Monday, July 6, 2015

July 1: London Library

On Wednesday afternoon, we visited the London Library.


I recognized the building when we came upon it, as I'd seen it in an illustration and read a description in the book The Professor and the Madman as the place where the idea for what was to be the Oxford English Dictionary was first introduced. (Before our London adventures began, we each had to read two books and write reviews of them. This was one of the books I reviewed.) In its early days, only two or three societies were allowed to meet at the library, and the Philological Society was one of them. It was at one of their meetings at the library that a member gave a talk and proposed the creation of a comprehensive English dictionary. 

The London Library was founded in 1841. It is a subscription lending library, serving around 700 members. Some members come in frequently, and some never come at all; this library will e-mail or mail copies of some materials to its members. From what our tour guide, Mary, said, it sounds like the staff there really develop a relationship with the members and consider their preferences and habits when making decisions about acquisitions and things. Nonmembers may still come and get a day or week ticket to see something in the collection, as long as they can make a case that the item cannot be found anywhere else.

The library has over 72 miles of shelving containing 800 volumes, some dating back to the 16th century. The older shelving was interesting (if not a little nerve-racking). The stacks rest on floors of metal grating (made from American steel, which my brother would appreciate) that clatter as you walk across them. Mary said that this actually helps with air circulation and, in the case of flooding, the rooms drain and dry out more quickly to minimize damage. They are carrying the grating motif throughout the newer additions to the library, to blend the old with the new. 


The London Library came to be because Thomas Carlyle, supported by Dickens, Tennyson, and others, were unhappy with the reading room at the British Museum. Much of the collection is donated, and major (and famous) benefactors' portraits hang on the walls of the staircase throughout the building. There is even a portion of the building called T.S. Elliot House. Elliot was a president of the London Library until his death, and his wife bequeathed a great amount when she died.

The library is in the middle of a capital campaign, in an effort to update and expand the building. As it stands, the library has six floors in the central building and seven floors at the back.

The library has its own classification scheme, which it neat, but can make searching tricky. Some of the materials are still cataloged in the old, bound catalogs (pictured below), not online, so a librarian often has to search in both places. In addition, while they want to stay true to the original catalog, they must modify it slightly to accommodate modern topics. You can see in the second picture how they are still using the older catalog volumes and writing in modifications.
  


While the library restricts itself to its membership (which I'm not always a fan of, when it comes to libraries), the London Library does seem to accommodate anyone who wants to see its unique materials. As hot as it was that day, the library felt inviting, welcoming anyone to come see the treasures it holds, and a quiet place to enjoy them.

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