What bothers me about this is that he seems to have simply expected to be able to wander in and browse the shelves of "the largest private collection of Handel memorabilia" (he does not name the library, but clues from the article reveal it to be the Foundling Museum). He'd seen an ad for the museum in a concert brochure; the ad mentioned the library collection, so he went to check it out. Fair enough. But when he was asked if he had an appointment, or if he'd consulted the online catalog (and he had not done so), the librarian seems to have given him something of a brush-off.
I looked at the museum's website this morning. On the page for the George Coke Handel Research Library, it reads, quite clearly, "In addition to the public exhibition room, open during normal Museum hours, The Gerald Coke Handel Research Library is open Wednesday-Friday for research purposes by appointment."
Let me just reiterate that. "Research purposes by appointment."
This is not to defend overzealous librarians who would wall off their collections from the public. I'm not a fan of them, and I do my darnedest to make sure anyone who comes to the institution where I work leaves having seen what they want to see. But, especially in these post-Bland, post-Blumberg, post-Smiley days, special collections libraries do, and must, have policies in place to protect the materials they hold (including providing access to collections on microfilm, setting hours, and even requesting appointments, depending on the situation). Mr. Gilman, as a librarian himself, ought to be aware of that.
