The Good Library Blog

The prospect of curtailed opening hours - dreadful in itself - is even worse for people who travel some distance to the Library; they will have scarcely an afternoon's work available.

With fewer American books being published here, the British Library has to buy them - as it should do, such are its claims to be a "world class" research library; however, these titles are now often stored in Boston Spa, which means a two-day wait for their arrival in London - that is, if they have not been lent out for weeks elsewhere in the country, something which brings the Library income from other authorities but lowers its standing as a central Library.

The Britsh Library should be celebrated by the Government, not treated in this hole-in-a-corner fashion.

It might be better to accept that they, along with other departments, have to make savings and see where savings could be made with least damage to the public. I cannot believe the BL should be open 24 hours a day. The cost in overheads of this would be astronomical far outweigh the benefit to the few people who would use it at 3.a.m. Public exhibitions to close - not the worst idea. There are plenty of exhibition spaces in London.
It has long been a total madness to keep a copy of every single book published in the UK. Many of these are pulp and with POD and digital access it is becoming less and less sensible to pay the sort of storage costs involved.
Researching the family tree is the last resort of the bored retired.
But it would be a grave error to cancel the schools learning programmes and extremely short-sighted.
Charge for use of the Reading Room ?
Why not ?
We simply do not pay for everything through our taxes and if there are no longer free prescriptions, eye examinations and spectacles or dentists, I fail to see why a modest charge should not be made for use of the BL reading rooms.
It is no good saying you could find 7m a year in half an hour elsewhere. They are not going to ask you. It is better to join in the exercise and do some intelligent advance damage limitation than thunder away like disgusted Tunbridge W.
We would all prefer there to be no cuts in anything anywhere but life is simply not like that,

Tim

I think that is unfair to blame the BL management for making these alleged cuts (even I will not crucify somebody on the strength of one newspaper article).

The responsibility for the smooth running of his dept clearly lies with David Lammy - he should be there thumping the table in No 10 saying that the Treasury should, nay must, give his dept adequate funding or he will resign. Of course he won't because who else would employ such inept wimp - certainly not private enterprise.

I am privileged to be a stockist of BL publications : the publishing staff and management are very dedicated people who are not aloof and always helpful. It probably won't surprise readers of this blog to know that some of my best customers for BL books are working librarians.

Let's wait on a full report - last year's major BL exhibition was "Front Page" (opened by HRH the Queen) : BL published a tie-in book - still available from stock - as well as featuring selected front-pages in their 2007 desk diary (in the light of above report now quite likely to become a collector's item)

Perhaps Susan Hill has not considered that The British Library is also responsible for a small number of travelling exhibitions which bring specialised cultural displays to the provinces.

I would also take issue with Susan's following comment "Researching the family tree is the last resort of the bored retired." In my Somerset bookshop I regularly receive overseas visitors who are trying to trace their (local) family background - most of them would be under 40 years old. If I went into the Exeter,Taunton or Winchester Record Offices and took a straw poll of those researching local family history, I am sure that the majority would not be "bored retired" : similar results would likely be reurned at BL.

I am also very concerned that any spending cuts will affect digital programmes in with which BL is an important "partner".

Susan Hill says that some books are "pulp", but there is pulp and there is pulp - some esteemed now more highly than a literary novel from the Forties.

If there is scarcely time - or funds - to catalogue books, it is boggling to think of the staff reading the books and forming judgments upon them. Borges could not have come up with that idea.

Gore Vidal wrote three very good detective novels under one name, a thriller under another, and a romantic novel as Katherine Everard (which now costs a fortune, but there is one in the BL) - he said that, in revealing the Everard secret, I drove her to an early grave but he can now reveal that she later wrote the entire works of Margaret Drabble...

Christopher, I must disagree with you re. the BL's standing as a central library being eroded by its lending activities. The BL is a national library, not a central one, and therefore it seems reasonable to make materials available to those unable to travel to the reading rooms in London (or Boston Spa).

The Boston lending stock should supplement the British Library stock.

After all, those who are not close to London are in reach of the copyright libraries over the borders in Scotland and Wales as well as Oxford and Cambridge.

A national library's strength is its readily providing books rather than leaving readers on a runaround similar to that in Alan Bennett's A Private Function.

This rant really impressed the Guardian. In my long experience as a librarian, it's not poorly-funded public servants who don't want to serve the public but private enterprise--from book suppliers who can't supply books to shelving firms who can't be bothered to reply to enquiries, let alone do any real work. Tim, if you want to improve the system stop attacking those who've sacrificed a healthy standard of living to do a bit of good for people, and have a pop at Nu Labour instead. Cilip can probably finish off the profession by itself.

I'm not sure that I can see what New Labour did so wrong. They have funded the library service abundantly; they supported initiatives to install the People's Network and they invited the senior library professionals to tell them what the future should be in "Framework for the Future".. It wasn't the politicians who caused the problem.

VISIT THE READING ROOM BEFORE IT CLOSES - - -
The Old British Library Reading Room in the British Museum will close in about two weeks. A fact that has been limited largely to those who have happened to visit it recently, rather than to the world in general. - - -
Some people are worried that this famous place might never re-open in a Year and a half from now, even though the planners have said it will. - - -
They reason that the Terracotta Army Exhibition (which it will soon house), will show that the Reading Room will make a good Exhibition Centre, and that the Museum will use it for more exhibitions. - - -
The organiser of the whole thing, has also indicated that the Reading Room has, in his opinion, not been sufficiently used by readers. - - -
However, this library has been constantly receiving a very large number of visitors who have been well satisfied just to walk a little way inside. From there, you can view this remarkable space, and evoke the many well known people who have used it for studies, researches, and the formulation of world-changing processes. Also, you can soon notice that all the original facilities are still in regular use today. Except that they wont be, a week or so from now, and maybe never again. - - -
So why not find out when the final day or so of use is likely to be. You might then be one of the last ever people to see the Old British Library intact and working. - - -
Hopefully it will actually re-open, and continue to be the unique, mysterious, and atmospheric place that it still is in these present few moments. But the general history of this kind of procedure makes it difficult to be sure.