#libraryofcongress — Public Fediverse posts

Library of Congress: New Online at the Library of Congress: July 2026. A list of headers: George and Ira Gershwin Treasures, two new Community Collections Grant recipients, New foreign legal gazettes, world newspapers, and more, Silent film score transcriptions now available, New old news from Rhode Island, New onsite-only digital content, New web archives now available.

Library of Congress: Remembering the Past, Preserving the Present: The America 250 Semiquincentennial Web Archive. “The America 250 Semiquincentennial Web Archive documents how Americans are commemorating and reflecting on the nation’s 250th anniversary. In this interview, Malea Walker discusses how the collection evolved from a project focused on government websites into a broader effort to […]

Congress Just Rushed Through A Disastrous Copyright Office Overhaul

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.techdirt.com/2026/06/18/congress-just-rushed-through-a-disastrous-copyright-office-overhaul/

Library of Congress Blogs: 2026 Designing Storage Architectures for Digital Collections. “This year’s event attracted 172 of the world’s leading experts in data storage infrastructure, best practices, innovation, and future projections of the digital preservation ecosystem. The Library’s DSA organizers arranged a robust agenda to foster open discussion of current challenges in digital […]

What To Watch On YouTube Right Now – Part 138

Welcome back my readers, YouTube viewers and all others who followed this series of articles focused on YouTube videos worth watching.

Have you been searching for something fun or interesting to watch on YouTube? Do you feel bored right now and you crave for something to see on the world’s most popular online video destination?

I recommend you check out the following videos I found.

#1 How To Get The Strongest And Most Optimized Spaceship Crew In Starfield – This year, Bethesda launched several important updates to make their 2023 science fiction role-playing game Starfield better and they also offered new DLC for those who crave for new content. One of the more defining aspects of the game is space travel and this includes setting up your own crew for your spaceship and there is impact on its functions and capabilities. If you want to learn how to get the stronger and most optimized crew for your ship, I encourage you watch the video below.

https://youtu.be/vy8iOx7eqVU?si=gn7W1mZxTOQ4SSrd

#2 Mari Iijima And The Defining Song of Macross: Do You Remember Love? – I really love watching the 1984 anime feature film Macross: Do You Remember Love? Apart from the great animation, the spectacle, the memorable characters and the solid storytelling, the movie also has a great soundtrack made to delight the long-time Macross fans. Still, the movie has its very own song performed by none other than Mari Iijima (Minmay) and it is a classic among Macross fans. In the videos below, you will see Mari Iijima perform the song live in a 1980s TV broadcast and the song playing with selected footage of Macross: Do You Remember Love? Enjoy these!

https://youtu.be/OfuW_Wbt73c?si=Q1DE8eJxo4Zk90pc

https://youtu.be/uJBMYV9e1Nc?si=veDGYU4r7s0flQ_H

#3 The Tuna City In Japan Is Changing With Tourism In Mind – If you plan to visit Japan at all, you might want to discover Miura City located in Kanagawa Prefecture. Miura City is famous for its fresh tuna and in recent times there has been a series of changes as several room-only hotels and new trends have sprouted as the locality is finding new ways to turn visitors into overnight guests. This is a place I would like to visit someday if ever I get the opportunity to return to Japan. Watch and learn from the Nippon TV video below.

https://youtu.be/fUPP30fYH78?si=MrC6Dml3IRVe7fcV

#4 Women’s Rights Activist Marries Islamist And Things Went Wrong – Did you notice that there is a gradual rising number of feminists and women’s rights activists who not embrace Islam (wicked and ugly) but also marry Islamists believing that things will be alright and they can just continue their activism. Of course, many of them activists and feminists do not fully understand Islam nor the full content of the Quran. As such, when things go very wrong, they are get into deep trouble. Watch and learn from the video below.

https://youtu.be/bx3YvoyP6cw?si=omxqhyR8CQfpfhYK

#5 Islamists Violate Hindu Women In India And Get Arrested – Let’s be very clear here. Islamists are oriented to conquer others even though they may not be numerous within a locality. Believe it or not, a group of such people who wielded power inside a business violated the Hindu women (plus at least one male employee) with regards to cultural norms and doing things that go against their faith. Even forced religious conversion happened. Watch and learn from the video below.

https://youtu.be/9xjFS-3Vuws?si=xuDIivIonrp9tQux

#6 Meatballs Reaction And Retrospective – When it comes to cinematic comedy, Bill Murray is iconic and his early work in 1979’s Meatballs already involved the late Harold Ramis and the late director Ivan Reitman. That said, there is something about Meatballs – produced for less than $2 million – that helped it achieve tremendous commercial success with ticket sales of $70 million. Remember, three of the creative minds behind the classic Ghostbusters are involved in this old movie and you will see how You, Me and The Movies react to it in the video below. Be aware that as of this writing, there are not too many movie reaction videos about Meatballs on YouTube. Also posted below is an in-depth retrospective about Meatballs by GoodBadFlicks.

https://youtu.be/nhR9xUCvpAI?si=Zh6gjAX0SdIrtSfT

https://youtu.be/D0BS-K3K_vE?si=HtyR_VThLUKv0Wj6

#7 Ashleigh Burton Reacts To The Thin Man – Have you ever heard of The Thin Man? It’s not a UFO reference. It’s the 1934 American pre-Code comedy-mystery movie that was eventually named to the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress having been deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” in 1997. Apart from its reputation in American film history, The Thin Man also resulted in five sequels. If you want to discover the 1934 movie but you don’t have the time nor resources to watch the movie, watch Ashleigh Burton’s reaction video and see how it impacts her.

https://youtu.be/IJRQXuw–20?si=mSYY7_Eb4EK6reBY

+++++

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Resources for African American History Month: Selected Digital Collections – Teaching with the Library

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Resources for African American History Month: Selected Digital Collections

February 10, 2026, Posted by: Colleen Smith

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This is the second post in a series that looks at different resources from the Library that support teaching and learning about the achievements and contributions of African Americans throughout U.S. history.  The first post highlighted several primary source sets from Teaching with the Library; today’s post brings attention to the Library’s digital collections.

More than twenty-five of the Library’s digital collections relate to the rich histories, cultures, traditions, and contemporary experiences of African Americans. A few are highlighted below, along with ideas for using collection items in the classroom.

Selected Collections

African American Photographs Assembled for the 1900 Paris Exposition 

W. E. B. Du Bois compiled a series of photographs for the “American Negro” exhibit at the 1900 Paris Exposition. His goal was to show the diversity and successes of African Americans as a counter to common stereotypes. The Library of Congress holds approximately 220 mounted photographs reportedly displayed in the exhibition.

• Teachers might use items in this collection to introduce, investigate, or reinforce aspects of DuBois’s approach to combating racism and segregation.
• Images from the collection are powerful visuals of African Americans holding professions in diverse fields. This may help broaden students’ understanding of African American life at the time and bring attention to the experiences, successes, challenges, and contributions of African American individuals and communities.

By Popular Demand: Jackie Robinson and Other Baseball Highlights, 1860s-1960s 

To honor the remarkable life and legacy of Jackie Robinson, Library staff put together this collection featuring sources from across many different divisions of the Library.

• The colorful prints and photographs make this an inviting collection to explore with younger learners. Teachers could bring some of these visuals to support existing materials they use to celebrate Robinson and his contributions.
• For older learners, consider sending them to this set of brief essays. Topics include Robinson’s career and the greater subject of segregation in the sport of baseball.

Zora Neal Hurston

This collection features digitized plays by Hurston (1891-1960), an author, anthropologist, and folklorist.

• A timeline offers a glimpse into Hurston’s life and career and could help students find an angle or selected topic for further research.
• Teachers interested in finding more on Huston’s work might also consult this resource guide from the American Folklife Center, where Hurston’s audio recordings are held. The guide highlights unique unpublished and published materials.

Frederick Douglass Newspapers, 1847 to 1874

Douglass, a leader in the black press, used the medium to communicate and persuade the public on the abolition of slavery and women’s rights. With this collection, students can explore newspapers edited by Frederick Douglass.

