Old books are cool. Just look at the the Macclesfield Psalter, which was discovered recently in someone's attic.
And the one London institution who know just how cool old books are is the British Library, which is why they're due to start work on their very own "Centre for Conservation" next month.
Construction on the centre will begin on 8 August 2005, in order to "provide a world-class facility for all aspects of book conservation including education and training, as well as state-of-the art technical facilities for the nation's Sound Archive, enabling unrivalled standards of care for the Library's priceless collections."
A sound archive as well? Doubly cool.
And this isn't going to be soem half-arsed, oversized storage shed. This is a £13.25 million, 2,600 square metre extension to go in that bit of St Pancras between Ossulston Street on the west and Midland Road on the east.
It's all due to be finished by early 2007 and will contain all the conservation staff and facilities that are currently "dispersed across several London sites".
Question is, if the Sound Archive consists of "archival-standard preservation-copying and professional re-mastering facilities for recorded sound items", does that mean they'll be ones to house John Peel's record collection?
And talking of Peel, it was reported today that he will receive 2005's Honorary Membership of the UK Music Hall of Fame for his "exceptional contribution to British music" and later this year there's to be a one-hour TV special, researched by his son Tom Ravenscroft, which will be "an exclusive insight into the man's private collection, which dominated his home in Suffolk".
