The Maughan Library, Kings College London

The Maughan Library and Special Collections

The Maughan Library at Kings College London is responsible for a diverse assortment of materials. It provides services to the college including material for checkout, research and reference assistance, and study space. Outside of the main student library there is a special collections department which is where most of the days tour was focused. Within the special collections is a book by Thomas Paine printed with hiatuses, chapbooks printed in the relative area, a Stamford Compendium of Geography in North America, and a Bible in the Romansch language which is spoken in a remote area of southeast Switzerland.

These are just a few examples of the gifts and purchases held in the special collection. If conservation is deemed necessary, the library approaches the individual donors of items for financial support as it can be very expensive. Special care is taken of these items and there is no conservation done in house and these items are of great historical value. I honestly had a moment of disbelief when I was able to touch a book signed by Benjamin Franklin, just knowing one of our Four Fathers had held it centuries ago. Those moments of connecting with history in a tangible way will be etched in my memory forever.

There were so many interesting elements to the Maughan Library. The censored Thomas Paine work which someone had hand written the missing text, the iconic round reading room modeled after the British Museum reading room, and the Shakespeare exhibition celebrating the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death. The exhibit was wonderful, but what I enjoyed the most was learning about what went into preparing and completing the project.

One of the library employees was charged with organizing the exhibit. He shared with us that it was his first exhibition to take the lead on. The obstacles they faced were mainly from what material would be featured. They consulted with the Kings College Archive and  supplemented the exhibit with objects other organizations loaned to them. Once the material was gathered they had to organize the display cases by subject and write the descriptions. This took an incredible amount of time researching, writing, proofreading, and printing. The final product was very interesting focusing on the sociological, political, writing style, and religious context of Shakespeare's time. This was a different area of librarianship that I had not been exposed to and I thoroughly enjoyed learning what working in a Special Collections department can entail.