ABSTRACT
This type of library is normally dedicated to a person,
subject or place. Typical of the genre is the Reagan Library, based upon US presidential papers, memoirs and personal artefacts. Typical also is the Ruskin Library where a collection of material by this famous Victorian artist, author and
critic is housed as a self-contained annex to a university library. Like the Reagan Library, special collections normally contain a wide range of material – books, journals,
newspaper cuttings, letters, drawings, photographs and videos. They also frequently include personal furniture and household goods (coffee cups, telephones, television sets,
etc.), which help to create a well-rounded view of the individual involved. Specialist libraries dedicated to individuals are necessarily personal and sometimes idiosyncratic in nature. The challenge here is to design a library that cap-
tures the mood of the collection and which embraces the values of the person involved. Specialist libraries may be topic-based. Here it is the
subject material which is being housed and made available to scholars. Examples include poetry libraries, sports libraries, photographic libraries and video libraries. The
design of these buildings has to consider the special accommodation and conservation needs of the material. As with personal libraries, the collection contains more than paper-
based material. Frequently there are artefacts which make up the collection, producing a blurring between library and museum use. With specialist libraries, security, conservation and access are part of a web of interconnected library
tasks. In most specialist libraries, visits are made by appointment and the emphasis is more upon research than loan. Unlike in public or academic libraries where the bulk of
material is held on open shelves, only a small percentage is visible in specialist libraries. Most is held in secure storage and much will be subject to periodic preservation, often
involving sophisticated conservation measures. The third common type of specialist library is that built
up by professional institutes. Here the material may go back to the founding of the body, making some of the
books, journals and committee papers nearly 200 years old. The professional library was originally a private library for members, but increasingly the material is made available
to the general public. Typical is the British Architectural
Library at the Royal Institute of British Architects
(RIBA). When the RIBA secured funding from the Heritage Fund Lottery in 1998, its considerable library became a quasi-public facility. Today the extensive collection of books, drawings, photographs and letters are available via
appointment, though none of the material is available for loan. Professional institute libraries are by no means small – the RIBA Library contains nearly a million items, that
at the British Medical Association (BMA) over two million, and that at the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) over a million.
