Each year Special Collections closes for 2 weeks in the summer (when visitors are at their fewest) to undertake vital collections' maintenance work. This allows us to address those big, sometimes messy jobs as well as those that have just had to take a back burner during our more reactive months when we're teaching and hosting events. In a nutshell, all stuff that is difficult to do while we're open. Below we share some of the fortnight's activities that essentially boil down to getting it all out and putting it all back again (but neater, cleaner, more beautiful, and most importantly, more accessible)! And do read on for a surprise creative session using archives at the end...
DE-FRAMING
One of those big messy jobs, the closed fortnight allows us to get all our photographs and artworks out of old frames (for preservation purposes) and repackaged into acid-free sleeves. As you can imagine this also has a huge impact on space saving - frames take up an incredible amount of space!
MOVING & RE-ORGANISING
With different types of storage space at our disposal, there is a right place for everything and if something is used frequently we want it readily to hand for our readers, like the Art Design and Architecture journals below which are now stored in the reader room and organised beautifully!
And you can guarantee during the process, you always see something you've not picked up for a while, like this journal with a cheeky doodle most likely done by a previous owner or a student lost in thought when it was housed in the main library many decades ago! What I wanna know is, what is Reece Shearsmith from BBC's Inside No. 9 doing on the cover of a 1934 French design journal disguised in a pen beard, glasses and lipstick!
Our oversized books and some of our Sports and Fashion collections also found new homes more suited to their storage needs and items waiting to be cataloged were also neatly stacked and ready in line.
LISTING AND RE-CODING
Tanya, our ACE intern helped with organising and listing some of our large selection of records relating to the history of the university.
Tanya hard at work deep in the DMU files.
Since the archive was established in 2013 our collections have grown enormously and to accommodate this we have had to redesign our coding system so that it is fit for purpose and future proof. While this may not sound "essential" it will have a huge impact on how our catalogue and collections are organised going forward, thus making them more accessible and discoverable in the long term.
Example of a re-coded item. Thankfully, the whole code does not need changing, just the top level collection code.
DE-ACCESSIONING, SPACE SAVING AND ROOM FOR GROWTH
All archives have to manage their storage space, and predominantly use the the methods explained above. But sadly, we do not have Mary Poppins's carpet bag (another fan of a big tidy up), and it is important to not just keep things for the sake of it. In all seriousness, the way we weed collections is strictly controlled and items are assessed using criteria in accordance with standards set by recordkeeping bodies. For example, collection and item usage is considered, along with the importance and relevance of collections and whether they should be housed elsewhere, and whether they are in fact rare or unique. This can help us weed items that are readily available and provide vital growth room for collections that really need it.
De-accessioning down the stacks where many of the books in this collection are already held in the main library (and many other libraries across the UK) and therefore do not need Special Collections care.
WORKSHOP TRIAL: ZINE MAKING
And finally, Special Collections Manager, Katharine has been having some creative inspiration in relation to planning some new teaching sessions for next year. Using the team as guinea pigs (as well as providing us with a fun team-building session) for one day of the closure we all got to make our own zine. It could be on anything we wanted, it just had to be inspired by the archives! We all had a fabulous time cutting, sticking, crafting and making our own stories, and because they turned out so well, we will shortly be publishing a follow-up feature dedicated to zine making. It is hoped the trial can be developed for a number of subjects taught at DMU, from creative writing and art to fashion design.
Here's a very sneaky peek at just some of the zines made on the day.
What could be better than a good old tidy up and a craft session. Satisfying... Special Collections is now open for business as usual. Do pop along to see our neatly organised shelves.
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