So here we go: in alphabetical order, just so that nobody thinks this is in some sort of pecking order, here’s my ‘rough guide’ to ten places where I’ve spent many, many hours during the last thirty years. Just one or two good or bad points about each, but in the case of some of them, I could go on and on about the bad points. And on. And on. (For example, readers will note that I’ve passed no comment on the staff of individual institutions, again on the basis that I really do want to visit them again. But with hand on heart, I can say that nine of these repositories have staff who are unfailingly courteous, helpful and efficient. The tenth seems to have recruited all the finalists from the Britain’s Grumpiest Librarian and Archivist Competition. I leave it to regular users of these institutions to speculate on which that might be; as the old saying goes, ‘no names, no pack drill’.)
- The Bodleian Library, Oxford (above right) – Good: You’ve died and gone to Heaven. That’s certainly what working in the medieval Duke Humfrey’s Library feels like; a simply astonishing workplace, and it’s just a privilege to walk in there (where the tourists cannot go!), let alone to sit at desks amid the rows of ancient volumes. If you want to get a sense of what it would have been like to be a monk working on an illuminated manuscript in the Middle Ages, there’s no better place. Bad: If you want to get a sense of what it would have been like to be a monk working on an illuminated manuscript in the Middle Ages, there’s no better place – i.e. the hard seats, the lack of space, the lack of light in winter, the deathly glares from one’s fellow monks/readers when one breaks the vow of silence (Middle Ages: inadvertent audible meditation upon the Lamentations of Jeremiah; today: squeaky shoes).
- The British Library – Good: It has everything. Or almost everything, at least when it comes to printed books. And the work surfaces are the way work surfaces should be: spacious, well lit, and comfortably padded. Always has exhibitions that are worth seeing, plus a great shop, plus my favourite chillax space in any repository, the relatively little known roof terrace on the third floor. Bad: The ordering system and manuscripts catalogue seem to have been designed by a malevolent warlock trained at the Lord Voldemort School of Infuriating Pedantry. The maximum of ten items a day is a perpetual source of irritation, as is the overcrowding – a product of typical British forward planning, i.e. build something that was widely perceived as too small even when it first opened, then relax the admissions criteria and admit floods of undergraduates too. The consequence – get there before 10 or else witness examples of Desk Rage, with otherwise mild-mannered academics battling for the last remaining spaces (apart, of course, from the ones in the row which contains the weird old guy who snores and who no-one wants to sit next to. And no, that’s not me.)
- Cambridge University Library – Good: There’s just so much on open shelves! OK, the place is vast and rambling – one keeps expecting to come across confused bearded creatures who’ve been roaming the corridors for years, a la the Flying Dutchman, trying to find a particular book or the exit – but CUL treats its readers like grown-ups by actually putting the books where people can read them. Bad: I’ve tried to eliminate my innate Oxford bias here, but it has to be said: sorry, Cambridge, your library really does look like a very, very big crematorium.
- The Imperial War Museum (first visit only last week, so I’m very much a newbie there) – Good: A state-of-the-art online catalogue, plus documents delivered to one’s desk, rather than having to queue up behind ten people whose requests have gone missing and/or who have fiendishly obscure queries that the issuing staff can’t answer; this is the way academic study should be. Bad: the air con has clearly been designed to give those studying winter campaigns in Russia a stronger sense of empathy.
- The National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh -Good: Location, location, location. At lunchtime, you can cross the road and go straight into the cafe where J K Rowling originally wrote Harry Potter, which is pretty much directly opposite. A few yards up the road and turn right – St Giles Cathedral and the Royal Mile. A few yards up the road and turn left – Edinburgh Castle. Bad; The manuscript reading room is small and windowless. As for the manuscript catalogue, don’t get me started. (The National Archives of Scotland scores on location, too, with the main building being at the end of Princes Street, right next to Waverley station, and with some of Edinburgh’s best pubs immediately adjacent to it. The bad thing about it – it’s in two buildings almost a mile apart, and invariably half the stuff I want is in one of them, half in the other. And in the last few years, getting from one to the other has involved finding a way through the vast, endless roadworks generated by that masterpiece of civic incompetence and urban carnage known as the new Edinburgh tram system…)
- The National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth – Good: OK, cards on the table, this is my favourite repository anywhere, and not just because it’s Welsh. Airy, loads of space, pretty efficient document delivery, and best of all, a stunning view across the town and castle ruins to the sea. Sitting there at dusk in autumn or winter is an experience to die for. Bad: It’s in Aberystwyth.
- The National Maritime Museum, Greenwich – Good: Location, location, location again. World Heritage buildings in a stunning setting, plus a vast collection of material of all sorts, plus state-of-the-art digital catalogues and other study aids. Bad: Tourists. School parties. Endless film crews. But above all…the reprographics charges. To be fair, I could have made pretty much the same criticism of the Bodleian, the British Library, and several others on this list, but having dented my bank balance quite significantly when funding the illustrations for Pepys’s Navy, I have a particular gripe about the NMM. Maybe one day the Office of Fair Trading will investigate repositories’ reprographics charges, and their claims to hold the copyright for works of art and manuscripts when they actually don’t…but I won’t hold my breath.
