The London Library

The London Library was one of my favorite visits. Their commitment to bringing books to the public is incredible. Books from the 1700s to the present are placed on the open shelves for public access. It was amazing! I took a lot of information away from this visit, so today I’m focusing on what I learned about preservation. Our group spoke with Stella Worthington first. She works in preservation and stock management. When she started working at the library the rare books were kept in the basement in less than ideal conditions. She worked to move the rare books to a new area that had been built to house them. The books were brought up, cleaned, and assessed. Many were in a bad state. 35,000 books were processed and each had to be brought up the spiral staircase by hand. The basic needs of the books have now been met, but maintaining them is a constant process.

The preservation area was specially designed to meet the needs of the department. The cupboards and storage space are able to hold the tools of the trade, and the large green tables in the room are easily moved from place to place. One aspect of preservation that I had not previously considered is the amount of dirt that comes off the books, and how that can affect the person cleaning them. A dusting box is an important tool to contain the dirt from the books during the cleaning process. The department was previously working with a dusting box that was donated to them, which was basically a box with a Hoover attached to it. They now have a newer machine which is much more efficient.

We also learned that maintaining the physical environment in which the books are stored is just as important as physical intervention. The department must look over all books on the open access shelves. It is important to keep dust away from the books, because dust can contain bugs, which can damage the books. Maintaining a constant temperature is also important. Fluctuating temperatures can do great damage to the books. Stella has divided the library up into twenty-six sections and given each person a section. Many of the workers are students who receive a free membership at the library for working there. It took four and a half years to clean the entire library, and as soon as it was complete workers came in to do a building project, creating tons of dust, which then has to be cleaned again! People report on problems in their area, and there is a set of guidelines for each section of the library. The library uses its own classification scheme, and not the Dewey Decimal system. The classification information is located within the cover of each book, and the system takes time to learn, but is supposed to be simple once you get the hang of it. Keeping the library clean and organized is a huge task!

Books that need repairs are sent to this department, and their strict policy is to only do things to the books that are reversible. Historically this has not been the case, and many damaging things have been done to the books in the past that cannot be fixed now. When the library purchases paperbacks they are rebound to maintain the integrity of the catalog. There are specific binders used for specific books. For historical bindings, the tanning process used for each is what makes them different. Books book with vellum are very vulnerable and must be kept in acid free boxes. Stella showed us a book with clasps on the side that also had to be stored in a box, but not for its safety, for the safety of books around it. The clasps could scratch the other books. If bugs are found pesticides cannot be used, because they are damaging to the books. Bugs have to be frozen!

Stella showed us some of the rare books held by the library. We saw a fourth folio Shakespeare, a book of medical essays that was owned by the surgeon on the Bounty, a treatise that Henry VIII wrote against Martin Luther, a first edition Origin of the Species, another rare book by Charles Darwin titled the Formation of Vegetable Mold, and a proof copy of Lawrence of Arabia’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom, including rare pictures. It was incredible! I know I’ve said it before, but I just love being so close to history! It never fails to thrill me! You can read more about the London Library here.