NAL past and future – an essay

At the start of the NAL project it became evident that the scale of material associated with the development and operation of aeronautical sciences, aircraft and military and civil aviation was exceptionally large. A contributory factor to this is the fact that, whereas maritime and land transport history began to evolve in an age when printed works were not widespread, the coming of the Information Age and the much wider range of technological and operational developments in aviation have produced a quantum step in the quantity and quality of written, photographic and other media records.

Discussions with the development staff at the British Library confirmed this point and led to the inevitable conclusion that the development focus of any National Aerospace Library should be on a “virtual National Library” based on a collegiate partner grouping of major collections. These would communicate through an increasingly advanced digital network whose capabilities would be expected to develop as affordable IT technology capabilities expanded in the market place. Digital books, which were envisaged as a long term possibility by the original NAL committee, are a case in point. They have just entered the marketplace in a rather limited form. It is of interest that a similar concept is now being pursued by the National Library of France in attempting to develop an EU wide library.  

These are complex concepts and are not sensibly approached by the attitude of saying “Well we will get on with the digitisation issues some time in the next two years”, which is something that has been heard said recently.

The history of major British IT system disasters, both military and civil, is a catalogue of starting with a quite inadequate system model and allowing it to grow in an uncontrolled and necessarily unplanned manner. Many distinguished members of the Society are well aware of the perils of such developments and we ask them to join us in urging the Council to recognise that NOW, at the very start of the project, is the time to lay down enduring foundations around which the system can evolve at a measured and affordable pace.

A major part of this is the development of a common understanding and system model with the other candidate participating partners, an understanding that has been blunted recently by the Society’s apparent unilateral intention to go it alone in Hampshire.

It must be recognised that, although the RAeS has a library collection of scope and depth, the lack of funding which it has suffered in recent years has left it a somewhat middle-sized player compared with, say, the RAF Museum. The latter has a significant staff of archivists and a collection of service literature and records which, supported by the RAF Historical Branch, provide an unparalleled store of Military Aviation History.

Similar remarks can be applied to the Imperial War Museum, the Science Museum and The National Records Office at Kew. There also significant aerospace collections at the Fleet Air Arm Museum, the larger University libraries (Imperial College/Science museum, Cranfield, Cambridge) right down to the existing Hampshire CC separate smallish specialist aviation library at Farnborough. Even the small British Airways museum collection at Heathrow has a collection of unique material on the development of civil air transport in the UK. And of course we must not exclude BAE Systems, who are expending considerable resources in their heritage work and have many documents in storage.

In considering even this incomplete list several things are apparent

1. Few if any of these existing collections will be willing to transfer valuable material, books and records from their own collection to some as yet ill-defined central National Aerospace Library badged as a joint venture of the Royal Aeronautical Society and the Hampshire County Council.
    
2. Even if such transfers were to take place, the scale of the buildings and staff required to manage a collection representing a true national aerospace archive would be far beyond the management capability and financial resources of the RAeS, even if fundraising success were to improve.  Such a collection would require funding from a national source rather than from the Society.

In short the idea of simply claiming to be the National Aerospace Library by forming a company and acquiring a new building was an incomplete and unrealisable concept.

What did seem feasible and was accepted by the Society at the start of the idea was that the RAeS Library, with its very wide range of current and historical interests, could act as a catalyst. With the Society taking the lead, the idea of a truly National Aerospace Library, based upon a virtual library made up of collegiate partners, might be developed into some practical form. The Society Library would form one node in such a network.

This concept was set out clearly when, under the caption “Aerospace Archives for the Future”, the Society first launched its appeal for funds for the NAL. The full text is worth repeating: 

“Following the co-ordination role the Society played in the 2003, 100 Years of Flight, programme, the Society, in consultation with the Imperial War Museum, Duxford, The National Aeronautical Collection of the Science Museum, The Royal Aero Club, the Royal Air Force Museum and several other organisations is investigating the possibility of establishing a National Aerospace Library.

At the core of this project is the Society's own collection which is housed at 4 Hamilton Place but suffers from severe space limitations. More space, probably outside London, will need to be found for both some of the existing collection and any additional material added to it as a result of this initiative. Other aviation collections around the country, notably in museums and industry, could be housed with or linked electronically to the Society archives to form a National Aerospace Library, In addition we would hope this initiative would prevent further collections from being broken up and holds out the prospect of preserving and bringing together important national records from company and private sources.

Such an undertaking would inevitably demand considerable capital investment and we hope it would be a strong candidate for support by the Heritage Lottery Fund of the National Lottery.

In the meantime we want to improve our own collection which is one of the world's major archives tracing the evolution of Man's attempts to conquer the dream of flight from prehistory to modern times as recorded in books, pamphlets, journals, reports, letters, photographs, lithographs, posters and other non-book material, The Council has agreed a number of fundraising initiatives to start this process off. These appeals aim to preserve this material via archival conservation for current and future generations of researchers.”

