St. Paul's Cathedral Library



All photos are taken from the St. Paul's webpage.

 On Monday, 4 July, we visited the St. Paul's Cathedral Library. We were greeted in the lobby of the cathedral by Mr. Joe Wisdom, the cathedral librarian, who was kind enough to give us a tour of the triforium of the cathedral, which is the level that is halfway up to the dome and where the library is situated.

St. Paul's was built in 1710 as a Protestant cathedral and designed by Sir Christoper Wren to rebuild after London's Great Fire of 1666 destroyed the church that was previously there. The sculpture of a book and heart over the west door of the cathedral indicates the importance of books, especially the Bible, in the mission of the cathedral; there is also a similar sculpture on the staircase that takes you to the library. As we entered the triforium level, there were several artifacts, such as furniture, stones from the building, pulpits that are no longer in use, sculptures, and artwork displayed that Mr. Wisdom indicated might be turned into an exhibition if funding permits within the next couple of years.

Mr. Wisdom then took us to the library, which was a fairly small room of books that had two levels. The library was beautiful, dimly lit as to not harm the books, many of which were old and fairly rare.  He discussed the history of the library; he said that there had been collections of books in St. Paul's since the Middle Ages, many of which were personal collections of the deans (ministers) that were practicing in the church and there were also inventories of collections that could be considered a library (not a personal collection), but much of the libraries that existed before 1666 were destroyed by the fire as well--only 10 printed books and 3 manuscripts were left. One of the books was a psalter, or a book of psalms.

After the cathedral was rebuilt, what was left of the collection of the cathedral library was supplemented by the Bishop of London, who gave two thousand books from his collections to start the collection, and the library began to acquire materials from clergy after they died. The most rare volume that the library has is a 1526 Tyndall New Testament, something for which Tyndall died because he translated the Bible into English from the Vulgate, which was Latin.

The library is currently arranged by size, and uses a shelf locating system for retrieval--each set of shelves is numbered, and each shelf within that set is lettered, and then the third indication is the books spot on the shelf (whether it is first, second, third, etc.). This arrangement is often used for archival collections as well, and it works fairly well until something is reshelved in the wrong space--for a library of this size, it seems to be a managable retrieval device.

Today, the St. Paul's Cathedral Library would be considered a special library, as it collects mostly books on theology and the subjects which support theology, such as history, sociology, and biography of deans of the cathedral, like John Donne.  The accessions that the library acquires today are limited--they only collect materials within this scope, as their space and resources are limited, as are most libraries within this economy. Mr. Wisdom also discussed the people who use the library, which are primarily those doing academic research--students, scholars, etc.--but that there are also many more people doing their family histories that use the library.  By looking at the guestbook, it seemed to me that there were only a few researchers that came in per week; perhaps if the library wanted to raise its profile, there would be some indication (with a sign or a mention in  a brochure) that the library was there and available for research. However, as Mr. Wisdom discussed, there is always the debate between access and preservation that occurs for a librarian who wants to preserve the materials in the library's collection--how accessible should you make the library when you want to make sure that all of the materials stay in as good of condition as possible. The webpage for the library shows some photos of the beautiful library and its collection and gives you more information about the library.

First Days in London

I thought I would actually update this, now that I'm all caught up on sleep and able to think coherently.  I arrived on Saturday, July 1st around noon; we were supposed to arrive about 9:00, but a storm was brewing and I was flying through O'Hare, so there were bound to be delays--luckily there were  movies and air-conditioning on the plane.

We caught the coach from Heathrow to our dorms that Southern Miss arranged for us and got checked in, and then went on a walking tour of our neighborhood. I am living in the King's College London dorms, which are just around the corner from Waterloo tube station in the South Bank area of London. I am two blocks from the Old Vic Theatre, where Kevin Spacey is now playing Richard III (sadly, its sold out) and a couple of blocks from the London Eye and the Queen's Walk on the South Bank of the Thames River. There are wonderful views of Big Ben and other London landmarks just blocks from my door.

On the first night, my class also got our Oyster Cards to ride the tube and went to Leicester and Trafalgar Squares, where my professor, Dr. Teresa Welsh, showed us around and gave us insider information about where to get the best discounted theatre tickets and good places to visit, like the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery. We then went out to a nice dinner at the Texas Embassy, which apparently used to be the ticket booth for the White Star Lines in the early twentieth century, and was where people bought their tickets to ride on the Titanic in 1912. After the Titanic disaster, a list of names of those who were killed was hung in this building as well.  Although we were all jet-lagged and tired, it was good to walk around and get a feel for the city.

On Saturday, we had our orientation in the morning, and then went on a London ALIVE tour, something that the professors in the British Studies program set up to allow students to get used to riding around the city and to point out certain things that London has to offer. The first tour that I went on was a tour of Leicester Square and the West End area, where all of the theatres are. We went around to many of the theatres throughout the West End and also went through Chinatown and Covent Garden. There are many plays and shops that I wouldn't mind going back and seeing throughout the month I'm here.

The next morning, a couple of classmates and I decided to go to Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens and just walk around since it was supposed to be a nice day. We walked around the Serpentine, which is the body of water in the middle of Hyde Park and looked at the beautiful gardens and fountains throughout the park. We also saw some mallards (Marissa Dittmer!) and swans and got politely shooed out of a photo shoot taking place near the fountains in Hyde Park. We found Speaker's Corner, where people are literally given boxes to stand on and say whatever their hearts desire--there was some preaching going on while we were there as well as a very lively debate about gay marriage with lots of name-calling. It was definitely an interesting experience--there really isn't a place in the United States where people go to just say exactly what's on their minds and have an open, informal debate in a public space. It was refreshing to see people saying exactly what was on their minds without concern for politeness or political correctness, which is something that I think we get way too caught up in in the US.

On Sunday afternoon, I had another London ALIVE tour. This tour was called London Calling! and it was basically a punk rock tour of Camden Town, where the professor pointed out famous venues and bars where people like the Clash, Ramones, and Sex Pistols played. We saw the Roundhouse, where the Itunes festival is currently taking place and also went to the Camden Market, where there are a bunch of booths set up selling food, clothes, crafts, jewelry, records, and other goodies. I think that I'll probably go back and maybe try to convince some of my classmates to go to one of the venues at some point.

Sunday evening my friends and I went on an elusive quest to find a pub that served fish and chips--we were sadly unsuccessful. We went to a couple of historic pubs on Fleet Street where great writers like Samuel Johnson and Dickens went--Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese and Punch Tavern, but they were closed for private functions. Then, we went to the Stamford Arms, the pub just around the corner from our dorms, but they quit serving food at 4 pm every night, so we had to settle for pizza on the Southbank.

Soon to come--my first three days of class, where we visited the St. Paul's Cathedral Library, the Barbican Library--the largest public library in London--and the archives at the British museum today.

And I'm off to London!

Hello, everyone! I am participating in the University of Southern Mississippi's British Studies Program for the month of July this year. I will be taking a library and information studies course called British Information Centers. For this class, we'll be exploring different libraries and museums throughout London and the UK and talking with people who manage them. I'll also be conducting my own research and writing a paper about a certain type of library or library practice in the UK. Here is our tentative schedule for the month: