On the 24^th September 2007, a wide range of boys from the Gifted and Talented programme embarked on an expedition to the British Library along with two members of staff, Mr Clarke and Mr Malik.

On arrival, we were greeted and then quizzed on what we perceived knowledge to be and how books and documenting history through journals, voice recordings, diaries, notebooks etc. can allow us to learn and attain knowledge but at the same time why society should always question published work and the deeper meaning. We were shown a particularly metaphorical object by the entrance which expressed a message about books: the object was a bench which was shaped like an open book; however the pages were blank and the book was chained down to the ground by a boulder on a chain. After discussing it, we found out that the boulder was to express the fact that the books in the British Library were not to leave the library and the blank pages were to symbolise that there is still a lot of history to be made and there are many books to be written. We were then shown a large square frame which consisted of 169 squares, with each one saying the word ‘yes’ in it. The purpose of this was to initiate the process of questioning, because the frame naturally made you look for the ‘odd-one-out’ square.

We were then introduced to The Sir John Ritblat Gallery: Treasures of the British Library which was the highlight of the day because we got the chance to see some of the most rare and famous documents from around the world. We saw a range of items from the actual Magna Carta to items such as John Lennon’s handwritten lyrics. In the Gallery, there was the only signature of Shakespeare that exists, as well as Leonardo Da Vinci’s actual notebook with all of his designs and ideas in it, all written in his legendary ‘mirror writing’. Shakespeare’s First Folio was present along with a wide range of hand-drawn maps, original religious texts and the diaries and logbooks of people such as Captain Scott and James Joyce. In the musical sector of the Gallery, the original hand-written scores of artists such as Wagner and Mozart were present. It truly was an awe-inspiring collection of some of the world’s most famous documents.

During our time in the British Library we learnt that inside the world-famous ‘reading-rooms’, people such as Karl Marx wrote books, and the group was astounded to hear that below the ground floor were nine floors, all filled with enough shelves which when put in a straight line could reach Edinburgh. The shelves were filled with 14 million books, not to mention another 136 million pieces of media, such as voice recordings and speeches. It is the largest library in Europe and by law one copy of every book or journal that is ever published must be sent to the British Library. This meant that a copy of every magazine, newspaper and book published is within the walls of The British Library, open for the public to view!

During our trip to the British Library, we discovered what an achievement the Library was and how important it is as a national treasure. But above all, we left knowing how important it is to document history and how knowledge can be attained from books, but that it is how you perceive and question the information that matters.

Krisant Valentine 10P