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| 1: Institution | The London Library |
| 2: Founded | 1841 |
| 3: Postal address | 14 St James's Square London SW1Y 4LG |
| 4: Tel. Fax. Email Web |
Tel: 020 7930 7705 Fax: 020 7766 4766 www.londonlibrary.co.uk membership@londonlibrary.co.uk |
| 5: AIL contact | Deputy Librarian: Mrs Alison Sproston BA MCLIP Head of Acquisitions: Ms Gillian Turner MA MCLIP |
| 6: Hours | Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday 09.30-19.30 Thursday, Friday, Saturday 09.30-17.30 |
| 7: Membership details | Membership is open to all. Personal membership: £210 pa (2007 rate). The London Library Trust offers grants for those unable to meet the full fee. Institutional membership is available for organisations, associations, commercial bodies and public library authorities. Members based in London may borrow up to 10 volumes at once; those based elsewhere, 15; more may be borrowed for an additional fee. A postal loans service dispatches books to members throughout Europe. Special rate for 16-24 year olds. |
| 8: Activities, publications etc. | Annual literary lecture. New publication: Library Book: an architectural journey through the London Library by Tony McIntyre available by post from the Library, £12.50 inc. p.&p. Cheques to the London Library. |
| 9: Refreshments | - |
| 10: Visitors / Researchers | Short-term reference tickets available on application, for one day or one week, but without borrowing rights. Visiting parties welcome by arrangement. |
| 11: Background information | The London Library, founded by Thomas Carlyle in 1841, is a registered charity with the aim of advancing education, learning and knowledge. It is now the largest independent lending library in the world, serving readers, writers, researchers and scholars by lending material from its extensive collections. There are currently 8,000 subscribing members and applications from new members are warmly welcomed. |
| 12: Collections | Since 1841 the Library has been amassing books covering every aspect of the humanities. Except in the case of exact duplication, almost nothing has been discarded from the shelves, so the collection now numbers over one million volumes, in all major (and many minor) European languages, and includes books dating from the 16th century to the latest publications (in print and electronic form). There are particular strengths in history, literature, biography, art, religion, bibliography and travel and topography. Over 95% of the collection is housed on open-access shelves; and over 97% is available for loan. The online catalogue (freely accessible from the website) covers all material acquired since 1950, and a catalogue conversion programme is now adding entries for all the earlier parts of the collection. |
| 13: Building | The Library stands at the north-west corner of St James's Square, as it has since 1845, after briefly occupying the first floor of the Travellers Club in Pall Mall. The building was entirely reconstructed in 1896-98, as one of the first steel-frame buildings in London, when the present eclectic façade, the Main Hall and the Reading Room above it, and the grille-floored bookstacks above and immediately behind were erected. The listed (Grade II) building has since been extended several times, in the 1920s, the 1930s and the 1990s. In 1995, the Anstruther Wing - a new building fronting Duke Street - was completed with five floors of book storage designed for the safe housing of 25,000 of the Library's rarest and most vulnerable volumes. In 2004 premises adjoining the Library in Mason's Yard, off Duke St, were acquired to accommodate the ever-growing collections; planning permission to incorporate this annex and refurbish the existing buildings has been obtained; and the Library's largest development project in over a century has recently been launched. |
| 14: Status | Incorporated by Royal Charter (granted 1933; renewed 2004); Registered Charity number 312175. |