National Library Provision for Art in the United Kingdom: The Role of the National Art Library

1994 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 173-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan van der Wateren
Keyword(s):  
Mission Statement ◽  
British Library ◽  
National Library ◽  
Government School ◽  
The Arts ◽  
The Government ◽  
A Charge ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Available Information ◽  
Subject Indexing

From its beginnings in 1836 as the library of the Government School of Design, the National Art Library (NAL) in the UK was intended to have an impact on design in the country. After the Great Exhibition of 1851 it former part of what was to become known as the Victoria and Albert Museum (V & A). By the 1850s it had already adopted the title of National Art Library, although it was called the V & A Museum Library between 1908 and 1985. By 1853 collections aimed to cover the arts and trades comprehensively, and by 1869 the NAL aimed also at comprehensive access to individual objects created in the course of history. By 1852, the library was open to all, although a charge was made at first. Various forms of subject indexing have been used; from 1877 to 1895 subject lists were prepared for internal use and sold to the public, and from 1869 to 1889 a remarkable Universal catalogue of books on art was produced. The present mission statement of the NAL focuses on collecting, documenting and making available information on the history and practice of art, craft and design, and the library aims its services at both the national and international community. However, its great 19th century contribution to published subject control of art materials has been almost completely absent in the 20th century. During 1994 the NAL will contribute records to the British Library (BL) Conspectus database, though there is little formal cooperation between the two libraries. As a specialist library it can organize its collections and index them in ways that are impossible for a comprehensive library such as the BL, and it therefore has an important part to play in the national library scene.

Safe Deposit: A UK Publishing View

1998 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Davies
Keyword(s):  
Publishing Industry ◽  
Minimum Cost ◽  
National Archive ◽  
British Library ◽  
Fair Dealing ◽  
Cd Rom ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Uk ◽  
National Libraries ◽  
Consultation Paper

The evolutionary struggle between the printed page, CD-ROM, online services and the Internet as media for publishing has huge implications for the national archive. Authors, publishers and the libraries that have current responsibility for the UK national legal deposit collection all have a consuming interest in the outcome of the government's Consultation Paper on legal deposit. Publishers want the least onerous extension of the law to new and particularly to electronic formats, which some see as an opportunity to reduce the statutory six copies for deposit. The copyright libraries see their status possibly being affected, whilst universities see a new and important role for themselves in electronic archiving. The government has stipulated a solution at minimum cost to the industries involved, and if the publishing industry successfully lobbies for a reduction in the number of deposit copies, the national libraries will probably have the strongest case for retaining their privileges. Similar tensions arise over access to information content and its use in electronic form, especially transmission and reproduction, tensions that are already present in the British Library's service provision and its alleged impact on publishers' sales. The concept of ‘fair dealing’ will clearly have to be redefined. These and other important issues are now being aired, perhaps with more goodwill and trust than 20 years ago, between the British Library, some leading publishers, and the Publishers Association. Extension of the national archive to electronic and multimedia works will be a huge project requiring significant new funding. Indications for the future are greater selectivity, a reduction in the number of copies required, and a more streamlined administrative process. A comprehensive archive is unlikely to be achieved other than by statutory means.

scholarly journals Distributed National Collections: Concept and Reality in Two Countries

2002 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Genoni
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Resource Sharing ◽  
British Library ◽  
Higher Education Funding ◽  
National Library ◽  
Research Libraries ◽  
Similar Scheme ◽  
Set Up ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Specialized Subject

The ‘distributed national collection’ is a scheme whereby the British Library envisages completing agreements with other libraries to facilitate the development of specialized subject-based research collections in order to make the most of total national resources. The implementation in Australia of a similar scheme, the Distributed National Collection (DNC), was proposed during the late 1980s and 1990s, with the National Library (NLA) as a main advocate, and a great deal of enthusiasm was generated. The use of Conspectus was envisaged, and a DNC Office was set up at the NLA. It failed for various reasons: Conspectus proved unusable, the NLA had to cut back its own acquisitions, and financial restraints forced other libraries to look after their own interests. In the UK, the initiative for collaborative collection development has been driven by the British Library and the Higher Education Funding Councils. The UK has some features which give it a better chance of success - for instance, the responsible office should be independent of all the main players, whereas in Australia this responsibility could be carried only by the National Library; the UK has a more established network of research libraries, including a number outside the higher education/national library nexus; and the existence of BLDSC is highly beneficial. However, key challenges lie ahead, notably the complexities of managing the scheme, the time needed to put it into operation, the commitment demanded from participants (notably some sacrifice of local interests required for ‘deep resource sharing’), and obtaining the initial acceptance needed from users.

