Bancroft Library
Katrina Deliramich
For my tour of an
archive I was lucky enough to tour the Bancroft library at the University of
California Berkeley. The best part of my tour was having Professor de Lorenzo,
Associate Director and Head of Technical Services, be my tour guide. I have to
owe the credit for the tour to my mother who works at Cal and had met Professor
de Lorenzo on occasion and was able to snag him for our tour. I was extremely
excited going into the tour because as a history major I had heard so many
things about the inside of the Bancroft library and I have always been curious
to see it for myself and also the fact that Professor de Lorenzo is the other
teacher for this course I knew I would receive an amazing tour.
My
mother and I met up at the interior security desk of the Bancroft library to
wait for Professor de Lorenzo. Another lady from our class was waiting for the
tour as well. When Professor de Lorenzo arrived he introduced us and had us
sign in. He went right into explaining
about the entrance to the Bancroft. The library had been redone, everything but
the shell. Since the Bancroft is connected to the Doe library they made a few
changes to the walkways between the two libraries, to the average person you
would think it was all one library. It took four years to renovate the new
library; the seismic repairs were covered by the state whereas the rest were
funded privately.
The
ground floor contained special exhibits, such as Mark Twain. Public service was
located on the ground floor. The entrance was made of marble and brass.
Professor de Lorenzo called it the “citadel of learning.” A lot of money was
spent to make the library look beautiful. It was amazing to look at. I cannot
compare it to the Library of Congress, but compared to almost any other library
I have seen it was a grand entrance and they did a wonderful job.
Professor
de Lorenzo talked a lot about theft in the library. He discussed the need for
lockers and how the lockers were made more convenient for everyone visiting
then they had been before. Everyone is required to leave their belongs in the
lockers. There was a specific list of items you could bring and it was very
short. Since the Bancroft contains rare books and early manuscripts it is important
that the items are preserved and only pencils can be used incase of marking the
items. But overall Professor de Lorenzo said that theft was the thing they
worried about the most, damaging the items came second. I was surprised but as
he kept talking it made sense that if the items were stolen easily you would
lose out on everything, whereas if someone were to write or rip something
accidentally the problem would not be as drastic. Cameras were in place all
over except the bathrooms to prevent theft. The other lady on the tour asked
for statistics on theft in the Bancroft compared to other libraries, but he had
no answer. Later when we toured the reading rooms he discussed theft more
in-depth.
Professor
de Lorenzo talked to us about how new libraries were created, by having faculty
collect books and eventually get so many they open a library close to their
department. The Bancroft library takes transfers from the other libraries on
campus. The Bancroft is different from the libraries back east because California’s
history is so young most of the collection is from post WWII. The policy is to
not refuse anything, although he said this could create a headache and piles
and piles of items needing to be searched and cataloged. 15,000 new items are
added yearly to the library, most are donations. The library is staffed by 81
people, but most are part time.
Hubert
Bancroft started doing oral histories from people west of the Rockies.
Professor de Lorenzo said that is still a main focus of the library and they collect
everything they find that relates to west of the Rockies. Some items are
published in Mexico and so staff actually travels to trade shows in Mexico to
collect items. There are book fairs in the United States and even in Europe
that the staff will travel to, in order to collect unique items. He talked
about the budget for buying items each year, approximately 500,000 dollars a
year. The collection that cost the most money was 1 million dollars, but he was
not able to share with us which collection that was.
Professor
de Lorenzo took us up the elevator, avoiding the curved staircase, to the
reading room. He mentioned that weddings and events could be held at the
Bancroft, exciting! The pressroom is
located on the second floor and we were able to stop in and look at how the
press works. The floors were even made the way they would have been with
cross-grained wood. The reading room was an interesting experience. We got to
see how items are called up, where they are stored and how you view them. There
were rooms to listen to audio files that were kept clear glass so the employees
could keep and eye and make sure you do not steal. The employees had to keep a
close eye on everyone in the room; no stacks of boxes were allowed to obstruct
their views. When you fill out a card to see a collection you have to show all
your information and ID incase they find it missing later on they can track
down the last person and get the items back. He said it happens, he did not say
how frequently, but that when something goes missing they call in a search for
the item.
Next
we went to the curator’s offices. We learned about the four levels of security
for the building. The curator acquires the collections by purchase or as a
gift. Professor de Lorenzo talked about copyright laws and how privacy is
protected by closing some items for twenty-five years to the public. We saw an
area of one room full of a collection that still needed to be appraised for
historical significance. He explained how some items would go to other libraries,
some would stay there and some would get sold.
Next
we went to the stacks. There are four levels of temperature controls depending
on what the item needs. This is where the tour got sad. In the stacks Professor
de Lorenzo was telling us about how they remodeled the room, it was like a huge
warehouse. The shelves reached up really high but he was concerned if there was
an earthquake they would all fall off so plan for something across each shelf
is being made. He explained the plan for the new area was supposed to allow for
twenty years of growth. They only received five years of growth and because the
project took four years they are left with one year of growth. He explained
that nothing was being done to change this. The outside area they use to store
items is almost full and they are over flowing at the University. He feels that
everything will become digitalized after Google has its way. He asked if any of
us had the digital books, I have the Nook so I told him yes. He explained that
would be all that was left. I asked where all the books would go and he said
they would be sold, given away to poor countries or burned. They would become
useless. He then stated let’s leave, “before I start crying.” I cannot believe
that! How can they take away all the books? I love my Nook, it is awesome, but
I would never give up my real books, never!
I
have to admit I was bummed out for the rest of the tour. We went into a freezer
room to see negatives, it smelt awful! They were having a hard time keeping it
to the right temperature and he said it just kept getting the wrong humidity.
The room was so small and claustrophobic. He took us through the rest of the
building quickly, pointing out people working on projects, limited shelf space
and where maps are kept. The last part was the special collections, which we
walked past but did not enter. He dropped us off at the front where we started
and thanked us all for coming. I had a great time and learned so much about
things I never even could have comprehended before!
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