• These articles and essays are helpful for finding your way through the collection and identifying aspects to explore further. For example, this post gives further context to Douglass’s famous speech, “What to the American Slave is Your Fourth of July?“
• Ask students to consider how Douglass used the media of his time to capture public attention. In what ways do public figures use media today to communicate a message? What differences and similarities do students notice?

We hope this overview is helpful for considering how you might bring some of the Library’s digital collections to your classroom. If you are interested in more ways for students to engage with materials from the Library, you might check out the latest transcription campaign from By the People: the papers of Christian Fleetwood an African American Union soldier during the Civil War.

Do you enjoy these posts? Subscribe! You’ll receive free teaching ideas and primary sources from the Library of Congress.

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Continue/Read Original Article Here: Resources for African American History Month: Selected Digital Collections | Teaching with the Library

Plunder, Mystery, and Intrigue: Visiting the British Museum and the British Library

After leaving the Lake District, I traveled to London by train, for the third part of my trip. This was where I saw the most libraries during my trip. On my last day in London, August 3rd, I visited the British Museum, located in London’s West End, which was overcrowded with tourists. This made viewing the so-called “chronicle of Western collection,” which was acquired through extensive plunder and theft, as American tour guide Rick Steves describes the museum, very uncomfortable. Even so, there were two highlights. The first was the stately and round reading room. English writers Virginia Woolf and Beatrix Potter, Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-sen, radical thinkers Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin, Black nationalist Marcus Garvey, women’s rights campaigner Sylvia Pankhurst, independence activist Mohandas K. Gandhi, and Irish author Bram Stoker all studied there.

Note: This serves as second part of my series on this blog about my library tourism last year, with the first part, about my attempted and successful library tourism in Edinburgh and Northern England, posted on this blog last week. The series begins, chronologically, with my guest post on Reel Librarians, on February 11th, in a post entitled “Edinburgh and the National Library of Scotland: Library tourism redux.” It will be reposted on here over a month later. There will be one more parts of this series, focusing on my continued library tourism in Belgium coming next week.

Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, as noted in Doyle’s “The Complete Sherlock Holmes,” studied in the reading room. In the 1893 short story “The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual” (sometimes abbreviated as “The Musgrave Ritual”), he studied “those branches of science which might make me more efficient” in the reading room. He learned other information from the British Museum in chapter 15 of 1902 novel The Hound of the Baskervilles and “The Tiger of San Pedro” chapter, within a 1917 collection entitled His Last Bow: Some Reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes (sometimes abbreviated as “His Last Bow”). There are mentions of libraries in the short stories “The Five Orange Pips”, “The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb”, and “The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet” in the 1892 short story collection The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

The same is the case for “The Musgrave Ritual,” “The ‘Gloria Scott’”, and “The Reigate Squires” all within the 1893 short story collection The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, and the stories “The Adventures of the Three Students” and “The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez” in the 1905 short story collection The Return of Sherlock Holmes. Apart from that, chapter 10 of The Hound of the Baskervilles, chapter 7 of the 1915 novel The Valley of Fear, and the story “The Problem of Thorn Bridge” in the 1927 set of short stories The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes feature libraries as well. Lastly, there’s a mention of a London Library in St. James’s Square and Lomax, who is said to be a “sublibrarian,” in “The Illustrious Client.” This is another short story within The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes.

In an email communication, Nathalie Belkin, an archivist who works for the London Library, told me that Doyle was a library member, joining in 1896 after his friend, and fellow writer, Arthur Griffith, nominated him. According to Belkin, Doyle was an active library user, even serving on the library’s committee. In fact, it is believed that The Illustrious Client, also entitled The Adventure of the Illustrious Client, was written in the library’s main reading room. While the borrowing history from the time has been lost, he was a “well-known fixture” of the library.

Otherwise, Karl Marx formulated ideas on communism, including within Das Kapital (also known as Capital), in the aforementioned reading room within the British Museum. Displays within the room describe it as a place for diverse thought. Many patrons left behind their mark in the visitors log. It was even one of the first places in London to have electric light (in 1879)! The room could, at maximum, hold 302 readers sitting at 38 tables, sitting across from each other, and was heated from underneath. Readers would consult a catalogue of printed books in the room’s center, then fill out a request form. In some ways, this makes this room similar to the Library of Congress’s Reading Room, since books for the British Library could be accessed there until they were moved to their current location in 1997. In fact, 62,000 people came when this reading room opened in 1857. A sign, when looking into the reading room, tells visitors to be quiet, feeding into the common conception of libraries as quiet places, which is not always the case for all libraries anymore.

What Rick Steves didn’t mention is that the historic reading room only re-opened to the public in 2024 after being closed for eleven years. The room was designed by Sydney Smirke, inspired by Rome’s domed Pantheon, and opened in 1857. It first re-opened to visitors in 2000 (after it stopped being an active reading room in 1997), then closed in 2013, when it was used for archival storage. The room, described by some as “legendary,” “stunning,” and an impressive sight for bibliophiles (protagonist and book-defender Elianna Bernstein of Bibliophile Princess would be right at home there) is not technically a library anymore. You can’t borrow any of the 25,000 books, and photography is now permitted (it wasn’t previously). Even so, it is still a marvel to see. You can even go on a twenty-minute tour there and there is currently a plan to completely transform the galleries and reading room.

The second highlight was the Enlightenment Gallery, formerly known as the King’s Library. It once held the British Library’s treasures when it was founded in 1753. Today it holds objects about the Age of Enlightenment, as Rick Steves notes. A display board, when you enter the room, says that it was developed in partnership with the House of Commons Library and the Natural History Museum. The current books on display are being loaned from the House of Commons Library. The aforementioned display notes that those who lent non-book artifacts to the gallery included the British King, the Science Museum in London, King’s College in London, Wellcome Collection, Society of Antiquities of London, Victor and Albert Museum, the Linnean Society of London, and the Royal Asiatic Society (also in London). Of these institutions, most have their own libraries. In fact, the D. Leonard Corgan Library at Kings College, the college’s main library, served as a location in Dan Brown’s controversial novel The Da Vinci Code. The building’s exterior appeared in the 2020 film Enola Holmes, a mystery film about Sherlock Holmes’ teenage sister.

The room itself was originally created, in 1823, to house King George II’s library, hence the original name. It was designed by architect Robert Smirke, known for the British Museum’s main facade and block, along with various clubs and houses within London. Of these, the Inner Temple, for which he did some work on, has a library, which continues to operate to this day, as did Bickley Hall. Smike also completed building restoration of the Bodleian Library’s Upper Reading room, which is part of the “old library.” As for the Enlightenment Gallery, it has a Greek Revival design, with neoclassical decoration. It’s said to be in keeping with the “styles of libraries in grand houses all over Britain” at the time, with claims it has echoes of “ancient wisdom and learning.” In 1998, the British Library moved to a new location across from the current St. Pancras station. The latter is not to be confused with pancreas or the Japanese anime film which centers on libraries and librarians, entitled I Want to Eat Your Pancreas. It is far too easy to call it “pancreas” by mistake, a name that almost stuck with me.

This gallery is where thousands of objects can be viewed and serves as an introduction to the British Museum’s collections. Even so, for me, I visited it at the end of my time at the overcrowded museum. I was inspired to visit this room by one particular scene in the December 2011 anime film, K-On! the Movie, a spinoff from the 2009-2010 anime series, K-On!. It features two episodes with libraries, including one about studying in the library and featuring a student librarian at an information desk. In fact, I rewatched this film before my trip to London, just for this scene. During the film, Yui Hirasawa, Ritsu Tainaka, Mio Akiyama, Azusa Nakano, and Tsumugi Kotobuki bop around London, visiting many sites, including walking through the strangely empty Great Court of the British Museum. They make their way into the gallery. During a short scene, Azusa points out that the Rosetta Stone (she put it on their itinerary) is also a replica. In fact, they used a replica in a school play as the death stone for a Romeo & Juliet play, because the fake tombstone they wanted to use had been misplaced.

