WORK FOR 25 YEARS

Taranaki Daily News, 5 January 1935, Page 13 (Supplement)

WORK FOR 25 YEARS

BRITISH MUSEUM’S BOOKS. COMPILING A CATALOGUE, , Two of the greatest library undertakings ever contemplated are now in the course of achievement at the British Museum says a correspondent of the Sunday Times. Although related, each is distinct from the other, and each is to take many years of laborious scientific labour. The first scheme, which was begun piecemeal some two years ago, is the reconstruction and rearrangement of the great Iron Library, which runs in prison-like galleries around the Reading Room. Here, for the next 15 years, workmen and librarians will be coping with a “spring cleaning” such as has never before been attempted. The second scheme will take even longer to bring to fruition. This is the cataloguing of every book possessed by the British Museum—a quantity not precisely known, but certainly exceeding .4,000,000 at the present time. This monumental task, on which an expert staff of about 20 people is now engaged, will take at least another 23 years—possibly more—to achieve.

All this time there is the enormous intake of contemporary books to cope with, and as by law practically every printed book in the United Kingdom —which for this purpose includes the Irish Free State—must be forwarded to the British Museum, it will be realised that the task is almost endless. Within’ the last few years the average intake of the library has been, in round figures, 37,000 volumes of printed ■books, 70,000 parts of serial parts of volumes, and 278,000 copies of newspapers and other productions. In addition, there is- the ever-recurring miscellaneous collection of maps and other contemporary documents, such as pamphlets, dealing with all manner of subjects. SIX GALLERIES OF STEEL. * Every, year the British Museum shelves increase at the rate of one mile and, although the congestion was relieved by the transference of the newspapers to the building at Colindale, the storage problem is still very great.

Both these patient, long-enduring tasks would have been undertaken long ago but for hard times. Then came Lord Duveen’s offer of the Elgin Room if the Government would implement the Royal Commission on National Museums and Libraries’ recommendation of the provision of more library space. A hard-hearted Government relented, and the arrangement of the library, long overdue, was begun. •The main part of the plan is the reconstruction of the. Iron Library, which is easily the most interesting, if not quite the oldest, of its type in the world. Here, quadrant by quadrant, the books are being moved while the great iron “stacks” are taken away and replaced by those of steel arranged on modem space-saving methods. Cast-iron cracks without warning, so the conversion to steel was decided upon ■by the Office of Works. When completed the steel library will have six "galleries in place of the four of the Iron Library.

The cataloguing will take nearly 25 years. The work has progressed -until the “B’s” have been reached, but such is the magnitude iof the task that the “A’s” alone occupy eight massive volumes. When about the year 1955 the new catalogue of the millions of books has been completed, there will be at least 220 volumes of reference at the disposal of the world.

HOW NOVELS ARE SHELVED. When I asked Mr. Arundell Esdaile, the secretary of the British Museum, how the enormous flow of modem novels was dealt with, he laughed and said: “Really, the novels are the s’—piest part of the library task. They normally only require one entry, and then go on the shelves and stay there for five years before being issued.” The expert staff handling the catalogue Is still being built up, and will probably number no more than 20. In addition to their labours, all the necessary editorial work is being done under the supervision of the Keeper of Printed Books, Mr. W. A. Marsden.

It will surprise most people to know that the British Museum Library is not the largest in the world. In point of numbers it has been overhauled by the Library of Congress in Washington, the State Library in Leningrad and the Lenin Memorial Library in Moscow, though in the two latter cases there are believed to be many duplicated works. In point of value, the British Museum Library and the State Library in Paris are quite easily the best in the world.