Put on your Cold War Duds, We're Going to the Barbican!

Barbican Complex: Photo Courtesy of The Londonist

Today we were headed to the Barbican, a cold war concrete fortress that I can only describe using photos. All that and more? That's Barbican, or part of it. After the Germans bombed London City, which is different from the greater London area, there was very little left, and so the English built the Barbican Center. It's multi-level, built on plague pits where they buried the dead and it has EVERYTHING. Everything including a yellow line leading people from the tube station to the middle of the center in case they get lost in a literal concrete jungle. It has a movie theater, athletic facilities, a theater theater, restaurants, a library, and right now the world's biggest James Bond exhibit. We weren't concerned with any of that though; we were there for the library.

The Library

 The Barbican public library is impressive and I'm not saying that to be nice. They have a massive collection and a number of really interesting programs. The Barbican is located right across from St. Giles church, where none other than one John Milton is buried, and offers a mobile library on top of its physical lending. Our tour was conducted by librarians Geraldine Pote and Jonathan Gibbs. The library has existed in some form on this general site since the 1400's when it was founded by Dick Whittington. Unfamiliar with Whittingon? Allow the excellent British children's show, Horrible Histories, to enlighten you:

So, in addition to being a star of panto (Christmas Pageants done in Britain), Whittington founded the Barbican library. It didn't become a lending library though until the 1960's. Most of the libraries that we went to weren't lending libraries even today, so the Barbican stands out as a unique place in both location and services. In addition to their regular public library, it also has a substantial music library, a children's section, and a large collection of books dating back longer than the US has been a country.

The library uses the Dewey Decimal system to catalog its large collection of over 9,000 books. The oldest book that one can take out of the library is from 1730. Their catalog is searchable by non-members, and even has a cool "who writes like this section" that will help to steer you toward the right book for you.

 Unlike many libraries in the US, to take a DVD out of the Barbican library you have to pay a small fee. Older films are a quid for a week of use, while newer films go for a slightly higher price. If the fee is too much for you, e-books and audio books are available for lending free of charge, and educational videos are free to rent regardless of how new they are. The librarians added that they'd love to be able to offer a streaming service, but there is no infrastructure to augment the process and companies like Amazon have rather taken over the market.

In order to get a library card at the Barbican you don't have to be a resident of the City of London, you just have to demonstrate that you will be coming to the library on a semi-often basis. Once the library has determined that you can be reasonably expected to be at the library occasionally you'll be awarded a library card. The books are one thing - you can get new releases in a variety of genres or take books out of the London Collection (their oldest books)
- but it is the services that really make the Barbican special.

The Services 

Of all of the really interesting things about the Barbican it's their services that I found to be the most eye opening and valuable of the trip there. I'm not training for public librarianship, but I admire the work that's done in public libraries and the services that they make available to their patrons. 

Online Lending and New Technology 

Their online lending system of choice is Cobra, and if you can't make it to library, but you'd still like to take some books out, they offer delivery services of materials to the elderly and the disabled. This is the first time I've heard of a program like that but I'll be sure to investigate it once I'm back to the states. One system the librarians are very proud of is the RFID system or, Radio Frequency Identification, which allows check out, returns and renewals using radio waves. The system works on just about any book, so long as there isn't any foil on them. Foil tends to thwart the whole process. The RFID machines use a touchscreen interface, which could be problematic for patrons with special needs, but there are still people available to check patrons out in the traditional way.

Children's Programs

 One of the notable book programs in the Barbican, and the UK at large, is the Book Start program, which provides a few books to children at their birth, and then more when they reach three years. This is meant to get children started on reading early on and seems to be an excellent program. On top of that the children's library runs a number of well-attended story time groups, and participates in a Young Reader's Program that offers prizes to the most well-read children over the summer. The Barbican also sports one of the country's largest public music libraries. Opened in 1983, the collection of the library was built up through donations from various collectors across the UK and today houses 16,000 scores. They have popular ones, like Adele, as well as rare and obscure English music. They've created their own song index for use within the library and have a file index of local music teachers that patrons can view in an attempt to find an instructor for themselves. With practice pianos and private listening booths, the music library serves patrons from all over London and gives access to an area that is, unfortunately for many, a luxury. In addition to their library services, the Barbican also runs several notable community programs; reading groups (with waiting lists), a crafting circle, and a music group make up just a few.

The Music Library 

Geraldine and Jonathan passed us over to Assistant Librarian Richard Jones for the tour of the music library. 

The music library opened at the Barbican in 1983 and is one of two large musical libraries in London, not the city of (which like I said at the top is a small burrow) but London proper. This seems only fitting as London is considered by many to be the classical music capital of the world. Between multiple concerts all year round and the phenomenal Proms series of concerts done every year at the Royal Albert Hall, it seems natural that London would have a music library like the one found at the Barbican. 

Run by a dedicated team of 5 librarians, the Music Library has a large reference library, approximately 16,000 scores from all over the world (including a great number of obscure British compositions), listening cubicles for students, researchers and music lovers, a range of periodicals (most given to the library for free by publishers), and 50,000 cds - just to name some of their items.

To organize their collection, the library sends many scores out to be
professionally bound, allowing them to survive longer despite multiple users, and has created an easily searchable song index for patrons to use.

To me the most interesting feature of the music library were the two
practice pianos, both electronic and with headphone jacks to prevent noise pollution for other patrons. They are free to practice on and both were seeing heavy use while we toured the library. 

 Though it looks imposing the Barbican is a sweet, if concretey, place to spend an afternoon. Or several if you happen to get lost.

Barbican Library: photo courtesy of Ravish London

Links:

Barbican Library Website