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The National Art Library at the Victoria & Albert Museum

Today's visit was to the National Art Library where we were treated to a selection from their special library collection and a tour of their space.

The National Art Library is located in the Victoria & Albert Museum, overlooking a pair of beautiful public reading rooms. Their extensive art and design reference collection include, among others, books, magazines, comics, art books, and auction house sales catalogues. Among these are several true treasures, including materials by Shakespeare, Dickens, and DaVinci.


One of the National Art Library's Reading Rooms
We stopped first to see the special collection items. Our guide showed to us and described several styles of books, allowing us a close up look at some of the library's unique and curious items. My favourite was a peep-show book. It's a series of image plates connected by fabric, each with a hole in the middle. By looking through the hole you can see multiple layers of prints create a complex image. 


I also loved the example of Book Art she provided. Book Art plays with the concept of what is a book, whether structurally or conceptually. The example our host showcased was the Word Pharmacy, a play on medication bottles that package words rather than pills. Included in each box was a medical warning-style sheet warning against the side-effect of words. 


After a chance to hear about and look at the special items we were given a tour of the library. Books line the walls of two large reading rooms and are tucked away behind the scenes in several large storage areas. The library uses their own classification system to organize their items. If someone from the public requires an item they request it from the library staff who will retrieve it, typically within 90 minutes. Some of the items - children's materials and the modern collection, for example - are stored offsite due to the library's lack of onsight space. The library storage area has already expanded several times because their collection continues to expand. While they have an annual budget of £175,000, 60% of their collection is donated. 

They are in the process of digitizing many of the items for their database, something that the librarians believe may contribute to their recent rise in annual visitors. It certainly does seem to be a popular space - while we were there dozens of people filled the reading rooms, surrounded by materials and computers. With their broad collection and beautiful location, it's no wonder that the National Art Library is as busy as it is.

Behind the scenes storage of bound periodicals


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