(en) US, California, A visit to the Kate Sharpley Library

I?ve just come back from visiting the Kate Sharpley Library in California. Things have
changed from the days when I could get there on the bus and we were buying our first
filing cabinet. Lots of filing cabinets now, as well as boxes like the Left Bank Books
archive. It?s good to look at the non-fiction shelves, seeing ?old friends? and new
acquisitions. --- There?s always plenty of filing and organising to do which occasionally
throws up a gem: did you know Walthamstow?s Ambrose Barker was in touch with Max Charnick
(Chernyak) in Buenos Aires? It?s good to put runs of newspapers into acid-free boxes. This
is the ?preserve? part of us ?preserving and promoting anarchist history?. Of course,
those boxes cost an arm and a leg, so you have to choose who gets preserved. A couple of
1970s French pamphlets gave up their Mylar protective pockets to some 1920s Italian
publications.

Thanks go to our friends: your donations help with ordering that essential preservation
stuff (when we?re not spending them on acquisitions).

I saw our catalogue in action. One thing we discussed was how we could use it to raise our
profile (and fill gaps in the collection) without being overwhelmed by demands beyond our
limited abilities.

We talked about ways to get hold of books and periodicals that we need, and how to get
more supporters. We also talked about digitising documents and publications. First we need
to raise the money for a new scanner, just to do the small jobs like the ?treasures? to
illustrate our ?Notes from the KSL? blog http://kslnotes.wordpress.com/. In the long term,
when we digitise material we want it to be done well, and to show collections in context.
That will need both work and money.

With Barry working on it most days, the library is probably the best organised and
catalogued that it?s ever been. With the help of our friends and comrades, the Kate
Sharpley Library will be preserving and promoting more anarchist history than ever in the
coming years. If you want to help with that, send us some money or drop us a line!

Bron :

From KSL: Bulletin of the Kate Sharpley Library No. 70-71, July 2012 [Double issue]
http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/f7m1jp