IWM Library to Close

None of us here lives in a bubble. We all are more than aware that the UK is in massive debt. Cuts have to be made, everywhere – nearly. None of us enjoys aspects of our own passions being cut but that’s how it is. The arguments are political and as has already been pointed out the staff of the institutions affected are the last to want cuts what they do. The sad reality is that we should expect more of the same not less over the next few years.:(

I suspect the funding for this AAM work comes from the AAM founders and members, a sizeable list of corporate and wealthy patrons.

Thast is indeed the case, there was a specific appeal to the AAM members for funding for this very purpose.

This would appear to be a delibrate ploy by the IWM management, price the service at a level where nobody is using it, then when the income stream dries up the department becomes financially unsustainable and an easy target for closure. Hey presto, a significant cost saving!

It’s a harsh thing to make such accusations, I know these people and there is not one who wants to make changes or reduce the offering. The management and staff are as passionate about what they do as anybody, government is reducing their income, they sadly have to change to survive.

Sounds like another step towards IWM becoming another theme park rather than a museum. They are already unprepared to allow retrieval/reproduction of imagery unless it’s in exchange for a ridiculously large amount of money. This means that no publisher will be able to use their material ever again. It begs the question as to what point there is in maintaining their archives if nobody can afford to share them with the people that paid for them in the first place. I’ve tried repeatedly to explain the absurdity of the situation with IWM but eventually they just shrug their proverbial shoulders and say that this is “just the way it is” these days. It’s ridiculous. They seem to forget that all of their assets are our (at least most of them) are our (the taxpayer’s) property. Like most institutions these days, IWM is all about making money, presumably so that they can refurbish their displays again and again to increase the visitor numbers and thereby justify their existence. Nobody seems to pause to consider what the whole point of IWM is. It seems inevitable that it will become another theme park full of interactive experiences for all the family, while all the material that is of real interest to historians becomes increasingly inaccessible. But as usual, nobody will care as long as we have another entertainment venue to amuse bored people. It’s a sad and sorry business.

It’s not IWM who is doing this for the sake of doing it, it’s that government grants are being cut year on year, ultimately therefore savings have to be made, I don’t think one person within IWM would want to change things. There will be cuts amongst these self same staff and other savings to be made.

“” Times are hard. Where would you make the savings required? “”

Do not spend time, effort and money on the modifications needed to hang the P-51 ??

I suspect the funding for this AAM work comes from the AAM founders and members, a sizeable list of corporate and wealthy patrons.

This would appear to be a delibrate ploy by the IWM management, price the service at a level where nobody is using it, then when the income stream dries up the department becomes financially unsustainable and an easy target for closure. Hey presto, a significant cost saving!

WH does indeed make a good series of points, as do others here. From a very personal perspective in the mid 1950’s as fourteen year old’s a good school friend and I making scale control line model aircraft went to the IWM regularly in school holidays for accurate information about our next projects. The Library was always available to all visitors, we had considerable help from an encouraging staff. No trouble was too much for them and we were able to learn much, easily and quickly.

For my friend who had a natural artistic talent it enabled him to gain a specialised apprenticeship a few years later with Vickers Armstrong’s Weybridge and became one of their technical illustrators and later on with other aviation companies. His career lasted for his working life.

I did move in another direction but my close interest continues to this day and largely thanks to the staff at the IWM Library in Lambeth. If they let this national resource go because of the ‘cuts’ the next cost cut will be deeper and easier to perform.

Signing the petition is essential for all readers of this Forum.

WH, interesting point, which then begs the question…. who is paying for the staff to copy the material, restore and conserve it and run the actual building in which these historic documents reside? As we do not pay an entrance fee to Lambeth and the political choice is to reduce tax funding of this institution then they do need to find alternative income streams, often to simply have a full operational budget year on year….and shuffling capital funds to operational funds is a no-no….

If you are unhappy with that then perhaps your MP is the one with whom you should share your displeasure….

Sounds like another step towards IWM becoming another theme park rather than a museum. They are already unprepared to allow retrieval/reproduction of imagery unless it’s in exchange for a ridiculously large amount of money. This means that no publisher will be able to use their material ever again. It begs the question as to what point there is in maintaining their archives if nobody can afford to share them with the people that paid for them in the first place. I’ve tried repeatedly to explain the absurdity of the situation with IWM but eventually they just shrug their proverbial shoulders and say that this is “just the way it is” these days. It’s ridiculous. They seem to forget that all of their assets are our (at least most of them) are our (the taxpayer’s) property. Like most institutions these days, IWM is all about making money, presumably so that they can refurbish their displays again and again to increase the visitor numbers and thereby justify their existence. Nobody seems to pause to consider what the whole point of IWM is. It seems inevitable that it will become another theme park full of interactive experiences for all the family, while all the material that is of real interest to historians becomes increasingly inaccessible. But as usual, nobody will care as long as we have another entertainment venue to amuse bored people. It’s a sad and sorry business.

Do not spend time, effort and money on the modifications needed to hang the P-51 ??

But it already has the fixtures and fitting and modifications for it to be hung. Remember it used to hang in Lambeth.

Brian

We’ve been promised tax cuts haven’t we? They can keep my share and put it towards paying some staff to keep the library open!

“” Times are hard. Where would you make the savings required? “”

Do not spend time, effort and money on the modifications needed to hang the P-51 ??

Times are hard.

But, thankfully, not so hard that they couldn’t scrape together the £40m needed to make the atrium smaller and darker.

So rather like the Emperor’s New Clothes, perhaps?

Please, can anyone tell me, in plain English, what that means (assuming that it means anything)?

AA……… It is known as “management speak”..!!

“The change programme seeks to ensure IWM can… “

…save money.

Times are hard. Where would you make the savings required?

Moggy

(I have signed the petition already – just putting the case)

“The change programme seeks to ensure IWM can continue to respond to challenges and opportunities, build on our successes to date, improve and update ways of working across the organisation.”

Please, can anyone tell me, in plain English, what that means (assuming that it means anything)?

Sad to hear, but did it say when it would close?

Having digitised a large proportion of my own technical library I would suggest it is not that they are fearful of damage but do not like the effort involved in copying the document. A4 pages are easy to pass through the sheet feeder but A3 need to be separated out as do dividers. The manual then needs re-assembling in the correct order both as hard copy and as a .pdf or .jpg. Takes time and effort.
Some of the diagrams are also larger than A3 so you need a digi camera!

Seems to me that the library is an integral and crucial part of the IWM’s offer (sorry for the buzzword but I can’t think of another suitable term quickly). It represents an important resource for people looking for specific items or covering paricular areas of interest.

Having said that – I recently sought to obtain a copy of a particular doument in the library – a parts list for a military vehicle. However part of it was A3 size which they refused to copy for fear of damage. Couldn’t really understand that – people will open it up to look at it anyway – and if they did copy it all they needed to do was to do two copies and use the second copy to copy from in the future (sorry there’s a lot of copies in that sentence – but you get my drift.)

As it was, that double page diagram was fundamental to the use/value of the document to me – so I didn’t bother.