Sir, As one of the students accused of hogging the British Library’s reading rooms, I object strongly to the views expressed in your report (April 21). The great demand for the library’s resources should be held up as a sign of a publicly funded British institution’s success in providing an excellent service and appealing to all members of the public. The academics interviewed should also take heart at the proactive approach to learning by British students, which surely is vital to overcoming the presumed educational apathy among British youth so often lamented by members of the same academic elite.

Furthermore, the content of the article is coloured by hyperbole. I have been visiting the British Library almost every day for the past two months, often arriving after 11am. I have never experienced any queues lasting longer than ten minutes, and I have always found a seat. I also fail to see how the supposed popularity of the library as a meeting place for frappuccinos, as alleged by Tristram Hunt, has a detrimental impact on the availability of seats in the reading rooms, since beverages cannot be taken into them.

The popularity of the British Library is due, moreover, to failings throughout the educational system. Despite my university being ranked within the top ten nationally, its library often does not have sufficient copies, if any, of the books I require.

Georg Nuechtern

University of Durham

Sir, The situation at the British Library should be put into context. Those of us experienced in using the library must know that the reading rooms fill up very quickly at this time of year. This is largely because undergraduate dissertations have to be handed in at many institutions at the beginning of the summer term. However, why this should detrimentally affect the performance of the library’s delivery systems is a mystery. If it has created an arrangement where 1,480 readers are free to order ten books each, and those numbers are adhered to, then there should be no problem.

Lady Antonia Fraser gave no detail of why she did not use a locker instead of the cloakroom, a measure that speeds up the entrance process. Further, she complains that she had to wait 30 minutes for her books. True, this would be unacceptable if it was time spent standing in a queue at the collection desk, but if it is because the books were ordered upon arrival then we must accept this is an acceptable delivery time. The standard delivery estimate is, after all, 70 minutes. Yet, even this can be avoided if one requests items in advance through the British Library website.

Christopher Nicholson

Twickenham, Middx

Sir, Your article only scratches at the surface, I am afraid. In the past year or so, I have witnessed undergraduates answering their mobiles, having loud conversations, eating and even playing music out loud on their laptops, all apparently unaware that such behaviour was inappropriate in a library.

Having expressed concern to Phil Spence, the director of operations and services, at a meeting, I came away with the impression that readers were little more than an inconvenience in the BL’s grand scheme of things. Staff have also expressed concerns to me about these issues. At the very least the library should learn from the Polish National Library, where reading rooms are set aside for postgraduate and doctoral use only.

Dr Wanda Wyporska

London NW5

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