The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-06-22
THE BRITIsH NUsEUws LIBRARY
EngIIshmen Are Proud of II and It's
the Students Delight.


The library of the British Museum Is
the pride Of every Englishman and with
good reason. too. The great congressional
library at Washington. the celebrated one
at Paris and the famous public library at
Boston are close competitors, IL IS true
but the value of the reference books ac-
cumulated In the British Museum library
probably exceeds any Of them.
Students flock to It from the four quar-
ters of the world. It is regarded as the
court of appeal in all literature matters
II a book is not TO be found in the library
Of the British Museum II Is almost safe tc
reckon that Il is not to be found anywhere
A statistician once computed that the
books on the museum shelves would fl
the interior of St. Paufs cathedral three
times over.
And the prodigious multitude of books
Is receiving accesslonsyat the rate Of l.00l
per week. The catalogue itself runs into
hundreds of huge volumes. Originally this
catalogue was written: 10 is now being
printed, apd so vast Is the work, that al
though the printers have been engaged
upon II for years, their task Will not be
finished before the next century
True Il cannot be said that every book
of the three millions on the library
shelves is Of Importance 20 the student
or even deserves TO be Kept There are
volumes by the thousands In the library
which might be used as fuel But your
conservative, and so these mouldering
tOmes-some Of them from two to three
hundred years old-stand erect on then
shelves, cheek by jowl with the latest
volumes Of London newspapers. 1t Is
figured that In 100 years the library will
contain l200OOO0 volumes.
The reading room is, Of course the
heart of the whole library. This is where
the vast majority of readers pursue their
studies and researches. 1t Is a vast cir
cuar room, with a mighty dome--next In
size to the dome Of St Peters at Rome
rising overhead In the center of this
great circle is the librarians desk. also
In circular form, with a causeWay run
ming off to the inner library. Outside this
circular desk run other desks, in which
the catalogues are kept Then come the
readers seats, radiating like spokes OF a
wheel from the hub.
The reading room affords seating ac-
commodat.on to over 400 people, but its
resources are often taxed 10 the utter
most. There are some forty or fifty thou
sand works lining the shelves which en-
erty to take any Of these to their seats
Other books, however, have TO be applied
for on a printed form. SO marvellous IL
the system Of classification employed that
any book OF the millions on the shelves
can be found and delivered to the reader
in a quarter OF an hour or so. There
are, of course, other rooms In which the
more valuable books are to be consulted
Old manuscripts have a room to- them
selves; maps have also a special locale
while London newspapers have a hablta-
ton of their own.
The reading room Is a microcosm of the
literary world Here you can see, day
by day, some of the most eminent figures
in contemporary science and literature
historians, economists and noveiists. But
OF the four or FIVE hundred people who
daily use the reading room the vast ma
tority, OF course, belong to the great
masses.