Sackler 101: The New Books Display

Here at the Sackler Library, we really love new books. And we see plenty of them! Not only are they an essential part of the library, they also look fantastic, so we like to show them off. In the last six months, we added over 1,400 (hard copy) new books to the Sackler’s collections, and we have displayed them all, on rotation, on our New Books Display.

We think it’s important to display all the new monographs we receive, because they’re such essential research tools for Sackler readers. Each month, we post online New Acquisitions lists, but many of our readers like to browse the incoming materials physically. Much of our intake contains the latest research relating to the many subjects collected by the Sackler, which is something our readers find invaluable in keeping up to date with recent publications in their fields and emerging areas of research interest. Each week, the New Books Display offers a new snapshot of the collections on offer in the library.

The New Books Display is located on the Ground Floor, spread across two bookcases. Since September last year, all new books received by the library have been displayed together near the entrance to the Library, which makes it easier for our readers with interdisciplinary interests to gauge the range of acquisitions. Books destined for the Sackler’s lower three floors (Lower Ground Floor, Ground Floor and Floor 1) – Archaeology, Classics & Ancient History, Numismatics, and Egyptology & Ancient Near Eastern Studies – are displayed on the left-hand bookcase. Books for Floor 2 and Floor 3 – Western Art & Architecture (medieval to modern) and Eastern Archaeology, Art & Architecture – feature on the right-hand bookcase. We give all the books on display a special ‘New Books Display’ status so that when you search for them on SOLO you know where to find them.

You may notice the brightly-coloured slips inside the books on the Display, with a colour-coded week number. This is a four-week system Reader Services staff use to keep track of which books have arrived each week, so that when a book has been on the Display for four weeks, it is taken off to join the main collections on the open shelves. There is a coloured flippable sign accompanying the Display which tells readers the current week – so books with that coloured flag are the most recent to have arrived.

The New Books Display is one of the final stages in a newly-acquired monograph’s journey to the Sackler’s shelves. It begins with our four Subject Librarians, specialists in their fields, who decide which new books should be acquired. They make these decisions based on their knowledge of the subject, their familiarity with relevant courses offered within the university, their understanding of readers’ areas of research, study and teaching, and also reader recommendations.

Next, subject librarians’ orders are received by Acquisitions staff, who place the orders with selected vendors and create a minimal record for each title (researchers can use SOLO to find out whether a publication has been ordered). When books arrive from booksellers they are passed to Cataloguing staff who create the full bibliographic records you see on SOLO. The books are delivered to the Sackler Library, and Reader Services staff transfer them to the New Books Display. Lots of work goes on behind the scenes to make sure we’ve got the books that are needed by our readers, and it’s one of the most important jobs we do.

Here’s a quick breakdown of the numbers of new books we receive…

They certainly keep us very busy!

Grace Brown, Senior Library Assistant for Reader Services