30 June 2008

3rd Study DayLSE/BL/Oxford Collaboration

Graham Camfield, Barbara Humphries, Sue Donnelly

LSE LIBRARY

Hidden gems of the collection

Report by the Director W.A.S. Hewins to the Governors in 1902

1. Ordinary text-books and works of reference2. Government publications (“the backbone of the

Library”)3. Official documents from local authorities4. Documents issued by Trade Unions, Banks,

Railway Companies etc.5. Periodical literature6. Special collections

• Trade Unions• Banks• Railway companies• History of socialism

Bank reports

• Reports of bank activity and economic conditions

• Bank of Estonia, Economic Bulletin 1926-32• Latvian Bank, Economic Review 1927-1930• Koloniale Bank (Netherlands) 1909 - 1939

Railway reports and journals

• Annual Report / Minneapolis, S Paul and Sault Ste Marie Railroad Company), 1938-1960

• Missouri Pacific Railroad Company, 1917-1977• Report / Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad

Company, 1887 – with gaps• Mexican Central Railway Company, 1885-1907

History of socialism

• Hutchinson Collection• Russian collection• Schapiro collection• Russian revolutionary pamphlets

Hutchinson

The collection includes works on left wing, radical and revolutionary movements, such as socialism, anarchism, syndicalism, communism and Marxism, and their opponents. Rich in original theoretical works, memoirs, Utopian novels, poetry and songbooks, and serials.

Over 1,900 volumes, 1830-1935

Russian Collection

•Webbs’ commitment to socialism

•Interest and support for revolutionary movement in Russia

•1898 Copy of “Industrial democracy” sent to Lenin in Siberia for translation into Russian

•After 1917 interest and support for new Soviet regime

•1935 Webbs publish “Soviet Communism: a new civilisation?”

Library holds significant material for the early Soviet period, including:

•Early publications of economic councils and organisations set up after Revolution

•Documents and reports of State Planning Commission

•Results of censuses of population and industry

Russian Collection

• Around 34,000 volumes

• Mainly Russian but some material in Ukrainian and Belarussian

• Strongest on Soviet and Post-Soviet period

RUSSIAN REVOLUTIONARY PAMPHLETS

Over 800 pamphlets and periodicals (in 78 vols.) relating to the revolutionary movement, and dating from the mid-nineteenth to early twentieth century.

Pamphlet Collection at the LSE Library

• There are over 90,000 pamphlets in this collection. They are an excellent resource of primary source material for historical research

• Much of the material dates from the late 19th and early 20th centuries

• Pamphlets are published by political parties, pressure groups and private individuals

Subjects covered

• Social policy• Transport policy• Issues in British political history• War and peace• Women’s history• History of the trades union movement

Social policy

• Material on the Poor Laws and origins of the welfare state collected by the Webbs

• Origins of the National Health Service• Housing policy – slum clearance and the

garden cities• Old age pensions

Transport

• Thousands of pamphlets on the history of the railways in Britain and the US were acquired as part of the Acworth Collection

• Includes company reports, maps and timetables• Debates about nationalisation• The case for a Channel Tunnel• Origins of London transport

Issues in British political history• The Library collects publications from all

political parties• Party political manifestos from the 19th and 20th

centuries• Collection contains historical cartoons• Other subjects covered include home rule for

Ireland, Corn Laws, free trade and protection and the land question

Access to the collection

• The pamphlet collection is kept in closed access and material is fetched on request

• All pamphlets have a catalogue record on the Library’s OPAC

• This was achieved as part of a RETROCON project which lasted two years and was completed in 1997

• Use of the collection increased by 60% as pamphlet catalogue records were loaded on to the OPAC

Preservation and digitisation

• 25,000 pamphlets are on microfilm• 600 have been digitised and can be accessed through

links on the Library web page and catalogue• There is a pamphlets web page which is linked to the

Library’s home page. It receives thousands of hits every year

http://www.lse.ac.uk/library/pamphlets/Default.htm• 6,000 19th century pamphlets are being digitised as part

of the RLUK (CURL) 19th Century Pamphlets Project