langcliffe
Well-known member
This is being posted on behalf of Jenny Potts.
Library Use
The use of the Library continues to increase steadily, particularly the number of visitors who appreciate the facilities we provide: use of a computer, scanning, printing, copying, WiFi, etc; help in finding items in advance of a visit to save time and on-site help for our visitors.
The chart shows the progress in enquiries and visits for the years 2010 to 2016. Additionally, during the first 4 months of 2017 we have welcomed a further 27 visitors to BCL and answered 38 more emailed enquiries. Last year for enquiries the ratio of straightforward copies to items requiring research was 65:35; this year it is approaching 50:50. We receive an increasing number of enquiries from abroad. Enquiries are handled by the Librarian, Mary Wilde.
The Library is also used for meetings of BCRA Council and BCA Training Committees and is able to accommodate meetings of up to 12 people.
Increases in Holdings
We now hold over 400 runs of UK periodicals and also periodicals from 51 different foreign countries (with over 400 titles), including 35 received in regular exchanges for BCRA Caves & Karst Science. We have over 1750 books and now hold collections of unpublished cave science theses, sets of documents from caving organisations, International Congress Proceedings, expedition reports, DVDs, etc. We also have an increasing number of archive items: log books, photographic collections, etc. and have recently received a donation of a number of cave surveys of varying vintage to add to our existing collection, which already runs to well over 1000.
We are gradually integrating the John Beck collection into the Library holdings and this includes probably yet a further 1000 cave surveys, as well as journals and books. The Doug Nash collection of items of mining historical interest has been passed to the Peak District Mines Historical Society or, in the case of original records, to the Derbyshire Record Office.
In order to house all this we have increased our shelf length from its original 70m (when BCL was ?the BCRA Library?) to 250m, the maximum we can fit in the space currently available at Glutton Bridge, and we also now have 6 map chests holding surveys and maps as well as 2 cupboards and 4 filing cabinets.
We receive regular donations of books, journals, surveys and other material and, where these are duplicates of our own holdings, we try to pass them on to other caving libraries or else to the general caving public by ?lucky dip? at caving events, the proceedings from which are spent on library acquisitions. (The Lucky Dip at Eurospeleo2016 raised over ?400, much of it from our foreign visitors; some overseas Librarians were particularly pleased to find we could supply items from their country which they did not have themselves.)
More recently we have acquired some archive material from the late Robert Leakey, though this was fragmentary and unsorted, and we are grateful to Andy Chapman for going through this for us and creating a preliminary catalogue.
The Library On-line
BCL has an increasing on-line presence, firstly with the on-line catalogue and bibliography, which is maintained by Martin Laverty from update records from the Librarian and me, which are emailed on to him.
John Gardner has steadily increased the holdings of the very popular on-line Audio Archive, comprising over 30 hours of fascinating interviews with cavers past and present. John is also responsible for the BCRA Archives, a collection of digitised archive material, which is also gradually being added to. More recently he has created and maintains an on-line Register of Caving Collections, allowing researchers to track down not only BCL?s and BCRA?s archives, but also various collections of interest to cavers available on-line or, in some cases, as collections of log books, documents, etc. held by museums or other libraries. Where possible there are links to other online collections, including the BSA/Eli Simpson archives held by BGS.
All these facilities are accessible via the Library website: caving-library.org.uk
Where we are now
The British Caving Library now has a far higher profile and is far more part of the mainstream of the British caving world than ever before. We have an international presence, contributing to the UIS Informatics Commission Publications Exchange Working Group. An expression of faith in our perceived permanence is that a Derbyshire caving club last year transferred their entire Library to us. The Library Facebook page, set up by the Librarian, now has over 900 followers, including a number from abroad - that means over 900 people in the caving world who are actively interested in what we are doing.
British Caving Library (BCL) Report to BCA AGM 2017
Library Use
The use of the Library continues to increase steadily, particularly the number of visitors who appreciate the facilities we provide: use of a computer, scanning, printing, copying, WiFi, etc; help in finding items in advance of a visit to save time and on-site help for our visitors.
The chart shows the progress in enquiries and visits for the years 2010 to 2016. Additionally, during the first 4 months of 2017 we have welcomed a further 27 visitors to BCL and answered 38 more emailed enquiries. Last year for enquiries the ratio of straightforward copies to items requiring research was 65:35; this year it is approaching 50:50. We receive an increasing number of enquiries from abroad. Enquiries are handled by the Librarian, Mary Wilde.
The Library is also used for meetings of BCRA Council and BCA Training Committees and is able to accommodate meetings of up to 12 people.
Increases in Holdings
We now hold over 400 runs of UK periodicals and also periodicals from 51 different foreign countries (with over 400 titles), including 35 received in regular exchanges for BCRA Caves & Karst Science. We have over 1750 books and now hold collections of unpublished cave science theses, sets of documents from caving organisations, International Congress Proceedings, expedition reports, DVDs, etc. We also have an increasing number of archive items: log books, photographic collections, etc. and have recently received a donation of a number of cave surveys of varying vintage to add to our existing collection, which already runs to well over 1000.
We are gradually integrating the John Beck collection into the Library holdings and this includes probably yet a further 1000 cave surveys, as well as journals and books. The Doug Nash collection of items of mining historical interest has been passed to the Peak District Mines Historical Society or, in the case of original records, to the Derbyshire Record Office.
In order to house all this we have increased our shelf length from its original 70m (when BCL was ?the BCRA Library?) to 250m, the maximum we can fit in the space currently available at Glutton Bridge, and we also now have 6 map chests holding surveys and maps as well as 2 cupboards and 4 filing cabinets.
We receive regular donations of books, journals, surveys and other material and, where these are duplicates of our own holdings, we try to pass them on to other caving libraries or else to the general caving public by ?lucky dip? at caving events, the proceedings from which are spent on library acquisitions. (The Lucky Dip at Eurospeleo2016 raised over ?400, much of it from our foreign visitors; some overseas Librarians were particularly pleased to find we could supply items from their country which they did not have themselves.)
More recently we have acquired some archive material from the late Robert Leakey, though this was fragmentary and unsorted, and we are grateful to Andy Chapman for going through this for us and creating a preliminary catalogue.
The Library On-line
BCL has an increasing on-line presence, firstly with the on-line catalogue and bibliography, which is maintained by Martin Laverty from update records from the Librarian and me, which are emailed on to him.
John Gardner has steadily increased the holdings of the very popular on-line Audio Archive, comprising over 30 hours of fascinating interviews with cavers past and present. John is also responsible for the BCRA Archives, a collection of digitised archive material, which is also gradually being added to. More recently he has created and maintains an on-line Register of Caving Collections, allowing researchers to track down not only BCL?s and BCRA?s archives, but also various collections of interest to cavers available on-line or, in some cases, as collections of log books, documents, etc. held by museums or other libraries. Where possible there are links to other online collections, including the BSA/Eli Simpson archives held by BGS.
All these facilities are accessible via the Library website: caving-library.org.uk
Where we are now
The British Caving Library now has a far higher profile and is far more part of the mainstream of the British caving world than ever before. We have an international presence, contributing to the UIS Informatics Commission Publications Exchange Working Group. An expression of faith in our perceived permanence is that a Derbyshire caving club last year transferred their entire Library to us. The Library Facebook page, set up by the Librarian, now has over 900 followers, including a number from abroad - that means over 900 people in the caving world who are actively interested in what we are doing.
Jenny Potts, BCRA Library Co-ordinator,
3rd. May 2017
3rd. May 2017
