Easter is the busiest time of the year at
the British Library (so be warned if you are expecting a quiet space to
do your research). In order to help cope with the volume of requests
for books from our capacious basements in St Pancras, staff volunteers
are requested.
As
a member of staff who rarely visits the basements this is an
opportunity not to be missed. After all, the basements are the very
foundation of the library, from both a physical and information
perspective. The four double height basements containing the bulk of
the library’s 15 million books stretch down to 75ft or 23m below ground
level. The construction of these required digging the deepest hole ever
seen in London. I could hear the nearby sounds of trains on the
Northern and Victoria Lines when I was in basement 3.
I spent a fascinating couple of hours re-shelving books in the
humanities modern section. However, my trolley contained a random
selection of topics giving a revealing glimpse into the subjects being
researched above ground, as well as the incredible breadth of knowledge
stored below ground.
One
fact that often surprises visitors to the basements is that the books
are not stored according to any classification system. Although the
British Library has adopted the Dewey system
in the Reading Rooms, this would not work in the basements. The
explanation is simple enough - the sheer volume of new books (6 miles
or 13 kilometres) each year means that they have to be added onto the
end of the previous set in acquisition order. Any other would require
constant shifting of the book stock to make room.
So, for instance if they were in alphabetical order by Title, the
Z’s would slot nicely in at the end of the sequence but any new A’s
would require moving the whole lot. This results in some vary odd
pairings of books on the shelves. I re-shelved a book on Islamic
terrorism literally cheek by jowl with a volume on right-wing Jewish
politics.
The photos above come from a website Subterranea Britannica which has a detailed article on a visit to the basements.