 | a bibliographical newsletter Issue 10 September 2019 |
This issue follows hard on the heels of the previous one. It is devoted to a single important notice:
Local heritage collections and the Devon
bibliography
A home is being sought for the Devon bibliography within an
organisation which could maintain and develop it for the benefit all those who
have an interest in Devon 's published
heritage. The compiler is anxious that this work is not lost but is no longer able to maintain it in its present form. In an age of austerity this would probably have to be undertaken
through a collaborative project involving a wide range of stakeholders. This
paper presents:
1. The contents and structure of
the Devon bibliography
2. A survey of the present state
of local studies provision in Devon
3. A possible way forward.
1. The Devon bibliography
The bibliography is currently
freely available on the internet at devon-bibliography.blogspot.com.
It was started in its present form in 2015 when it became apparent that the
work of the Westcountry Studies Library in collecting and documenting Devon's
published heritage was being inadequately continued and there was no other
public institution dedicated to recording the wealth of Devon
publications that appears day by day. The bibliography is however the fruit of
half a century of research into book history both internationally and more particularly
with a strong Devon focus.
The Devon bibliography contains approximately 100,000 records:
- Articles – in periodicals and essay collections 1800 to date, (7,500 records).
- Books –
printed and published volumes, pamphlets, digital documents and many
ephemeral items including broadside ballads and early election ephemera
relating to
- Collections – large and small collections of published material from thousands of items to individual volumes of pamphlets and cuttings albums, (250 records).
- Illustrations – mainly published topographical prints but also engraved or lithographed portraits and some early published photographs 1600-1880, (4,500 records).
- Manuscripts – also unpublished typescripts of a non-archival nature 950 to date, (3,700 records).
- Maps – including individual records for large-scale Ordnance Survey sheets, 1570 to date, (19,000 records).
- Newspapers – with locations of surviving files, 1704-date, (450 records).
- Periodicals – and other serials, including annual publications 1750 to date, (1,800 records).
- Theses –
whose subject matter relates to Devon; not all theses presented to
- Websites – but normally excluding digital documents which are listed as books, (1,500 records).
Linked to the bibliography are:
- Gazetteer – an authority file of place-names to facilitate the production of listings covering the catchment areas of major communities.
- Thesaurus – an authority file of subject terms to facilitate the production of listings covering wider subject areas.
- Imprint
registers for many
- Biographical
listings for Exonians, the Devon book trades and
There are also non-local bibliographical
listings for:
- Heritage
Collections in
- The
Baring-Gould Libraries at Lewtrenchard,
- Broadside ballads collected by Baring-Gould with images of most items.
- Registers of book trade personnel with world-wide coverage.
These are mostly held on a series
of Excel spreadsheets using a record format that takes account of international
standards such as RDA (replacing AACR2), MARC21 and the Dublin Core. As well as
the bibliographical description of the resource itself, locations are given in
libraries, museums and archives in Devon and
beyond, and also subject descriptors using a system developed for local studies
resources in the Westcountry Studies Library.
At intervals these records are
exported as tab delimited text files onto html web pages on the Devon bibliography website.
The source code of these pages can be freely copied into spreadsheets. The
bibliography is thus in effect currently archived online.
The backbone of the bibliography
is the Devon and also the general Westcountry records
on the Devon County Council on-line local studies library catalogue, now
replaced by the SWHT on-line catalogue. Records for Somerset ,
Cornwall , Dorset, Bristol
and the Channel Islands were not downloaded.
The downloads were made in haste when it became clear that the catalogue was to
be withdrawn, but unfortunately only skeleton records could be downloaded in
time. These are being upgraded and supplemented from other sources such as JISC
Library Hub Discover (formerly COPAC), the British National Bibliography and
the Exeter University
and Devon and Exeter Institution. There is
therefore much rationalisation, merging of duplicate records, splitting of
files and upgrading of records to be undertaken.
2. The present state of local studies collections in Devon
More details can be found in the
article "Re-imagining local studies in Devon : reclaiming the local community's published
heritage in an age of austerity" which has recently been published on-line in
the journal Global
Knowledge, Memory and Communication in an issue devoted to community archives. A copy
in Word format is available from the author if the content is not accessible on-line.
The present paper concentrates on Exeter , which
would be the best location for any institution which might maintain the Devon bibliography. The Devon
bibliography now contains a list
of 500 heritage resource providers which goes some way to providing a list
of potential stakeholders.
2.1 Libraries
2.1.1. Westcountry Studies Library. This remains the largest public
collection of local studies resources in the county. Formerly it employed two
professionally qualified staff and at least two full-time equivalent assistants.
