Sleuthing in the Stacks

When fetching, shelving or shifting books in the stacks, the keen-eyed stack sleuth's attention is occasionally caught by the bookplates attached to the boards of the inner covers. These can offer valuable clues as to the history of the book in question and of the collection as a whole. The pre-stack shelf life of particular volumes, as it were. The above plate bears testament to the fact that Exeter's first public library (as opposed to the Devon and Exeter Institute library, which required an annual subscription for access) was a part of the Royal Albert Memorial Museum (now popularly referred to by its dynamic acronym RAMM). The foundation date on the plate, designed by GP Denham, is 1869, a year after the museum itself was opened. The library existed alongside the museum collection and lectures, classes and courses in art and science. These would form the nascent seeds for the future establishment of the University of Exeter.    The library collection fairly swiftly began ...

One area of the library's stack collection which is particularly extensive and richly varied is its poetry selection (the 821s for English poetry, Dewey fans). There are thousands of volumes down there, containing millions of verses. They come in all shapes and sizes, from large and sumptuously illustrated editions to tiny pocket books. A miniscule collection of aphoristic Chinese verse titled Fragments of Jade may be one of the smallest books we have; its old yellow record card is actually greater in area than the cover of the book and rather spoils the otherwise exquisite aesthetic appeal of this perfectly formed object.  Elsewhere there are self-published pamphlets, limited edition small-press publications, agit-prop broadsheets, Victorian collections with beautiful colour plates revealed beneath diaphonous sheets of tissue paper, and early collections by poets who would go on to great renown, sometimes in other literary forms. I recently hauled a trolley-load of these treasures...

Hallo and welcome to a new blog exploring the voluminous collection of books (and other artefacts) stored in the vast ark which is the Exeter Library stacks . This is the rather loosely applied term for the cavernous spaces beneath the main library floor where you’ll find rolling stack shelving groaning and creaking with books spanning decades, even centuries . It’s also where the so-called ‘cage’ area is hidden away, the locked room where the real treasures are stored. These include books and documents dating back to the 15 th century, as well as runs of Victorian magazines, sumpt u ously illustrated editions , special collections and rarities. We’ll be excavating some of those anon and telling some of the fascinating stories behind them – stories of authors, artists and of the books themselves and how they arrived here.    But first perhaps we’d best explain the title chosen for this bibliographical odyssey. Whilst reshelving some books in the literary realms of the Dewey...