British Studies : Day 5

The Bodleian, located in Oxford, was once created for the School of Divinity.  It's style of perpendicular Gothic with high ceilings and sandstone via quarry holds dates of 15 Century, 17th Century, and 18th Century.  The detail was created with hammer and chisel over time.  It has crests in the ceilings as well as pictures of Jesus, Veronica, the Virgin, and others.  There is a door that leads to the theatre, where some degrees are accepted(such as Bill Clinton's due to security issues) built in the 17th Century by none other than Christopher Wren.  In the 18th Century he added the chair of astronomy and created the route for which degrees would be confirmed.  The second room we entered was known for lectures and oral dissertations, complete with debating pulpits.  School was no longer conducted here in the 19th Century.  In the convocation house- a business place for community meetings- John Selden decided there needed to be a wing for books, that storing them underground they were subject to floods and rats.  Books are and were considered to be precious items.  The wood of the room is of the Jacobean style, it is polished every 20 years, and happened to be completed by a local of Oxford.  In it there is also the Vice Chancelor's Throne were councils use to be held weekly for 100 or more people.  The chancelor's election, which was attended by any graduates(and is now moving  online), was held in formal robes at the end of the chancellor's career- also known as life in this case.  Beside this room was the court/case room where one belonging to Oxford could hold a trial without delays, recess, etc.  You wouldn't go to the gallows, but you could be sent to the Tower of London for treason.  

The library here  is worldly re-known.  It is known in size(11 million items of 1 copy each) and age(700 years old).  In the early days, it has seen contributions from New York's Rockefellers.  By 2015 then intend to make an addition, offering a restaurant and tea.  We were not allowed cameras here, for obvious reasons, and were told that the collection contained items such as 67 of 100 Hebrew Incunables, the Macgreggle Gospels, Playboy, the NY Times, and trashy novels.  I think those last three might have been joke items.  Thomas Bodely, whom long ago gave away a First Folio that has now been returned after much fundraising, was important to the library.  Duke Humphrey of Gloucester was as well- giving all of his personal manuscripts to the library project, believing that if he wasn't around to read them someone else should.  It was therefore named after him.  There is an old and a new library here.  The Duke Humphrey library can bet be described as the library from the Harry Potter films- there are restricted sections, studying benches and tables, and chained books as well as tall multi-level shelves.  In early days, the library saw no artificial lighting or heating, being afraid to catch aflame, and the hours of the library were given daily by the librarian.  In 1598 it was empty and by 1602 Bodley restored it.  The ceilings of these rooms contain Hamerbean ceilings, painted wood, and code of arms- such as "the lord is my light" and Thomas Bodely's coat of arms.  The Duke Humphrey library saw to house several royals, such as Charles I and James I(whom both have commemorative statues) and even the librarian was an aristocrat.  The organization here is similar, if not the same, as that of St. Paul's.  The book chains were removed in 19th Century and they library now receives one copy of each book weekly- resulting in two vans full.  

In or around 1610, a man by the name of Dr. John Radcliffe wanted to see a science library built.  This is now a popular reading room.  It's ambulatory is gorgeous, complete with ivory and sea green painting.  Once upon a time, Napoleon ate there and was received at a royal dinner.  Since that time, there has been a similar dinner but the only royal in attendance was Prince Charles(1990).  This was a dinner of donors.  In 1909 the underground was set at a capacity of 80%.  This room has no windows but plenty of book stacks and one area for water or meetings..  It is quite modernized The tunnel connector at the end is magical as well- we ended up in the original building we had walked out of!

Their Magical Books display was amazing.  While we couldn't take photos, I won't easily forget the First Folio Pages of Macbeth, the Tolkien images of Smaug or the Runes, nor the work of Beatrice Potter and JK Rowling in their first editions.  The art/ illustrations spanned 12th Century to 20th Century, Tolkien being of their school as well as CS Lewis.

This made dinner lunch at the Eagle and Child special.

At Christ church I learned much about Lewis Carroll, aka Charles Dodgson, and saw "THE" Great Hall used in the films.  In sum, Alice was based on the Dean of Carroll's time, Dina(her cat)  owuld get lost in a tree that people would have to etch(this became the Cheshire cat.)  The mad Hatter was based on a fabric/fitter shop attendant whom wore a top hat with the receipts of customers ticking out.  And the white rabbit was based on the dean(Alice's father) whom would enter the dinners very late exclaimed, "I'm late, I'm late, sorry I'm late!"  Eventually it all sunk in with him.  Tweedle dee and dum, as well, whom were two chefs boys in the kitchen.  Fun fact: Lewis Carroll was first a mathematician.  Also there is a magic" garden door in the garden.  The last story we were told is of Alice grown up: at one point, Prince Leopold came to visit.  He stayed in a private suite, but dined with Alice's family,  It is thought they fell much in love, but Alice was common and thus went away for a time to smolder the flames.  When she married Hargreaves, she named their son Leopold and when the Prince married he named his daughter Alice.  How mad indeed.

