National Art Library - Victoria and Albert 15 July 2010

Another free morning. After coming back to London about 01:00 after our visit to Stratford-upon-Avon many of us were glad for the rest.

This afternoon we traveled to the Victoria and Albert Museum on Cromwell Road in South Kensington. Our ultimate destination was the National Art Library located on the third floor. This library is not only a public reference library, it is also the curatorial department for the Victoria and Albert Museum's the Prints and Books Collection/Word and Image Department. Due to the size of our group, we were divided into three groups to tour both front of house and behind the scenes of this library. Security for the library and reading rooms was quite stringent. No bags were permitted beyond security inside the library doors. Additionally, no photographs were permitted inside with the exception of space that was converted to include a gallery for 20th century art.

Natasha Viner of the Retrieval group was the first guide for my group. We were lead through the first reading room, past the Invigilation desk which is a sort of reference desk and guard for the patrons with the materials. The OPAC is available on terminals in the Reading Rooms, paper request forms are submitted to the Circulation Desk, the Retrieval team retrieves the slips on the half hour and retrieval can take forty minutes to one hour.

The library originally began at Somerset House at Kings College in 1837 (predating the Victoria and Albert) to support the college of art and design. It has maintained a residence at the Victoria and Albert since the 1850's but it took about 20 years before the museum provided the library . The stacks containing a great many items are behind the scenes and other items are housed separately. Additionally, the collection and catalog contains the collections of two gentlemen from the Victorian era and a great many items from the Great Exhibition. The special collections including rare items and correspondence are stored in locked cabinets.

The most intriguing part of our visit was the session with items from the special collections. We were able to view one of Shakespeare's folios, a copy of Bleak House Bleak House with Dickens' edit marks, the original publication of this work in serial, books as art and the cover from an Islamic text (the text was not saved, only the ornate cover) along with other items of equal rarity and interest..