VISIT TO BALLAARAT MECHANICS’ INSTITUTE

Prue and Mike McCausland

We visited Ballarat to learn about the BMI collection of books and periodicals and to draw if possible on its members’ experience of preserving and managing them. One member of the Library Committee, Rex Bridges, took us on a tour for about an hour and a half on the 25 March 2014. It was just what we’d hoped in terms of appreciating the challenge that FOLMI is taking on, and its potential rewards. Rex has had a central role in the cataloguing and maintenance of the BMI heritage collection, and was a most welcoming and enthusiastic guide with a thorough knowledge of their collection.

The BMI has both an extensive heritage and a working collection (a subscription library of current titles, similar to a public library). Membership covers both lending rights and research access. Both are housed in the fine 1859 building at 117 Sturt St, Ballarat, recently restored at a cost of over $5m. and reopened in 2013. It has a number of beautifully furnished rooms over five floors, a number of which are leased or available for rent for functions.

The Heritage Collection has its own large room, about 20m by 14m, which has an upper balcony/mezzanine floor. The books and serials are mostly stored on shelves, with the really valuable items kept in locked, glass-fronted cabinets. Most of their newspapers have specialist shelving in the basement. The basement is a warren of storage and working areas as large as the library space above.  Both sections are linked to an effective air-conditioning system. 

Mike with Rex Bridges at the Ballaarat MI

Following are some of the bits of information we picked up about the collection and how members of BMI manage it:

A large number of volunteers, drawing on library and archivist skills and direction, took about 3 years to draw up a database for what had survived of the collection from its early days of donations and purchases since 1859.  They used FileMaker, a program also used for the working library collection operated by BMI (with its own full-time librarian).  Since that time some six or more volunteers come in once a week to work at computers to enter and edit entries.  There is a dedicated workroom for this, in addition to the reading room/computer facilities in the Heritage Library itself.

The Heritage Collection has about 18,000 volumes, with a further 1800 bound volumes of newspapers. Over 100 of the books are pre-1800, over 6,000 are pre-1900 (with about 1,200 before 1859). Works by Australian authors are separated from the main collection. Since 1980 when the numbering system began, each item is numbered sequentially (in pencil inside the front cover) and as it is added to the database it has its Dewey number recorded. Dewey numbers are used to order the books on the shelves.  FileMaker has a variety of ways of listing and accessing information about titles.

FileMaker also produces catalogue slips which are placed inside the front cover of each item, solving the problem of sticking labels on the spine. More recently a barcode has been placed on the fly leaf as well.

The books vary in condition, with some in a fragile state as would be expected for a working collection existing for over 150 years. Some are tied by library ribbon tape to keep parts together, and the most vulnerable are placed in archival plastic bags. The collection includes volumes from about 20 other local mechanics’ institutes, as well as donations from the earliest years.

Funding comes from a variety of sources: state government grants, the Williamson and Potter Foundations, strong continuing support from local government, membership fees, the leasing of parts of the BMI building and hire of facilities (including a magnificent period-styled dining or function room, once a ballroom).

The Heritage Library is used by researchers, especially those associated with the University of Ballarat. Most of the general researchers use the newspaper collection, though as their contents are not indexed, family historians are not particularly encouraged.

It was inspiring to see how much had been accomplished by the BMI volunteers, and how an important part of Ballarat’s, in fact Australia’s, heritage had been preserved through their labour and dedication. They have created a valuable national resource. Rex generously passed on to FOLMI a copy of their databases for books and newspapers.

We believe FOLMI should maintain ties with BMI as fully as possible, share with them what we discover about the Launceston Mechanics’ Institute, and use their experience and advice in further planning our project.  The collections, though remarkably similar in their founders’ conception, are different in character as well as in specific holdings. We will need to make decisions based on our situation, of course, but it is reassuring to know another group has achieved what we hope to do, and have done it so well.