On Libraries

It is sometimes easy for us to take for granted the great libraries we have and work in these days. I’m thinking particularly of the book collections. (Being overwhelmed by the sight of miles of books is not the same as being overwhelmed by using electronic resources which has nothing ‘hallowed’ about it). The collection here at Hartley (University of Southampton) is massive by any standard. It started off small but by 1937 there were around 50,000 books; this had grown to about 550,000 in 1977. Around this time the budget for books was about £40,000 a year so the collection had a massive spurt of growth through the 80s and 90s. I have asked some staff members about the present size of the book collection (no one seems to know) and estimates range between 2 and 6 million, which tells me nothing really other than that it is very big and many times bigger than the ancient library of Alexandria; this is not to mention the many thousands of journals and manuscripts (pamphlets, government publications, music scores, DVDs  etc. etc., and the online collection is perhaps even larger than all of this). How does all of this compare with the great libraries of the past? The great library of Nineveh was perhaps the original model of collecting a massive body of knowledge, but we would not now think of it as especially big. Queen Elizabeth’s library, run by the enigmatic Dr Dee, only ran to hundreds of volumes, as did Bede’s (the entire collection of Monkwearmouth/Jarrow running only to about two hundred books). Even the libraries of Oxford and Cambridge only ran into the hundreds up until the 17th century. We are therefore very lucky, we happy few. But all is not so happy. The day is fast approaching when people will come to your house, look at your walls lined with books and say ‘What are those for?’