Imperial War Museum to close its library and sell collection

A story lost?

I may have mentioned in previous posts that this year is the Centenary of the start of World War One.

 This was a conflict that changed the world in many ways politically and socially but most of all it was responsible for the deaths of millions of young men across Europe.

The Imperial War Museum was established to tell the story of those who were sacrificed on the alter of Nationalism and in a fight against a perceived evil. This was done with exhibits and collecting a library of books, documents, photographs and sound recordings which have combined into a great resource.

I fear this blogpost might cost me my job or at least find me in a disciplinary but sometimes, just sometimes you should stand up for what you believe in and this is one of those times.

The Museum has been caught up in the cuts issued by Government and had to try and make savings where they can and have brought in someone to evaluate the operation and cut away dead wood.

Recently the Library has been identified as dead wood. As I understand it (I missed the meeting as I was on Paternity leave) the Library will be closed, the librarians let go and the books (not the documents, photos or Sound recordings) will be sold to other libraries and institutions. Basically scattered to the winds though this is under review as some books were donations.

For me, a historian and lover of books, this is an atrocity. The average person probably thinks; what's the big deal?

The big deal is that the collection is there to augment the galleries. In fact many people are now being directed to the new (Only a three or four years old) open library to look up answers to queries. It is also very popular (especially this year) and the amount of telephone enquires per day and walk in enquires is phenomenal. In the last year the museum was closed for six months whilst the refit carried on but the Library was open and attracted a roaring trade.

By closing the library and getting rid of this vital resource in favour of a website service is a massive disservice to the founding belief and purpose of the museum. 

Former Director General Dr Sir Alan Borg wrote;

As a former Director General of the Museum I am horrified by the suggestion that the Library might be closed and dispersed.

If you agree with him, and me please sign this petition to make them rethink.

Thank you.

IWM Out sources Visitor Services Department

News that the Imperial War Museum Visitor Services department has been outsourced to Shield Security has already hit the newspapers.

I have to be careful what I write as I am still an employee of the Museum and can thus face disciplinary... Until 1st April.

The Museum like many other has been forced to face up to a hefty budget cut (caused by the financial deficit) from the Treasury and the Department of Culture and Sport as well as trying to save money for costly regeneration works for the World War One centenary in July next year. Museums as a whole have to face greater and greater competition for visitor figures and with the over priced nature of visiting London and more sunny days than wet, falling visitor numbers.

The IWM has had ticket only galleries in the past and in the five years I have been here they have had varying levels of success. Ian Fleming 007 and Horrible Histories: Terrible Trenches did very very well where as Once upon a War time based on certain fictional books set during wartime failed to impact - it was interesting to note that at the same time the Evening Standard wrote at length about the falling literacy levels within young readers...

Two Years ago the Museum began its review of the Visitor Services department and looking how to do things better. One of the problems highlighted at the time was that over the five branches the roles varied massively and that contracts differed depending on length of service. It was identified that the department was too cumbersome and there were offers of voluntary redundancies and early retirement which were accepted by a few. At the beginning of this year management had to look at the possibility of outsourcing the whole department except for a small Visitor Services department who would handle Visitor Planning and tours etc. The Tender process would begin and they would look at the feasibility. That was in April.

Since then rumours have been fierce and unrelenting. Yesterday it was announced to staff that they would, as of the 1st April 2014 be working for SHIELD. My meeting was today and we have been told that under the Tuppee law that our terms and Conditions, rotas, and structures would remain the same until at least April 1st 2015. After that nothing was certain.

The PCS have not been very helpful in this. Three years ago before I resigned my post our branch chair told us that there would never be agency staff working at the Museum or Volunteers doing VSA jobs... Both have since happened.

There have also been no real fight until the last week when the when Mark Sewotka's comments were published in the  Gaurdian and the PPS website. They also told the Museum that they did not agree with the process when it was pretty much over - a position that should have been taken eight months ago.

There are mixed fillings at the moment within the staff. There is a grim acceptance by some, others are trying to be optimistic that at least nothing changes for a year and we maintain pay etc, others are angry that their loyalty is not being repaid and that this may have been the plan all along.

Comments on Facebook and other Social media say things like:
"So angry, furious... annoyed"

"When you have a brilliant, warm-hearted, dedicated team, you do not outsource them. You treat them with respect and dignity"

"Dick move, IWM. That is all."

There is belief that this will not have any bad ramifications on the Centinary as staff who know and love the subject matter gently bleed away to be replaced by contractors with little interest in the subject. This remains to be seen.

Shouldn't we just forget World War One?

