AETG visit to the Science Museum Library Wroughton, 5th September 2008

Some 21 brave souls ignored the inclement weather to visit this wonderful new library, intriguingly based on an old WW2 airfield just outside Swindon. This is because the site is owned by the Science Museum and it also contains the large object store in large former aircraft hangars.

We were welcomed by Nick Wyatt, the Site Librarian and the team. The library is open by appointment 10 -5, free to access. It has an impressive 26 kilometres of shelving devoted to the development of science and technology. The oldest journals date to 1665 and the earliest book was published in 1486.

In the library reception there was a display of three books illustrating great moments in science and discovery: a 1st edition of Isaac Newton’s Principia Mathematica from 1687, outlining laws of gravitational theory and planetary motion; a 1917 signed work by Albert Einstein on the theory of relativity; and the 1969 Apollo 11 flight plan acquired by ITN, signed by Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong of the moon landing.

Nick pointed out that the Science Museum’s London library still has the collection of 80.000 volumes of biographies of scientists and engineers, the rest of the historic material moved to this new facility between 2006 and 2007.

Cecilia Cassington, the Archivist described the approval procedure for acquiring stock which is catalogued onto the Science Museum Unicorn catalogue; onto Archon and made available as printed lists. There are 180 archive collections including the astronomer Herschel’s notebooks and the letters written between Isambard Kingdom Brunel and his father, Marc Brunel. Of more recent interest there’s the ICL company archive and the Hooper collection which covers coach building. .

We had a tour around the collection, Nick showed us an eclectic mix of material – to mention just a few here – coloured illustrations of the 1851 Great Exhibition; drawings from the building of the Eddystone lighthouse; the earliest drawing of diving helmet in use; and the huge volumes produced by the Napoleonic expedition to Egypt. Nick pulled from the stacks Galileo’s Siderius Nuncius (the Starry messenger, 1610) and a beautifully hand-coloured and annotated university text book, Reisch’s Margarita Philosophica (The Philosophical Pearl, 1535).

John Underwood showed us around the reading room with a large display of books laid out including the 1842 report of the Children’s Employment Commission examining the working conditions in the mines and containing the words of the children as young as six; wonderful coloured images of Volcanoes; Babbage’s notebooks; reports by Barnes Wallis of World War 2 bouncing bomb fame; and photos of Donald Campbell in the Bluebird.

Doug Stimson showed us the scanning operation used to satisfy document requests.

It was a very informative afternoon and well worth a visit - see the website on
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/about_us/about_the_museum/science_library.aspx


The visit rounded off by Nick outlining future plans to digitise more of the collection and make more full text available on the web.

Thanks to Rupert Williams Head of Science Museum Libraries for agreeing to have us, Nick Wyatt and his team

[Visit write-up by Sarah Groombridge, AETG Committee.]