Libraries #1

SOAS Library (Photo:SOAS)

Libraries are very important to me, always have been, however my relationship with them is not an easy one. I love them, but I also hate them. I particularly hate them in their digital mode. I have decided to write a couple of posts discussing  this relationship.  Today I shall focus on the negatives.

I have to backtrack. When I left my teaching post in 2013, my employing university did not offer me membership of its library, as it's usually done with staff who retire - I officially took 'early retirement', even though I was way too young to retire from anything. It was a way of quitting, in order to start anew.
To be honest I had no need for membership of that particular university library and did not pursue ways of obtaining it, did not even make enquiries. The library was rather small, located in an area that was not, for me, within easy reach  and  it was not particularly well stocked.
However, I needed library access and my local library was not enough, not even their reference section. I needed Shibboleth - those of you involved in the academy, either as staff or students, know exactly what I am talking about.  As it happens, I maintained a research connection with one of the colleges of the University of London, which was also my alma mater. Through that research link I had full membership of the college library, renowned for its specialist collections and on campus and off campus access to Senate House library . Off campus access meant  I could read as many ebooks and explore all the databases to which those libraries subscribe - and they were many - from the comfort of my home or at the beach or wherever I happened to be. Of course, as an alumna of that college, I already had privileged access, that is, free of charge, to Jstor and Project Muse, also off campus, but since I was regarded as staff - even though I was not on their payroll -  my off campus access to Shibboleth  automatically covered Jstor and Project Muse. And I could also physically borrow books, with a good borrowing allowance.
You never fully realise the value of what you have until you lose the thing.

The British Library, London . Google images

In July this year, the bonanza was over.  Library collections are increasingly becoming digital, replenished with  ebooks rather than new print books. It means that library space can be optimised. But licensing is an issue. To provide access to ebooks libraries have to buy licenses. Off campus access licenses are expensive and  academic libraries in particular,  are choosing to pay for only staff (on payroll) and students, who anyway  pay for such access ten times fold through their exorbitant tuition fees. Suddenly, research staff of a lesser category, such as the one I was in, were not allowed to access databases off campus and when on campus they could only use computer terminals belonging to the college to access such databases, with limited downloading. To add insult to injury the college even sent me a letter saying they were renewing my research associate status for another year and I, as academic visitor,  could join the library for £200 something a year - with no off campus access. Academic visitor my foot, I am still an alumna. It means that until regulations are changed - fingers crossed they will not, but you never know - I can use JStor and Project Muse for free wherever I am! I ain't going to pay £200 plus for it, not if I can help it.
 Overall  this new development was a total disaster. No Shibboleth, either on or off campus. That's tough. I am in the middle of revising the typescript of a book based on research I have done over the past four to five years, to be published by Bloomsbury Academic in 2019 - hold your horses, I am not yet allowed to give details. It was, for me, a very big deal.
It was imperative I should sort out proper library access. I need to have off campus access to reading material wherever I am and whenever I want to read the particular book or document, which could well happen in the middle of the night. Needless to say,  the books I need are not found at my local library despite the very commendable scheme 'Access to Research'.
What about the British Library? It has everything. Well, almost. Many students, researchers and writers go there, it's a great place to visit and it also happens to be fairly close to where I live - by London standards, that is. However - sorry folks, I know you will not like this - I detest the British Library. Before downloading ebooks, if only temporarily,  became the norm and xeroxing was what students and researchers did in libraries, the British Library charged pretty exorbitant fees for photocopies - still does, for scanning and on demand - and it checked very zealously that you only xeroxed a limited number of pages. They actually did it for you, you could not do it yourself, you had to fill in a request form for photocopying. Now it forbids you to use your own computer to read ebooks in reading rooms (unlike the National Art Library at the V&A),  in case you download them, which is not allowed due to licensing. You must use their own terminals and holy crap, that library is crowded, plus it has ridiculous opening hours at the weekend, which is when people can really devote time to reading. As for physical books, you have to request them several hours in advance of consulting them in the reading rooms and it can take up to two days to get them, the new books are obviously not in the main reading rooms but off site and have to be fetched. It's a system that does not suit me and tends to irritate me, though I fully appreciate why it has to be this way. The bottom line is that I have a reader's pass and hardly ever use it. Still, it is free. That's a relief.

The London Library. Google images

The august British Library not being my ideal choice, I looked at different options then I finally decided to join, for a fee of course, the London Library. It's a great library, another venerable institution, in Mayfair, a prime London location. I will spare you the details of its history, which you can read online.  But I did not join for the events, the beautiful reading rooms and all the accoutrements. What drew me to it was their Catalyst system, in other words their online library access, which is available off site. It does not give me access to all the databases I need - I had to fork out more money to have access, separately and privately, to a specific database which I regard as essential to my work.  But it will do for now. I still need to be able to get hold of particular books which only my alma mater has, so at some point I shall take advantage of the alumni discount and take out a yearly library membership in order to be able to check out a few physical books or read them on campus. I already have access to Jstor and Project Muse - and will make good use of them, don't you worry.
The upshot of this long and convoluted story is to reiterate  that access to knowledge does not come free. and access to ebooks is a very complex issue, involving licenses, copyright and profit, usually the publishers'.  If you are writing a book that requires research (most books do, especially non-fiction, even if they are not meant to be academic textbooks) and have no access to a decently stocked library - which these days means a library with subscriptions to multiple databases -  it's hard to do it. You just have to be willing to give your credit card a workout or use imaginative ways to access books online.  I find this profit driven licensing extremely disturbing. It's going to get worse, as print books are being supplanted by ebooks. At some point publishers should consider offering subscriptions to individuals, but this means bypassing libraries.   It's complex and I can offer no solution.

So this is why I hate libraries: their metamorphosis into digital books repositories and database subscribing bodies is ruled by profit and it differentiates among users.  The British Library model might seem to be a very democratic approach, but forbidding downloads and charging for scanning almost twice the price of the actual book is actually problematic and not good enough for me. I do not like it at all.

My next post will be about what I love about libraries, a trip down memory lane,  because libraries are no longer what they used to be.
By the way this article by Jake Orlowitz is full of great advice about library access! I suggest bookmarking it, I picked up a lot of useful information through it.