U LIB Archives of the University of Hull 1927- 1996 Brynmor Jones Library

Hull History Centre: Archives of the University of Hull Brynmor Jones Library U LIB Archives of the University of Hull 1927- 1996 Brynmor Jones Library Historical Background: The history of the Library has been well documented, both by the first University Librarian, Agnes Cuming, and more especially by Philip Larkin. In brief, the Library first opened its doors to readers on 8 March 1929, some months after the University College had officially commenced operations in October 1928, and just one month after Agnes Cuming took up her post. She therefore had little or no say in the design of the Library. The next few decades were something of a struggle for Miss Cuming and her small staff. Whilst the bookstock, for which funding was initially quite generous, grew quite rapidly (with some 40,000 volumes in the first three years), the associated buildings were quite inadequate. By the 1950s the result was, as Larkin put it, 'a series of badly-designed, ill-lit, sometimes unheated and frequently unrelated areas', with the main location on the ground floor of the what become known as the Science and Social building - one of just two main buildings owned by the University until the 1940s. In October 1930 a second floor of the same wing of the Science and Social building was taken over - unfortunately separated from the ground floor rooms by the intervening Senior Common Room, with only a hand-operated book lift between them. By 1939 there were still only four Library staff, including the Librarian, a total immediately reduced to two at the outset of the Second World War. As a result of the threat of enemy bombing, during 1939-1940 much of the stock had to be re-located both within the College and, in the case of rare books and manuscripts, to vicarages and other houses within the region.2 Things were little better during the years after the re-constitution of the Library during 1945. By 1948 the staff still numbered only six, with the Librarian, one senior assistant, and four library assistants. A Deputy Librarian (Arthur Wood) was appointed from October 1948. There was no proper entrance or issue desk until 1951, when connecting stairs were at last built between the two floors of the Library. Expansion was catered for by housing much bookstock (along with many reader spaces) in outlying rooms and one large 'temporary' hut, later known as the Sub-Library. By the time of Miss Cuming's retirement in March 1955, there was still no purpose-built Library, but there were about 125,000 books and 11 staff. It fell to Philip Larkin, who had previously been sub-librarian at Queen's University, Belfast, to preside over an impressive expansion in facilities during the next two decades. Indeed, during the 30 years of his Librarianship, the bookstock increased six-fold, and the Library grant by a factor of 100. In this process he was greatly assisted by the onset of a boom in funding and resources for British higher education generally, and by the firm support from 1956 of the new Vice- Chancellor of the University of Hull, Brynmor Jones. Hull had become a University in its own right in 1955: ambitious building plans were in place, and Brynmor Jones ensured that the Library stood at the head of the queue. In practice, much of Larkin's first 15 years involved overseeing the design and construction of two new buildings, and the massive expansion of holdings. The first building, known as Stage I (and later the East Building), took 18 months to complete and was opened in September 1959. The official opening was performed in June 1960 by HM Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. This low red-brick building was fairly typical of its era, with a large open reading room, two-tier stacks, and a number of unusual features, including sculptures by Willi Soukop, and a large oriole window. page 1 of 221 Hull History Centre: Archives of the University of Hull Brynmor Jones Library Planning for Stage II (later known as the West Building) began shortly after the completion of the first stage. Progress was helped by the continuing rapid expansion of higher education supported by the Robbins Report (November 1963) and backed by a well-financed University Grants Committee, which strongly approved of Hull University's vision of an enlarged central Library to house up to one million volumes. Given the cramped nature of the site, however, it was necessary to build upwards, and the resulting large nine-storey tower block was eventually commenced in 1968 and opened in July 1969. Before then, a small, three-storey extension to the north of the original stage I had been opened in 1967. This contained a Rare Books Room, Poetry Room, a Record Lending Library, Seminar Room, and microform reading room, plus other offices. In March 1967 Council resolved that the Library should be named after Brynmor Jones in recognition of his University work, and particularly his support for the Library. After