LIBRARIAN AND ARCHIVIST’S REPORT

The George Williams Memorial Library is situated in the ringing chamber of Winchester Cathedral and is available for readers and borrowers when the tower is open for ringing, and by appointment at other times. If I am not present, Gail Cater and Graham Grant have agreed to provide access to the books. The system for loans provides a standard loan period of eight weeks, with a liberal renewal policy for serious studies and special problems. The only exceptions are the bound copies of Guild annual and triennial reports for which, because of their unique importance, loans must be specially approved by me. The nearby Cathedral Office at No 1 The Close can accept returned items marked for my attention during normal office hours or through the letter box, but no messages, please, other than written ones.

The library and the collection of records of past business and activities have served as a source to at least two researchers, one of whom has since graduated as an historian and has agreed to help me in evaluating and classifying the bulky records. A family history enthusiast searching on the Internet found the name of one of his forbears as one of our authors and copied the book for his family archive. Some of our material is now available in multimedia formats: notably bell sounds and photography.

Following the Millennium activities of the previous year, accessions of record material for events of 2001 have tailed off somewhat. Service sheets, press cuttings of events not covered in The Ringing World, group photos with names etc. are welcome; all with dates if possible. The growing part of the collection of archive material held at the Hampshire Record Office has the reference 20M94DI and is available for study. A catalogue of the HRO holdings of W&P accessions and other Hampshire ringing material is on the W&P website at http://www.wp-ringers.org.uk/library/hroindex.html and that of the book collection is at http://www.wp-ringers.org.uk/library/libindex.html

Jack Walters