The British Library

My apartment is about a ten minute walk to The British Library. I absolutely love libraries (I love reading, and I love reading even more when it’s free!) One day my friend Molly and I went to check it out, and I’m so glad we did. It is a new, massive building with a large public area and numerous private “Reading Rooms” on the sides of the building. There is a free museum in the library, and it houses a lot of really cool stuff including:

• An original copy of the Magna Carta
• Handwritten compositions by Mozart
• One of the original copies of Beowulf (you know you had to read it in high school too…)
• The handwritten lyrics of the Beatle’s song “Yesterday”, written on the back of a child’s birthday card
• Jane Austen’s writing desk

A few days later I decided I want to go back to the library to study in one of the Reading Rooms. I hauled my two text books, notebook and laptop the ten minutes down the street and was prepared to be immersed in my element. I showed the library worker my ID and she began the registration process. While entering my information into the system, she casually asked me if I was familiar with the catalog or if there was anything in particular I needed help finding. I told her I didn’t need anything as I was just there to study. Upon hearing this, she stopped everything she was doing, gave me the look of death and informed me that the British Library was for research purposes only and if I used the Reading Rooms to study I would be taking a precious spot away from a researcher. I was totally denied, and had to haul myself and all my stuff back to my apartment.