This library has every book ever published.
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- Опубликовано: 10 сен 2023
- The British Library is one of the six legal deposit libraries for the UK - and the only one that doesn't pick and choose, or have to ask for copies. That's a lot of books to store, and the internet's only making it worse. ■ The BL: bl.uk ■ UK Web Archive: www.webarchive.org.uk/
This video has a correction: it turns out the formal interview requirement for a reader pass has been dropped. However, you'll still need to get a pass, and you're not allowed to take books out of the reading rooms! You can see all corrections on the channel here: www.tomscott.com/corrections/
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This video has a correction: it turns out the formal interview requirement for a reader pass has been dropped since I joined. However, you'll still need to get a pass to use the BL, and you're not allowed to take books out of the reading rooms! You can see all corrections on the channel here: www.tomscott.com/corrections/
aw man
Hey, Tom! This is the coolest thing I've seen! Scientists, researchers and archival people are just the best humans 👍
I was so confused when you mentioned that as I didnt do an interview and for a moment felt guilty that I had done something wrong!
This is honestly one of the most important things humans do. Appreciate your work, Tom, thank you.
Cheers!
I've translated the subtitles for this video into Polish. Would you like to add them to the video?
I have mad respect for archivists. It's such insanely important work but so under appreciated.
The engineers who designed this facility are probably also underappreciated. Both deserve more props.
Shout out to everyone's favourite Gary Brannan, Gary Brannan
As someone who is very anxious about data loss, I'm so glad there are people like these.
I disagree, so much stuff today is just pure rubbish. I have to spend a lot of time to find a good book these days. Sturgeon's law is more relevant than ever.
@@Cloud_Stratusyou’re actually agreeing with op, their work is to make sure only important stuff is preserved. Oh, by the way, op was talking about archivists, not librarians
"We have to collect everything, because we don't know what will be important"
This x100. We don't get to write our own history, but we DO get to decide what is preserved and what is forgotten! Huge respect for these people
In the last 7 years (and more) we've had some rather shady individuals making those decisions.
@@Coconut-219like what
@@Coconut-219 Ok boomer.
@@Coconut-219who?
@@Coconut-219 you're gonna upset the chronically online cultists with that one
CGP Grey taught me how important tracking down old articles and books are to proving/disproving myths.
And his "someone dead ruined my life... again" video about the Tiffany myth even includes the British Library!
and now I'm watching that next, thank you.
@@ICountFrom0 His video on the Staten Island race is very informative yet hilarious.
I just consumed his snark over the tiffany poem, and I feel him, I really do.
@@jamesmnguyenI'm from Staten Island born and raised!!! It shocked me so much that he did that!!!!
Now I'm picturing a dystopian book/movie in which the characters have to somehow scale those massive shelves, maneuver past the dusty, dead robots, and find the knowledge they need for the story
Would be a nice setting for a Story mission in a video game.
That sort of happens in 'Star Wars - Rogue One'.
Also sort of happens in Harry Potter when they break in to see the prophecy.
Twilight Zone - "Time Enough at Last"
The modern Library of Alexandria.
Huge props to everyone involved in this project! This is crazy!
that's exactly what I thought too!!
Do you- do you know what happened to the library of alexandria?
Uh oh...
@@Sapien_6it was set ablaze, this library is in a low oxygen environment, a fire could not burn for long
the modern library of alexandria is a REAL THING though. not only is the fire burning an overscaled myth (it only burned part of the library, it mostly just faded over time) its not like alexandria got blown off the map, you can still go there, the library is still there
So, the question is, has Tom deposited his weekly newsletter with the British library for the UKWA?
Would be funny if he found out about that aspect by being approached about it.
@@sir.niklas2090 There really aren't that many job opportunities for a spambot out there.
They go get it themselves by constantly crawling the web.
Are they published anywhere online though? They can't really crawl through emails.
I've been searching for the previous newsletters(before I subscribed), If they have them maybe I will have a chance to find those treasures too
I’m an academic library worker and I also work in archives, and it makes me so happy to see this. Most of our books are really esoteric but some of them happen to be the one surviving record of, like, a reproduction of an obscure painting or salamander populations in 1950-1970 or a zine a teenager handed out to his friends 40 years ago, and that detail turns out to be incredibly important to a researcher decades later.
But just imagine trying to find the data you want in that jungle
@@KodakYarr That’s why we have finding aids for archives!
Honestly, hearing there are high school zeens in there, makes me want to figure out a research project that'll require, say, pictures of the pages of them. Just to try to get some of that stuff to live again, in some tiny way.
