Monday, August 30, 2010

Maughan Library, King's College London

Our last library visit was the King's College Maughan Library. I found it fitting that the last library we visited was our "home." I was surprised to learn that the Maughan has only been in the current location since 2001! The building used to be the Public Records Office, so it was purpose built for that. This lends itself to being good storage space but not necessarily the best working space. So many doors!

The library holds 750,000 items and serves 20,000 students. We also got to visit the Foyle Special Collections Library which holds items from the 15th century to the present. Sadly, they have no in house conservation despite having some pretty impressive holdings. They, like many other libraries, only digitize their unique items due to funding.

My favorite thing about the Maughan is that they have a vinyl collection! I am an avid vinyl collector and I love that it is making a comeback and that some libraries are aware of how valuable a resource vinyl records can be.

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