Heythrop Library

The project

One of the long-term projects we have been working on as the Heythrop library team is sorting through the vast number of our uncatalogued books stored offsite at Crown Records Management. Our goal is to organize, catalogue, and then send these books to our other offsite store location Deepstore.

Issues we have encountered

Duplicate copies:

Many of the Crown books are duplicate copies of books we already hold either at Crown, Deepstore, or in the reading room. This makes them candidates for deaccessioning.

Out of scope materials:

The Crown books originally came from the Heythrop College library and reflect topics and subject areas that may no longer be within scope of the current collection development policy. Heythrop was originally a community library and the Jesuit community were at times interested in different topics than were taught at the College. Though we keep books from this heritage collection, some can be deaccessioned.

Multiple barcodes:

As the books are mostly uncatalogued, they only contain barcodes assigned by Crown to identify their location in storage, but not Heythrop Library barcodes. An issue we came across recently was due to a moment of confusion over the Crown barcodes versus our Heythrop barcodes. We did not see that a particular book contained a Heythrop barcode in addition to a Crown barcode. This meant that we incorrectly identified the existing Heythrop book as a duplicate and almost deaccessioned it.

Obscure/rare materials:

Some of the Crown books are so obscure that we cannot find records from other libraries to copy-catalogue from. This means that we have to catalogue the books from scratch. This centenary celebrations pamphlet from Beaumont College is one such example (See LF795 BEA/CEN 1961 at https://catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/record=b4686048~S3).

Title	Beaumont centenary celebrations : 1861-1961 : centenary programme.
	Beaumont centenary celebrations : Beaumont College Old Windsor
Imprint	Old Windsor : A.M.D.G., 1961.
Descript.	16 unnumbered pages : illustrations (black and white), portraits (black and white) ; 25 cm

What our current workflow looks like:

1. Request uncatalogued books from Crown alongside regular offsite store requests from readers.
2. Sort uncatalogued books to ensure they are within scope of collection development policy and are not duplicate copies.
3. Offer books that do not fit criteria to other libraries, i.e deaccessioning them.
4. Remove crown barcodes from books.
5. Catalogue books and create item records from them, adding Heythrop barcodes.
6. Index books and send them to Deepstore.

Some common subject areas

1. Literature
2. Education
3. Educational psychology
4. Jesuitica
5. Cathedrals

Here is a recent example in the area of Literature (See PR2995 WAL V1 1860 at https://catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/record=b3349672~S3).

Author	Walker, William Sidney, 1795-1846, author.
Title	A critical examination of the text of Shakespeare : with remarks on his language and that of his contemporaries, together with notes on his plays and poems / by William Sidney Walker.
Imprint	London : John Russell Smith, 1860.
Descript.	3 volumes (lviii, 334, viii, 355, vi, 371 pages) ; 17 cm

Here is a recent example in the area of Education (See LC368 1947 at https://catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/record=b4682856~S3).

Title	The London syllabus of religious education / prepared, for recommendation to the London County Council, by a conference convened by the Council under the Education Act, 1944.
Imprint	London : London County Council, 1947.
Descript.	168 pages ; 22 cm

Here is a recent example in the area of Educational psychology (See LB1051 BOR 1966  at https://catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/record=b1293054~S3).

Author	Borger, Robert, 1927- author.
Title	The psychology of learning / R. Borger and A.E.M. Seabourne.
Imprint	Harmondsworth : Penguin, 1966.
Copyright date	©1966
Descript.	249 pages : illustrations ; 19 cm.

Here is a recent example in the area of Jesuitica (See  LF795 BEA/LIS (1) 1911 at https://catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/record=b4686052~S3).

Title	The Beaumont lists for fifty years, 1861-1911 : supplement to the ‘Beaumont Review.’
Imprint	Beaumont, Old Windsor : The ‘Beaumont Review’ Office, 1911.
Descript.	48 pages ; 28 cm

Here is a recent example in the area of Cathedrals (See NA5471 DUR/G 1913 at https://catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/record=b1571059~S3).

Author	Greenwell, William.
Title	Durham Cathedral / by William Greenwell.
Imprint	Durham : Andrews & Co, 1913.
Descript.	xiii, 120 p. : ill., folded plan ; 19 cm.

The two subject areas I have personally encountered most often while cataloguing for this project are educational psychology and English literature. Cataloguing Crown books gives me an interesting view of what was being studied and collected at the former Heythrop College library.

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