No white gloves!

Today I organised a private tour of Central Library in Manchester for the book club. Twenty one of us went through the staff only doors in a special 'behind the scenes' tour.

I've done the tour a number of times now but there's always something new to see or to learn! My favourite part is going down into the cellar and into one of the strong rooms where they keep all the rare books. As soon as you go in you're hit by the smell of old books. We were all smiling and breathing it in!

If a fire ever broke out in the strong room, the librarians have 90 seconds to get out before the extraction system kicks in!

After we'd gone round the building we were shown in the Search room where some of the libraries treasures were brought out for us to look at.

The book I blipped is a French 15th century 'Book of Hours' where it tells you which prayer you should say on a Wednesday at 6 pm! They also have Shakespeare's 2nd Folio and lots of Elizabeth Gaskell books, one of which is annotated by Charlotte Bronte (which we didn't get to see this time). They did bring out the Suffragette memorabilia; leaflets, campaign posters, the portcullis badge and a huge banner. It was so interesting!

The one thing that surprised everyone is that we were able to turn the pages in the books without wearing white gloves. It's widely accepted now that, providing you have clean hands, it's much better to not use gloves as they can deaden the sense of touch and you are more likely to damage a page.

We have 4 amazing libraries in Manchester; Central, John Rylands, Chetham's and the Portico, and we've had private tours of them all!

Quote for today:
The only thing you absolutely have to know, is the location of the library.
- Albert Einstein