Peter Mack of University of Warwick has been appointed as the new director of the Warburg Institute in London. Details here. The Warburg Institute is part of the University of London School of Advanced Study, and has a wonderful library not far from Senate House. The library is unique both in terms of its collection, which is filled with things that no other library in London has (even the British Library), and its peculiar cataloguing system.

Its main sections are on Action – Orientation – Word – Image… then there are subsections such as the wonderfully named ‘Magic and Science’. Within these, books are ordered chronologically. Primary texts in the history of political thought, which I’ve been using extensively, have some great obscure figures mixed in with Bodin and Hobbes, for instance. Secondary works are shelved separately. They have loads of things in the original languages, loads of secondary literature in other languages, really old books on open shelves, etc.

It can be hard to find things though. First you find out which floor the classmark corresponds to – there was a logic to this, but it’s not quite right now. Then on each floor you look up the three letter part of the classmark to find the shelf-number, and then find that. But the books don’t have the classmark on the spine of the book, but on the front, so the books appear on the shelf as if they were still in a private collection. A lot of pulling books out to find your way and then find the right book can be required. But you find some great chance discoveries along the way. Given this, and that you have to have a good reason to be in there, instead of Senate House library, it’s a unique place to work.