Science Museum bites bullet and breaks up rare collections

The Science Museum is relocating its prestigious library to Wiltshire in the wake of a financial crisis that led to fears that it might lose the unique collection altogether.

The 120-year-old library, which includes original works by Galileo, Newton and Einstein, has been housed for the past 14 years in Imperial College Library in central London.

The transfer of books to the museum’s storage facilities more than an hour away at Wroughton, near Swindon in Wiltshire, began in September. The move is not expected to be complete until autumn next year.

A Science Museum spokeswoman said the decision to relocate had been taken because the museum could no longer afford to run the service at Imperial.

She said: “As a public body we have a responsibility to spend public money responsibly and efficiently. The new arrangements will ensure that it runs effectively and sustainably.”

The museum was unable to confirm how much the arrangement with Imperial had cost, but it is believed to be around £750,000 per year.

The spokeswoman said any savings from relocation would be ploughed back into the library service.

Under the new plans, the Science and Technology Studies collection – the most frequently used part of the library – will remain within the refurbished Central Library at the Imperial College campus in South Kensington, London.

Less regularly accessed resources, including some periodicals owned jointly with Imperial, will move to a new purpose-built library at Wroughton, which is expected to open to the public next year. The rare book collection will be held in a new Science Museum facility, while the rest of the collection will be stored at Wroughton.

The Science Museum said all printed material would be made available to users of the Imperial library within one working day.

The spokeswoman said she did not expect library users to be “hugely impacted”. “Every effort has been made to ensure users have optimum access to the collections,” she said.

The museum admitted it was likely that some of the current 12 librarians would lose their jobs and others would have to move to Wroughton, but refused to discuss the details.

In May last year, IWR reported that Lord Waldegrave, chairman of the Science Museum trustees, warned the museum was facing a financial crisis that could mean library staff losing their jobs and the collection being split between three sites.

www.sciencemuseum.org.uk

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