Plan to close Imperial War Museum Research Library

[komata]

This doesn't seem to have made its way onto the forum, but as the IWM holds significant NZ-related military records, I have taken this from another forum I belong to , and, despite the November 14 2014 date, it is submitted for what it's worth: 

Note: Although this petition is organised by the 'Prospect' Union, and it is that organisation's members which will be effected by the closure, I believe that this is a matter which is supra-union and would result in the loss of irreplaceable  historical information.  It is on that basis that I have created this thread.  


(Dave H, if this is not appropriate for the forum, or is in the wrong place, please remove it or relocate it.  Thanks).
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'Leading authors and academics join fight to save Imperial War Museum library in WW1 centenary year

14 Nov 2014

More than 6,000 people from across the globe have signed the petition to save the Imperial War Museum’s library from closure.

More than 6,000 people including authors, academics, biographers, librarians and members of the public have signed the newly-launched petition to save the Imperial War Museum’s library from closure.

Prospect, which represents specialists at the museum, launched the petition after the closure plans emerged to deal with a £4m annual deficit resulting from government funding cuts. They also include the loss of up to 80 jobs, the closure of the popular Explore History service, and cuts to supported school visits to the museum’s sites at Duxford in Cambridgeshire and the Churchill War Rooms and HMS Belfast in London.

Prominent petition signatories include Alan Borg, former IWM director general; royal biographers Sarah Bradford and Robert Lace; Lord Asa Briggs, historian and Bletchley Park alumnus; author Richard Doherty; Clive Aslet, Country Life editor; black history author Stephen Bourne; and author Emily Mayhew. All emphasised the importance of the library in their work.

“I am horrified by the suggestion that the library might be closed and dispersed,” declared Borg, while Lord Briggs said he had used the facility many times over the past 40 years, adding: “The threatened cuts would be a disgrace… to the nation in this centenary year of the Great War.”

Author Doherty said the proposal to close the library was part of a trend. “Since the RUSI historical library was closed some years ago there has been an inexorable programme of library closures with collections dispersed to the four winds.”

As well as petition comments pointing to the importance of the library in illuminating the sacrifice of black and ethnic minorities in two world wars, others emphasised its importance in researching the role of women. “As a social historian specialising in pacifism and women’s roles in wartime, the IWM has been an invaluable resource,” said Anne Kramer.

Andy Bye, Prospect negotiator, said: “The comments on the petition website demonstrate the strength of public feeling against the museum’s short-sighted plans. A world without records is a world without memory.”

He added: “Museum staff have been greatly heartened by the public response and messages of support.”

Other signatories highlighted the role of the museum in helping to research family history. Michele Childers, grand-daughter-in-law of author and First World War diarist Robert Erskine Childers, said: “I know personally the importance of the library’s vital role in research and preservation of historical papers which have been a vital resource to historians, biographers and students as well as to our family.

“The work of gathering and maintaining this material has taken nearly 100 years and is today being carefully curated and made available to all by a uniquely knowledgeable and dedicated staff. Once gone, it can never be replaced.”

Referring to the museum’s recent £40m refurbishment, another signatory, Robert Foster, asked: “Why spend millions rebuilding the IWM to attract visitors and stimulate interest only to then cut a world class facility to save a fraction of that spent.”

The verdict of another, Alan Robinson was: “No other country – Canada, Australia, United States – would downgrade their national war museum. The government ought to be ashamed.”

To sign the petition and read the many hundreds of supportive comments see bit.ly/save_IWM'

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Presumably, as it isn't to late to sign the petition, submitted for FWIW; it would be an absolute tragedy to see one of the world's great military museums destroyed. 


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Source: Prospect [online]

<https://www.prospect.org.uk/news/id/2014/November/14/Wide-support-Imperial-War-Museum-campaign>
[accessed 29 January 2015]

[trx850]

Having used the library there, and used their research facilities several times, I feel this is a disgraceful action being contemplated by politicians!

I have signed the petition, and would encourage all with an interest in military research to do the same.

Pete M.

[John L]

How about trimming politicians wages to save the $4m - should be fairly easy.......

[komata]

This has been received today (7 February 2015); I believe it is self-explanatory

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'Library & Explore History saved - but petition remains open

Andy Bye

Prospect, United Kingdom

7 Feb 2015 — On National Libraries Day, we can announce that the IWM has declared that its library collection will be saved and the library and the Explore History facility in London will remain open. This comes on top of our earlier victory (see the “Education battle won …” update below) in securing IWM’s formal education services.

While Prospect still has concerns over some of the details, we would like to offer a huge thank you to everyone who has supported our campaign to maintain the IWM as an international centre for study, research and education.

More than 20,000 people have signed our petition; the issue has been covered in the press, on TV and in Parliament and unprecedented support has been given by @saveiwmlibrary on Twitter. Our members wish to give their sincere thanks to everyone who has supported the campaign or helped us.

When we launched the petition we also asked the public to consider making a donation to IWM. Again, a big thank you to everyone who did this. We understand that this raised more than £900 and that IWM will add this money to the library acquisitions budget.

We continue to press IWM to do everything possible to encourage donations from the public in order to ease the difficulties created by government funding cuts.

On-going financial pressures mean that plans are now being developed to reduce the opening hours of the Research Room in London; introduce charges for its use and review the enquiry services that will be available to the public in the future.

There will also be redundancies among staff who, collectively, have more than 220 years of experience of helping visitors and working with the library collection. Clearly, we have concerns over these developments.

Like many people, Prospect is fundamentally opposed to charging for access to museum collections that are held on behalf of the nation. We are concerned that reduced opening hours for the Research Room will present problems for visitors and provide only minimal savings in staff time. We also wish to ensure that the library collection continues to grow.

Unfortunately, we understand that the additional funding of £8m over the next four years promised by George Osborne in early December 2014 (see the “Education battle won …” update below) has not yet been formally confirmed.

We believe that part of this additional funding should be used to ensure that the library and Explore History are protected and maintained. Therefore, until such formal confirmation is received, we will keep our petition open – IWM as we know it cannot survive further cuts in the funding it receives from government.

Again, a big thank you to everyone who has supported our campaign.

We will leave the final word with Sir Martin Conway, the first Director-General of the IWM who said this in Parliament in the early 1920s:

“You can make the Museum what you please. You can make it a mere storehouse of souvenirs and trophies and guns, but those are the matters of smallest importance in the Museum.

“It is in the records, the maps actually used by the Generals in the field, the enormous collection of photographs, all the air photographs that were taken, the record of all the work of women throughout the length and breadth of the country during the war in manufacture and substitution, the library, the map room – it is in all those smaller and less striking objects that the main value and importance of the Museum to the historian will consist.”

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Thanks to anyone who signed.