Matilda June: A Month of British Libraries: Let's Do the Time Warp for the First Time

Today's journey took us on another cruise down the Thames out to Greenwich, where we visited the Caird Library, a library that first opened in 2011, has storage for two levels above the library, and allows more regular access for guests. It has four sections: manuscripts, printed material, atlases, maps, and charts, and finally, electronic resources. There are 12 kilometers of shelving, they receive 5,000 onsite visitors a year, and have over 1,000 printed atlases. The history and contents of the museum are fascinating, and while I can't post the images here, I will mention a few.

First, there was a book that included a pretty nifty invention: a coat that turned into a boat. Apparently some explorer used it, and it didn't work out so well, but I think it was a novel, if not good, idea.

We also saw the Master Certificate (kind of like a pilot's license) for the captain of the Titanic, who failed the navigation portion of the exam the first time he took it. Yikes. They actually have so much Titanic materials, that the librarians seemed a little unsure about what they would do if offered more, which is understandable! There were so many other events and there are so many other documents that need to be protected for future use, so unless something pretty special about the Titanic comes along, I don't think they'd be amiss to turn things away!

After the talk and a close look at all the objects, a group of us went to Greenwich Market for food-stall lunch (so good—so many choices!) and some shopping. With our bellies full, we made the trek up to the top of Greenwich Park, where the Royal Observatory measures Greenwich Mean Time. We found a little back gate where the meridian line slopes down away from the ticketed tourist site, and had a good time standing on two hemispheres.