GUILDHALL LIBRARY - Friday, August 3

MY FAVORITE PART --The Guildhall has an electronic database called Collage, which is a pathfinder to 35 to 40,000 of their images which can either be downloaded or ordered. Even though downloaded images would not be quality images, this database sounds as if it is one which I might recommend to students and just sounds like fun. I try to give the Teen Council a "Library Secret" each month -- something which most patrons don't know, and this sounds like a good one to share, as well as just keep in mind for regular use.

THE GUILDHALL LIBRARY - The Guildhall Library is another part of the City of London Library Services, which includes the Barbican Library which we visited previously and two other smaller lending libraries. The City of London is only one square mile and filled with businesses rather than residences. Andrew Harper, printed books librarian, told us that, like many other libraries, they are having a hard time right now due to e-resources.

The Guildhall is the largest of the City of London's libraries and is locally and publicly funded with no membership restrictions.

The first building of the Guildhall library was built in the 1420's, with the present one being the fourth structure. The original one was largely theological as it was next to a chapel. It lasted around 100 years until Edward VI purloined it, taking the most of the collection.

In the 1820's it was refounded with the theme being those things of London interest. At this point, it was open to only corporation members. More and more guests began to use it, and in 1875 a new building opened to the general public. It was the first to provide to the public, and became a more general library. The City Business Library separated from it.

In December 1940, though it was not directly hit, but was burned out. Much had already been moved out, some survived, and some were replaced through donations and purchases.

Some collections are just housed in the Guildhall, but still owned by a different institution.

Taking its name from the trade guilds, which had originally built up many individual collections of their own, partly to educate their apprentices.
Some collections the Guildehall is known for include those on clock and watch-making, maritime, and the stock exchange. The London Stock Exchange gave the Guildehall all its historical and annual reports from 1880 through 1964, that in itself making the Guildehall of international importance.

The Guildhall staff can give some assistance with research, potentially around 20 minutes; after that the fee is 50 pounds. Some of this research is done by staff, other by free-lancers.

Digital cameras are frequently used by patrons to photograph the information they need.

This library is frequently used by historians, as well as commercially for film, magazines, and books.