And King's Cross is tomorrow!  I am quite excited about this!  

British Studies: Day 4(or is it five now?)

As I eat fish and chips(with plenty of vinegar and salt), having just arrived home from a spontaneous trip to Kensington Gardens where we saw the famous Peter Pan statue(picture to follow).  It was a successful day for learning Tube stops as well as Bus stops.  We do not always have to hunt for Waterloo- Country Hill will almost get you there.  And if you are not sure which Tube to get on, match the color of the inside railings with your line's color.  I.e., Circle is yellow and the inner railings(what you hang onto inside when standing) is also yellow.  I sort of remembered this trick from my high school trip, but re-observed it two days ago and it has made my group's life easier.  

As for official events today, we began at the Barbican.  The Barbican is a public library that was built before World War II and was rebuilt after it was bombed down in that same era.  In 1964, they began acting as a lending library.  The Barbican estate, the land that holds the library, is composed of a cinema, theatre, restaurant, the library, and more.  It is know as a cultural heritage section, just as the Tower Bridge is.  The library has several structural issues, such as columns, but makes up for that with its use of displays.  These change often.  The ones they had today included a section of e-book downloading, Superman, fiction, Crime Novels(with awesome covers), etc.  The center has about 9,000-11,000 residents, fluctuating of the hours they are open, and sometimes 300,000.  They are open consistently with two late nights alternating and not on Sundays.  Their online catalogue is 24/7.  They have an interesting security feature- putting labels in the back of the book.  They have a scanning self-check in complete with dropbox, as well as a real librarian to do the same task inside.  While in the US librarians seem to feel threatened by their lack of use at the desk, the Barbican seems to feel that this self-check allows them to be of use for other actions.  In addition to the location we visited, they have three joint libraries.  In the future they hope to be able to make better recommendations to their patrons, a feat most public libraries strive for.  To entice the public, they use twelve artist slots a year- much vied for apparently, we had one setting up today- and this can be comprised of jewelry, sculpture, painting, or other.  It gives the artist a showing platform in London.  Their age range, statistically, is of mostly men and 25-40 years of age.  Another interesting feature of this library is that it let's you not only hold but check out 1738 texts.  They have a fiction section, large print, non-fiction, "london lost", DVDs, a music section of the library that works with the girl's school, a children's library, and much more.  I was incredibly impressed with their Doctor Who collection(52 films/items).  Oh, and no we did not see Daniel Craig today- a regular of the library.

52 Doctor Who DVDs.

Our second trip was the upstairs(perhaps middle floor) of St. Paul's Cathedral and into their library.  There are 140 stairs to this trip, I believe we did half because there were more stairs above us.  The "tri forium level", as it is called, has three arches, a tesserai mosaic by William Wren, a set of viking runes reading "caused me to be made", and much else that I am not sure I am suppose to discuss with outsiders.  I can tell you there was a lot of latin(faciendi plures libros nollus est finis) as well as other "retired" religious artifacts.  The library, however, focuses on the conservation of rare books- which to them is preventative.  The tour guide, whom was very lively, discussed the needs of digital collections and the importance of the prints.  Originally, the library was lost in the Great Fire of London and later replaced through donations and clergy members.  Now, the leather is decaying and parts(holes) have been eaten in the works by worm type insects.  While we couldn't see them, the awesome smell of books when you go in an old library(like St. Paul's) is marvelous, and also the smell of decaying bindings.  They apparently are going for the wood under the leather or the animal glue.  They now vary in age, 17th Century mostly, and are all cataloged in the database- which is not available for the public.  Of this, our tour guide told us that the first rule of librarianship is to "never ever dispose of your old catalogs."  He then called himself an old "fuddy duddy," a technical term of course.  His favourite books include Tendall's New Testament and the Psalter of pre-reformation, two books he believes you could use to begin the world again.  If you are curious how they arrange their items, it is first by case # and then by shelf letter.

During the day, I pondered my research paper some more.  I am now thinking I want to combine my love of Sherlock Holmes and Alice in Wonderland with an curiosity in preservation & a passion for display making.  One potential research question would be to ask "What do public libraries do to attract attention?"  The answer, to me, would be to utilize displays.(See Greenwich Maritime & Barbican)  Second, to as "How do the US and UK vary on this?  How are they similar?"  And thirdly, I noticed  that the pubs and museums in England also contain script/text pieces of these authors(mentioned above) and I would then have to ask "What role do the pubs play in the preservation of these works?  Do they affect or aide the public libraries cause?"  Either way, these are some ideas floating in my head that I then wanted to see  in text for later use or thought reflection.  On that note, the 6:30 departure to hop on the Paddington train to Oxford comes rearly.  Tomorrow is a full day and I really look forward to posting photos, whenever that happens.  Also, I just purchased tickets to see the Harry Potter Warner Brothers Tour.  So I will sleep extra well tonight, rest assured.  

