Dr Xavier Bray Director,
The Wallace Collection

9th February 2021

Dear Dr Bray,

CILIP and its Rare Books and Special Collections Group together with ARLIS/UK & Ireland, are the primary associations for professional staff working in art libraries. We are writing to express our concern about your proposal to render the posts of Librarian and Archivist redundant from The Wallace Collection.

We understand you are also considering stopping public access to your library and archive, whilst enhancing digital access to these collections. We ask you to consider if this decision is in line with your public task: to ensure your collections are exhibited to the public, that they are available to persons seeking to consult them in connection with study or research and to generally promote the public’s enjoyment and understanding of fine and applied art.

Your statement of purpose makes clear your aim to “Make Culture Matter” and to preserve The Wallace Collection for future generations. We recognise the need to implement strategies to generate additional income as well as proactively manage costs. To do this successfully, we believe the specialist skills of the librarian and archivist are critical to supporting The Wallace achieve this objective. Their skills are essential to the ongoing curation, care and long term preservation of the physical collection; which is pivotal to the successful digitisation of the collection to realise your future aspirations.

The librarian and archivist offer unique, specialist knowledge in the care of books, records, manuscripts and other artefacts. In addition to understanding the cultural and historical context of these objects, they are aware of the international shared standards, vocabularies and discovery platforms for the cataloguing and description of these collections. They can also support the implementation of the emerging standards of digitisation and digital preservation. These skills are critical to delivering your ongoing strategy of digitisation, curatorial excellence, expanded education and community programmes and building your reputation by sharing their knowhow with institutional partners.

The absence of these professional staff has the potential to impact your collections and your longstanding relationships negatively and to cause damage to your future income generation through development and fundraising with individuals and national heritage bodies.

We would also ask you to consider how the proposed action will honour the intent of the original conditions placed by the donors of significant collections, and lenders of collections on deposit.

We strongly advocate that The Wallace Collection reconsider its proposal to remove specialist staff and public access from its library and archive collections. We believe The Wallace Collection should honour its duty of care towards its collections, by retaining the specialist skills that are needed to meet its future objectives and fulfil its obligations to its public task.

Your sincerely

ARLIS/UK & Ireland Council
CILIP Rare Books and Special Collections Group

PDF version of the letter to Dr Bray.

Related news: Joint statement from CILIP & the Rare Books and Special Collections Group (RBSCG)