Eleanor Gawne (The Architectural Association School of Architecture)

The AA Library’s Special Collections has grown and developed considerably over the 170 years of the School’s history. The material is now used not only in the teaching curriculum but also in many kinds of external and internal engagement and is a key benefit to the AA membership. This paper examines two key issues  –  how do we select and manage the material, and what is the best means to promote it? 

One of our roles as special collections librarians is to select material based on multiple criteria, including age, condition, rarity, provenance, value and significance.  But should we consider other factors, such as access and size (taking into account architecture students’ reliance on printed visual sources)? And what should we do when other factors such as relationships with donors in taken into account? How should these materials be managed differently from main stock in terms of storage, conservation and use? And what are the best methods to promote the material to wider audiences? This paper examines these topical issues as well as the desire at the AA to bring together all the “special” collections  –  Library, Archives, Photo Library and online lectures  –  not only digitally through digitisation projects and social media, but also physically, through outreach including talks, displays and publications. The paper will also draw on recent research such as RLUK’s Survey of Special Collections and Archives in the United Kingdom and Ireland (2013) and IFLA publications. 

Eleanor Gawne is Librarian at the Architectural Association School of Architecture. Her responsibilities include managing and developing Library resources and services and she is also responsible for the Library’s Special Collections. From 2008-2012 as Head of Archive & Library, National Maritime Museum, she managed several digitisation projects and the delivery of a new Library and Archive stores. Prior to that, as Assistant Director (Drawings and Archives Collection), British Architectural Library, RIBA, she contributed to the development and promotion of the RIBA collections through exhibitions and publications.