The British Museum also has the actual Rosetta Stone in the Egyptian sculpture room, but like Yui, Ritsu, Mio, Azusa, and Tsumugi, I only looked at and touched the replica. The aforementioned gallery likely would have been overcrowded, as the gallery rooms I visited were extremely overcrowded and not suited for visitors. They had inadequate airflow and no overhead fans. As for the film, there were a few other short library scenes in the private all-girls school the protagonists attend, Sakuragaoka High School.

The same day I visited the British Museum, I visited the British Library. It sits across from St. Pancras station, and would be the last library I visited in the U.K. As Rick Steves put it, the British empire built its “greatest monuments out of paper.” The library holds every publication within the U.K. and Northern Ireland, with over 170 million items, such as sacred texts, maps, the Magna Carta, Leonardo Da Vinci’s notebook, plays by William Shakespeare, and lyrics of songs by the Beatles. This library, established by an act of Parliament in July 1972 and opened in July 1973, is one of the biggest in the world. It’s only rivaled by the Library of Congress, Russian State Library in Moscow, or Shanghai Library in China. Many such institutions are the legal deposit libraries for their respective countries. Anyone is open to explore the British Library reading rooms and peruse exhibits. You can get a readers registration pass if you are over 18, allowing you to enter the reading rooms.

When I visited, on August 3rd, the reading rooms for humanities, manuscripts, rare books, music, science, maps, and Asian and African studies, were not open. I even saw rooms reserved for the sole purpose of prayer, and went through the “Treasures of the British Library” exhibit in the St. John Ritblat Gallery. It contained many of the artifacts I noted in the previous paragraph. Perhaps because they have the space, the British Library holds the library collections of the British Museum. Rare books fill the middle of the library in a massive climate-controlled column, allowing the upper floors to only be accessed by stairs or elevators, and affecting the structure of each floor. There was also a fascinating collection of foreign currency, stamps, and other postage from former British colonies, called the Philatelic Collection. It could be easily overlooked, but was fun to look through, especially in the way it was displayed.

Like the British museums I visited during my travels, they asked for a donation, but they were free to enter, without payment or restriction. The number of visitors using the study area made clear that they were open to all, in line with library ethical principles, as did the books in their bookshop, some of which would likely be on banned books lists of in U.S. libraries. In the next part of this series, I’ll talk briefly about the university library I visited in Belgium.

© 2025-2026 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

Sources used

• “About this Reading Room,” Library of Congress, 2025.
• “About Us,” British Library, 2025.
• “About us,” House of Commons Library, 2025.
• “About us,” Royal Asiatic Society, 2025.
• “About us,” Wellcome Collection, 2025.
• “Archives,” London Library, 2025.
• Barker, Sam. “The British Museum’s Secretive Round Reading Room Has Reopened To The Public,” Secret London, 4 Jul. 2024.
• “Bickley,” Wikishire, 13 Jul. 2025.
• “D. Leonard Corgan Library,” Kings College, 2025.
• “Dana Research Centre and Library,” Science Museum, 2025.
• “Everything you ever wanted to know about the Rosetta Stone,” British Museum, 2025.
• Fox, Caroline. “Every Enola Holmes Filming Location (And What Every Place Looks Like Now),” ScreenRant, 26 Oct. 2020.
• Funk, Alex. “The British Museum’s mysterious domed Reading Room has officially reopened to the public,” TimeOut, 3 Jul. 2024.
• Hermann, Burkely. “Librarians and libraries in anime,” Pop Culture Library Review, 2025 (orig. 25 Jul. 2020).
• Hermann, Burkely. “More than a coming-of-age drama: The value of libraries and librarians in “I Want To Eat Your Pancreas”,” Pop Culture Library Review, 8 Jan. 2024.
• Hermann, Burkely. “Recently added titles (March 2025),” Pop Culture Library Review, 2 Apr. 2025.
• Hermann, Burkely. “The fictional library and the value of studying redux,” Pop Culture Library Review, 30 Jul. 2024.
• Hickley, Catherine. “British Museum’s historic Reading Room opens to the public after 11 years,” The Art Newspaper, 3 Jul. 2024.
• “History of The London Library,” London Library, 2025.
• “Library,” Linnean Society of London, 2025.
• “Library & Collections,” Society of Antiquities of London, 2024.
• Mathur, Rhea. “The British Museum’s Reading Room: Past and Present,” gowithyamo, 2 Sept. 2024.
• Moran, Sarah. “The British Museum’s Stunning Domed Reading Room Reopens to Public,” Home Journal, 27 Sept. 2024.
• “National Art Library,” Victor and Albert Museum, 2025.
• “Philatelic Collections: Introduction,” British Library, 29 Mar. 2010.
• Hermann, Burkely. “Remembering “Bibliophile Princess” and its significant fictional depiction of libraries,” Pop Culture Library Review, 14 May 2024.
• “Spaces at the Bodleian Old Library,” Bodleian Library, 2025.
• “Spotlight: the Reading Room,” British Museum, 2025.
• Steves, Rick and Openshaw, Gene. London (24th Edition, US: Avalon Travel, Sept. 2022): 212, 214-215, 236, 238, 240, 244-247, 249.
• “Strand Campus: Self-guided tour,” King’s College, 5 Oct. 2014, p. 8.
•  “The British Library Philatelic Collection,” The Royal Philatelic Society London, Nov. 2005.
• “The Present Buildings,” Inner Temple Library, 2025.
• “Treasures of the British Library,” British Library, 2025.
• “Update on progress with the Masterplan,” British Museum, 19 Dec. 2024.

#AncientEgypt #archives #ArthurConanDoyle #artifacts #BeatrixPotter #Belgium #BibliophilePrincess #BlackPatrons #BlackPeople #BramStoker #BritishLibrary #BritishMuseum #China #ChinesePatrons #colonialism #communism #electricity #EnolaHolmes #HouseOfCommonsLibrary #JapanesePatrons #JenniferSnoekBrown #KOn #KOnTheMovie #KarlMarx #LibraryOfCongress #libraryStereotypes #libraryTourism #LondonLibrary #MarcusGarvey #MohandasKGandhi #quiet #railroads #reading #ReelLibrarians #restrictions #RickSteves #RosettaStone #royalLibraries #royalty #Russia #RussianStateLibrary #ShanghaiLibrary #SherlockHolmes #SunYatSen #SylviaPankhurst #TheBeatles #TheDaVinciCode #TheIllustriousClient #trains #VirginiaWoolf #WhiteLibrarians #WhiteMen #WhitePatrons

Plunder, Mystery, and Intrigue: Visiting the British Museum and the British Library

After leaving the Lake District, I traveled to London by train, for the third part of my trip. This was where I saw the most libraries during my trip. On my last day in London, August 3rd, I visited the British Museum, located in London’s West End, which was overcrowded with tourists. This made viewing the so-called “chronicle of Western collection,” which was acquired through extensive plunder and theft, as American tour guide Rick Steves describes the museum, very uncomfortable. Even so, there were two highlights. The first was the stately and round reading room. English writers Virginia Woolf and Beatrix Potter, Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-sen, radical thinkers Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin, Black nationalist Marcus Garvey, women’s rights campaigner Sylvia Pankhurst, independence activist Mohandas K. Gandhi, and Irish author Bram Stoker all studied there.

Note: This serves as second part of my series on this blog about my library tourism last year, with the first part, about my attempted and successful library tourism in Edinburgh and Northern England, posted on this blog last week. The series begins, chronologically, with my guest post on Reel Librarians, on February 11th, in a post entitled “Edinburgh and the National Library of Scotland: Library tourism redux.” It will be reposted on here over a month later. There will be one more parts of this series, focusing on my continued library tourism in Belgium coming next week.

Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, as noted in Doyle’s “The Complete Sherlock Holmes,” studied in the reading room. In the 1893 short story “The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual” (sometimes abbreviated as “The Musgrave Ritual”), he studied “those branches of science which might make me more efficient” in the reading room. He learned other information from the British Museum in chapter 15 of 1902 novel The Hound of the Baskervilles and “The Tiger of San Pedro” chapter, within a 1917 collection entitled His Last Bow: Some Reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes (sometimes abbreviated as “His Last Bow”). There are mentions of libraries in the short stories “The Five Orange Pips”, “The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb”, and “The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet” in the 1892 short story collection The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

The same is the case for “The Musgrave Ritual,” “The ‘Gloria Scott’”, and “The Reigate Squires” all within the 1893 short story collection The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, and the stories “The Adventures of the Three Students” and “The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez” in the 1905 short story collection The Return of Sherlock Holmes. Apart from that, chapter 10 of The Hound of the Baskervilles, chapter 7 of the 1915 novel The Valley of Fear, and the story “The Problem of Thorn Bridge” in the 1927 set of short stories The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes feature libraries as well. Lastly, there’s a mention of a London Library in St. James’s Square and Lomax, who is said to be a “sublibrarian,” in “The Illustrious Client.” This is another short story within The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes.

In an email communication, Nathalie Belkin, an archivist who works for the London Library, told me that Doyle was a library member, joining in 1896 after his friend, and fellow writer, Arthur Griffith, nominated him. According to Belkin, Doyle was an active library user, even serving on the library’s committee. In fact, it is believed that The Illustrious Client, also entitled The Adventure of the Illustrious Client, was written in the library’s main reading room. While the borrowing history from the time has been lost, he was a “well-known fixture” of the library.

Otherwise, Karl Marx formulated ideas on communism, including within Das Kapital (also known as Capital), in the aforementioned reading room within the British Museum. Displays within the room describe it as a place for diverse thought. Many patrons left behind their mark in the visitors log. It was even one of the first places in London to have electric light (in 1879)! The room could, at maximum, hold 302 readers sitting at 38 tables, sitting across from each other, and was heated from underneath. Readers would consult a catalogue of printed books in the room’s center, then fill out a request form. In some ways, this makes this room similar to the Library of Congress’s Reading Room, since books for the British Library could be accessed there until they were moved to their current location in 1997. In fact, 62,000 people came when this reading room opened in 1857. A sign, when looking into the reading room, tells visitors to be quiet, feeding into the common conception of libraries as quiet places, which is not always the case for all libraries anymore.

What Rick Steves didn’t mention is that the historic reading room only re-opened to the public in 2024 after being closed for eleven years. The room was designed by Sydney Smirke, inspired by Rome’s domed Pantheon, and opened in 1857. It first re-opened to visitors in 2000 (after it stopped being an active reading room in 1997), then closed in 2013, when it was used for archival storage. The room, described by some as “legendary,” “stunning,” and an impressive sight for bibliophiles (protagonist and book-defender Elianna Bernstein of Bibliophile Princess would be right at home there) is not technically a library anymore. You can’t borrow any of the 25,000 books, and photography is now permitted (it wasn’t previously). Even so, it is still a marvel to see. You can even go on a twenty-minute tour there and there is currently a plan to completely transform the galleries and reading room.

The second highlight was the Enlightenment Gallery, formerly known as the King’s Library. It once held the British Library’s treasures when it was founded in 1753. Today it holds objects about the Age of Enlightenment, as Rick Steves notes. A display board, when you enter the room, says that it was developed in partnership with the House of Commons Library and the Natural History Museum. The current books on display are being loaned from the House of Commons Library. The aforementioned display notes that those who lent non-book artifacts to the gallery included the British King, the Science Museum in London, King’s College in London, Wellcome Collection, Society of Antiquities of London, Victor and Albert Museum, the Linnean Society of London, and the Royal Asiatic Society (also in London). Of these institutions, most have their own libraries. In fact, the D. Leonard Corgan Library at Kings College, the college’s main library, served as a location in Dan Brown’s controversial novel The Da Vinci Code. The building’s exterior appeared in the 2020 film Enola Holmes, a mystery film about Sherlock Holmes’ teenage sister.

The room itself was originally created, in 1823, to house King George II’s library, hence the original name. It was designed by architect Robert Smirke, known for the British Museum’s main facade and block, along with various clubs and houses within London. Of these, the Inner Temple, for which he did some work on, has a library, which continues to operate to this day, as did Bickley Hall. Smike also completed building restoration of the Bodleian Library’s Upper Reading room, which is part of the “old library.” As for the Enlightenment Gallery, it has a Greek Revival design, with neoclassical decoration. It’s said to be in keeping with the “styles of libraries in grand houses all over Britain” at the time, with claims it has echoes of “ancient wisdom and learning.” In 1998, the British Library moved to a new location across from the current St. Pancras station. The latter is not to be confused with pancreas or the Japanese anime film which centers on libraries and librarians, entitled I Want to Eat Your Pancreas. It is far too easy to call it “pancreas” by mistake, a name that almost stuck with me.

This gallery is where thousands of objects can be viewed and serves as an introduction to the British Museum’s collections. Even so, for me, I visited it at the end of my time at the overcrowded museum. I was inspired to visit this room by one particular scene in the December 2011 anime film, K-On! the Movie, a spinoff from the 2009-2010 anime series, K-On!. It features two episodes with libraries, including one about studying in the library and featuring a student librarian at an information desk. In fact, I rewatched this film before my trip to London, just for this scene. During the film, Yui Hirasawa, Ritsu Tainaka, Mio Akiyama, Azusa Nakano, and Tsumugi Kotobuki bop around London, visiting many sites, including walking through the strangely empty Great Court of the British Museum. They make their way into the gallery. During a short scene, Azusa points out that the Rosetta Stone (she put it on their itinerary) is also a replica. In fact, they used a replica in a school play as the death stone for a Romeo & Juliet play, because the fake tombstone they wanted to use had been misplaced.

The British Museum also has the actual Rosetta Stone in the Egyptian sculpture room, but like Yui, Ritsu, Mio, Azusa, and Tsumugi, I only looked at and touched the replica. The aforementioned gallery likely would have been overcrowded, as the gallery rooms I visited were extremely overcrowded and not suited for visitors. They had inadequate airflow and no overhead fans. As for the film, there were a few other short library scenes in the private all-girls school the protagonists attend, Sakuragaoka High School.

The same day I visited the British Museum, I visited the British Library. It sits across from St. Pancras station, and would be the last library I visited in the U.K. As Rick Steves put it, the British empire built its “greatest monuments out of paper.” The library holds every publication within the U.K. and Northern Ireland, with over 170 million items, such as sacred texts, maps, the Magna Carta, Leonardo Da Vinci’s notebook, plays by William Shakespeare, and lyrics of songs by the Beatles. This library, established by an act of Parliament in July 1972 and opened in July 1973, is one of the biggest in the world. It’s only rivaled by the Library of Congress, Russian State Library in Moscow, or Shanghai Library in China. Many such institutions are the legal deposit libraries for their respective countries. Anyone is open to explore the British Library reading rooms and peruse exhibits. You can get a readers registration pass if you are over 18, allowing you to enter the reading rooms.

When I visited, on August 3rd, the reading rooms for humanities, manuscripts, rare books, music, science, maps, and Asian and African studies, were not open. I even saw rooms reserved for the sole purpose of prayer, and went through the “Treasures of the British Library” exhibit in the St. John Ritblat Gallery. It contained many of the artifacts I noted in the previous paragraph. Perhaps because they have the space, the British Library holds the library collections of the British Museum. Rare books fill the middle of the library in a massive climate-controlled column, allowing the upper floors to only be accessed by stairs or elevators, and affecting the structure of each floor. There was also a fascinating collection of foreign currency, stamps, and other postage from former British colonies, called the Philatelic Collection. It could be easily overlooked, but was fun to look through, especially in the way it was displayed.

Like the British museums I visited during my travels, they asked for a donation, but they were free to enter, without payment or restriction. The number of visitors using the study area made clear that they were open to all, in line with library ethical principles, as did the books in their bookshop, some of which would likely be on banned books lists of in U.S. libraries. In the next part of this series, I’ll talk briefly about the university library I visited in Belgium.