@@banditnosey Aye, but finding aids are a very blunt tool. How many, after well-thought-out "series descriptions", have a "miscellaneous papers" tagged on at the end?
I'd always hoped that with the SGML/XMLization of FAs some 20ish years ago we'd have wiki-like setups where researcher-provided information would be fed back into archivists' finding aids… but that did not really happen, so far as I am aware.
A real world example, though from the United States, is the novella "The Eye of Argon," which appeared in 1970 in OSFAN 10, the fanzine of the Ozark Science Fiction Association. For complicated reasons it became popular and was read by many people, yet for years all known existing copies were incomplete until someone finally found a copy of the original zine in 2003.
This reminds me of my days at university; I was in Houston, Texas, and needed some information published in an obscure book about computer programming. The only existent copy available at a lending library in the US was in Fairbanks, Alaska (at U Alaska Fairbanks), almost 4,000 miles (~6,400 km) away, or an almost 10 hour flight. If it wasn't there, my only other option would have been the Library of Congress in Washington DC, the equivalent of the British Library in the US, but it isn't a lending library so I'd have had to travel to DC to peruse the material.
My librarian put in for an inter-library loan on a Tuesday, and I had the book in my hands the next Monday. I read what I needed Monday night (and I'll neither confirm nor deny going to Kinko's to make copies of the relevant chapters for later review as needed), and had it back on the way to Alaska on Tuesday. Modern libraries are, in a very real sense, truly amazing. A simple (free!) request, and a book makes a cross-continental journey.
Now you've got me curious what the book was and what information you were looking for... it usually seems like you can find anything you need to know about programming on the internet these days.
@@PureAsbestosreally depends on the decade in my experience
I f*cking love this 😊.
Houston, Texas? So F*cking hilarious, do you know how old the UK is in comparison to the US? hahahahaha
I love ‘my’ local library! 💖 They loan out much more than books - telescopes, gardening kits, exercise equipment, sewing machines, food canning equipment . . .
One paragraph in a tiny community newspaper from the mid-1800s helped me answer a family mystery of decades. It was just a social column, but I’m so glad someone preserved it over the years, just in case future me would need it. It was the key to finding a whole branch of our family during the civil war era! (Canadian here). Thank you archivists and librarians!
I'm intrigued to know what this family mystery was!
Tell us the mystery!
What was the mystery and the paragraph? Don't leave us hanging!
paragraph reveal when?
Spill 🔫
Oddly satifying that institutions like this exist
It's comforting to know the past is being kept around and safe, even if it won't be used often. The same thing applies to hoarders a bit
I wonder how disaster proof it is, if something ever happens to civilisation as we know it, we'll have this fantastic source of generations of information to fall back on. You hear of the seed vaults in Svalbard etc that can kinda maintain themselves but would this national library slowly/suddenly degrade without direct maintenance? They all look like above ground buildings mostly so presumably they'd go up in fire rather easily without outside help?
@@_Saracen_they have 700km of shelves, this is not above ground. It is also low oxygen so a fire would smother itself quickly, they also likely have full sealing procedures.
The importance of this was really hammered home when Tom said this is the raw text of history as it happened in response to Linda saying we can’t decide today what is important in 50 years’ time. The sheer scale of this archiving is amazing
This should be something the public of the UK should be proud of. Learning from history and Preserving the world’s (UK’s) literature. This is extremely long sighted. I’m super impressed
I'm a librarian and a BL card holder - I love seeing the automation behind the scenes of such a national institution!
As a big yaoi fan, I am _also_ a BL card holder
@@MiseFreisin As one who always excludes (blacklists) the tags when I search for new reads, I have to ask whether a BL card is a real humorous thing someone invented to be able to say that phrase, or if OP meant something else entirely xP
Warning: Do not enter the L-Space without The Librarian.
Well it is probably a British library card holder.
@@MiseFreisin I would have made this joke if no one else did. Thank you for sparing my dignity.
This kind of thing is insanely cool, and the thing I massively agree with is that one point: We can't decide *now* what'll be important 50 years in the future. We literally *cannot know.* This is relevant in a *lot* of contexts, not just archival, and it's always nice to hear someone stress it like that.
For sure. It definitely gives me pause to wonder how the things, ideas, and experiences I place value on today will change in decades to come.
Of course we can't. It's amazing that anyone could think otherwise.
The very definition of "ignoramus et ignorabimus".
@@ajs41 And yet lots of people do think that! It angers me every day.
I'm not British but it makes me proud as a human that we have archives. I have high respects for archivers.
