Société Internationale des Bibliothèques et des Musées des Arts du Spectacle

Report from a Reader: A View from the Stacks

Sidney Jackson Jowers
Canterbury, Great Britain

Documents et Temoignages des Arts du Spectacle: Pourquoi et Comment? / Collecting and Recording the Performing Arts: Why and How?

Société Internationale des Bibliothèques et des Musées des Arts du Spectacle / International Association of Libraries and Museums of the Performing Arts

20ème Congrès International / 20th International Congress

Antwerp 4-7 September 1994. Acta. Antwerp : 1995, p. 31

During the past four years I have compiled an international bibliography for theatre costume, masks, make-up and wigs, to be published by Motley Press in 1995. I did most of my research in many of your libraries and archives, and your collections and help were wonderful. The following practices I found the most helpful:

1. A guide of your rules and regulations translated into all major languages, with a map showing the location and arrangement of your card catalogues, and a sample request slip, filled in. I was impressed by the simplicity of the method for obtaining translations used at Rydal Mount, William Wordsworth's home in the English Lake District. On the wall in the entrance hall are rows of hooks, with information sheets in more than 30 languages, many handwritten and some quite obscure, such as Tibetan. The guide told me that when a visitor requests a language not already there, the visitor is asked to make a translation and, of cours, to sign it. This far, all have been happy to make their contribution.
2. A simple request slip. The standard procedure on my arrival is to produce identification, fill in an application to use the library and receive a card number. It should not then be necessary to write on each request slip what is already on the application, such as my name, home address, local address and signature. Also, pressmark and volume number are enough to identify the request - author, title and date of publication are not necessary. I already have plenty of writing to do in taking notes, and the extra effort and time required for extensive request slips seems wasted. I suggest the only information needed on a request slip is the pressmark, volume number, and, either my card number, if I collect the books, or my seat number, if you deliver them. The feasibility of this occurred to me when I was in Berlin's Central Public Library. To request a book for use on site, I had only to write the pressmark on a slip of paper and give it to the librarian, seated behind a desk. The slip is placed on a dumbwaiter lift and sent down to the storage room. The book arrives on this same lift in 10 to 15 minutes and is placed by the librarian on the desk for me to collect, where I return it when done. Fast, efficient and simple.
3. A list of all your staff, with name, job title, area of expertise, telephone extension and portrait. This saves both time and embarrassment, for it is only courteous to address staff by name.
4. An arrangement to leave briefcases and papers overnight. If lockers are not practical, then permission to leave them at one's work place. As a foreign visitor, especially, this is wonderful, since it allows me to go on to exhibitions or evening events without returning to lodgings.
5. A bulletin board with up-to-date performing arts and exhibition information.
6. Subject Catalogues with a wide scope. For example, within Theatre Costume, it is useful to find Designers; and not only books and theses, but exhibition and sale catalogues.
7. Lastly, but for a caffeine addict like me, almost as important as the rest: coffee, tea and light refreshment available without leaving the building. If there is no caf鬠vending machines are fine. And, such an amenity offers the opportunity to meet fellow researches by serendipidy. From someone on the other side of the desk, thank you for sharing your treasures and for giving me a marvellous time.

20th Congress

URL: http://www.sibmas.org/congresses/sibmas94/antw_9.html

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