British Museum Library : Mr. Sidney Lee's criticisms.

Date:
[1912]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: British Museum Library : Mr. Sidney Lee's criticisms. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    1 ' - MR. SIDNEY LEES CRITICISMS. Attention was drawn by a correspondent of the Morning Post last week to a number of re- forms that he considered desirable in the ad- ministration of the British Museum Library. He referred particularly to the constitution of the Museum, to the mode of appointment of librarians, the need of a subject catalogue, the mode of purchase of old English and foreign books, the short hours during which the Library is available, and the preventible discomforts of the Reading Room. Mr. Sidney Lee, the editor of the Dictionary of National Biography, discussed the subject with a representative of this paper yesterday. “ I have not had time,” he said, “to devote much thought to the points raised by your correspondent, and we have here so much for which to be grateful to the Museum authorities that I speak only to aid any reason- able reform. I think it a favourable moment to discuss the question, because Dr. Kenyon, a man of the highest distinction, has recently become Director and commands universal con- fidence. He can well be relied upon to place the Library in a thoroughly efficient condition. As far as I can see,.most of the required changes a.re of a purely administrative kind, and I be- lieve that the Trustees, working with Dr. Kenyon, .could give effect to all that is needful without any measure so strong as a Royal Commission. “ It certainly does look to me,” Mr. Lee con- tinued, “ as though certain regulations of rather ancient date have been allowed to stand over- long without revision. What strikes me very much is the desirability of extending the time . during which books can be procured during the ' winter months? The regulations as regards the use of artificial light are, as your correspondent says, quite antiquated. There is arti- ficial light pretty well all over the Museum, and I doubt very much if its exclusion from the book stores could be justified in modern conditions. Not only are readers prevented from order- ing books outside the galleries of the Reading Room during the winter months, but