Ssssssssssssssshhhhhhhhh!
A whole new world has opened up to me. I have joined the British Library. I am typing in the first floor Humanities Reading Room right now. You don't join, as such, you apply for a Reader's Pass, which old fuddy-duddies complain are now being handed out like sweets to any old body. Well, that's not strictly true; you have to prove who you are and that the research you wish to do is not research that could be done elsewhere. I am researching two projects, both very different, neither of which I wish to talk about, since it would bring bad juju upon them. I am going to research them in this room.I will say, having been here for about ten minutes, it's a fabulous place. You may not bring in food, drink, chewing gum, pens, coats, umbrellas, cameras or sharp things (these must be stowed in a locker), but you may bring in a laptop, plug it in, and make use of the free wi-fi, which is incredibly useful if, say, you write and read for a living. I'm quite thirsty already, being a serial drinker of water, and when I need to go and look at a book, I suspect I'll feel more comfortable if I carry my laptop with me (although the man opposite me has just left his stuff, so maybe I'm bringing my urban paranoia into a place where it is not required), but these are small crosses to bear.
I have joined my local library too, which is something I've been meaning to do for a while. Libraries really did give me power. Most of the books I read as a boy were from the library in Northampton. One of the first books that changed my life, What Went Wrong? by Jeremy Seabrook (1978), was borrowed from that very building in the mid-80s. Out of print, I recently sought it out online and purchased a second-hand copy. But I suspect it's on one of those shelves. I must go and look.
Then I think I'll have a drink. (Actually, the free wi-fi connection has just gone down. I'll post this later.)
posted by Andrew Collins @ 11:34 AM
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8 Comments:
can't we get a picture of you in the library a la the podcast picture?
Leave your laptop where it is! Trust your lovely fellow library users.
Lordie, the library's one of the few places I've actually ever been able to get research done.
Free wifi would soon put a stop to that!
Is this for more Mitford related research?
Simon in Sevenoaks, training for Ironman
Having been a public library devotee until I went to college, I became a born-again library lover a few years ago when I was freelancing. The inter-library loan is a truly wonderful thing - every book you could ever want! For free! And as someone who gets lots and lots of free books through work, borrowing books from the library rather than buying them does something to stop the house being entirely taken over by books.
Non-topic-related, but I was joping you'd have seen the Phil Spector documentary and done a post about it. If you've not seen it, do see it!
Isn't writing personal blogs something that can be done anywhere?
I think it is, actually.
*writes letter to British Library demanding Mr. Collins is stripped of his pass and then thrown into The Tower and bummed by a Beefeater, or something*
I have, amazingly, been using the British Library Humanities 1 Reading Room for about half of the total time it's been in existence. It's a fantastic library and a very good place to work. The free Wi-Fi has only just been introduced - before then you had to pay for it - and it's already massively reduced my productivity. The only thing that would improve the library considerably would be if they had an affordable cafe.
One useful tip is that you can order your books in advance, online, as long as you do so in library hours. Then you can arrive, pick them up at the desk, and get to work straight away instead of having to order them and then wait for however long it takes. In theory up to 70 minutes for most of them, but in practice usually a lot less. Also, the lights on the desks are unreliable, so if a long time has passed and it hasn't come on, it's usually worth going up and seeing if it's arrived anyway.
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