29 April 2014
Over to the British Library for the official opening of its new newspaper reading room, replacing the now sadly defunct Colindale archive. The King’s Cross alternative is a whirl of microfiche and white-hot technology, so who better to open it than new Culture Secretary Sajid Javid, a former businessman keen to prove his wider credentials?
“This takes me back to when I was 11 or 12. I used to go on Saturdays to Bristol Central Library, looking at old newspapers on microfiche about the Great War and the Second World War,” he reminisced. “Sounds a bit geeky, I know.” And a bit like a long time since he’s been in a library.
