News from the Library
A lot has been happening since I last wrote although much activity has been of an administrative nature. One large but unglamorous task has been to move our off-site store to another room in the Maidstone Community Support Centre in Marsham Street. It was completed successfully, but please bear with me if I take a while to locate material from the store for you. There is still some post-move organisation to complete. Many activities are thriving in the Library although health issues have affected some of our key volunteers over the last six months and John Walters, who has kept the Library tidy and organised for many years, will be missed on the team as he retires.
The IT manager and Visual Records database manager is much more reliable. Research continues to find ways of improving the online access to the Visual Records Collection. Scanning of images is continuing and images of Witham Matthew Bywater (1826-1911) are now available on the KAS Website along with a summary of the accompanying research. We are grateful to Mr Garry Coyler for the donation of his father’s, Arthur James Coyler, collection of Archaeological Recordings of Churches in Kent and Sussex. Arthur James Coyler was a member of the Society for many years. In light of the closure of Whatman’s in Maidstone we are particularly delighted with the donation of Paper-making and the Art of Watercolor in Eighteenth-Century Britain, Paul Sandby, and The Whatman Paper Mill by Theresa Fairbanks, Wilcox, Scott and others, published in 2006. We have also added David Wright’s book, Bryan Faussett: Antiquary Extraordinary, Archaeopress, 2015 to our holdings (see page 15, New Publications).
Thank you to those of you who completed a questionnaire on the Library earlier in the year. It was very surprising to see how many of you were unaware that we have an online catalogue. It has been there for many years and you can now find it more easily by clicking on the right hand button on the KAS home page, ‘Library and Collections’. It is a very basic and by now old-fashioned catalogue, so a future aim is to improve it. Most of you liked a mix of traditional resources and online content. You said that what stopped you using the Library more often was travel distance and uncertainty regarding opening hours. If you have not been to the Library before you might like to visit us on a Wednesday or a Thursday morning between 10.30 am and 12.00 noon. The Library is managed by volunteers so it is sometimes closed due to unforeseen circumstances. Before making a special journey to the Library and Collie
I will soon be handing the care of the Library over to a successor, who will be keen to develop the Library further. I will be very sad to step down from the role of Hon. Librarian as I have enjoyed looking after the collection and communicating with you all.
I hope to see you in the Library soon,
Pernille Richards, Hon. Librarian