The Society’s action in 2006, in establishing the NAL as a limited company owned by the Society, may have seemed at variance with the original collegiate concept.  Nevertheless, there remained a long-term plan for the Society to take the lead in the development of the envisioned national network, with both the archive at Farnborough and the working library in Hamilton Place as elements of the network.

It was this concept that appeared to have been followed until some time around April 2009 when it was abruptly decided, without reference to Council, that the Hamilton Place Library would move, thereby substantially expanding and changing the character of the RAeS/Hampshire County Council venture at Farnborough.  The Library Working Group, which at the time was beginning to consider a move towards discussions on data transmission standards, was unaware that this decision had been taken, as were a number of members of Council.

Regardless of the Governance issues of the matter, such a decision seems an extraordinarily precipitate step in the absence of any supporting comparative studies by people more expert in the field. Moreover the decision appears to cut right across the Society’s earlier declared intent to work towards a collegiate solution.

In June 2009 the Head of Library and Information Services of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors published a personal overview of the present position and future outlook of a number of learned societies. It is entitled “Survey of library services in UK professional bodies” and covers sixteen organisations, four of which (the Institutions of Civil Engineers, Mechanical Engineers, Structural Engineers and Engineering and Technology) are recognised by the Engineering Council.

 It contains a great deal of information that is relevant to the planning of the future development of the RAeS library and information services.  It sets out the significant scale of the other institutions’ HQ library stocks of books from present and past eras that are unlikely ever to be digitised.  At the same time, it reports a general recognition of the need for intelligent forward planning as digitised texts become a preferred format for future publications.

The survey also highlights the importance of integrating the operation of the library with the other information services of the societies, such as publications, and ensuring that the library is an integral and well funded part of the overall society image and its objectives for its services to members and the community it represents.

It does not cite any instance of a society removing its principal library 35 miles from London and replacing it with a rudimentary periodical reading room. In fact, all but three of the organisations have their headquarters in London and every organisation has its library in its headquarters with, on average, 45% of its book stock in the reading room.  On average, the libraries in the survey hold almost twice the total book stock of our Society. 

It could be argued that the course upon which the Society has embarked this summer is one that at best will result in an attractive provincial library, one of a set of such specialised libraries (others include submarines and trains) that form part of the Hampshire County Council library service. Its clientele and facilities are bound to be restricted by its distance from London and the limited funding that will be available to it from Society sources. Of necessity, it will lack most of the infrastructure support that Government-funded libraries such as the RAF museum enjoy.

Under the informal agreement with the Hampshire CC the Society will bear all the costs of this library apart from the part-time secondment of an assistant librarian, and even that cannot be assured in view of anticipated increasing pressures on local authority budgets. Further, we doubt whether any medium/long term business plan for the venture has ever been drawn up. The Chief Executive has already referred to the possibility of access to further storage space at Farnborough and it must be plain to all that the more expansion that takes place the greater the Society’s obligation to provide for the increased operating costs – a positive feedback system which is almost certainly
unstable.

Looking to the future, there are four actions that we believe are needed. 

1. The previous separation of the working library and the archive should be re-established by returning the working library to Hamilton Place. The Pareto principle, that 80% of the value to members lies in 20% of the stock, is probably roughly true and was captured in the arrangement up to July of this year.
2. A long-term projection is needed of the archive requirements at Farnborough, taking account of the existing stock from the Society archive and collections already accepted and also the probability of further collections with unique components being offered. This should be incorporated into a business plan for the NAL at Farnborough that includes future staffing and space requirements and a realistic estimate of the revenue that can be generated from this archive.
3. The possibility of creating the virtual national library network with the Society acting as catalyst, as envisaged at the outset, should be taken up again.
4. A single Society committee with an oversight of all aspects of RAeS library and archive operations should be established to ensure joined-up policy making from this point forward.  

In considering a future library network, it has to be recognised that the resources of the Society simply do not allow us to invest and compete on the scale of some other partners. What we can bring to the table is an ideal central location in the Capital which is a great asset in giving ease of access for the many different national and international contacts and partners who may become involved in this major project. Together with our long history and world wide name and reputation, this should allow us to become a respected focus for what one hopes could emerge from any evolving deliberations about a truly NATIONAL Library.

Above all, it seems of paramount importance that inevitably-constrained Society funds should be spent mainly on projects which give direct benefits to its own subscribing members rather than being concentrated upon major partnership activities where the main advantages flow to the partner, in this case the County authorities and citizens of Hampshire, while our subscribing members suffer a major diminution in services available to them at Society headquarters.

Appendix 3A   Evolution of the concept 1999 – 2004

Appendix 3B   Development of the NAL 2004 – 2009

Appendix 3C Other significant aerospace libraries

Appendix 3D NAL past and future – an essay