The oldest book I’ve seen is the atlas coelestis by John Flamsteed, published 1729. It wasn’t published fully until after his death, as he was a perfectionist and wanted it to be perfect. Other astronomers got annoyed at the delays, most notably Issac Newton. Someone broke into Flamsteeds’ office and stole his notes and published the book without his knowledge of consent. When he found out he tried to find every copy and destroy them, he missed about a hundred.
The free gallery in the British Library contains some even older books! Some Shakespeare and Chaucer and even 2 of the remaining 4 copies of the Magna Carta from 1215!
Oh wow....
There are actually six legal deposit libraries for the UK: the others are in Edinburgh, Aberystwyth, Cambridge, Oxford, plus the Trinity College Library in Ireland. But while the others can ask for works, the BL is the only one that doesn't (and can't) pick and choose what it takes. So for modern works, there's usually more than one backup copy somewhere, just in case!
Understandable
Cool
The British Library also must be sent a copy of every book published in Ireland too, under Irish law. Along with 7 university libraries and the Irish National Library.
Time to rewatch Map Men to make sure I'm pronouncing those names correctly.
I recently visited the Welsh National Library in Aberystwyth. It was very cool! I learned a lot from the people there. I’d say it’s just as much a museum as it is a library.
Kinda happy that we live in a society where something like this exists.
It's a weird mix of being super great to archive this, but at the same time it also feels a bit like big brother is watching you at the same time. Espeically with websites.
What if I don't want my stuff to be archived for whatever reason?
If you put it on the internet, it's public. Big brother watching you is real enough, but it's not The British Library.
It says a lot that we're willing to spend money and effort preserving information for the future. Mostly, that we care about both information and the future. I'm glad we do.
@@p_mouse8676stop reading the daily mail
@@p_mouse8676then don't publish it? What kinda question is that. "I wanna put something in a public place but no one can photograph it."
I recently self published a book and sent a copy to the British Library, it’s fascinating to see where it ends up.
Thats cool. It would kinda surreal to see a book I published be in the british library. Have you seen your book in the library yet?
@@lifedocumented3944 I’ve not seen it yet. I presume it takes a while to be added. I will see if I can search for it on their online database. Also now Tom has confirmed I don’t need an interview to join maybe I can go one request it 😃
There’s a copy of my doctoral dissertation at the British Library. I doubt anyone has ever requested it!
@@lifedocumented3944he hasn’t replied so maybe he’s stuck in the low oxygen room
As someone who works in a museum and has been in our archives, I'm glad we have oh so much random "junk". Maybe that advertisement for 2 for 1 deal on potatoes meant nothing to you at the time, but for us we have a well made pamphlet showing local business names, family names, prices, and commodities that were important in the 1800s.
Edit: spelling.
I was kind of thinking that. An economist a hundred years from now could conceivably track the price of eggs both geographically and over time during, say, 2019-2021 (to see the effect of the pandemic on relatively inelastic good prices in different areas?) with enough well-placed queries.
Highly agree. I found an old book full of odds and ends, mostly related to cooking, from maybe 1880 (at the earliest) to the 1960s, and seeing all these old leaflets and school photos that surely were so commonplace back today was so informative. It made me realize how interesting and valuable even the strangest minutiae can be
My mom was a conservator at the University of New Mexico. "The stacks" was the term for the 9 storey building containing hundreds of years of our history, from Spanish conquistadors to "Dewey Defeats Truman."
There is SO much interesting history (also currently boring history) housed there. So much of which hasn't been touched in decades (other than the fire that induced so much smoke damage.) I don't expect to really need it anytime soon, but I'm so glad it's there.
I hope these archives will be amalgamated into one searchable database available to the world before we nuke ourselves..
I've read time and again about things that were such common knowledge that no one thought to record them, until it disappeared from memory.
@@westrim Aye "institutional memory" or "common" knowledge is a dangerous thing for history, as it's so rare for people to record it. Even some jobs from just a couple of hundred years ago are largely forgotten about with no written description of exactly how something was done (we know the job existed and the end result, but not how something was done or the variations), let along further back.
Legal deposit . Collecting all the literary material no matter how obscure , to preserve for posterity is really a gargantuan task . Thanks for the information. This was really useful to know .
It's just data hoarding on another level. I love it
The big issue is most stuff is printed on poor-quality paper and paper tends to also have been washed in acid (to make it white) so over the years it will crumble to dust.
