Tuesday 8 July 2008

The British Library


Our trip to the British Library was a much-anticipated adventure for me, particularly because I have not yet made the pilgrimage to the Library of Congress. The building itself was quite imposing and a bit intimidating because, unlike libraries that am more accustomed to, one does not immediately see books when entering this library. Of course, the books are there, but only those of King George III’s collection are on display to the average visitor, in a six-storey high glass column with compact shelving in the center of the main building, behind the reception area.

Kevin, a donations officer, who served as our guide, was excellent, and seemed to have a great general knowledge of the library and all its workings. The British Library aims to acquire the entire national bibliographic output of the United Kingdom and all other published materials that relate to the UK and her notable citizens, within one month of their publication. This includes everything with an ISBN number, and they intend to keep all of their collection forever. As collections officer, Kevin’s job is made all the more interesting due to their policy of never turning away any donation—they are directed to keep everything that they are given. They also want to make their extensive collection available to all researchers who wish to use their facilities. It is the professional obligation of the British Library to compile the British catalog as a bibliographic record for use for all time.

The actual collection on the main location of the library includes 35 million items housed on six floors beneath the above ground building. These books are protected by a subterranean water management system that flushes the water away from the books, and the system held up even under the flooding conditions of a few summers ago. The contingency plan for the collection includes enormous industrial freezers that are housed offsite, should the books get wet. The items held on the main location are only part of the collection, however; altogether, the British Library is home to 170 million items total, or 800 miles of shelving, and this collection is growing at a rate of 8 miles per year. They are the third largest library in the world.

The collection is arranged by a very simple method- size. This means that you must know what you would like to see before you come to the library, and that the books take time to be located on the shelves, where they are marked with a grid reference instead of a call number or traditional shelfmark. Users of the library are called “readers,” and they are encouraged to use subject-specific reading rooms where subject-expert librarians are available to assist them with their research.

Of course, it is incredibly difficult to get to these collections to use them, as I found out firsthand. One must have one item from a list provided that proves one’s home address and another item that proves one’s identity, preferably with a photograph. Not having brought my US driver’s license with me (this made perfect sense at the time, as I thought I would not be driving and did not want to lose the document), I had to do some work to secure the necessary papers.

Kevin’s description of the difficulties in maintaining the library sounded very familiar, especially when dealing with the difficulties of cataloging digital publications and transferring print publications to digital editions. The copyright entanglements alone are enough to challenge even the most sophisticated library in the United Kingdom, but they have worked out a deal with at least four major publishers to receive all new publications in both print and digital, simultaneously. They are still dealing with the issue of single access, single reader of individual publications, but as they estimate that by 2020 approximately 40% of publishing will be digital, they will have to come upon a solution soon, and then tell the rest of us how to make it work. They are also grappling with the speed of changing technology and alighting upon a medium that will last—we can still read 1700 year old codices, but who has the technology to read a videodisk from the 1980’s?

The tour concluded with a view of the exhibitions—the area of which was kept intentionally dark, I believe, to discourage photography. We were able to see some of the holdings of Sir Robert Cotton, one of the library’s founding patrons, whose collection included the earliest known copy of Beowulf, and whose collection Kevin described as the “cornerstone” of the British Library. I found it a testament to the power of popular culture that this book was displayed in the same exhibition gallery as some original lyrics from the Beatles. Overall, though, the British Library will probably prove the most useful of the libraries that we visited, as I will be utilizing its services for my research. But that will be another discussion.

1 comment:

Elenturi said...

Very interesting. I was surprised, especially after reading the statics given about the British Library, that it is the third largest rather than the first. What are the other two libraries?
Victoria Roberts