Use of a National Library: A Survey of Readers in the Humanities and Social Sciences Reading Rooms of the British Library

1992 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 197-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham Cranfield ◽  
Joe Hellowell
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Seasonal Variations ◽  
Questionnaire Survey ◽  
Survey Methods ◽  
Academic Staff ◽  
British Library ◽  
National Library ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Uk ◽  
National Libraries

A questionnaire survey was carried out in the humanities reading rooms of the British Library one day each month from September 1990 to August 1991 with the aim of providing information of help in planning services, particularly at the new building in St Pancras. Readers were asked about their occupations, nationalities, the location of the academic institutions to which they were affiliated, the reasons for and frequency of their visits etc. 65% of readers were academic staff or students, and 33% lived outside the UK; 31% said they had visited the library over 50 times in the past year. The results were compared, where appropriate, with earlier surveys in 1968 and 1977. These comparisons highlighted significant seasonal variations in patterns of usage. It was not possible to compare the results with those from surveys by other national libraries, because of widely differing survey methods and content of reports.

Conspectus in the United Kingdom

1989 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Matheson
Keyword(s):  
Endangered Species ◽  
British Library ◽  
National Library ◽  
Search System ◽  
Research Libraries ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Us ◽  
Subject Areas ◽  
The Uk

Conspectus started in the US where it is used as a means of distributing responsibilities by consensus within a group of research libraries. The main issues are the identification of Primary Collecting Responsibilities (PCRs) for subject areas and the identification of ‘endangered species.’ In the UK the British Library's programme and the Conspectus in Scotland programme have been completed and the National Library of Wales hopes to complete its own programme in 1989. Elsewhere in the UK the reaction to Conspectus has been generally cool. The British Library has created an online Conspectus search system which allows UK Conspectus information to be interrogated via a wide range of access points. Conspectus information may also have potential for identifying priorities for collaborative programmes for preservation and retrospective conversion. The Scottish group is now hoping to examine this area in some detail.

Cooperation and Partnership in the National Library Context: With Special Reference to the British Library

2001 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stella Pilling
Keyword(s):  
Financial Support ◽  
Driving Force ◽  
Public Library ◽  
British Library ◽  
National Library ◽  
The World ◽  
Set Up ◽  
The Uk ◽  
National Libraries ◽  
National Systems

In 1999 the British Library (BL) set up a Co-operation and Partnership Programme, with the remit to align the library's approach more closely with the strategies being developed by related organizations, both nationally and internationally. Early on, after examining and analysing examples of cooperative activities in the field of libraries and information services it was concluded that the importance of interlending as the main driving force of cooperation was declining with the growth of national systems and networking, while interoperability between different automated systems, to maximize the range of cooperative services, emerged as the next logical step for libraries in all sectors. One of the first objectives of the programme was to set up a website, named Concord, designed to help libraries, museums and archives to develop new cooperative projects. Later in 1999 a Call for Proposals was issued for projects seeking financial support from the newly created Co-operation and Partnership Fund, for which a sum of £500,000 had been earmarked. Within the UK, many cooperative initiatives involve the BL, along with the other legal deposit libraries, in the academic and public library sectors, and internationally within and between other national libraries, notably on digitization projects. There are now several bodies that bring together national libraries in different regions of the world, and indeed worldwide.

scholarly journals What we do, is (still) secret? Collection, care and accessibility of zines in UK collections

2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 72-76
Author(s):  
Siobhan Britton
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
British Library ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Library And Information Studies ◽  
Information Studies ◽  
University College ◽  
The Usa ◽  
University College London ◽  
The Uk

