1) You can never over-prepare for big research project things, since you never know when you might need that extra information. Two reasons why this is true. First, when one encounters extra surprise paperwork, you have the information (or at least some of it) available somewhere {see also point 4}. Second, you may be surprised when-how you can re-use things. In the reshuffling of viewing order that ensued, things were made much easier for me by this Excel chart arranged by title and all the manuscripts in which it was contained that I put together during the 8330 process. I think I found a typo on that chart but because I also brought along my copy of the book that printed the poem, I can fix that easily.
2) It's good to be early. Yes, this means waiting in line, but then you have two big advantages. First, you get into the building-lockers-reading rooms first. While waiting, you can get yourself organized. Second, you get the chance to chat with the other people in line. Today we discussed the deep and philosophical question of why it could be that on Monday and only Monday the Reading Rooms of the British Library open at 10 am, as opposed to 9:30 am Tuesday through Saturday. Theory 1: The librarians and staff needed some extra time to clean up from the big secret weekly party we all know they have when the library is closed on Sunday. Theory 2: Since the library is closed the day before, the staff might need the extra half hour to get the systems up and running.
3) Learning the local search system. For me, these things can take time, and I took plenty of it before I got here. Thanks to that frustration, I figured out pretty quickly upon arrival in the UK how to A) use the online catalogue to look up manuscript information and B) how to request manuscripts ahead of time so I don't have to wait for at least an hour for them to arrive once I show up to see them. For example,upon arrival in the Manuscript Reading Room I found out that I had managed to request two of the books I wanted for October 9, not September 9. That got fixed pretty quickly, and while I was waiting for the manuscripts to be fetched, I managed to work out the the online catalogue.
4) Flexibility is critical. I went in knowing that some of the manuscripts I wanted to see would require special permission. What I did not know, and this in spite of emailing the manuscript department and scouring the website for as much info as possible, was that for some manuscripts there is extra paperwork. This paperwork is not available online, and it takes three to five days to process once completed. Only then do you get to see (if permission is granted) the book, and only once. Thanks to this little wrinkle, I had to re-adjust my schedule of what to see when.
5) Lastly, even when things go wrong (and they will), there is always hope. Even though I don't know if I'll be able to see 2 manuscripts that I wanted to (fingers crossed, paperwork pending), I did figure out that I do not in fact have to fill out one of these forms for all of the restricted manuscripts that I want to see as the guy at the desk suggested I might. On a similar level, when I was given the wrong manuscript at one point, the extra time that took to fix was spent noticing some interesting and probably otherwise overlooked features of the other manuscript that I had at my desk.
And now for some pictures of my home-away-from-home for the next two weeks:
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| The courtyard and main entrance to the library. Not very full yet, but wait until about 5 minutes before opening time at 9:30 (or more like 9:34ish) |
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| You may not be able to tell very well from this picture (and the last one), but this bookcase is over three floors high. |
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| This is the main entrance inside, or at least part of it. |
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| I know this is sideways but \even so it gives and idea of the height of the bookcase display, and the various levels of the building. |
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