Comics Unmasked: A Conversation with Adrian Edwards, lead curator of Printed Historical Sources, The British Library

In this interview Adrian Edwards, lead curator of Printed Historical Sources, The British Library, talks to Ernesto Priego about the Comics Unmasked: Art and Anarchy in the UK exhibition at The British Library, 2 May – 19 August 2014

Managing the Library and Archive environment

The life expectancy of collections is significantly affected by the environmental conditions in which they are stored. Environmental problems in buildings can cause significant damage to collections. These can be quite easy to ignore, building up slowly over time until they reach crisis point. The economics of environmental damage are stark. Poor conditions can lead to damage to hundreds or even thousands of items at one time, each of which may need expensive individual repair. Conservators can often repair damage to books and documents, but this is rarely a cheap process and there are many other negative consequences. Books and documents that are being treated are not available for study, and regardless of the quality of the conservation work, something of the original is lost during treatment. This can lead to a less useful or less valuable item. Knowing the environmental conditions in a library or archive is essential for planning the best strategy for the preservation of collections and for targeting your resources effectively. With good recordkeeping, the information collected will provide evidence of good stewardship for funders, professional bodies and future donors. Compliance with relevant standards and professional guidelines, and the requirements of government agencies and funding bodies are additional reasons to implement a programme of environmental management. Collecting and acting on data does take time but is impossible to do on a retrospective basis. Good environmental records will mean that evidence of good stewardship of collections can be produced should it be requested, as a condition of a grant, or as evidence of need to support applications to fund improvements. This booklet provides guidance on environmental management to help you to preserve your books and documents for as long as possible. Although a range of environmental factors can affect library and archive collections this booklet will concentrate on temperature and relative humidity (RH)

Digital technology and governance in transition: The case of the British Library

Comment on the organizational consequences of the new information and communications technologies (ICTs) is pervaded by a powerful imagery of disaggregation and a tendency for ?virtual? forms of production to be seen as synonymous with the ?end? of bureaucracy. This paper questions the underlying assumptions of the ?virtual organization?, highlighting the historically enduring, diversified character of the bureaucratic form. The paper then presents case study findings on the web-based access to information resources now being provided by the British Library (BL). The case study evidence produces two main findings. First, radically decentralised virtual forms of service delivery are heavily dependent on new forms of capacity-building and information aggregation. Second, digital technology is embedded in an inherently contested and contradictory context of institutional change. Current developments in the management and control of digital rights are consistent with the commodification of the public sphere. However, the evidence also suggests that scholarly access to information resources is being significantly influenced by the ?information society? objectives of the BL and other institutional players within the network of UK research libraries

The ascent from the maelstrom: Art Students Observed and its descriptive resonance 40 years on

Between 1967 and 1973 Barbara Weinberger and Charles Madge undertook a longitudinal study of art students at Coventry and Birmingham Colleges of Art, incorporating pre-diploma to final year students and their teachers, with a focus on fine art students. This article revisits the study in light of accounts from participants, archival documents and reviews. It also looks at the study's value both as an accurate description of art school socialisation and its effectiveness as a piece of sociology. It then looks at some of the main issues raised by the study and how they have influenced writing since and their value today. The article aims to clarify some of the obscurities of the study and offer a critical context within which it can be read as a now unique historical document