Unless you like the disgraced writer and politician Jeffrey Archer where all his material is produced on PH-neutral paper
If only they did it in a way which didnt mean that publishers have to essentially pay the govt to publish their works
We are in 2023 and youre tellin me the govt needs a physical copy of every published work; instd of a digital copy? That just seems like govt waste in multiple senses bcuz storage and upkeep of digital books is vastly less expensive than such for physical books
@@SylviaRustyFae They said they are keeping up digital versions up as well. Also, a lot of publishers send free copies to various entities and persons, sending it to the library to be stored and available forever is a VERY small ask. Lastly, printed versions differ from those that are digital. And as was said in the video, you cannot decide which version will be important in 50 years.
@@MrVauxs Its a VERY large ask of a small time publisher who exclusively publishes rare expensive books
So pleased to see this! We are a small charity that publishes four editions of our journals each year, plus one or two books annually too - and they're all stored in this building. They are very proactive too - if you forget to send them a copy of a periodical, they are aware and will contact you. It's fascinating to see what it looks like inside!
Love the extra effort put in to contact indie authors and self publishers. Everything is worth collecting and preserving. No work should get lost to time due to a lack of attention or financial success.
Absolutely. The world doesnt need another Library of Alexandria incident
CORRECTION: You don't have to explain why you can't get what you need elsewhere in order to get a reading pass for the BL. That requirement was dropped in 2006, I believe. The requirement for an interview was dropped last year.
Wow! So it's more accessible then? That's awesome!
Do you know if this library supports the Libby app as well?
Just make sure not to get lost in the L-Space.
@@LordDragox412 What's the L-Space?
@@catwithshades7577 I don't think they use Libby. For most of their electronic resources, you need to go there in person and sit down at one of their computers. Some things you can access through your own device, but I think it is their own system so isn't compatible with Libby.
@@mikopiko L-Space is a bit difficult to explain, but if you really wish to know, I strongly recommend reading the Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett, especially those in which the Librarian appears.
It also lists a copy of my PhD thesis, but the actual copy (now probably digital) is held by my university's library. It still is fun to search for it on the database and someone needing sleep can request a copy.
Mine too, but I didn't send it to them
That was a witty jab about needing sleep. Thank God for copiers.
My "I need sleep but don't like drugs" book used to be a college class book titled something like "The Constitutional History of the United States" which is a book about how the decisions of the US Supreme court molded and changed the legal landscape and interpretations of the US Constitution and federal law.
-
I took the class because the HISTORY department class was title "US Constitutional History, Part 1".
What I didn't know was that it was actually a pre-law 300-level course.
I was the only physics major who had ever taken the course.
I often get an existential morose feeling that things are just getting lost all the time, so seeing something like this is a huge relief on my mind.
If you view the universe through the scale of cosmic time, this entire library will be consumed by the sun in the next blink of the eye
@@subn0rma1 If you view your mom through the scale of cosmic time, she's still too large
As a Librarian working at a National Library, I find the British Library really really fascinating. I am inspired every single time. Thank you so much for sharing this video.
Finally, a library where I can find every Terry Pratchett book
This!
preach
They wouldn't let you sit there and read them, but it pleases me to know this exists.
Why would you want to do that?!
This is the real-life L-Space. Please do not enter it's premises without the Librarian.
Oh, the joy this brings to that weird "don't throw that away, you might still need to refer to it later" -part in me! Gorgeous and strangely satisfying to not only *know* but to actually see that people value our human print-output ♥️
Agreed. I dunno if I'd be qualified to work at such a place, but dang if I don't have the right mindset to keep everything around!
I lost a coupon for baked beans in my local rag. Do you think they would let me snip it?
this is such important work it's insane. future historians are going to be so grateful there were people in our age who took archiving seriously
It can't be overstated how valuable archives like this are.
And how much more valuable they'd be if they also preserved scans of everything that are freely accessible.
In Sweden, The Royal Library of Stockholm gets one copy of absolutely every printed matter printed in Swedish, including the local advert folders of supermarkets and so on provided the print is four pages. That library can´t throw anything away, they have to keep everything, the University libraries in Sweden are divided in two groups where one of them also has to keep everything and the other one can throw away some things after five years.
That's a whole lot of IKEA catalogues! 😲
@@LHyoutube Do Swedish IKEA catalogs use random English words instead of Swedish ones?
In Canada it is two copies. We worry that someone might lose one copy of the grocery store flyer.
EDIT I just checked..the National Library can reduce the requirement to one copy, at their discretion. I hope only one copy of every shopping flyer in Canada goes in the library's mail slot.
@@Allan_son It's two copies in the U.S. as well. I assume the idea is that if one copy of an important book is lost, damaged, or stolen, they can make a copy of the remaining copy. Or maybe it's more mundane and practical than that, and they just think they should be able to lend one copy while still having another copy available for viewing at the library (though only Congress can take books out from the Library of Congress).
