor of the cathedral. Access is gained by way of a spiral staircase with shallow steps, that taken at a steady pace has the potential to make your head spin. Then again, the same head spin could be a result of being surrounded by such history and beauty. When you reach the top you enter into a small room with a vaulted ceiling. Once you exit the room you walk through a passage with exposed beams, your heels clicking on the hardwood floors that separate you from the visitors and the devout below on the Cathedral floor. As we make our way at a brisk pace to the library, we pass by the work of William Blake Richmond titled "Eve Among the Beasts" circa 1891. While I'm still gawping at this mosaic of glass pieces, we come upon Romanesque fragments that were salvaged from prior fires. A brief pause to take this in, then we are outside the doors to what to me was like stepping through the wardrobe into Narnia, the Library of St. Paul's.
Once inside I was immediately struck by the aesthetics of the room. Our guide and Librarian for St. Paul's, the dynamic Mr. Joseph Wisdom, explained that symmetry had been incorporated into the construction of the room by Sir Christopher Wren when he rebuilt the Cathedral after The Great Fire of London. Most of the libraries collection was lost in this fire, completely depleting access to theological texts. A committee was created in order to rebuild the collection. The Commissioners for rebuilding St. Paul's began to rebuild the collection, purchasing liturgical material and bibles. In 1712 Bishop Henry Compton gave the library almost 2,000 volumes to help restore the collection. The library is still a working theological library today.
I found our time with Mr. Wisdom (an apropos name as I've ever encountered for someone of his knowledge base) to be less about the past, and more about the future of the library. It was an interesting development as I was expecting more of a historical context during our visit. He took the time to discuss the very relevant topic of digitization and physical materials. When he asked our opinion of electronic texts and reading devices, I felt almost hesitant to divulge my great love of e-publications. It felt almost like a betrayal in such a historic room surrounded by beautiful bound volumes. I was surprised when Mr. Wisdom stated that one format does not outrank the other. It felt like a reaffirmation that though we all as library lovers may have a preference, it is important to see the value in all forms of text.
Discussing digital material led us to the topic of digitization of material in the Catherdral library collection. Mr. Wisdom shared with us that very few texts and artifacts have been digitized cover to cover. He brought up the very valid point that there is a disparity in what you get from the original as opposed to the replica that is the new digital version. There is also the issue of not having the time or resources to digitize everything. A matter of concern is the preservation of physical materials because of issues such as acidic paper, but the question becomes "should we save everything?" For now, measures of preservation are taken such as set RH levels of 45 to 55% and a temperature of 16 to 18 degrees centigrade (60-64 degrees F).
We were also taught the proper way to remove a book from the shelf in order to avoid damage: You must push in the volumes on either side, grab the sides of the binding and pull out while supporting the book at the bottom. These are a few ways that physical materials are being protected while a select few items are being digitized. The collection holds printed books, manuscripts, and texts. One of my favorite things that Mr. Wisdom reminded us of is that "knowledge is there in a variety of formats". You are still able to derive information from things without text in a similar manner to reading a book. I think we can forget that sometimes, and it's important to recognize that there are so many vessels of information that should be acknowledged.
Once inside I was immediately struck by the aesthetics of the room. Our guide and Librarian for St. Paul's, the dynamic Mr. Joseph Wisdom, explained that symmetry had been incorporated into the construction of the room by Sir Christopher Wren when he rebuilt the Cathedral after The Great Fire of London. Most of the libraries collection was lost in this fire, completely depleting access to theological texts. A committee was created in order to rebuild the collection. The Commissioners for rebuilding St. Paul's began to rebuild the collection, purchasing liturgical material and bibles. In 1712 Bishop Henry Compton gave the library almost 2,000 volumes to help restore the collection. The library is still a working theological library today.
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| Sir Christopher Wren |
Discussing digital material led us to the topic of digitization of material in the Catherdral library collection. Mr. Wisdom shared with us that very few texts and artifacts have been digitized cover to cover. He brought up the very valid point that there is a disparity in what you get from the original as opposed to the replica that is the new digital version. There is also the issue of not having the time or resources to digitize everything. A matter of concern is the preservation of physical materials because of issues such as acidic paper, but the question becomes "should we save everything?" For now, measures of preservation are taken such as set RH levels of 45 to 55% and a temperature of 16 to 18 degrees centigrade (60-64 degrees F).
We were also taught the proper way to remove a book from the shelf in order to avoid damage: You must push in the volumes on either side, grab the sides of the binding and pull out while supporting the book at the bottom. These are a few ways that physical materials are being protected while a select few items are being digitized. The collection holds printed books, manuscripts, and texts. One of my favorite things that Mr. Wisdom reminded us of is that "knowledge is there in a variety of formats". You are still able to derive information from things without text in a similar manner to reading a book. I think we can forget that sometimes, and it's important to recognize that there are so many vessels of information that should be acknowledged.
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