As the class traveled via river taxi to Greenwich to visit the library of the Maritime Museum, I witnessed history being a protest over Britain’s future with the European Union of different size boats on the Thames. A fitting start to understand how events on water can be historical artifacts.
The start of the Maritime Museum is due to Rudyard Kipling and his maritime interest. He made the suggestion of the museum to the first director and donated 80 book to the collection.
The Caird Library is a special library of maritime interest.
Their reading room is adapted for both uses of a library and archives. The Universal Dewey classification system is used to catalog the collection of materials. Most of the inquires are of a naval nature. The library uses Aeon software for reader records. During a tour of the library, I learned about their conservation team working in the CPR (Collection Preservation Room).
Some of their collection is digitized; patrons still need to come in for rest of items. The collection consists of ship logs and mess memorabilia. Some specific collections are original correspondence of survivors of Titanic, Admiralty series, and Office copy of Master’s certificates. Some electronic resources are digital newspapers and State papers.
The information in the library is valuable to genealogists due to Britain’s global empire over hundreds of years. As I work in Interlibrary Loan, it is a highly requested subject to determine the time frame of a family’s history in the country.
Stacie's UK Tales 