About the Collection

This Collection falls into several distinct areas. If you have not had the chance to visit us recently, if at all, please take a look at the 'tour of the collection', which also serves to explain our main aims and concerns.

The Collection aims to make information available to anyone, whether they can come in person or whether they can only enquire from afar, be it by letter, telephone, e-mail or other means. A lot of material devoted to Sherlock Holmes is produced - far too much for the vast majority of individuals to track down and purchase themselves. We aim, very simply, to find out about and acquire, one way or another, as much of it as we can, given the constraints of time, space and budget.

While the Collection is archival in the sense that we retain material in as good a condition as possible for as long as possible, that material is for use. If poor condition demands it, we will rebind where practicable. A reprint or even a photocopy is acquired wherever possible if an important work is not available at an affordable price.

This is not to say that we would refuse rare material if it were to be made available to us, perhaps by deposit or donation. A good example was the generous deposit in 1990 of the original manuscripts of "The Dying Detective" and "The Lion's Mane". These were securely housed in our purpose-built Archives repository. With the permission of the owner and the co-operation of first the Arthur Conan Doyle Society and then the Sherlock Holmes Society of London, we were able to publish both in facsimile, opening up access to them for anyone who wished, while restricting access to the delicate originals to just those whose work required it.  Both manuscripts were subsequently retrieved by their owner and sold to a private collector, but the facsimiles are still available. 

Publications such as these and the other books and smaller items we have produced over the years have exemplified another aspect of the Collection. Within reason, we do raise income for Westminster Libraries. While such income does not, it is true, go directly to the Collection, the fact that it is raised makes a very good bargaining lever when asking for extra funding or yet another bookcase!

Finally, we do our best to co-operate with and support the various societies devoted to furthering the study of Sherlock Holmes and Conan Doyle. We have always found such relationships to be valuable and are extremely grateful for the benefits we have received from them. We sincerely hope that the societies feel the same. Many generously donate their publications, helping us to preserve long runs for future generations of Sherlockians and Doyleans.