© 2025-2026 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

Sources used

• “About this Reading Room,” Library of Congress, 2025.
• “About Us,” British Library, 2025.
• “About us,” House of Commons Library, 2025.
• “About us,” Royal Asiatic Society, 2025.
• “About us,” Wellcome Collection, 2025.
• “Archives,” London Library, 2025.
• Barker, Sam. “The British Museum’s Secretive Round Reading Room Has Reopened To The Public,” Secret London, 4 Jul. 2024.
• “Bickley,” Wikishire, 13 Jul. 2025.
• “D. Leonard Corgan Library,” Kings College, 2025.
• “Dana Research Centre and Library,” Science Museum, 2025.
• “Everything you ever wanted to know about the Rosetta Stone,” British Museum, 2025.
• Fox, Caroline. “Every Enola Holmes Filming Location (And What Every Place Looks Like Now),” ScreenRant, 26 Oct. 2020.
• Funk, Alex. “The British Museum’s mysterious domed Reading Room has officially reopened to the public,” TimeOut, 3 Jul. 2024.
• Hermann, Burkely. “Librarians and libraries in anime,” Pop Culture Library Review, 2025 (orig. 25 Jul. 2020).
• Hermann, Burkely. “More than a coming-of-age drama: The value of libraries and librarians in “I Want To Eat Your Pancreas”,” Pop Culture Library Review, 8 Jan. 2024.
• Hermann, Burkely. “Recently added titles (March 2025),” Pop Culture Library Review, 2 Apr. 2025.
• Hermann, Burkely. “The fictional library and the value of studying redux,” Pop Culture Library Review, 30 Jul. 2024.
• Hickley, Catherine. “British Museum’s historic Reading Room opens to the public after 11 years,” The Art Newspaper, 3 Jul. 2024.
• “History of The London Library,” London Library, 2025.
• “Library,” Linnean Society of London, 2025.
• “Library & Collections,” Society of Antiquities of London, 2024.
• Mathur, Rhea. “The British Museum’s Reading Room: Past and Present,” gowithyamo, 2 Sept. 2024.
• Moran, Sarah. “The British Museum’s Stunning Domed Reading Room Reopens to Public,” Home Journal, 27 Sept. 2024.
• “National Art Library,” Victor and Albert Museum, 2025.
• “Philatelic Collections: Introduction,” British Library, 29 Mar. 2010.
• Hermann, Burkely. “Remembering “Bibliophile Princess” and its significant fictional depiction of libraries,” Pop Culture Library Review, 14 May 2024.
• “Spaces at the Bodleian Old Library,” Bodleian Library, 2025.
• “Spotlight: the Reading Room,” British Museum, 2025.
• Steves, Rick and Openshaw, Gene. London (24th Edition, US: Avalon Travel, Sept. 2022): 212, 214-215, 236, 238, 240, 244-247, 249.
• “Strand Campus: Self-guided tour,” King’s College, 5 Oct. 2014, p. 8.
•  “The British Library Philatelic Collection,” The Royal Philatelic Society London, Nov. 2005.
• “The Present Buildings,” Inner Temple Library, 2025.
• “Treasures of the British Library,” British Library, 2025.
• “Update on progress with the Masterplan,” British Museum, 19 Dec. 2024.

#AncientEgypt #archives #ArthurConanDoyle #artifacts #BeatrixPotter #Belgium #BibliophilePrincess #BlackPatrons #BlackPeople #BramStoker #BritishLibrary #BritishMuseum #China #ChinesePatrons #colonialism #communism #electricity #EnolaHolmes #HouseOfCommonsLibrary #JapanesePatrons #JenniferSnoekBrown #KOn #KOnTheMovie #KarlMarx #LibraryOfCongress #libraryStereotypes #libraryTourism #LondonLibrary #MarcusGarvey #MohandasKGandhi #quiet #railroads #reading #ReelLibrarians #restrictions #RickSteves #RosettaStone #royalLibraries #royalty #Russia #RussianStateLibrary #ShanghaiLibrary #SherlockHolmes #SunYatSen #SylviaPankhurst #TheBeatles #TheDaVinciCode #TheIllustriousClient #trains #VirginiaWoolf #WhiteLibrarians #WhiteMen #WhitePatrons

Plunder, Mystery, and Intrigue: Visiting the British Museum and the British Library

After leaving the Lake District, I traveled to London by train, for the third part of my trip. This was where I saw the most libraries during my trip. On my last day in London, August 3rd, I visited the British Museum, located in London’s West End, which was overcrowded with tourists. This made viewing the so-called “chronicle of Western collection,” which was acquired through extensive plunder and theft, as American tour guide Rick Steves describes the museum, very uncomfortable. Even so, there were two highlights. The first was the stately and round reading room. English writers Virginia Woolf and Beatrix Potter, Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-sen, radical thinkers Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin, Black nationalist Marcus Garvey, women’s rights campaigner Sylvia Pankhurst, independence activist Mohandas K. Gandhi, and Irish author Bram Stoker all studied there.

Note: This serves as second part of my series on this blog about my library tourism last year, with the first part, about my attempted and successful library tourism in Edinburgh and Northern England, posted on this blog last week. The series begins, chronologically, with my guest post on Reel Librarians, on February 11th, in a post entitled “Edinburgh and the National Library of Scotland: Library tourism redux.” It will be reposted on here over a month later. There will be one more parts of this series, focusing on my continued library tourism in Belgium coming next week.

Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, as noted in Doyle’s “The Complete Sherlock Holmes,” studied in the reading room. In the 1893 short story “The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual” (sometimes abbreviated as “The Musgrave Ritual”), he studied “those branches of science which might make me more efficient” in the reading room. He learned other information from the British Museum in chapter 15 of 1902 novel The Hound of the Baskervilles and “The Tiger of San Pedro” chapter, within a 1917 collection entitled His Last Bow: Some Reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes (sometimes abbreviated as “His Last Bow”). There are mentions of libraries in the short stories “The Five Orange Pips”, “The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb”, and “The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet” in the 1892 short story collection The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

The same is the case for “The Musgrave Ritual,” “The ‘Gloria Scott’”, and “The Reigate Squires” all within the 1893 short story collection The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, and the stories “The Adventures of the Three Students” and “The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez” in the 1905 short story collection The Return of Sherlock Holmes. Apart from that, chapter 10 of The Hound of the Baskervilles, chapter 7 of the 1915 novel The Valley of Fear, and the story “The Problem of Thorn Bridge” in the 1927 set of short stories The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes feature libraries as well. Lastly, there’s a mention of a London Library in St. James’s Square and Lomax, who is said to be a “sublibrarian,” in “The Illustrious Client.” This is another short story within The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes.

In an email communication, Nathalie Belkin, an archivist who works for the London Library, told me that Doyle was a library member, joining in 1896 after his friend, and fellow writer, Arthur Griffith, nominated him. According to Belkin, Doyle was an active library user, even serving on the library’s committee. In fact, it is believed that The Illustrious Client, also entitled The Adventure of the Illustrious Client, was written in the library’s main reading room. While the borrowing history from the time has been lost, he was a “well-known fixture” of the library.

Otherwise, Karl Marx formulated ideas on communism, including within Das Kapital (also known as Capital), in the aforementioned reading room within the British Museum. Displays within the room describe it as a place for diverse thought. Many patrons left behind their mark in the visitors log. It was even one of the first places in London to have electric light (in 1879)! The room could, at maximum, hold 302 readers sitting at 38 tables, sitting across from each other, and was heated from underneath. Readers would consult a catalogue of printed books in the room’s center, then fill out a request form. In some ways, this makes this room similar to the Library of Congress’s Reading Room, since books for the British Library could be accessed there until they were moved to their current location in 1997. In fact, 62,000 people came when this reading room opened in 1857. A sign, when looking into the reading room, tells visitors to be quiet, feeding into the common conception of libraries as quiet places, which is not always the case for all libraries anymore.

What Rick Steves didn’t mention is that the historic reading room only re-opened to the public in 2024 after being closed for eleven years. The room was designed by Sydney Smirke, inspired by Rome’s domed Pantheon, and opened in 1857. It first re-opened to visitors in 2000 (after it stopped being an active reading room in 1997), then closed in 2013, when it was used for archival storage. The room, described by some as “legendary,” “stunning,” and an impressive sight for bibliophiles (protagonist and book-defender Elianna Bernstein of Bibliophile Princess would be right at home there) is not technically a library anymore. You can’t borrow any of the 25,000 books, and photography is now permitted (it wasn’t previously). Even so, it is still a marvel to see. You can even go on a twenty-minute tour there and there is currently a plan to completely transform the galleries and reading room.

