Information Scotland The Journal of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland ISSN 1743-5471 Issue contents | Journal contents | About the online edition of the journal December 2004 Volume 2 (6)

Library history

Access to the past

A fascinating research project investigating Edzell Library in Angus has wider implications for library and information history in the UK. John Crawford explains.

Four students from The Robert Gordon University have been awarded £500 from the James G. Ollé Student Scholarship to carry out research into the library at Edzell, an attractive holiday village at the foot of the Grampians in Angus. The library is one of the best preserved examples of a late-nineteenth century public library surviving anywhere in the UK.

The award is named after the late James G. Ollé, an inspirational teacher of library history at Loughborough University for many years. It is intended to encourage research into library and information history by students in departments of information science in the UK.

Gillian Adamson, Clare Greig, Ashley Lardner and Stuart Peers who are studying the MSc in Information and Library Studies at the Department of Information Management, at RGU's Aberdeen Business School will each carry out research at Edzell public library.

Edzell Library, located in the Inglis Memorial Hall, contains the original stock, in the region of 6,000 volumes which were gifted to the library when it opened in 1898. The collection was gifted to the Parishes of Edzell, Lethnot and Navar and Lochlee by Lieutenant-Colonel R.W. Inglis.

The project includes an investigation into the movement from parochial to public libraries in Angus during the nineteenth century and the role played by the benevolent philanthropy of the 'lairdarchy', beginning with collections such as that of Thomas Guthrie in Arbirlot in the 1830s and concluding with the gift of Edzell library itself by Lieutenant-Colonel R.W. Inglis in 1898.

The research will also investigate the 1898 catalogue of holdings in Edzell and the subject coverage of small to medium-sized rural public libraries in Scotland at the end of the nineteenth/beginning of the twentieth century.

An interactive website is being created to include contemporary and historic photographs of the library. The site will also provide a brief history of the collection, the Printed Catalogues and membership rules. The website will aim to bring the library to a wider audience and thus aid its permanent survival. When completed the website will be hosted by the LIHG website.

Research also involves the analysis of loans held to create a database of the books borrowed at Edzell to establish the trends indicating the interests and preoccupations of the local library-going public over the period covered. The Library is fortunate in having a complete surviving Cotgreave Indicator (above). The books were on closed access and the Indicator 'indicated' to users which books were on loan. Each title had its own individual loan record which survives today.

The projects began in June 2004 and run to the end of the year with publication of findings in 2005. Angus Libraries are fully supportive of their ideas and will provide workspace and various facilities for the students.

Dr Reid, Senior Lecturer and Postgraduate Programme Manager at RGU's Department of Information Management and project supervisor says: "The research represents an opportunity to further the investigation of Edzell Library which is, perhaps, a unique survivor from the nineteenth century. The Library and Information History Group (LIHG) has been interested for many years in preserving the physical artefacts of Edzell library and it has been suggested that it is the nearest thing we have to a museum of public librarianship in the United Kingdom.

"These investigations will not only bring the collection to the notice of a wider audience but in doing so will also further attempts to ensure its survival for future generations."

The work has wider policy implications for library and information history in the UK for the LIHG is currently working on an access to sources policy for primary sources on British library and information history. CILIP's recently completed archives policy is a key component of this policy and the LIHG website can be developed to highlight existing online resources.

The term 'source' is interpreted broadly and includes physical resources in the form of historic libraries or artefacts derived from them. LIHG is interested in the idea of virtual tours of historic libraries which will, to some extent, obviate the need for physical visits and make their importance easy to grasp.

The Edzell project therefore represents a valuable pilot study towards developing this idea.

Dr John Crawford is Library Research Officer, Glasgow Caledonian University.

Information Scotland Vol. 2 (6) December 2005

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