Last Thursday Mr Cameron gave a speech to the upper echelons of the Imperial War Museum, a couple of Government ministers and the press. It was special for two reasons.

1. I was there, not in the room but down the corridor working security and holding the PM's door open.

2. A further £5m has been pledged to the Museum's regeneration project and the Centenary World War One Gallery.

Indeed, in little over two years the Country will be marking and remembering the start of World War One, the largest war the world had seen since the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1814. (the hundred days Waterloo campaign of 1815 doesn't count as it was limited to the Low countries, Britain, France and Prussia.)

The scale of the carnage on both the Eastern and Western fronts was ludicrously high but with both sides armed with the most modern equipment and a command structure that had spent a century fighting native armies it was some what inevitable.

Even on the lesser known fronts the death toll was high, look at Gallipoli or the war in Iraq which saw the majority of British & Indian POWs die in Turkish care.

I think it is important to remember the war that signalled the end of the nineteenth century and in whose wake the first wave of social change came to Europe. People's thinking was rapidly changed and the face of military and political theory changed overnight..

There is also the human tragedy to remember. The waves of soldiers climbing out of their trenches on that bright morning on the Somme and walking towards the German lines only to find the barrage had failed when the German machine guns openned up.
The communities whose young men were wiped out often in the case of the Pals regiments, in one go.
The three cruisers Hogue, Arboukir and Cressy sunk in 40 minutes taking 1459 sailors to their deaths.
The Kindermort in 1914 where the rapidity and rifle discipline of the withdrawing British army cut down swathes of the advancing German armies which were spearheaded by the fresh in take of 17 year old volunteers. German command, whilst counting their dead believed the out numbered British force had armed each man with a machine gun so great was the death toll.

Words like Ypres, Somme, Passchendale, Gallipoli, Mustard gas, Zeppelin, trenches - They're all scars on the living memory and family history. I was quite lucky and only one of my relatives died and one was wounded and one had a very near miss when his warship exploded!

However the war is fading from memory as there are no more surviving veterans and even those whose fathers fought are thinning in number. My nan was born in 1917 and passed away aged 90 some five years ago and I only have one grandparent left but likewise he's 91 now!

Those that visit the Imperial war Museum do filter through the galleries respectfully viewing the remains of the war and symbols of victory over the Kaiser. School groups are less interested, complaining about the smell in the Trench before hurrying through to look at the Nazis. It holds no relevance for them.

Even the reasons for going to war are long forgotten. Unlike the Second the Germanic powers of the Central powers were not the evil of Nazism and the Kaiser and Franz Josef's Empires were little different to Britain or France. The overall cause can be put down to German aggression or Empire building but coming from Britain that is a little hypocritical  War had been somewhat inevitable for some time and both the Royal Navy and German high seas fleet had been itching to test out their comparative strengths. However it was hardly a fight of good vs. evil!

There has always been stories of "lions led by donkeys" throughout our history that no one remembers now. In 1776 the British army advanced in rank order at a steady march three times on Bunker hill, the American infantry forced them to retire twice under heavy fire and only when they ran out of ammunition did the "Lobsters" take the field.

General Braddock and his men walked into a massacre at Monongahela in 1755.

The last stand of the Gloucesters on Gloster hill during Korean war in 1951.

Heroism like Lieutenant Latham wrapping the King's colour about him and suffering grievous injuries from the French Cruassiers at Albuhera or Lieutenant Coghill and Melvill's heroic ride to save regimental honour after the massacre of Isandlwana in 1879 which saw 1300 British and NNC troops butchered by 20,000 angry Zulu warriors.

How many of these incidents are remembered any more? Who cares what happened in 1776? How is it still relevant to us in the modern age? Who cares about Korea - Who even knows it happened?

No one remembers the Boer War, a war that ended just over a century ago and cost my family TWO great-great grandfathers. This may be because we were the bad guys in that war or just because no one is there to remind us of it.

For me, the relevance is that the War had been pointless. We say "They died for us" but they didn't, not like my Grandparent's generation did. Despite the shelling of Great Yarmouth and a smattering of air raids the UK was never under threat. They died for the official reason that Belgian neutrality was violated but really because one of Queen Victoria's grandsons spoiled for a fight with the others.

They died for "King and Country", because Kitchener told them to, because they were expected to.

Although the adage of "we should remember to stop it happening again" isn't applicable because it did happen again - we should remember them and the War for its futility.

We should not let this War to end all wars be forgotten like so many others and should impress upon the young the conditions that the British Empire asked its soldiers to live, fight and die in.