An Introduction to the work of National Trust Libraries by Christine Tate, CILIP North West New Professionals Support Officer
Towards the end of 2018 I asked our student representatives if there were any libraries in the North West that they wanted to visit. The students said that they would like to learn more about special collections and suggested that we might visit a National Trust library. I contacted the National Trust and they kindly facilitated a visit to the library at Lyme Park in Disley. We were escorted into the house and led up the staircase to the library. We were invited to make ourselves comfortable and we were pleasantly surprised to find out that we were allowed to sit on the sofas! Tim Pye, the National Trust’s Libraries Curator, and Nicola Thwaite, Assistant Libraries Curator, provided us with a detailed and informative overview of the work of National Trust libraries and their special collections. National Trust Book Collections Book collections are the most important collection held by the National Trust, they currently have over ½ million books. The collection i