Collection Story

Taking reference books to a new level

Known to members and staff as the heart of the Library, the Reading Room – which will turn 125 next year – is home to a treasured reference collection, located on the room’s ground floor and mezzanine level. The volumes are available to browse in person, and while they can’t be borrowed, all titles are discoverable on the online catalogue, Catalyst.

At more than 4,300 titles, comprising 9,001 volumes, Fay Harris, Head of Collection Care and Discovery, says: “We have everything from a Dictionary and Encyclopaedia of Paper and Paper-making to A Glossary of Shakespeare’s Sexual Language. And what budding author wouldn’t delight in A Dictionary of Fictional Characters?” You’ll also find titles such as A Who’s Who of Nicknames and The Encyclopaedia of Executions; all 12 volumes of the Farmer’s Cyclopedia of Agriculture sit just down the shelf from A Dictionary of Euphemisms and a Dictionary of Magic (turn to chapter G and you will find an entry for “Garlic: a charm against the evil eye and assaults by vampires”). There are a number of reference books in foreign languages too, including Occitan and Frisian. The oldest book is an Italian bibliography, dated 1702–05.

The collection serves a dual purpose. By day it provides inspiration and information to members for their writing and research; by night it is an atmospheric backdrop for the Library’s public events programme. •

Above: Reference books in the Reading Room. Below: The Farmer's Cyclopedia of Agriculture.

Photos: Chungoon Seo