@@nogravitas7585no the furniture names are still in swedish
Self-publish a book and send it to them, now that is a life goal. Imagine telling all your friends that you got into the legal deposit archive (without mentioning the fact that everything gets in, of course).
Is a fingerprint/DNA registry also technically a "legal deposit archive"? You wanna be careful they don't misunderstand
I wonder if they accept stone tablets?
Well, I got into the German legal deposit archive multiple times. But after a while they decided that our student newspaper wasn't worth collecting.
@@FilemonHD Somehow I feel like a student newspaper could actually be super interesting to historians in the future.
I'm anxious about data loss and the loss of knowledge so this type of thing comforts me, props to all these workers who are doing absolutely crucial work, as always with most things a lot of crucial jobs are underappreciated.
Now I wonder if they'll really manage to keep up with the cheer amount of data we produce each day.
Also does that mean this video is archived there?
Absolutely brilliant. I love the fact that archives like these exist. I was just talking about them yesterday, too. It's indeed hard to overstate the importance of these archives. The Netherlands has a massive media archive, too, where every single book, newspaper, but also television program and I think even radio transmission, is stored.
This is the coolest thing I've seen all day! It feels like one giant book that contains all the books/information ever recorded.
The real life version of "The library of Babel".
You mean, library.
As close to the the Akashic Records that we mortals are able to attain.
Only the British ones.
@@Alacritousno its a website
Tom’s knack for timing is something only great comedians, great film editors, and great watch makers have.
Are you referring to the US Library of Congress case? I was just thinking the same thing.
Even when he has bad timing, i.e. the Iceland Volcano, it's actually perfect, since he can turn it into a unique video.
@@chr1styn806They're referring to the end of the video.
this is why the internet archive has become so important
if anything happens to the internet archive i cant bear to think about
That is so cool! I hope it lasts forever, it's so sad the Library of Alexandria was destroyed. I can't even imagine the amount of knowledge is stored in the British Library.
In France, everithing print more than 9 times by a Professional printer, including ads and all that kind of thing, must send two copies, one for the national library, one for the departemental archives.
So no professional printer in France has ever printed exactly 10 copies of any particular thing?
@@MaxArceus
Me to a professional french printer: "Could you print exactly 10 copies of this?"
Printer: "It just isnt possible"
@@Valcuda Non
Now that should go in one of Toms' podcasts@@MaxArceus
@@MaxArceus There's no reason it couldn't be done. It says "anything printed more than 9 times by a professional printer". Nowhere did the OP say the mandatory copies can't be part of those 10 prints.
I wrote most of my undergrad dissertation with the help of the British Library. You can't find many places with a copy of the British Museum's transcripts and complete translations of some of their cuneiform tablets that were published in the 1890s.
You can tell a book is rarely checked out when some of the pages haven't even been cut yet.
Wow, that means you have to ask to get it cut for you?
Wdym by cut?
@@Speedster___ Old books used to be bound and printed with folded sheets to ease production, meaning that one of the edges would be connected to the next page. People would use a paper knife (the forerunner of the letter opener) to "cut" or open up pages to allow them to be read.
@@ValleysOfRain ah so it was attached to other pages not just spine. Thanks
Whoa. That's... Im jealous
The last 20 seconds of your video sums up a big reason why I find your video's so engaging, beyond of course being interesting. I don't think there is anyone else on RUclips that comes off so genuine.
Thank you not just for raising awareness, but also for minimising the barrier for participating by compiling templates & contact info
These institutions must be protected to avoid the fate of the Library of Alexandria.
The National Library of Wales used to have teams that went around and searched/looking for fire etc
Or the Baghdad House of Wisdom.
Or the Maya Codices
Didnt most of those get destroyed by war or like invaders trying to destroy culture?
@@Khronogi Yes, that's the point.
In Germany, you need to deposit two books. One goes to the library of the state in which it was published an the other goes to the national library with locations in Frankfurt and Leipzig.
But they won't collect everything like the UK version. Things they deem transient information, like pamphlets, train timetables and advertising aren't collected.
Good idea, book burning has been very popular earlier in your country.
Not correct one goes to Leipzig the other to Frankfurt. The state library has to be sent another one or two directly depending on the state.
In my country books are stored for free while the author is writing it. 😮 diditally.
Actually three, since you need to send a copy to Frankfurt and Leipzig.
Really helped my genealogical research. Old newspapers with obituaries, a random book about several families that moved from Spain to the Netherlands in the 1600s, you never know what's important to people in 100 years.
This endeavor warms my heart. Speech, communication, and sharing knowledge are so core to humanity. Striving to preserve EVERY scrap of it feels like a monument to humanity.
