Issue 72 Spring 2011 Quarterly Newsletter FRIENDS www.bl.uk/friends OF THE BRITISH LIBRARY Registered charity no. 328095 Library to charge for exhibitions Over the years the Library has mounted a Staff account for series of very successful major exhibitions some 70 per cent of and is now exploring every way it can the Library’s variable continue to provide these in the future. costs and the cuts The Friends actively support the Library’s will result in some exhibitions with grants. 200 job losses over the next two to While most Library exhibitions three years. It is have traditionally been free – hoped that this including the current Evolving figure can be English, see page 4 – a few achieved mainly major ones have in the past been through natural charged for, most recently the turnover and Henry VIII exhibition last year. voluntary This provoked a spurt in Friends’ redundancies. membership, as visitors were Spending on attracted to join by the free acquisitions will entry concession. This has helped be reduced from to keep our numbers healthy its current figure during the recession. of £19m to about Announcing the change, £15m, but even Last of the free exhibitions? Dame Lynne Brindley, chief with this cut the executive of the Library (pictured), said: “This new charging policy Library will retain one of the highest acquisition spends of any will bring us into line with the national galleries and museums.” major library in the world. Most of the saving willbe achieved by Entry to the permanent exhibition, Treasures of the British Library, reducing expenditure on duplicate and low-use journals. in the Sir John Ritblat Gallery, will remain free. Says Dame Lynne: “We have fortunately been able to avoid As a result of the Spending Review, the Library’s grant in aid more radical cuts at this stage such as deeper cuts to acquisitions, has been cut by 15 per cent in real terms over four years and the closing the Library one or more days a week or charging for annual capital budget has been slashed by 50 per cent. Coming reader passes, but clearly we would have to reconsider these on top of a three per cent cut in 2010/11 – achieved through options should the British Library be faced with additional cuts savings in acquisitions, preservation and many other areas – it in years three and four, and/or our commercial and other income means that by 2014/15 the Library will be funded at its lowest is less than we forecast. This is a difficult time for the British level in real terms since its creation in 1972. Library. However we will continue to build on our impressive “I cannot hide from you that the level of cuts presents us track record for innovation and excellence.” with a huge challenge,” said Dame Lynne. “We will do all we can to protect frontline services but we have had to make some difficult decisions. We have identified the major areas for savings as staffing, acquisitions, facilities management and Inside this issue preservation. We plan to deliver 80 per cent of the savings in the first two years, so that we are ready to face years three and four in better shape.” Page 2 Volunteers needed Page 3 Grants Page 4 Evolving English Win tickets to the National Theatre Page 5 In the Library Page 6 Visit reports Page 7 New events See back page for details Page 8 Prize crossword Volunteers The subtle art of persuasion How our new volunteer work and I was looking for something else. I’m very involved in co-ordinator hopes to the Roundhouse in Camden: I’ve been a volunteer there for a recruit Friends few years and I’m also involved in a drug and alcohol support group for families. I wanted to do something different.” “The volunteers are the face of Jean-Anne’s last paid job was as a therapist but earlier in the Friends,” declares Jean-Anne her career she had been a sales assistant, including a spell front Ashton (pictured), who last autumn of house with Gieves and Hawkes, the Savile Row tailor. She took over from Frances Hawkins believes her experience of selling is relevant to the strategy of the role of co-ordinating their recruiting members: “We have to have a little bit of the shopgirl responsibilities. “Sitting behind or shopboy about us. We have to be able to communicate in the the desk in the Library entrance right way, but without being the second-hand car salesman. hall can appear a bit of a thankless Avoid the hard sell – most people don’t like it.” task because what you’re selling She tells how Don Pritchard, during his spell as co-ordinator, is something rather intangible. But if someone walks into the gave her a useful tip: “We have a steady stream of people who Library and sees two volunteers who are approachable and look come and take a picture of each other on that bronze seat near friendly, then people will come and ask all sorts of questions and the Friends’ desk. Don showed me how to get up and offer to that gives us an opportunity to give them a membership form take their photograph. At which point you start to talk, ask them and tell them a bit about the Friends.” The desk remains the why they’re here and whether they’ve been before. They start most consistent means of recruiting new members. to enthuse about the Library. I tell them I’m representing the Jean-Anne tells how she became a volunteer five years ago: Friends and ask if they’d like a leaflet.” “I was passing the Library and came in and was so overwhelmed: There are at present 26 active volunteers. In the long term I thought it was such a wonderful place. Before I came I’d had Jean-Anne would like to nearly double that number and extend the impression that it was only a place for crusty old academics.” the hours when the desk is manned – currently Tuesday to Because her degrees – in history and politics and, later, Saturday, 11am to 3pm. Some existing volunteers have increased therapy – had been gained as a mature student, she was moved their commitment from one day a month to one week in three, by the sight of so many young people using the Library for their which has made a big difference. She is looking at whether there studies, taking opportunities she had missed. “I found myself at are other tasks they might be able to perform, beyond manning the information desk asking if they wanted volunteers. They said the desk. they didn’t but pointed me towards the Friends desk. I told the two ladies there that I wanted to become a Friend mainly because I wanted to volunteer.” She is keen to talk to anyone who has a little time to spare. You can Within a week of signing up, she had been accepted into ring her on 0208 964 2292 or e-mail at [email protected]. the team by Thelma Leisner, the co-ordinator. “I’d stopped David Marcus dies Make the most of your membership David Marcus, a Trustee of the Friends since February 2008, died in January, Below is a list of the privileges of Friends’ membership – in addition to the aged 73. knowledge that you are helping to support a magnificent national institution. A solicitor by profession, he gave a considerable amount of time to voluntary Make as much use of them as service: as well as being a keen supporter you can. of the Library and the Friends, he n represented the Muswell Hill Synagogue Private guided visits to leading on the Board of Deputies of British Jews. libraries, museums and Christopher Wright, the Friends’ vice- collections n chairman, represented the Council at his Exclusive tours within the Library n funeral at Waltham Cross. Lord Hameed, Quarterly Newsletter and chairman, said: “David was a tremendous Exhibitions and Events brochure n asset to the Council. As a solicitor, he gave Comfortable Members’ Room us a great deal of help with the constitution with newspapers and magazines n and with the host of other legal matters Discount in the Library Shop n that registered charities are obliged to take Discount on lectures in the into account. He was a fount of ideas for Library n recruiting new members and his outspoken Discounts on outside cultural and positive approach always added events pleasure and interest to our Council meetings. We shall all sadly miss him.” 2 Grants Learning how to care for treasures Raised in the Bengali city of who had to submit a CV and a statement about why the placement Calcutta, Avijit Chakrabarti would be important to them, as well as references from their had never glimpsed snow in employers. all his 33 years. That gap in His very full programme covers all aspects of conservation – his experience was repaired documents, manuscripts, photographs, bindings and even works of art. in late November, thanks to One aspect of particular relevance to him is how to detect and control the Friends. damage from insects and other pests. Calcutta’s humid climate means that this a constant hazard. Avijit is the first of the Library’s Avijit spends his time In international preservation volunteers London working with and funded by a special Friends’ grant watching the Library’s experts, made possible by a generous legacy and attends lectures and from the late Isabel Haberer, a devoted member.