We took the ferry down the Thames, then went to the Greenwich National Maritime Museum. Our tour guide, Hanna Dunmow, Archive & Manuscripts Manager, told us that a book had been published on the museum titled "Of Ships & Stars". The library was established in 1937 by James Caird, who was in the shipping industry, but was also interested in collecting and preserving shipping records. It is the largest research library on Maritime history anywhere. They have resources on subjects such as piracy, immigration, navigation, merchant ships, royal navy, and genealogy. They also have Lloyd's Captain's Registers of Registered Ships and Yachts, and an alphabetical list of naval officers.
They have over 100,000 books published in 1850-forward, 20,000 pamphlets, 20,000 bound periodicals, 2,000 current periodicals, 8,000 rare books published 1474-1850. They keep their more popular retrieval manuscripts on site, and fill a limit of 5 retrievals requests per day. They have their less-popular manuscript collection off-site, but will make them available with a 2 week notice. They have between three to four thousand visits per year. They have an online catalog, and are in the process of producing a manuscript catalog, and also have e-resources available. They are asked 50,000-80,000 questions per year at reception. 2,000 books are used per year and 5,000 manuscripts are used per year. They also have plenty of email, mail, and telephone inquires.
They library and museum is in the process of a renovation which should be completed by 2012. The renovation will cost them around 35 million pounds. There are 6 full-time staff members in the archives department: 3 special librarians, 2 assistants, and 1 information specialist. There are 12 full-time staff members in the entire library.
We then met Renee (from the Archives Department), and Mike (from the Rare Books Department). They each showed us some items of interest. Mike showed us a letter from Admiral Nelson to the Duke of Clarence, a letter arranging Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Norris to lead the expedition of 1589, Journal of Captain Charles Carlile, Signal book from USS Chesapeake, Journal of Dr. Edward Hodges Cree, South Sea Waggoner Manuscript atlas, William Dampier's collection of accounts on voyages, and a Victualling account from 1558. Renee showed us an essay on the improvement of navigation, and the transcripts for the trail of Captain William Kidd.
The library's website is: http://www.nmm.ac.uk/server/show/nav.2997
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