Friday 1 August 2008

Barbican Art Library Revisited

Friday, August 1











(source)

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I emailed Children's Librarian Amanda Owens, but didn't receive any reply right away, so I decided to just get in the tube and go down to talk with a librarian about the Art Library. When I arrived, I starting talking to a man behind the counter who looked familiar. It was Jonathan Gibbs the IT Librarian our group met during the Friday, July 10 group tour. We spoke for awhile about the Art Library and he said that he didn't know any specifics about the Art section but gave me the email for the Art Librarian who was on holiday for 2 weeks. I thanked him for the contact and went over to the Art Library to analyse its contents.

While walking through the stacks, I found/discovered a rack of daily newspapers, and 7 shelves of magazines, which consisted of Art Monthly, Art Review, The Artist, The Burlington Magazine (British art and art gallery information), Crafts, Frieze (Contemporary Art & Culture), Practical Photography, Film Review (movie reviews), Empire (empireonlin.com), The world's biggest movie magazine, and variious other magazines on fashion, health, literature (Literary Review), nature , news, sports, etc. Next, I looked through the book stacks and found them sectioned-off as: Reference, Art History 700, Town Planning 711, Garden Design 712.6, Architecture 720, Churches 726, Houses and Castles 728, Sculpture 730, Coins and Medals 737, Pottery and Porcelain 738, Jewellery 739.27, Drawing Skills 741, Cartoons 741.5, Posters 741.67, Crafts 745.5, Calligraphy 745.6, Fower Arranging 745.92, Needlework 746, Fashion and Style 746.92, Interior Design 747, Glass 748, Antique Furniture 749, Painting Skills 751, Impressionism 759.054, American Art 759.1, British Art 759.2, World Art 759.3, Prints 760, Stamp Collecting 769.56, Photography 770, Entertainers 791.092, Cinema 791.43, Screen Plays 91.437, Radio 791.44, Television 791.45, Theatre 792, Music Hall 792.7, and Ballet and Dance 792.8. I also noticed a display of mixed-genre books by the edge of the balcony and stairs, between Theatre and Ballet & Dance.

An interesting thing I noticed was the Magazine Swap box. It's a red, plastic storage crate with a sign on it that reads:
Magazine Swap: Do you have any magazines at home?
Want to give them a good home? Then drop them in
the boxes for others to read!
Also seen was a variety of records, agendas, financial statements, and notes of city government, trusts, and other reated committee documents. These items were all in an upright folder-type open storage unit near the newspapers.
After viewing the whole of the Art Library, I went back to the desk where Jonathan Biggs (IT Librarian) was sitting and talked a little more, than left to get some lunch in the Barbican restaurant.

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