The second highlight was the Enlightenment Gallery, formerly known as the King’s Library. It once held the British Library’s treasures when it was founded in 1753. Today it holds objects about the Age of Enlightenment, as Rick Steves notes. A display board, when you enter the room, says that it was developed in partnership with the House of Commons Library and the Natural History Museum. The current books on display are being loaned from the House of Commons Library. The aforementioned display notes that those who lent non-book artifacts to the gallery included the British King, the Science Museum in London, King’s College in London, Wellcome Collection, Society of Antiquities of London, Victor and Albert Museum, the Linnean Society of London, and the Royal Asiatic Society (also in London). Of these institutions, most have their own libraries. In fact, the D. Leonard Corgan Library at Kings College, the college’s main library, served as a location in Dan Brown’s controversial novel The Da Vinci Code. The building’s exterior appeared in the 2020 film Enola Holmes, a mystery film about Sherlock Holmes’ teenage sister.

The room itself was originally created, in 1823, to house King George II’s library, hence the original name. It was designed by architect Robert Smirke, known for the British Museum’s main facade and block, along with various clubs and houses within London. Of these, the Inner Temple, for which he did some work on, has a library, which continues to operate to this day, as did Bickley Hall. Smike also completed building restoration of the Bodleian Library’s Upper Reading room, which is part of the “old library.” As for the Enlightenment Gallery, it has a Greek Revival design, with neoclassical decoration. It’s said to be in keeping with the “styles of libraries in grand houses all over Britain” at the time, with claims it has echoes of “ancient wisdom and learning.” In 1998, the British Library moved to a new location across from the current St. Pancras station. The latter is not to be confused with pancreas or the Japanese anime film which centers on libraries and librarians, entitled I Want to Eat Your Pancreas. It is far too easy to call it “pancreas” by mistake, a name that almost stuck with me.

This gallery is where thousands of objects can be viewed and serves as an introduction to the British Museum’s collections. Even so, for me, I visited it at the end of my time at the overcrowded museum. I was inspired to visit this room by one particular scene in the December 2011 anime film, K-On! the Movie, a spinoff from the 2009-2010 anime series, K-On!. It features two episodes with libraries, including one about studying in the library and featuring a student librarian at an information desk. In fact, I rewatched this film before my trip to London, just for this scene. During the film, Yui Hirasawa, Ritsu Tainaka, Mio Akiyama, Azusa Nakano, and Tsumugi Kotobuki bop around London, visiting many sites, including walking through the strangely empty Great Court of the British Museum. They make their way into the gallery. During a short scene, Azusa points out that the Rosetta Stone (she put it on their itinerary) is also a replica. In fact, they used a replica in a school play as the death stone for a Romeo & Juliet play, because the fake tombstone they wanted to use had been misplaced.

The British Museum also has the actual Rosetta Stone in the Egyptian sculpture room, but like Yui, Ritsu, Mio, Azusa, and Tsumugi, I only looked at and touched the replica. The aforementioned gallery likely would have been overcrowded, as the gallery rooms I visited were extremely overcrowded and not suited for visitors. They had inadequate airflow and no overhead fans. As for the film, there were a few other short library scenes in the private all-girls school the protagonists attend, Sakuragaoka High School.

The same day I visited the British Museum, I visited the British Library. It sits across from St. Pancras station, and would be the last library I visited in the U.K. As Rick Steves put it, the British empire built its “greatest monuments out of paper.” The library holds every publication within the U.K. and Northern Ireland, with over 170 million items, such as sacred texts, maps, the Magna Carta, Leonardo Da Vinci’s notebook, plays by William Shakespeare, and lyrics of songs by the Beatles. This library, established by an act of Parliament in July 1972 and opened in July 1973, is one of the biggest in the world. It’s only rivaled by the Library of Congress, Russian State Library in Moscow, or Shanghai Library in China. Many such institutions are the legal deposit libraries for their respective countries. Anyone is open to explore the British Library reading rooms and peruse exhibits. You can get a readers registration pass if you are over 18, allowing you to enter the reading rooms.

When I visited, on August 3rd, the reading rooms for humanities, manuscripts, rare books, music, science, maps, and Asian and African studies, were not open. I even saw rooms reserved for the sole purpose of prayer, and went through the “Treasures of the British Library” exhibit in the St. John Ritblat Gallery. It contained many of the artifacts I noted in the previous paragraph. Perhaps because they have the space, the British Library holds the library collections of the British Museum. Rare books fill the middle of the library in a massive climate-controlled column, allowing the upper floors to only be accessed by stairs or elevators, and affecting the structure of each floor. There was also a fascinating collection of foreign currency, stamps, and other postage from former British colonies, called the Philatelic Collection. It could be easily overlooked, but was fun to look through, especially in the way it was displayed.

Like the British museums I visited during my travels, they asked for a donation, but they were free to enter, without payment or restriction. The number of visitors using the study area made clear that they were open to all, in line with library ethical principles, as did the books in their bookshop, some of which would likely be on banned books lists of in U.S. libraries. In the next part of this series, I’ll talk briefly about the university library I visited in Belgium.

© 2025-2026 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

Sources used

• “About this Reading Room,” Library of Congress, 2025.
• “About Us,” British Library, 2025.
• “About us,” House of Commons Library, 2025.
• “About us,” Royal Asiatic Society, 2025.
• “About us,” Wellcome Collection, 2025.
• “Archives,” London Library, 2025.
• Barker, Sam. “The British Museum’s Secretive Round Reading Room Has Reopened To The Public,” Secret London, 4 Jul. 2024.
• “Bickley,” Wikishire, 13 Jul. 2025.
• “D. Leonard Corgan Library,” Kings College, 2025.
• “Dana Research Centre and Library,” Science Museum, 2025.
• “Everything you ever wanted to know about the Rosetta Stone,” British Museum, 2025.
• Fox, Caroline. “Every Enola Holmes Filming Location (And What Every Place Looks Like Now),” ScreenRant, 26 Oct. 2020.
• Funk, Alex. “The British Museum’s mysterious domed Reading Room has officially reopened to the public,” TimeOut, 3 Jul. 2024.
• Hermann, Burkely. “Librarians and libraries in anime,” Pop Culture Library Review, 2025 (orig. 25 Jul. 2020).
• Hermann, Burkely. “More than a coming-of-age drama: The value of libraries and librarians in “I Want To Eat Your Pancreas”,” Pop Culture Library Review, 8 Jan. 2024.
• Hermann, Burkely. “Recently added titles (March 2025),” Pop Culture Library Review, 2 Apr. 2025.
• Hermann, Burkely. “The fictional library and the value of studying redux,” Pop Culture Library Review, 30 Jul. 2024.
• Hickley, Catherine. “British Museum’s historic Reading Room opens to the public after 11 years,” The Art Newspaper, 3 Jul. 2024.
• “History of The London Library,” London Library, 2025.
• “Library,” Linnean Society of London, 2025.
• “Library & Collections,” Society of Antiquities of London, 2024.
• Mathur, Rhea. “The British Museum’s Reading Room: Past and Present,” gowithyamo, 2 Sept. 2024.
• Moran, Sarah. “The British Museum’s Stunning Domed Reading Room Reopens to Public,” Home Journal, 27 Sept. 2024.
• “National Art Library,” Victor and Albert Museum, 2025.
• “Philatelic Collections: Introduction,” British Library, 29 Mar. 2010.
• Hermann, Burkely. “Remembering “Bibliophile Princess” and its significant fictional depiction of libraries,” Pop Culture Library Review, 14 May 2024.
• “Spaces at the Bodleian Old Library,” Bodleian Library, 2025.
• “Spotlight: the Reading Room,” British Museum, 2025.
• Steves, Rick and Openshaw, Gene. London (24th Edition, US: Avalon Travel, Sept. 2022): 212, 214-215, 236, 238, 240, 244-247, 249.
• “Strand Campus: Self-guided tour,” King’s College, 5 Oct. 2014, p. 8.
•  “The British Library Philatelic Collection,” The Royal Philatelic Society London, Nov. 2005.
• “The Present Buildings,” Inner Temple Library, 2025.
• “Treasures of the British Library,” British Library, 2025.
• “Update on progress with the Masterplan,” British Museum, 19 Dec. 2024.