British Studies: Day 1

This is Harry, pre-flight, in protest of my packing.(He's right, it was too hot to pack!)

Coming to London is like falling down a rabbit hole, likely where Lewis Carroll got the idea for his writing actually.  In one day I did more than I could have imagined.

In the morning, we met in the courtyard for orientation.  From there we made our first venture into King's College.(Mum and Paul, if you're reading this, I am going to try really hard to get your shirts you asked for, but the shoppe is only open Mon-Fri. 10-4:30.)  We sat in our class and the tour schedule was discussed.  I am very happy to be going to St. Paul's for mass tomorrow, not because I am overly religious but because I am curious how the English do mass.  Monday will be great too because we are having a reception for the BSP students.  Wednesday will be too because I am uber stoked for Oxford, the Bodleian, and the Alice shoppe.  Amongst everything else, of which is also great.  Anyways, here we also discussed our blogs(tada!) and research projects, of which I pondered all day and may have come up with an idea by the evening.

My flat, in the middle of the street.

After we met an amazing man, named Dr. Doug Mackaman, and some others in charge/involved with BSP we snagged lunch and broke into our tour groups.  Initially, I didn't  have one because the online site said it was closed, but it had space.  So, we did a historic pub tour.  When it ended, we were way down on Fleet Street and given the right to wander.  So six of us(myself included) did just that.  We started backwards, beginning at a pub near where the tour ended(I forgot the name of this one).  The half pints are wonderful, for about 2 pounds you can purchase a half pint- considering our target goal of a taste testing, this was perfect.  So we drank here, chatted and got to know one another, and took in the new feeling.  Our group was comprised of five women and one man, whom we librarians-to-be borrowed from the finance group.  I won't list their names because right now I just know firsts- so it'd be A, C, D, M, & TWH(who I know from becoming Facebook friends).  Anyways...

Next was perhaps the best pub of the bunch: Ye Olde Chesire Cheese.  If you enter the building, there is a bar to the right, a dinner area ahead, and stairs to the below.  "Mind Your Head", they say, and you should.  Unless you are short like me and this doesn't apply.  At the bottom, we were waiting for one of our members at the restroom and got a chuckle out of the men who were way  too tall for the stairs.  When one of their group exited the restroom, he too bopped his head and, well, you really had to be there.  Overall there was a joke exchanged about looking for a horse, directed at a man dressed like a jockey( which later, as it turned out, was a friend of his party) and a hearty "welcome to England." Entering the cellar, we found the pub part.  While waiting at the bar, we asked some locals what they preferred and they pointed us to a delicious cider.  As we sat and drank, we not only took a group photo but we got another chuckle at the group- members of a stag party.  

The next pub was The Black Friar, which I recognized the name from Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere.  It was an oddly shaped place, with tons of outside seating(all taken due to the unusually gorgeous weather).  We sat inside and this time I had some chips and sampled a Golden Summer, I think was the name.  My waiter asked about my visit upon hearing my accent in ordering at the counter.  This is becoming a little funny  joke: when I tell someone I am from Maine, they look puzzled and shake their head no, and I then tell them it is on the East Coast and almost Canada.  This works.  I kind of like it.  I discovered a lot today about varying mentalities of Americans, of which are not all pleasant, but our group has not personally had any bad situations.  We were a curious and friendly bunch and struck up many good conversations on our way.

After Black Friar, we wandered over to Trafalgar Square for Pride in London.  While it made me cringe to see Trafalgar so littered with plastic and beer bottles, the energetic vibes of the attendees was electric.  We danced here for a while, received awesome stickers with readings such as "Some Guys Marry Guys, Get Over it!" and "Some People Are Gay, Get Over It!"  Here we learned an important terminology: equal.  Rather than Gay Pride, they say Equal Pride and that's fantastic, preferable.  So, our group decided to adopt it and spread it on elsewhere.  

Our trip ended (almost) at the Sherlock Holmes Pub.  I decided I would go back there because this is where I got my idea to look into research.  They had several documents from the Arthur Conan Doyle books and several scripts of the films behind protective glass(of which I want to photography when it is not as busy) and contemplate how the libraries , pubs, and museum come together to reserve and promote these works- of which I imagine have some amount of funding for upkeep- and provide such joy to fans.  The men's room hallway had a picture of Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock.  It was wonderful.  I intend to keep an ear out and actively seek Sherlock Holmes pieces to try to figure out a research question and thesis statement- my big assignment for this class.  Right now it might be c=something about how his works fueled a genre that keeps Public Libraries burning.  In the libraries I have worked at in the past, of the Public ones, mystery novels and action types were the most checked out; Sherlock Holmes fits into both.  It's a rough theory, but Lewis Carroll and J.K. Rowling may have plenty of people talking about them already.


Tomorrow is a busy day again, and I will share it in the evening, for now I think I will gain some sleep- I didn't realize how much there was to take in within 8 hours.