Behind the Scenes at the British Museum

http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/libraries_and_archives.aspx

Tuesday we toured the archive at the British Museum. Founded in 1753, this establishment is what the New York Metropolitan Museum strives to be. It chronicles the history, art and culture of people from all around the world, and even houses famous artifacts, such as the Rosetta Stone.

We actually got to walk into the great round reading room, which nobody ever gets to do!

When you first walk in it is truly breathtaking. However, that rosy view of admiration does not last long.

Our tour guide was Francesca Hillier and she is the one and only archivist for the British Museum. The website makes it look like there is an archive department, but no. Just one person. That right there tells you how much they care about their archives at the British Museum.

Most of the materials in her charge are volumes and volumes of records like committee meeting minutes and letters from people donating things to the museum. Absolutely none of it is cataloged. She has no idea what most of the records mean when she does look through them, and she has no time to figure it out.

Her only help comes from volunteers. A large part of her job is going on wild goose chases, or rather, camel leopard chases to find whatever information someone may ask about, even though there is no easy way to search for any of it.

To me, it seems horrible. Her entire job is dealing with historical backlog and at the rate they're going, she'll never get it sorted in her lifetime. She'll barely make a dent. Meanwhile, mold outbreaks have cropped up to destroy all of the records and no one seems to care enough to eradicate it.

The woman is a modern day Sisyphus. I think what will probably happen is the National Archiv will come in for the accreditation audit, see the state of things and confiscate all the materials. Or they'll threaten to and that will scare the director into hiring the help she needs.

Honestly, you could never pay me enough to take her job. What a nightmare. I would however pay for the chance to go through one of those hidden bookshelf doors.