Barbican Library-Aug. 2

Winding down our 4 week trip to England, we squeaked in a visit to the City of London's Barbican Library, one of only three lending libraries in the old, formally walled, 1 square mile section of Greater London (the old City of London is on the north bank and is that portion of London which burned during the 1666 Great Fire--St. Paul's Cathedral is located in the old City of London).

As with all our visits, we were met by gracious host tour guides. (We have been blessed this entire trip with extremely friendly, generous, bright and articulate hosts. The folks at the University of Southern Mississippi, our sponsoring school for this trip, really outdid themselves lining up such an impressive array of speakers and tour guides.) The Barbican Library is part of an entire complex of residential, entertainment, and retail buildings in what we Americans use to call a Planned Unit Development (PUD). This area, said our hosts, was bombed to smithereens during WWII and was rebuilt and became the present-day Barbican. The library is one of the oldest public libraries in England dating back to the 1400s and circulates annually 500,000 items serving daily 1,200 people.

With 17,000 CDs, the Barbican boasts one of the two largest music collections in London. Patrons may use listening booths to listen to CDs and a head-phoned equipped keyboard for practice. Each bourgh library is required to specialize in their nonfiction collection. The Barbicon is heavy with Dewey-classified Marxism, finance and classical crime. There is also a superb modern map collection. There are 25,000 items in the children's area for newborns and children through 14 years of age. The children's librarian has established close ties with state and private schools. Free internet access is provided for children and adults. Children's internet is filtered.

Barbican library has 44 staff people. Ten of these people are full-time professionals. Financial support comes from a bourgh tax levy. Barbican is well endowed because it is in a wealthy bourgh. Bourgh libraries on the south bank e.g. Southwark, are less well off. RFID tagging and self-check out is used by the Barbican.