INTRODUCTION
Over many generations the London Library has been amassing books and periodicals covering every aspect of the humanities to give readers, writers and researchers the riches of a national reference library for use in their own homes or workplaces. The Library's founding principles remain a blueprint for providing the most direct and liberal access to knowledge.
It is a central tenet of the Library that, as books are never entirely superseded, and therefore never redundant, the collections should not be weeded of material merely because it is old, idiosyncratic or unfashionable: except in the case of exact duplication, almost nothing has ever been discarded from the Library's shelves.
Over 95% of the collections, which now number some one million volumes, is stored on some 15 miles of open-access shelves which may be freely browsed, and over 97% is available for loan. With books dating from the 16th century to the latest publications in print and electronic form, the Library has sought to be contemporary in every age.
Membership of the London Library is open to all.