#AncientEgypt #archives #ArthurConanDoyle #artifacts #BeatrixPotter #Belgium #BibliophilePrincess #BlackPatrons #BlackPeople #BramStoker #BritishLibrary #BritishMuseum #China #ChinesePatrons #colonialism #communism #electricity #EnolaHolmes #HouseOfCommonsLibrary #JapanesePatrons #JenniferSnoekBrown #KOn #KOnTheMovie #KarlMarx #LibraryOfCongress #libraryStereotypes #libraryTourism #LondonLibrary #MarcusGarvey #MohandasKGandhi #quiet #railroads #reading #ReelLibrarians #restrictions #RickSteves #RosettaStone #royalLibraries #royalty #Russia #RussianStateLibrary #ShanghaiLibrary #SherlockHolmes #SunYatSen #SylviaPankhurst #TheBeatles #TheDaVinciCode #TheIllustriousClient #trains #VirginiaWoolf #WhiteLibrarians #WhiteMen #WhitePatrons

Plunder, Mystery, and Intrigue: Visiting the British Museum and the British Library

After leaving the Lake District, I traveled to London by train, for the third part of my trip. This was where I saw the most libraries during my trip. On my last day in London, August 3rd, I visited the British Museum, located in London’s West End, which was overcrowded with tourists. This made viewing the so-called “chronicle of Western collection,” which was acquired through extensive plunder and theft, as American tour guide Rick Steves describes the museum, very uncomfortable. Even so, there were two highlights. The first was the stately and round reading room. English writers Virginia Woolf and Beatrix Potter, Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-sen, radical thinkers Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin, Black nationalist Marcus Garvey, women’s rights campaigner Sylvia Pankhurst, independence activist Mohandas K. Gandhi, and Irish author Bram Stoker all studied there.

Note: This serves as second part of my series on this blog about my library tourism last year, with the first part, about my attempted and successful library tourism in Edinburgh and Northern England, posted on this blog last week. The series begins, chronologically, with my guest post on Reel Librarians, on February 11th, in a post entitled “Edinburgh and the National Library of Scotland: Library tourism redux.” It will be reposted on here over a month later. There will be one more parts of this series, focusing on my continued library tourism in Belgium coming next week.

Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, as noted in Doyle’s “The Complete Sherlock Holmes,” studied in the reading room. In the 1893 short story “The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual” (sometimes abbreviated as “The Musgrave Ritual”), he studied “those branches of science which might make me more efficient” in the reading room. He learned other information from the British Museum in chapter 15 of 1902 novel The Hound of the Baskervilles and “The Tiger of San Pedro” chapter, within a 1917 collection entitled His Last Bow: Some Reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes (sometimes abbreviated as “His Last Bow”). There are mentions of libraries in the short stories “The Five Orange Pips”, “The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb”, and “The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet” in the 1892 short story collection The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

The same is the case for “The Musgrave Ritual,” “The ‘Gloria Scott’”, and “The Reigate Squires” all within the 1893 short story collection The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, and the stories “The Adventures of the Three Students” and “The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez” in the 1905 short story collection The Return of Sherlock Holmes. Apart from that, chapter 10 of The Hound of the Baskervilles, chapter 7 of the 1915 novel The Valley of Fear, and the story “The Problem of Thorn Bridge” in the 1927 set of short stories The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes feature libraries as well. Lastly, there’s a mention of a London Library in St. James’s Square and Lomax, who is said to be a “sublibrarian,” in “The Illustrious Client.” This is another short story within The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes.

In an email communication, Nathalie Belkin, an archivist who works for the London Library, told me that Doyle was a library member, joining in 1896 after his friend, and fellow writer, Arthur Griffith, nominated him. According to Belkin, Doyle was an active library user, even serving on the library’s committee. In fact, it is believed that The Illustrious Client, also entitled The Adventure of the Illustrious Client, was written in the library’s main reading room. While the borrowing history from the time has been lost, he was a “well-known fixture” of the library.

Otherwise, Karl Marx formulated ideas on communism, including within Das Kapital (also known as Capital), in the aforementioned reading room within the British Museum. Displays within the room describe it as a place for diverse thought. Many patrons left behind their mark in the visitors log. It was even one of the first places in London to have electric light (in 1879)! The room could, at maximum, hold 302 readers sitting at 38 tables, sitting across from each other, and was heated from underneath. Readers would consult a catalogue of printed books in the room’s center, then fill out a request form. In some ways, this makes this room similar to the Library of Congress’s Reading Room, since books for the British Library could be accessed there until they were moved to their current location in 1997. In fact, 62,000 people came when this reading room opened in 1857. A sign, when looking into the reading room, tells visitors to be quiet, feeding into the common conception of libraries as quiet places, which is not always the case for all libraries anymore.

What Rick Steves didn’t mention is that the historic reading room only re-opened to the public in 2024 after being closed for eleven years. The room was designed by Sydney Smirke, inspired by Rome’s domed Pantheon, and opened in 1857. It first re-opened to visitors in 2000 (after it stopped being an active reading room in 1997), then closed in 2013, when it was used for archival storage. The room, described by some as “legendary,” “stunning,” and an impressive sight for bibliophiles (protagonist and book-defender Elianna Bernstein of Bibliophile Princess would be right at home there) is not technically a library anymore. You can’t borrow any of the 25,000 books, and photography is now permitted (it wasn’t previously). Even so, it is still a marvel to see. You can even go on a twenty-minute tour there and there is currently a plan to completely transform the galleries and reading room.

The second highlight was the Enlightenment Gallery, formerly known as the King’s Library. It once held the British Library’s treasures when it was founded in 1753. Today it holds objects about the Age of Enlightenment, as Rick Steves notes. A display board, when you enter the room, says that it was developed in partnership with the House of Commons Library and the Natural History Museum. The current books on display are being loaned from the House of Commons Library. The aforementioned display notes that those who lent non-book artifacts to the gallery included the British King, the Science Museum in London, King’s College in London, Wellcome Collection, Society of Antiquities of London, Victor and Albert Museum, the Linnean Society of London, and the Royal Asiatic Society (also in London). Of these institutions, most have their own libraries. In fact, the D. Leonard Corgan Library at Kings College, the college’s main library, served as a location in Dan Brown’s controversial novel The Da Vinci Code. The building’s exterior appeared in the 2020 film Enola Holmes, a mystery film about Sherlock Holmes’ teenage sister.

The room itself was originally created, in 1823, to house King George II’s library, hence the original name. It was designed by architect Robert Smirke, known for the British Museum’s main facade and block, along with various clubs and houses within London. Of these, the Inner Temple, for which he did some work on, has a library, which continues to operate to this day, as did Bickley Hall. Smike also completed building restoration of the Bodleian Library’s Upper Reading room, which is part of the “old library.” As for the Enlightenment Gallery, it has a Greek Revival design, with neoclassical decoration. It’s said to be in keeping with the “styles of libraries in grand houses all over Britain” at the time, with claims it has echoes of “ancient wisdom and learning.” In 1998, the British Library moved to a new location across from the current St. Pancras station. The latter is not to be confused with pancreas or the Japanese anime film which centers on libraries and librarians, entitled I Want to Eat Your Pancreas. It is far too easy to call it “pancreas” by mistake, a name that almost stuck with me.

This gallery is where thousands of objects can be viewed and serves as an introduction to the British Museum’s collections. Even so, for me, I visited it at the end of my time at the overcrowded museum. I was inspired to visit this room by one particular scene in the December 2011 anime film, K-On! the Movie, a spinoff from the 2009-2010 anime series, K-On!. It features two episodes with libraries, including one about studying in the library and featuring a student librarian at an information desk. In fact, I rewatched this film before my trip to London, just for this scene. During the film, Yui Hirasawa, Ritsu Tainaka, Mio Akiyama, Azusa Nakano, and Tsumugi Kotobuki bop around London, visiting many sites, including walking through the strangely empty Great Court of the British Museum. They make their way into the gallery. During a short scene, Azusa points out that the Rosetta Stone (she put it on their itinerary) is also a replica. In fact, they used a replica in a school play as the death stone for a Romeo & Juliet play, because the fake tombstone they wanted to use had been misplaced.

