Caird Library: National Maritime Museum

The trip to Greenwich was a nice change of pace.  Instead of buses and tubes, the class traveled via a leisure boat ride on the Thames.  Traveling by boat is a great way to see the city without fighting through the hoards of crowds and traffic.
     Greenwich is simply lovely; a relaxing and subdued break from the never ending movement that is London.  The Caird Archive and  Library is located within the National Maritime Museum.  The library and archive is funded mainly through the museum, with a small amount of monies coming from the central government.  The library is named for John Caird who acquired and donated items with the intention to form a maritime museum and archive.  The current building housing the collections is bright, airy and modern.  The reading room houses a general reference collection as well as computers, scanners, copiers, and amble work space, including work surfaces and supports designed for large format items.  Patrons request specific materials via an online catalog, which are then located and retrieved by staff. 
      The collection consists of approximately 12000 linear meters of materials, which includes, approximately 100000 printed books, 12000 rare books and 80000 maps and charts.  Materials are stored according to type and by format, i.e. books, boxes, oversized, and un-cataloged.  The library does have a backlog of un-cataloged materials.  Priority in cataloging is given to high public demand pieces.  Every acquisitions request must include the number of hours required to properly catalog a piece for use.
      The library serves mainly academic or university funded researchers.  However, there is a large number of patrons who uses the collection for family history research.  There are also researchers who are pursuing personal research. 
       Prior to our tour of the library facilities, our guide was able to show and explain to us several pieces from the collections.  Among these were a letter by Lord Nelson, a wonderful travel journal with watercolors depicting African landscapes, flora and fauna, and a early nineteenth century surgeons textbook.  The diversity of materials clearly highlighted the breadth of the collections and the types of researchers who can utilize it.
      After the tour, we were given time to tour the museum, and to make the trek up to the Royal Observatory.  Housed in Greenwich Park, the Old Royal Observatory is famed for the Prime Meridian.  While the museum and exhibits were interesting, particularly the one incorporating Steam Punk, the true joy comes from simply wandering around the park and taking in the spectacular views of London.