Visit to the British Library [Event Ref. No. TG4v/BL]

Twitter – #cpd25BLTRIP

CPD25 is pleased to offer a visit to the British Library. We would like to offer you a behind the scenes look at the basement storage areas of the British Library and you will hear from some of our librarians who work in the reading rooms about the work that they do.

Aquilies Alencar-Brayner, a Digital Curator will talk about the latest from his team and the digital policy for the library as part of the Library’s vision ”Living Knowledge” Two librarians Christian Algar (Rare Books) and Adrian Schindler (Library and Information Service) will talk about their work and experiences.

Programme:

11:45 – Delegates meet at the information desk in the main hall to receive a visitor pass.

12:00-12:45 – Christian Algar will be talking about a small number of objects selected from the British Library’s early printed collections. There will be 15th Century books; fine bindings; fascinating marginalia; old newspapers and, of course, some Shakespeare.

Christian is part of the Rare Books Reference Team deal with Western printed material, published between the 15th Century and 1914 – this includes many of the Library’s Treasures, the likes of which can be seen in the permanent exhibition spaces in the Sir John Ritblat Gallery and through the glass on the shelves of the King’s Tower in the public area of the Library.

He has a keen interest in Plymouth and tales of the sea. He regularly presents workshops on Finding Early Printed Material in British Library collections.

12:45-14:00 -Split tour of the basement storage areas or the Qatar offices the 6th floor.

Basement storage area: This will be an opportunity to visit one of the four double height basements which contains about 40% of the library’s 15 million books. Learn more about the history of the building, how it was constructed and see our very exciting Hollinger boxes.

Qatar offices: The British Library is working in partnership with the Qatar Foundation to digitise 1.5 million pages of archival material relating to Gulf History and Arabic Science on an online portal that will be available to a diverse range of audiences anywhere in the world. This tour will explain the nature of the programme and the work that is being carried out as well as opening up the digitisation and conservation suites, there will also be collection items on display.

14:00-15:00 – Digital Curator Aquiles Alencar-Brayner will discuss how libraries are changing their services in order to respond to the growing demand of users in accessing and manipulating digital content. Focusing his attention on digital projects led by the British Library, Aquiles will talk about innovative ways of engagement between libraries and different groups of audiences by disseminating electronic materials through existing social media and other digital platforms.

15:00-15:30 – Adrian Shindler with the Librarianship & Information Sciences Service will talk about his experience as a librarian and some of the challenges he faces in his work. Adrian manages the Librarianship & Information Sciences Service, which is situated in the Humanities 2 Reading Room. He was previously a Senior Cataloguer supervising small teams preparing entries for BNB, and Head of Technical Services at the British Library  Information Sciences Service (the forerunner to CILIP’s Information Centre) He regularly gives talks  to visiting librarians and students.  He is currently member part of the Committee of London Research Libraries in History.

There is an optional visit to the new Shakespeare Exhibition- Shakespeare in ten acts at the end.

Address:

The British Library, 96 Euston Road, London, NW1 2DB

http://www.bl.uk/whatson/planyourvisit/findlibrary/index.htmlk/

This visit is free for M25 members

Please note that there are limited places available for this visit. To reserve a space please use our online booking form.

If, subsequent to booking a place on a cpd25 visit, you find that you are unable to attend, we ask that you let us know this as soon as possible. Cancellations received less than one week before the event will be charged a £15 cancellation fee. In the event of a ‘no-show’ on the day, £25 will be charged.