It also had the benefit of other library departments in seeking out and
ordering materials. It co-ordinated local studies library provision across the
80 or so public libraries in Devon (Plymouth and
Torbay later became unitary authorities). This
included the production of a monthly bibliographical newsletter used for book
selection for branches and lending. The Devon section of this was cumulated in
the annual published Devon bibliography from 1985 to 2004. The
last staff member taken over from Devon Libraries (as an archive assistant) retired
in July 2019 and there is now no designated local studies librarian anywhere in
Devon (outside Plymourh). While the existing collection is safe there are insufficient resources to maintain and develop it, although SWHT hope to promote the
collection within the Devon Heritage Centre.
2.1.2. Devon and Exeter Exeter , but it is only fully accessible to subscribing members
or students at the University
of Exeter University of Exeter
2.1.3. University
of Exeter Devon and Exeter Institution the main
collecting activities for local studies. The material is well catalogued by
professional staff and the "classic catalogue" is easy to search and
can produce listings of records for personal use.
2.1.4. Libraries Unlimited. This organisation is responsible for
about 50 public libraries in Devon (including Torbay but not Plymouth North Devon area library with a local studies collection
in the local studies centre shared with the North Devon Record Office and North
Devon Athenaeum collection. Bideford, Tiverton, Newton Abbot, Exmouth and of
course Torquay, recently taken over by Libraries Unlimited, also have
significant local collections. While Exeter Library has no reference collection
of local studies material, there is a small community information section and a
good lending stock. There are also branch libraries in Exeter
at Pinhoe, Topsham and Saint Thomas Devon
to maintain or co-ordinate these branch collections.
2.1.5. Exeter Devon . It has rich
manuscript, archival and printed collections, largely but not entirely limited
to religion and theology. There are many early locally published items.
The collections are well catalogued and are extensively used by researchers.
2.2. Record offices
There are three public record
offices in Devon, in Exeter , Barnstaple and Plymouth Exeter also administers Torbay 's archives and holds the National Meteorological
Office archives. There is also a network of twenty service points, normally
based in museums rather than libraries. As well as archives and non-archival
manuscripts the repositories also hold much published or printed material but this is not
always easy to isolate from within the deposits, nor is it catalogued to bibliographical
standards that are compatible with those used in libraries.
2.3. Museums
Museums provide the largest network of
local studies service points across the county but many of them close out of
season and charge for admission and for use of documentary collections, which
sometimes includes files of the local newspaper. Many of the local studies library
collections are considerable, for example those of Torquay or Tiverton Museums Royal Albert
Memorial Museum
in Exeter Major Partner Museum Devon .
2.4. Local history societies
The
Devon History Society, has 62 affiliated organisations, but knows of at least a
further 43 groups active in the county who are unaffiliated – a total exceeding
100. While not all of these have archives of their own, many members have great
expertise and often considerable collections are scattered across the
community. Members provide a rich source of volunteers and their research
interests do not take them solely to the major centres in Exeter ,
Plymouth , Barnstaple
or Torquay but also to more local resource centres. The University of the Third Age also has history groups, some of which undertake local research.
2. 5. Community archives
There
are perhaps 25 community archives in Devon .
These do not deal in archives as strictly defined, some being devoted
principally to collecting images, for example the Totnes Image Bank has a
database of some 60,000 images. The Devon Rural Archive has been undertaking an
extensive survey and documentation of manor houses in the county. The Beaford
Archive is one of the largest, a photographic record of people in rural North Devon , containing more than 80,000 images by James
Ravilious and Roger Deakins. Largest of all is the South West Image Bank, made
up of some 200 individual collections and close to one million negatives,
including those of the Western Morning
News newspaper. They often derive from Manpower Services Commission or
National Lottery funded projects, sometimes initiated by local studies
organisations and linked to local museums. They are normally maintained by
volunteers. Many are registered with Archon and have received
accreditation.
2.6. Other local information centres and
local authorities
There
are some 35 tourist information centres across the county, local authorities at
regional, county, district, town and parish level, public utilities, health,
police, fire and rescue services, research bodies in universities and other
education centres, historical and archaeological bodies, often attached to
museums and many other organisations that produce or distribute documentation.
2.7. Booksellers, publishers and the media
These
are all users, providers and distributors of information on a daily basis, but
much of the local information they produce is not permanently retained within
the county. While newspaper and media websites maintain an archive these are
not always easy to search and website archives such as the Wayback Machine do
not archive the entire contents of many websites.
The above shows an active local
studies and heritage scene but when it comes to the public local studies
service in Devon the picture is a lack of designated and qualified staff, lack
of resource funding, lack of co-ordination and also the lack of a publicly
accessible and professionally staffed research point in the centre of Exeter,
the county's and some would say the region's, capital.
3. A possible strategy
Local
studies in Devon should cease to be under the
umbrella of the archives service and transfer to museums. Its centre of
administration and operations should be located in Exeter ,
Devon 's county town. Local studies are by
definition locally focused and that makes engagement with the local community
essential and the network of museums is better equipped for this. Museums have a wider remit than archives.
