Monday, August 01, 2005

innovative!

I visited the British Library at the weekend and took a tour (I was the only person on the tour so it was very personal guiding!). It was fascinating and I loved seeing the different parts of the library, especially the King's Library (donated by George III) and behind the scenes, showing the conveyer belt system that distributes the books from the basement up to the different reading rooms. We weren't allowed to go into the reading rooms as it's all very serious, but there were quite a few exhibitions to see as well.

The Turning the Pages room was really cool and is now available online - you can see pages from famous books and recreate the experience of turning the pages. The British Library has pioneered and sold on this technology. There was a very interesting Hans Christian Andersen exhibition with lots of things for children to play with, but also a good examination of his life. Apparently he went to London and stayed with Charles Dickens at one stage and overstayed his welcome!

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