"I love it when a plan comes together.."

[arwen_lune]

re: Halloween trip.
Have a place to crash, have flights, even have transport to the airport (after a bout of insanity in which I found out - after booking - that public transport does not actually allow me to be in Eindhoven at 8 in the morning), have most of a passable costume (just needs a bunch of fake daggers and swords plus a decision if to wear trousers or full skirt underneath), have plans (O-bar/Satsuma trip on sunday, museum on monday, dunno about saturday yet) and have motivation.

In other words, I feel pretty good about the idea now.

I'm a bit confused about the British Museum though. Last time I went to the reading room and found a very useful book on Tuareg society; hoped to see it again this time. Except someone told me that all the books have moved to another building - where access is restricted. Does anyone know more about this? I could access the book I wanted without problem - is this no longer possible? Someone tipped me about requesting a research pass, but you have to give study details and all, and since this is for fiction research I doubt they'll go for that.

Feel pretty good about something else as well, but I'm not telling (yet) ;-)

Comments

[celandineb.livejournal.com]

Yep, most of the collection that used to be housed at the museum is now at the British Library. For info on their reading rooms, check here:

http://www.bl.uk/services/reading/admissions.html

[arwen-lune.livejournal.com]

Ah, thanks. I've just seen that I can also apply as non-student, giving personal reasons. Do you think 'research for fiction writing' is a reason they're likely to accept? I'm a bit worried about all this talk of 'proof' that you really need access and 'proof' that you've tried other resources.
They don't have this specific book in the Dutch university library system, but admitting that I want it for research for a fanfiction story is hardly going to help matters, I think...

[celandineb.livejournal.com]

I don't know just how stringent they are. I've never had occasion to use the collection myself (when I'm in London to do research, it's limited to the city and national archives). It seems to me that if you said you needed it for research for fiction writing (no need to say fanfiction), and that it's not available to you otherwise, they would probably give you a reader's ticket. Worth trying anyhow - I would suggest trying to arrange it in advance, if you can.

Certainly the Public Record Office (which is of course documents, not published material) is very good about granting public access; even a foreigner like myself only needs to show a passport to get a reader's ticket. So I'd hope that the British Library would not be too restrictive; they might talk a bigger game than they play, to discourage really casual use.