moves of bookstock during 1969-70, the two buildings officially operated as the whole Library from 29 June 1970. The tower block enjoyed full air conditioning, some 138 study carrels, 6 stack floors organised on a subject basis, and a periodicals floor with space for up to 10,000 current periodical titles. The official opening took place on 16 December 1970 in the presence of Lord Birkenhead, the Chancellor. Further expansion came when the new social sciences and law building opened in October 1970 included a large sub-library administered by the BJL. Also in the summer of 1970 the Library of the Institute of Education (which had operated since its inception in 1948 from entirely separate premises) moved to the top floor of the East Building. Administrative amalgamation with the BJL took place during the 1977/78 session. Eventually, in the summer of 1985 the Education Library re-located from the top floor of the East Building to the former after-hours reading room in the same building. During the 1960s the Library was one of the best funded in the United Kingdom, and its bookstock doubled from 153,777 in 1959/60 to 333,185 in 1969/70. This began to be matched by the expansion of archives and special collections, particularly in the area of modern political papers and labour archives. A full-time Archivist was appointed in 1973. Special book collections included the Library of the Fabian Society and the two thousand volume library from Busby Hall, near Northallerton, as well as earlier collections including the parish libraries of two Hull churches. Despite the continuing functional organisation of staff, this period also saw the designation of subject specialists amongst Library staff, liaising with Library representatives amongst academic staff in departments, principally in the area of book purchasing. and reader instruction. This period also saw the production of subject and other library guides. Additionally, a Library Consultative Board was established in 1967 to promote discussion of matters of user interest with student representatives. This later became the Library Users' Sub-Committee. By the early 1970s the national and financial climate had changed, inevitably impacting on the fortunes of the University. Sir Brynmor Jones retired in 1972. The financial recession had its biggest effect in the area of periodicals, particularly as during the mid- 1970s prices were simultaneously increasing by up to 30% per annum. Some 800 titles were cancelled between 1973/74 and 1976/77, and deep cuts were also made in book purchases. Thirteen and a half Library posts were suspended during the same period. The situation was not helped when in May 1973 the Publishers' Association withdrew the Library Licence (thereby losing a 10% discount on certain book prices) that had been held since 1930 following a dispute over the matter of public access to the Library - a condition of the Licence. From 1974 the University's Computer was installed in the Library basement, occupying about one-third of the available space in that area. Ironically, the Library itself did not venture into page 2 of 221 Hull History Centre: Archives of the University of Hull Brynmor Jones Library computerisation until late 1979 when it was decided to purchase a Geac Automated Library System, the first example of this Canadian system to be installed in a European Library. The automated issue system became operational in October 1980, facilitated largely by the employment of large numbers of temporary staff on government funded job-creation projects who undertook the tasks of inputting data and bar-code labelling stock. All Library bookstock was entered onto the system by April 1982. This system also became the basis of an On- Line Public Access Catalogue, also covering the whole of Library stock to an acceptable cataloguing standard by the late 1980s. This was also accessible via the campus network from March 1985. A new post of systems librarian was created by internal re-deployment in 1984. The financial situation again worsened in 1981. More posts were frozen, and further rounds of cancellations of periodicals occurred. Despite this, by December 1985 the bookstock had reached a total of some 750,000 items. In Addition, there had been further significant additions of archives, manuscripts, and special book collections, including the establishment in 1973 of the Philip Larkin Collection. Nevertheless, following the freezing of thirteen posts by 1979, a further twelve posts were lost by 1985. Several senior staff took early retirement, including four sub-librarians (Cataloguing, Services to Readers and Periodicals, and the University Archivist) and the Map Curator). In October 1985 the Deputy Librarian left to take up his new position as Librarian to the University of East Anglia, and his old position remained unfilled at the time of Philip Larkin's death in post on 2 December 1985, his deputy having taken up the post of Librarian at UEA in October.

Load more