Mum took me to the British Library at St Pancras. It’s so big! She had coffee and cookies in the Business and Intellectual Property centre, I had a jammy dodger and a shortbread biscuit. Mmmmm! After a presentation, we had a private tour of the library. Did you know, the British Library has over 13 million books? They receive a copy of every publication produced in the UK and Ireland. That’s seriously impressive. We went behind the scenes and saw the book tracking system – they have never ever lost a book, and over 16,000 people use the collections each day.
They’ve got the Magna Carta, the Lindisfarne Gospels, and wow double wow, Leonardo da Vinci’s Notebook. They’ve also got The Times first edition from 18 March 1788, material from 300 BC to today’s newspapers, manuscripts from Jane Austen, James Joyce, Handel and the Beatles. And over 4 million maps.
Mum was amazed. One of her favourites was a Turning the Pages stand in the entrance hall. This is photographs from famous books transferred onto a computer, which you can zoom into, and turn the pages as if reading a real book. She was fascinated by Leonardo da Vinci’s doodles.
Nearby was a seat which made mum laugh…. it’s a book!
Just Smudge 