Dominic Gates, 1 October 2009
On Friday 18 September the IPT team were lucky enough to be invited for a tour around the British Library, including the very innovative Business & IP Centre.
The tour began with Isabel Oswell in the Business & IP Centre (BIPC) and an introduction to the workings of the Centre, along an explanation of some of the highly successful entrepreneurs who have broken through with help provided by the BIPC.
The BIPC – which opened in March 2006 – supports small and medium sized enterprises in business (SMEs) and creative industries, along with entrepreneurs. They help to launch and develop their businesses by offering free access to over £5 million-worth of intellectual property information and by providing expert workshops and clinics in key areas with which entrepreneurs can relate. I could particularly relate to this because a member of my family runs several small telecoms businesses, so I was thinking of all the ways in which he could benefit from the BIPC. It is good to know that facilities like this exist for those taking their first solo steps in the world of business!
After the tour of the Business & IP Centre we were taken for a tour of the rest of the library, starting with the restoration centre where all the books of poor condition which enter the library’s collection come for restoration before entering the archives. Interestingly, it was explained that it is in fact harder to restore a book from the 1970s than a book from the 1700s, simply because the quality of paper which was used in the 1970s was so poor! We were also introduced to the work that the library is doing to restore audio artefacts. This includes anything ranging from Beatles LPs to the first sounds captured on recording. Again, I found this aspect of the tour particularly fascinating as I have distant relative who recorded monologues for gramophone at the turn of the 20th century. I will definitely return to explore the audio archive in greater detail at some time in the future.
Following on from this we were guided along through the T. S. Elliott exhibition to the main exhibition area where we could see many famous books and manuscripts which have been restored into their original glory, ranging from the Magna Carta to the lyrics for ‘Hard Day’s Night’ scribbled on a table napkin by Paul McCartney! In this part of the tour I found the many representations of ancient religious texts very interesting; most were adorned with lavish amounts of gold leaf and all were incredibly ornate and special. Another great innovation that was available in this section was an electronic database of each of the books on display, where by one can go and read translations of the original books into English or alternatively look through the books in their original form as opposed to just the page on display in the temperature controlled cases.
I thoroughly enjoyed our tour of the British Library, it was (shamefully) the first time I have been, but certainly will not be the last! Many thanks to the organisers and individuals involved in the tour including Isabel Oswell and Lucy Grimshaw.
For photos of the Business & IP centre, click here.
