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â–¦.. fast train to the 21st Century

â–¦.. fast train to the 21st Century Three significant factors were lost to sight in the long drawn-out controversy which surrounded the St Pancras building: the Library’s rich and incom- parable resources of books and other printed mate- rial amassed over the centuries; its unsurpassed worldwide lending services (based at Boston Spa); and its advance into digital information at the sharp end of information technology. To Library insiders, St Pancras was only half the story. Boston Spa was overlooked by the academics, scholars and researchers of the Regular Readers Group, who were fighting the Library’s withdrawal from the Reading Room. To them the Reading Room was the British Library. They either did not, or chose not to, recognize that the British Library as consti- tuted far exceeded the old British Museum Library in its responsibilities. This perception of the Library spread to the House of Commons National Her- itage Committee as is evidenced by their recom- mendation that the Reading Room should be retained in perpetuity as an integral part of the British Library, ignoring the operational difficulties this would cause in order to pander to the cries of outrage from a minority pressure group reluctant to leave its cosy haven at Bloomsbury for the http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Logos Brill

â–¦.. fast train to the 21st Century

Logos , Volume 8 (1): 17 – Jan 1, 1997
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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© 1997 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
0957-9656
eISSN
1878-4712
DOI
10.2959/logo.1997.8.1.17
Publisher site
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Abstract

Three significant factors were lost to sight in the long drawn-out controversy which surrounded the St Pancras building: the Library’s rich and incom- parable resources of books and other printed mate- rial amassed over the centuries; its unsurpassed worldwide lending services (based at Boston Spa); and its advance into digital information at the sharp end of information technology. To Library insiders, St Pancras was only half the story. Boston Spa was overlooked by the academics, scholars and researchers of the Regular Readers Group, who were fighting the Library’s withdrawal from the Reading Room. To them the Reading Room was the British Library. They either did not, or chose not to, recognize that the British Library as consti- tuted far exceeded the old British Museum Library in its responsibilities. This perception of the Library spread to the House of Commons National Her- itage Committee as is evidenced by their recom- mendation that the Reading Room should be retained in perpetuity as an integral part of the British Library, ignoring the operational difficulties this would cause in order to pander to the cries of outrage from a minority pressure group reluctant to leave its cosy haven at Bloomsbury for the

Journal

Logos – Brill

Published: Jan 1, 1997

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