In 2013, as the dissertation component of an MA Library and Information Studies course at University College London, I carried out a selective study of UK zine libraries and collections. Case studies of both ‘institutional’ collections that were part of established libraries like London College of Communication Library (University of the Arts London) and the British Library, and ‘independent’ collections such as Salford Zine Library, 56a Infoshop and the Edinburgh Fanzine archive were carried out to draw attention to issues around collection, care and accessibility of zine collections. As much of the literature around zine collections in libraries at that time was focused on the USA, it was important to draw attention to what was happening in the UK. This article summarizes the findings of my dissertation, and the developments in zine libraries and librarianship since I wrote it, as zine collections have become more popular and a growing field in the UK.

scholarly journals Understanding R&D in the arts, humanities and social sciences

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 115-145
Author(s):  
Hasan Bakhshi ◽  
Jonathan Breckon ◽  
Ruth Puttick
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Hard Science ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Tax Relief ◽  
Humanities And Social Sciences ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Right ◽  
Reporting Data

Despite much discussion and debate, research and development (R&D) is still often considered as the domain of hard science and technology. Furthermore, it is not commonly known by industry and policymakers that the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development�s (OECD) Frascati Manual � the internationally accepted methodology for collecting and reporting data on R&D � formally recognises the arts, humanities and social sciences (AHSS) in R&D. The UK collects data on R&D using the Frascati Manual definition. However, arguably, what matters for the UK is how R&D is defined for policy purposes. For example, the UK tax authorities choose to explicitly exclude AHSS R&D from their definitions for the purpose of tax relief. This paper explores the role of AHSS R&D in UK business. Drawing upon a review of the policy literature and interviews with 13 businesses that undertake AHSS research, and an additional 14 interviews with policymakers and other stakeholders, the paper presents recommendations for government, funders and business, and it concludes that more inclusive definitions and data are important for evidence-informed policy. Without the right definitions and tools to measure it and effective policies in place to support it, the Government risks ignoring the full value of R&D in the UK economy, and missing out on incentivising investment in innovation in AHSS-related sectors and activities.

Board to Council

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Herbert
Keyword(s):  
Research Council ◽  
The Core ◽  
Arts And Humanities ◽  
Strategic Initiatives ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Public Body ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Research Councils

The AHRB was given the core responsibility to produce 12,000 active arts and humanities researches over the UK. As of 1998, the Board had made over 4000 awards involving over 5000 researches. Across the UK, in the institutions of the government and the academy, several have been engaged with the AHRB and were actively committed to the fulfilment of the AHRB as a true Research Council. In 2005, the Arts and Humanities Research Council achieved its desired transformation after having built an impressive array of assets. This chapter discusses the transformation of the Arts and Humanities Research Board to a Research Council. In the process of the transformation of the Board, several changes were made. Among of these are the transition of the charitable status of the board and the transition of the AHRB's assets and obligations in to the new Non-Deparmental Public Body (NDPB). It also meant that the now AHRC must provide multi-year funding and the creation of strategic initiatives that would support intellectual urgency. The integration of the AHRC within the Research Councils also meant the restoration of arts and humanities to the circle of serious sciences and knowledge.

Habitus and Cultural Capital in the Field of Personal Finance

1998 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Aldridge
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Capital ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Personal Finance ◽  
Financial Service ◽  
Financial Products ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Financial Scandals ◽  
The Government ◽  
Private Investors ◽  
The Uk

Key concepts drawn from the work of Pierre Bourdieu – in particular, habitus and cultural capital – which have been widely used to analyse the fields of education and the arts, are applied here to the sociologically neglected field of personal finance. The cultural project to promote marketization has not created an informed public of sovereign consumers rich in cultural capital. On the contrary, the development of commodified mass-market financial products and services implies a lowering of the threshold not just of economic but also of cultural capital needed for their acquisition. Financial scandals, such as the widespread misselling of personal pensions in the UK from the mid-1980s, typically involve in Bourdieu's terms an ‘objective complicity’ between a wide variety of stakeholders – including the government, employers, financial service providers, industry regulators, and financial advisers – and private investors whose habitus and lack of cultural capital prepare them for cooperation in their own exploitation.

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