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THE SOCIETY LIBRARY Standing The Society Library has a long and distinguished history (see Appendix 2A). It was created by the founders of the Society at the time the Society was established in 1866 and is acknowledged to be one of the foremost libraries of its kind in the world. Its size was an important factor in the Society’s decision to take a lease on 4 Hamilton Place in March 1939. It holds:
Following the creation of the National Aerospace Library (NAL), space was leased in The Hub building at Farnborough. This enabled much of the archive material previously stored in unsatisfactory conditions in the basement at Hamilton Place to be moved to Farnborough. What was left in Hamilton Place was the working library on the third floor and the more valuable historical material. The NAL was officially opened in The Hub on 15 January 2008, badged jointly with Hampshire County Council as a public library (Appendix 2B). Promises The launch of the NAL appeal was preceded by a questionnaire distributed to members in the March 2004 issue of The Aerospace Professional (AP). Responses to the questionnaire showed support for the concept but also concern to ensure that the working library at 4 Hamilton Place should not be undermined by the initiative, causing the Chief Executive, in the April 2004 issue of AP, to write, “...I would just like to reiterate that there is no intention of moving the complete Library out of Hamilton Place or indeed, for that matter selling it off. Quite the reverse.” Similar assurances have been given to members regularly in AP and the distinction between the archive in the NAL and the Library at 4 Hamilton Place has always been made clear, even as late as the general appeal for donations in the August 2009 issue of AP which states, “The National Aerospace Library, officially launched on 15 January 2008, is a new archive established to complement the existing library collections and service at the Royal Aeronautical Society’s headquarters in London.” By the time members had read this, the policy had changed and the contents of the Hamilton Place library were already packed and ready for transit to Farnborough. A fuller set of statements with respect to the library and the archive are given on a separate page (Appendix 2C) . From them it is clear that, until the library was already on the move, nothing had been said to the membership to indicate that this was to happen, nor had the plan been specifically disclosed to the Council. Given the success of the NAL appeal for funds, collected against a background of assurances from the Chief Executive that, “... it is important to emphasise that the Library on the third floor here at Hamilton Place will remain fully operational, to allow members to borrow books and to carry out research”, we may wonder what proportion of the donors to the NAL fund are pleased and what proportion feel betrayed by the move to Farnborough. We can say with certainty that some members whose names appear on the list of donors that featured regularly in AP in 2006 are also signatories to the requisition to return the library to its proper home. Visitors Statistics for visitors to the Hamilton Place library and the NAL at Farnborough have been cited to justify the move. In his Q&A article in the October 2009 AP the Chief Executive states that, “Twice as many people now use the NAL at Farnborough compared with those that used the third floor library at Hamilton Place based upon available data.” The italics are ours and highlight a key reservation that it is important to recognise. The great majority of visitors to the library at Hamilton Place come to the building for a primary purpose, such as a committee meeting or a conference, and take the opportunity to visit the library while there. They therefore do not register in the Visitors Book as library visitors but they almost invariably visit the library for a purpose rather than to pass time. When the number of librarians at Hamilton Place was reduced from two to one, on the retirement of Arnold Nayler in 2000, the practice of logging visitors to the library ceased. However, the assessment of the librarian is that, depending on what is happening at Hamilton Place, visitor numbers in the library varied between five and ten times the number shown in the Visitors Book as coming specifically to the library. The location of the library in central London makes it an attractive destination for overseas visitors, particularly overseas historians (see Appendix 2D) who visit for access to its exceptional historical material. Members of overseas Divisions and Branches also look forward to visiting the library when in London and we know there has been a strong adverse reaction from them to the move. There can be no doubt that a high proportion of the former visitors to Hamilton Place will not make the journey to Farnborough. For most overseas visitors, fitting in the excursion to Farnborough will not be worth the trouble. For those who come to Hamilton Place for visits or conferences, a side visit to a small reading room (the Merlin room, a small and totally unsuitable room in the basement) will not meet their requirements for research or reading in depth. If the library is not returned to its home, the citizens of Farnborough and its environs will no doubt benefit but visits to the library by members of the Society can be expected to fall substantially. There are no conferences and no committee meetings at Farnborough. Consultation The requisition calls for the Council to undertake “a full consultation of all grades of the membership with respect to their expectations and requirements of a Library and Careers Centre at 4 Hamilton Place and to their views on the relationship between the Library at 4 Hamilton Place and the archive established at the National Aerospace Library at Farnborough.” This is the process that was adopted before the NAL project was launched and we believe it is appropriate, in a democratic body such as the Society, to repeat it, given its significance for our members. As the President explained in the October issue of AP, at its meeting on 7 September the Council passed resolutions calling on three committees to address points that we had raised in the context of the requisition for the General Meeting. Whilst this might appear to be a step towards meeting our request to consult the members, we believe it is a deficient process that is likely to result only in recommendations to accept the fait accompli that has been visited on the membership. This is discussed more fully on a separate page (Appendix 2E). The future Our request is for the working library to be restored to Hamilton Place and for its services to be improved progressively in the future to take full advantage of developments in information technology. We discuss this more fully on another page (Appendix 2F) and we shall discuss its relationship the NAL, both as an archive and as an element of a future network of electronically linked aerospace libraries, in our next bulletin. Our hope is that the Council will decide to restore the Library to 4 Hamilton Place and underwrite its future development, rather than leave it in The Hub and thereby ensure its demise as a service to the great majority members who do not live in the near south-west of London.
Appendix 2A The history of the RAeS Library
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