Library Quiz — Answers
Here are the answers to my library quiz (if you haven’t had a go yet please click here).
1. c) The Library of Congress. As of 2017 the Library of Congress in Washington DC had 162 million items in its collection. The British Library is second in the list with 150 million items.
2. Glasgow School of Art Library. Unfortunately the beautiful wood-panelled library burned down in a fire in 2014, however it is currently being restored.
3. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The library was somewhat unfortunately situated above the entrance to the Hellmouth.
4. d) Chetham’s Library, Manchester. The library was established in 1653 by wealthy textile merchant Humphrey Chetham as a free public reference library. Although libraries such as the Bodleian in Oxford opened earlier (1602) they were only for the use of scholars at Oxford University.
5. Children’s author Jacqueline Wilson was the most borrowed author 2000–2010 with her books being lent out an astonishing 16 million times.
6. Bodleian Library, Oxford.
University Library, Cambridge.
The British Library.
National Library of Scotland.
Trinity College Library, Dublin.
National Library of Wales.
7. d) Perfumes. The Osmotheque was founded in 1990 and contains over 3,200 scents, many of which are no longer made.
8. Isaac Asimov. An incredibly prolific author he wrote or edited over 500 books.
9. b) The Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling. All of the books mentioned in the question made it into the list of the top ten most challenged books.
10.
Virginia Woolf: British Library
George Orwell: University College London Library
George Eliot: New York Public Library
Sylvia Plath: Lilly Library, Indiana University
11. The only person in that list not to have worked as a librarian was Andy Warhol.
12. They were all the classmarks for collections of obscene works.
13. b) George Washington. Staff at his Mount Vernon home discovered the unreturned book (The Law of Nations) in 2010 and the library graciously waived the $300,000 fine.
14. c) The sinking of the Titanic. Book collector and Harvard graduate Harry Elkins Widener died in the sinking of the Titanic. His mother established the library at Harvard in his honour in 1915 with his collection of 3,300 rare books at its heart.
15. False. The British Library produced guidelines in 2011 which stipulated that white gloves reduce dexterity which can cause damage to delicate books. Instead clean, dry, bare hands are advised when handling delicate old books.
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