The US has this, but very recently there was a lawsuit that determined the required deposit of all copyrighted materials without payment was an illegal seizure. Unless the lawsuit judgement is reversed on appeal, the Library of Congress will need to pay for every book it wishes to possess and there is currently no budgetary authority to do so.
Edit: This ruling was actually by an appeals court, so only a Supreme Court ruling could undo it.
I'd been wondering about that when he mentioned how expensive these books can get. I hope that situation resolves itself, because it would be awful for the library of congress to stop preserving materials just because of budgets
They just need to treat it legally like needing to file a patent. In the patent you need to show what you are patenting. In your copyright request you need to supply a copy of the material to be copyrighted.
@@captianmorgan7627 I'm guessing that's how it largely worked previously. The issue is that the govt is no longer legally allowed to require you to supply a copy without paying you, at least until they can get that court decision overturned
Kool I'll just publish one off books for several hundred dollars every few hours................
This makes me hate capitalism even more
If you decide to do a full victory lap of increasingly meta videos of places, concepts and tools that helped you create your own library of videos, spiraling ever closer towards your final video, I wouldn't even be mad.
Born in the UK and I did not know this facility existed. Absolutely brilliant.
Tom’s videos are so great because they answer questions we didn’t even know we had. THANK YOU!
This was a plot point in ascendance of a book worm I didn’t know it was a real law thought it was a overreach but makes sense
yoo I thought of the exact same thing
YOOO Didn't know I'd find a fellow bookworm reader here
tom should watch that anime it's very good
@@TobiNightcoreI feel like tomscotts audience and book worm readers have a decent overlap. Who else would read fantasy novels explaining the evolution of paper production XD
Oh hey, a bookworm enjoyer.
I work for one of these archives in Denmark! We deal with public data more than books specifically, so everything ever saved in a public office, events, etc.
Digital archiving is a mess. Systems are weirdly built, databases are over-engineered and we often get files that are so old that we need to run converters on old machines just to create access copies.
It’s lots of fun though, and you get to preserve knowledge for the future which is just cool!
I'd love a job like yours 😭
@@rec8127 they don’t open positions very often, but you should try next time your local archive has a job available :)
where in Denmark does this take place?
@@krishb4136 Aarhus
This is absolutely amazing, I had never heard of this. I sure wish there was a project like this for A/V media... There are so many games, movies, series, commercials, YT videos, etc. that seem to be forever lost to time
Some national libraries are doing this, including British, Dutch, and French libraries. US library of congress seems to be lacking behind on this. I guess more countries need to follow suit.
The BBC has an absolutely huge archive of material, not only the broadcasts themselves, but things like scripts and production notes. Thankfully most of it has been catalogued. I believe there are employees who will conduct searches if you ask nicely.
@@hb1338 I mean, odds are, the BBC archive is digitalized by now.
I’m so glad these efforts are being made. I’ve always been so impressed with the archive at the US National Library of Congress. When the lady in this video said “we can’t know what will be important in 50 years” it really resonated.
Given how you talk about how much you use it for your own research, it’s nice that you finally got round to making a video on this. Fascinating, would be a privilege to ever be looking for something so niche that I’ll have to borrow from there.
Well Tom has said he's going to stop making these videos soon. It's possible he was saving this place for near the end.
I love the subtle change in his expression at 4:46 when he realizes it stopped at just the right moment
Incredible! I love the fact that archives like these exist but I really wish more areas of media had similar goals of perseveration. The amount of lost media in terms of TV, Films, Music & Video Games is really disappointing.
The British Library collects sound recordings and video much like it collects websites - I'm not sure what the criteria are or if it collects video games though
and every day, piracy, as one of the few means for digital archival of media is under threat by large multinational companies who hold rights to mediums.
wow this is just incredible. I hope the archive will be available for a long time in the future
This is such a hugely important collection. I am so glad that the foresight was there to allow the archival of works for future generations.
Here's an interesting fact about the British library: it also holds legal deposit status for all books published in Ireland, not just the UK!
Well, the "UK" is a title that encompasses England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and Northern Ireland so it's not too surprising
@@Nekiplex you're joking right? Ireland is not part of the UK. Hasn't been for 100 years.
@@Nekiplex Ireland is a completely independent country. For example It's part of the EU where UK isn't.
@@AbdulMunimKazia *Northern* Ireland is part of the UK.
@@thegrouchization when people generally say Ireland, they usually refer to the independent country Ireland.
This was so interesting, and the lady you interviewed explaining that we have to keep everything as we don't know what will be important in the future is so true, I'd just never thought about it before. Incredible.
