Aboard the SS British Library

One of my favorite places in London is the British Library. It's right by King's Cross, a building that has my heart in the palm of its hand with its red and orange brickwork (much like the bricks of the Natural History Museum). Not to mention that Platform 9 3/4 is right there in the station. Here's me in the front in my purple pants and poorly chosen footwear (it was COLD).

I'd visited already, bought way too many things, and eaten somewhere excellent nearby. I was excited for this visit, and the kinds of things we got to see blew me away.

The focus of the first part of our visit today was on the absolutely massive project, a partnership with the Qatar Foundation to archive, digitize, and preserve materials that were created in Qatar and that are owned by the British Library. The project began in 2010, but really got rolling two years later. The project will last about a decade, and they're already nearing two million images. It's a unique endeavor, in part because of the dedicated space in the library, where every step of the project is carried out. Many other similar types of projects would be even more difficult to undertake, but with every person working in the same area (rather than sending things out of house to complete), the workflow is blessedly smooth (Comparatively speaking! It's hard work!).

Many of the materials relate to the history of the Prussian Gulf and scientific manuscripts that were written in Arabic. As the documents are digitized, they are also translated into English and Modern Standard Arabic. It's a project that will allow these materials to be available to a huge population of people. The process, however, is staggering. Each item goes through this process:

1. Choose the item
2. Retrieve it
3. Conduct any necessary conservation processes
4. Foliate (number) the item's parts (usually pages)
5. Catalogue the item
6. Take images of the item (really, realllllly good images, by the way)
7. Quality assurance check
8. Translation of any writing into two languages (see above)
9. qSIP (metadata) generation
10. Return the item to storage

Imagine that each item has a few hundred pages, and you can see what a massive job this is!

One of the best parts of this experience was seeing some of the materials, and learning about how they were being preserved, or what kind of choices were being made to alter or maintain a certain item's original condition. For instance, one book's cover had been made of recycled materials: pieces of used paper. They decided that since the cover was already coming apart, they'd continue peeling back the layers to see what was underneath, like an archeological dig. The interior pages of the book were given a new cover.

The librarian who led us on the tour is actually a specialist: a textile conservator. I had never heard of this job, but it's something I wish I'd heard about when I was beginning my education! One item, for instance, was a huge letter with elaborate lettering and lots of delicate drawings. It was mailed in a silk envelope. The envelope has a tear in it, so the textile conservator, if she had the resources, would be the one to repair the tear. This would involve hand-dying silk and resewing the hole closed by hand, which would take her a LOT of time. 

We also got to visit two other women who work to repair items from the library's collection. They both told us about Japanese paper, which is strong and versatile, and can be used in combination with leather and other materials to repair materials. The goal in conservation is not to completely obliterate the damage; the logic here is that someone might want to study or examine the damage later, and if they can't find it, they'll lose that valuable historical information. So the rule of thumb is that you shouldn't be able to see a repair from six feet away, but you should from six inches. They don't want to hide anything, in other words, but to maintain the material for further use.

We took a break, and I visited a special exhibit on writing, then basically ran to a nearby Turkish restaurant for some warm food and hot coffee (it's a rainy day, and I brilliantly wore flip flops - but I also love Turkish food!). After the break, we met with a man named Mehmet, who was hilarious and wonderfully knowledgeable. Turns out, the British Library is shaped like a ship, and the books or other materials live in the proverbial sea beneath it. It used to all be housed in the British Museum (which got its start on books), but the collections were separated 21 years ago when this building was completed. They have over two million items, and they receive 8,000 new items A DAY. It's amazing that they have any space left at all, since they have a standing contract to receive one free copy of every new thing that's published in England. (I didn't catch who made that deal a reality, but that was a genius move.)

See the ship-like model? And the doors like a cruise ship?

We spoke to a former British Studies student who works in the library, and we all melted in jealous adoration. I got my reader card for the library, so I'm feeling very official at this point, just as the cherry on top of the awe and wonder that I have that a place like this exists, and that even with my amazing hair day, I'm allowed to get a card to visit it.