It is not just that they collect artefacts, works of art and specimens; their
subject coverage is wider, frequently including the region's environment,
geology, natural history, art and literature. They include contemporary and
secondary source material in their collections while archives, by the strict
definition that guides the work of major record offices, tend to limit their
collecting to documents of an historical nature. While the Royal Albert
Memorial Museum
is already providing a co-ordinating role in Devon
to which local studies documentation could be added, it may not be one that it
could take on as part of its core duties. Arts
Council England is the body that funds both the RAMM and other museums in Devon through the South West Museum Development
Partnership and a Community Museums Officer. Such a co-ordinating role could
become a part of that officer's duties, the network of collaborators being set
up in co-ordination with the Devon Museums Group, the Devon History Society,
Libraries Unlimited and other stakeholder bodies.
The move of a co-ordinating role for local studies from
libraries or archives to museums in Devon does not envisage the moving of existing collections but the
establishment of a small co-ordinating body to advise on current publications
and maintain a retrospective union listing of non-archival documentation,
particularly published material, both in printed and digital form, giving
locations in museums, libraries and archives across the county. While attached
for administrative purposes to museums, its activities could be based in a
library in Exeter (the Devon and Exeter
Institution or Exeter Library) or at the University of Exeter
The
body would set up and edit an on-line database with password access for
publishers and cataloguers in collections across Devon
to add to and amend records – not so much a bibliography as a wikiography. The
structure would be compatible with standard bibliographical practices such as
RDA: (Resource Description and Access which replaces AACR2), MARC and the
Dublin Core metadata initiative while avoiding the complex coding and
proprietary formats involved with many software applications - as most of the
contributors will be volunteers, any system must be kept as simple as possible.
It should also be possible to produce listings with full bibliographical
details which can be freely downloaded by researchers. At present there is no
existing database or online library catalogue that fulfils these criteria, nor
are the policies of individual libraries geared to the maintenance of a union
catalogue covering the range of material required for a regional bibliography.
Such
a database would reveal gaps in collecting and it is here that museums could
become repositories of such published material, although they may decide to
maintain core collections in branch libraries to ensure year-round access. Much
of the currently available material is cheap or even free of charge or can be
downloaded once identified. It has visual appeal, and items will become
historical artefacts and source material in their own right. Printed or
published documents form a part of many museum displays in Devon .
The
setting up of such a union listing could be the result of a project funded by
the National Lottery, Arts Council or other sources:
1. To select and acquire a
suitable software package
to run a database or spreadsheet initially of between 100,000 and 200,000 records.
It should be capable of being remotely updated on-line, of being searched as
one integrated database and of providing reports
of sections of the database for the use of researchers.
2. To load a base file of records including locations of each publication listed. Alan
Brockett's The Devon
union list (DUL): a collection of written material relating to the county of
Devon (Exeter: The
University Library, 1977) gives locations for more than 8,000 items in six
major libraries in Exeter, Plymouth and Torquay and a file
of some 100,000 records is available on the Devon
Bibliography (2018) which could also assist in this. As mentioned, the Devon
Bibliography archive is freely available online as in a series of
html text files which can be downloaded as tab delimited files.
3. To edit and enhance the content of
the database once the initial data is
loaded.
4. To survey existing collections across
Devon
in libraries, museums, community archives and elsewhere and incorporate them as
appropriate into the database, initially at collection level.
5. To survey current
producers of literature: publishers, research bodies, local authorities,
local history societies, museums, tourist information centres, media, writers
and others and encourage them to co-operate with the project, where appropriate
donating a copy of their publications to a collection in the county. Unlike in
many other countries there is no system of regional legal deposit in England
6. To communicate findings
of the surveys in order
to encourage participation in recording the county's published output. This
could be done through a local studies periodical or blog, printed or on-line.
7. To draw up training
programmes for participants. In the present circumstances there is no library in a position to
maintain a regional bibliography and union list, so collaborative effort,
including volunteers will be required.
8. To assess sources of
funding to sustain and
continue the project.
The project officer would preferably be a qualified librarian
with experience or interest in local studies. An assistant might also be required to assist in the surveys, edit records
and maintain communication with participants across the county. It is envisaged
that such a project would last at least 12-18 months.
To
maintain the work after the project's completion
on-going funding would be required to employ a local studies liaison officer to
edit and develop the bibliographical database. As networks would have already
been set up and no public service point would be maintained, a single member of
staff assisted by volunteers across Devon
should be sufficient. Funding could be through shared contributions from local
authorities (county, district and town councils), museums, libraries and other
interested bodies. Publishers might also see the benefit of their output being
more actively promoted, perhaps through on-line or published newsletters and
listings.
There is a wealth of local expertise and enthusiasm in local
organisations across the county. There is also a need for researchers to be
able to access and locate local documentation in a structured and reliable form
and for that documentation to be located and collected for posterity.
This
proposal is dictated by the effects of austerity. The position prior to 2011
was in general far more satisfactory. However, should more propitious times
return it is hoped that the present proposal could see an enhanced role for the
local studies service back in the libraries sector.
Ian Maxted
August 2019