Sooo want more on this.
This fills quite a few crosses of the vendiagram of my interests; mech storage, libraries, archives, semi-arcane legalistic fopery, etc.
The most surprising thing is Tom has not filmed this place before today.
I wish I were a book
This is a sentence I never expected to read
So do i
And i wish to be a Furry
Ha. Funny
I were a wish book I.
I am SHOCKED he's never showed us that place before! Amazing
Thank you so much for making a video about this as I had no idea about the digital archive of UK. I am a strong proponent of the need to have digital archive of the whole web in the form of archive org, and recent cases against it have been extremely disheartening. Hopefully humanity comes together in preserving knowledge, discussions and information, no matter the type.
Tom, I just want to, on a personal note, say thanks. Mondays are often difficult, being Monday's and all, and being able to watch a new video from you during my lunch hour is one of the few Monday delights that I have. I appreciate all of the work you have put into this RUclips project of yours, and I will miss it once it ends. So, many thanks. And hopefully, after January, we will all still get the occasional surprise from you to delight us all from time to time.
monday left me broken 😺
We don't often think twice about throwing away a promotional pamphlet we receive, and yet we find amusement and even learn from pamphlets from decades ago. I'm sure covid-related stuff would be so interesting to look back in the future.
Glad they are trying to save everything!
Interesting? Not really. Funny to see how hysterical everyone became, 100%.
I don’t know how else other than by Tom Scott I would have ever learned of resources like this. I hope that someday, after a long and well-deserved break, Tom will return to showing us the world - even if it’s on a more modest schedule.
That's very fascinating and I loved learning about the process! Keep up the GREAT work! :)
By the way, if you haven't gone already, the British Library's exhibition hall is worth visiting.
It is free, and (in case you didn't see it in the video), it is in a central London right next to St Pancras station, a block away from Kings Cross.
And a 7 minute walk from Euston train Station.
The deposit libraries are a marvel. The one in Finland is called Varastokirjasto (transl. Storage Library) and fullfills the same duty of storing "everything published in a nation". Less automated, though. I recall everything is stored in order of acquisition, and if any library is cleaning up their oldest collections, they should check from database that they have a sample.
Not only is the scope and sheer volume of the British Library amazing, but to me this video also serves as an acknowledgement of all librarians that helped Tom research for his videos over the years
Love this. Shame we don't treat movies, tv or games this way. I already have a bunch of things that I can't find anywhere anymore and I'm not even talking about games that depend on a server that's been turned off... So much history will be lost ...
This reminds me of The Library in Doctor Who (series 4) - where an entire planet had been converted into 1 library containing every book ever written in the universe. Obviously in the show, the library was very "sci-fi" and mysterious - this British Library is like a real-life version
It's really interesting this even exists! Fascinating! The amount of archiving work must be insane :o
Was it run by mice?
@@paulhaynes8045
No, by the mind of a child uploaded to a computer, but I'm guessing you're making a HHGTTG reference?
@@greensteve9307 it seemed appropriate!
the more you explain the merrits and use as a historical archive to be studied,
the more i stopped thinking "this is a waste of money"
this is absolutely brilliant!
This is absolutely incredible. My main question is how is it all searchable?! Is every book logged digitally with tags you can search? If so, what an immense project rhat must have been! "Here, just read and classify everything! Yes, literally everything!"
Not sure about that library but I have been volunteering at my local library for quite a while now. The last 5 years have been largely spent working on one persons papers which were donated. We have photos, newspaper clippings and ephemera. So- whenever I finish we will have indexed everything. Dinner invitations, correspondence, and lots of photographs.
For something like newspaper ads I’d imagine that they would be indexed by date, and by publication, with additional data such as where the newspaper circulated and how many copies were routinely sold.
Hope all that helps.
@@dorkboi267: Really ? You guys would do that, for those kind of personal items too ? So you archived somebody's personal invitations ?
@@MeiinUK yes. They donated all of their papers as part of their estate and since they were a county commissioner and on lots of volunteer boards and committees and such we took them.
@@dorkboi267: Ok, oh wow... I see why now.
So interesting! And your energy makes every video so engaging :)
This should absolutely be expanded to worldwide, and for all media. Video games should have a working version deposited digitally so they can be accessed after the publisher no longer cares. Also all movies and tv and music as well.
Oh, how delightful! I work for the equivalent in my country, and it was really cool hearing talk about the same issues we are dealing with. We just finished our fancy, new, LEED gold-certified preservation facility. I don't know if it's the same for the British facility, but our automated storage and retrieval system works in the dark, to save energy and ensure the best preservation conditions. We're still in the process of moving materials over to that building! It's a huge task.
