The students' guide to the libraries of London : with an account of the most important archives and other aids to study / by Reginald Arthur Rye.

  • Rye, Reginald Arthur, 1876-1945.
Date:
1927
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The students' guide to the libraries of London : with an account of the most important archives and other aids to study / by Reginald Arthur Rye. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    once existed in London but have now disappeared or been destroyed. No attempt has been made to include every small collection in London. Some are relatively unimportant or contain only books which can easily and more readily be found elsewhere ; their inclusion might even be misleading and raise unrealizable expectations. The main endeavour has been to bring into due prominence the large libraries and col¬ lections of outstanding excellence in which London is so exceptionally rich. Libraries of a purely recreational char¬ acter, such as those maintained by the large railway com¬ panies for the benefit of their employees ; private libraries exclusively in connection with the work of business under¬ takings, such as those maintained by the large newspapers (e.g. The Times, The Daily Mail and The Illustrated London News), and by some large commercial firms and companies 1 (e.g. the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, Ltd., the Edison Swan Electric Company, Ltd., and Imperial Chemical Industries, Ltd.); and libraries belonging to private individuals, which are often very fine and interesting, such as those of Mr. Thomas James Wise (the Ashley Library) and the Right Honourable John Burns, are also outside the general scope of this Guide. Unfortunately no uniform method of counting books has been adopted by libraries. In some cases an estimate, often very rough, is made of the number of bound volumes as they stand on the shelves, while in others divisions of books made by the printer and not the binder are taken in various senses as the units of calculation, sometimes with astonishing results ; but in few libraries is the number arrived at by the process of actual counting. In this Guide the number of volumes in each library is given whenever it is ascertainable with a reasonable degree of assurance as to its reliability. The figure, however, is intended only to convey an idea of the approximate size of the collection, and not to serve as the basis of a close comparison between libraries, which in the circumstances is impossible. The arrangement of each section is alphabetical. The descriptions of the libraries are followed by particulars of 1 The libraries of Messrs. James Pascall Ltd., and Messrs. Vickers Ltd., are, however, included in the Guide because exceptionally they offer certain facilities to accredited students under conditions. They are moreover typical of their class.