Browsing at the British Library

Today our class visited the British Library.

During our guided tour we learned many interesting facts:

• The British Library aims to collect one copy of each item published in the U.K.


• The British Library does not censor items that it collects, nor does it ever weed its collection. In other words, the library collection continually grows.


• The British Library focuses primarily on print materials. Our tour guide informed us that just one section of the library could take up to 1,000 years to digitize!
  
• Just how massive is the British Library collection? If one person viewed just 5 items a day, it would take 80,000 years to view the entire collection!

These represent just a few of the informational highlights regarding the library. The libary itself is a public library where anyone with proper identification can register for a "reader's pass." Those who become registered then have access to the entire collection.

I was most intrigued, however, by their viewing policy. Library users who wish to access library material cannot just walk into the library and pull books off the shelves. As our guide informed us, the books are not organized in a fashion that promotes browsing. Furthermore, different collections may utilize different forms of organization (i.e. some collections may adopt Pannizi's method of arrangement via size). In order to view materials, therefore, library users must request items ahead of time. Upon entering the library, the librarians will then hand them their requested items.

This no browsing policy employed by the British Library represents a stark contrast the average public library one finds in the United States. While I completely understand the reasoning behind this policy (and I really don't imagine how they could have things any other way), I can't help but wonder how this impacts the types of users that they receive. Where I work, for instance, browsing represents an essential form of activity for library users. Walking through the stacks often results in serendipitous finds that the user might not discover via the computer catalog. There is also a sense of magic in being able to hold a book and to leaf through its pages to see if it suits one's tastes. I would imagine that the British Library's no browsing policy is probably the most likely reason that 68% of their users are utilizing the facility for academic research, whereas those on the premises for personal research number about 15%.