I love this. Archiving straight up everything is the way to go and should always be the aim.
Not the video I opened RUclips to look for, but RUclips knew what I needed to see.
The National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth, which also acquires copies of everything published, is also worth a visit. It also has a copy of the world’s smallest book on display.
You have to start wondering how they're going to have enough space for every book, because I think the number of books being published in recent years has exploded compared to previously.
@@ajs41 Yes, I find it disturbing that the library has to keep building extensions to house all the material. I'd personally be happy to have e.g., all published newspapers digitized. Very few people will want to go and see the original physical paper, so this collecting seems for the small minority of people.
Just a fun observation, this would technically count as the largest collection of erotic fiction as well? (at least within the UK)
Edit: yep, seems to be true
"As part of the requirement of being a legal deposit organisation, the books they receive include pornographic or salacious material, seditious publications, those subversive of religion and works that could later be deemed by the courts as libellous."
Those are stored at the very back... at least, they used to be...
@@MiseFreisin and suddenly all that material gets put in the front due to a rise in popularity!
@@MiseFreisin on the top shelf
I wonder how much fanfiction is archived on their online platform?
Also I wonder if they have any of the fanzines that were published/printed decades before the internet?
Archive of Our Own is a similar depository in that they will archive fanfic from anywhere & regularly absorb smaller/older sites that are being closed. Works in similar ways in that they don't really limit what you post.
This was my only question thank you
This is so gobsmackingly fantastic. I wish it was longer. One could think archivists are stayed and of history but they really are at the forefront and about the future!
Correct video title: This library has every book ever published in the UK
We need a compilation of perfectly timed Tom Scott moments, maybe a good one for Christmas/New Year special?
I really love the goal this archive has. Wish more countries had a similar mindset, and with more types of material. For example, artwork.
Actually most countries got a national library with interest in collecting every print of all times in their country. Arts however make this very difficult because at least considering non digital arts every artwork is unique.
You forgot to add “and the budget to do so”!
It's not a goal, it's reality. There are several libraries in the UK like this.
Absoluelty, I wish everyone had a the mindset of perserving history even if you dont agree with the work, it should still be perserved. It hurts my soul to see people in isis destory ancient sites and history just because they dont agree with it.
We need repositories like this worldwide not only storing books and reading materials, but also digital video, music and artworks too.
Mostly, they exist
It's mindblowing that this exists. It's so important, but it must also be such an insane task to do.
We need similar institutions for movies and games
They exist, they're just called torrent sites :P
@@ashleybyrd2015 contrary what you may have heard, they do not contain _every_ game or movie published
Also torrent sites can loose obsure and old titles if noone is actively keeping it alive on their hard drive.
I genuinely think we should pass laws around publishing movies and games and requiring DRM-free copies for public archive.
That way they can be accessed after copyright expiry - not lost in Disney's vaults, taped over by the BBC, or censored because of changes in law.
@@666Tomato666 I was mostly joking, but I agree, it would be nice if there was somewhere that archived every game and movie.
These kinds of knowledge repositories are so important. It's cool to see one from the UK, using an automated storage system (probably from SSI) that I've worked with previously. Those cranes really do zip around those tight corridors.
"I do not know that it contains any branch of science which Congress would wish to exclude from their collection; there is, in fact, no subject to which a Member of Congress may not have occasion to refer." -Thomas Jefferson, speaking on the US Library of Congress when he submitted his personal collection for archival.
Important work. One thing I feel sad about is company/corporation documentation. Since it's a company secret it's not released to the public, and 20 years later if the company goes out of business most is lost. All the toiling of so many humans lost forever.
as a researcher that stumpled upon a title that was nowhere to find i greatly appreciate places like this. and the people thast work in these spaces are usually very passionate about their jobs which makes it such a pleasent experience.
I expected Gary, you know, the archivist, to show up in this video.
This was very cool and I really appreciate the work archivists do every day.
Is Gary related to John Peters? /j
@@Dialethian The farmer? never heard of him
@@DialethianJohn, the archivist?
Everybody's favorite Gary Brannan must have archives of every Technical Difficulties episode.
@@adventurousmagpie4598 that's a shame, I was in the market for some imaginary corn. I hear the harvest's been good this year.
This concept makes me so happy because i hate loss of information and culture so this is right up my alley, if i didnt live such an active and chaotic life i would definitely have became a librarian i live to learn i just love chaos too so libraries are places to visit not work for me
Even the robots appreciate the Tom Scott quality and helped out at the end.
this is awesome
To all the archivists out there, thank you for your work