Libraries

It’s hard to know where to start with libraries as they have been such an important part of my life. My dad was a librarian in East Sussex Libraries all his working life. I spent my childhood Saturdays in Hailsham Library choosing books and tidying the shelving trolley. I am reminded of my childhood daily as I was given the illuminated sign from the childrens’ library and its now working and up in my kitchen. You can see it behind me in the photo on the About page. There is also more explanation about library inspiration in a blog post “No book may be removed…” that I wrote about using the Design Archive at the University of Brighton.

Library beer mats screenprinted with library ownership stamps.

I was a librarian for 35 years and have worked in a variety of libraries over that time and have collected a selection of books that were being withdrawn. The ownership stamps and labels are a potted history of where the book has been and also show the changes in libraries. 100 years ago libraries would add quite officious labels to books about keeping books clean and dry and returning them on time. This isn’t the case in public libraries now.

I love the different design of the ownership stamps over the years. I printed beer mats with images of stamps from East Sussex Library books that my dad had collected in his working life. I found lots of different designs of stamps in the collection at St Peters House Library (University of Brighton) when I was working there. The Municipal School of Art is a fairly early incarnation of the School / College of Art, which was incorporated into Brighton Polytechnic then University of Brighton.

A selection of my collection of library ephemera with two beermats I printed.

I created alternative wording for the stamps by using carved lino blocks.