The British Museum also has the actual Rosetta Stone in the Egyptian sculpture room, but like Yui, Ritsu, Mio, Azusa, and Tsumugi, I only looked at and touched the replica. The aforementioned gallery likely would have been overcrowded, as the gallery rooms I visited were extremely overcrowded and not suited for visitors. They had inadequate airflow and no overhead fans. As for the film, there were a few other short library scenes in the private all-girls school the protagonists attend, Sakuragaoka High School.

The same day I visited the British Museum, I visited the British Library. It sits across from St. Pancras station, and would be the last library I visited in the U.K. As Rick Steves put it, the British empire built its “greatest monuments out of paper.” The library holds every publication within the U.K. and Northern Ireland, with over 170 million items, such as sacred texts, maps, the Magna Carta, Leonardo Da Vinci’s notebook, plays by William Shakespeare, and lyrics of songs by the Beatles. This library, established by an act of Parliament in July 1972 and opened in July 1973, is one of the biggest in the world. It’s only rivaled by the Library of Congress, Russian State Library in Moscow, or Shanghai Library in China. Many such institutions are the legal deposit libraries for their respective countries. Anyone is open to explore the British Library reading rooms and peruse exhibits. You can get a readers registration pass if you are over 18, allowing you to enter the reading rooms.

When I visited, on August 3rd, the reading rooms for humanities, manuscripts, rare books, music, science, maps, and Asian and African studies, were not open. I even saw rooms reserved for the sole purpose of prayer, and went through the “Treasures of the British Library” exhibit in the St. John Ritblat Gallery. It contained many of the artifacts I noted in the previous paragraph. Perhaps because they have the space, the British Library holds the library collections of the British Museum. Rare books fill the middle of the library in a massive climate-controlled column, allowing the upper floors to only be accessed by stairs or elevators, and affecting the structure of each floor. There was also a fascinating collection of foreign currency, stamps, and other postage from former British colonies, called the Philatelic Collection. It could be easily overlooked, but was fun to look through, especially in the way it was displayed.

Like the British museums I visited during my travels, they asked for a donation, but they were free to enter, without payment or restriction. The number of visitors using the study area made clear that they were open to all, in line with library ethical principles, as did the books in their bookshop, some of which would likely be on banned books lists of in U.S. libraries. In the next part of this series, I’ll talk briefly about the university library I visited in Belgium.

© 2025-2026 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

Sources used

• “About this Reading Room,” Library of Congress, 2025.
• “About Us,” British Library, 2025.
• “About us,” House of Commons Library, 2025.
• “About us,” Royal Asiatic Society, 2025.
• “About us,” Wellcome Collection, 2025.
• “Archives,” London Library, 2025.
• Barker, Sam. “The British Museum’s Secretive Round Reading Room Has Reopened To The Public,” Secret London, 4 Jul. 2024.
• “Bickley,” Wikishire, 13 Jul. 2025.
• “D. Leonard Corgan Library,” Kings College, 2025.
• “Dana Research Centre and Library,” Science Museum, 2025.
• “Everything you ever wanted to know about the Rosetta Stone,” British Museum, 2025.
• Fox, Caroline. “Every Enola Holmes Filming Location (And What Every Place Looks Like Now),” ScreenRant, 26 Oct. 2020.
• Funk, Alex. “The British Museum’s mysterious domed Reading Room has officially reopened to the public,” TimeOut, 3 Jul. 2024.
• Hermann, Burkely. “Librarians and libraries in anime,” Pop Culture Library Review, 2025 (orig. 25 Jul. 2020).
• Hermann, Burkely. “More than a coming-of-age drama: The value of libraries and librarians in “I Want To Eat Your Pancreas”,” Pop Culture Library Review, 8 Jan. 2024.
• Hermann, Burkely. “Recently added titles (March 2025),” Pop Culture Library Review, 2 Apr. 2025.
• Hermann, Burkely. “The fictional library and the value of studying redux,” Pop Culture Library Review, 30 Jul. 2024.
• Hickley, Catherine. “British Museum’s historic Reading Room opens to the public after 11 years,” The Art Newspaper, 3 Jul. 2024.
• “History of The London Library,” London Library, 2025.
• “Library,” Linnean Society of London, 2025.
• “Library & Collections,” Society of Antiquities of London, 2024.
• Mathur, Rhea. “The British Museum’s Reading Room: Past and Present,” gowithyamo, 2 Sept. 2024.
• Moran, Sarah. “The British Museum’s Stunning Domed Reading Room Reopens to Public,” Home Journal, 27 Sept. 2024.
• “National Art Library,” Victor and Albert Museum, 2025.
• “Philatelic Collections: Introduction,” British Library, 29 Mar. 2010.
• Hermann, Burkely. “Remembering “Bibliophile Princess” and its significant fictional depiction of libraries,” Pop Culture Library Review, 14 May 2024.
• “Spaces at the Bodleian Old Library,” Bodleian Library, 2025.
• “Spotlight: the Reading Room,” British Museum, 2025.
• Steves, Rick and Openshaw, Gene. London (24th Edition, US: Avalon Travel, Sept. 2022): 212, 214-215, 236, 238, 240, 244-247, 249.
• “Strand Campus: Self-guided tour,” King’s College, 5 Oct. 2014, p. 8.
•  “The British Library Philatelic Collection,” The Royal Philatelic Society London, Nov. 2005.
• “The Present Buildings,” Inner Temple Library, 2025.
• “Treasures of the British Library,” British Library, 2025.
• “Update on progress with the Masterplan,” British Museum, 19 Dec. 2024.

#AncientEgypt #archives #ArthurConanDoyle #artifacts #BeatrixPotter #Belgium #BibliophilePrincess #BlackPatrons #BlackPeople #BramStoker #BritishLibrary #BritishMuseum #China #ChinesePatrons #colonialism #communism #electricity #EnolaHolmes #HouseOfCommonsLibrary #JapanesePatrons #JenniferSnoekBrown #KOn #KOnTheMovie #KarlMarx #LibraryOfCongress #libraryStereotypes #libraryTourism #LondonLibrary #MarcusGarvey #MohandasKGandhi #quiet #railroads #reading #ReelLibrarians #restrictions #RickSteves #RosettaStone #royalLibraries #royalty #Russia #RussianStateLibrary #ShanghaiLibrary #SherlockHolmes #SunYatSen #SylviaPankhurst #TheBeatles #TheDaVinciCode #TheIllustriousClient #trains #VirginiaWoolf #WhiteLibrarians #WhiteMen #WhitePatrons

Plunder, Mystery, and Intrigue: Visiting the British Museum and the British Library

After leaving the Lake District, I traveled to London by train, for the third part of my trip. This was where I saw the most libraries during my trip. On my last day in London, August 3rd, I visited the British Museum, located in London’s West End, which was overcrowded with tourists. This made viewing the so-called “chronicle of Western collection,” which was acquired through extensive plunder and theft, as American tour guide Rick Steves describes the museum, very uncomfortable. Even so, there were two highlights. The first was the stately and round reading room. English writers Virginia Woolf and Beatrix Potter, Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-sen, radical thinkers Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin, Black nationalist Marcus Garvey, women’s rights campaigner Sylvia Pankhurst, independence activist Mohandas K. Gandhi, and Irish author Bram Stoker all studied there.

Note: This serves as second part of my series on this blog about my library tourism last year, with the first part, about my attempted and successful library tourism in Edinburgh and Northern England, posted on this blog last week. The series begins, chronologically, with my guest post on Reel Librarians, on February 11th, in a post entitled “Edinburgh and the National Library of Scotland: Library tourism redux.” It will be reposted on here over a month later. There will be one more parts of this series, focusing on my continued library tourism in Belgium coming next week.

Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, as noted in Doyle’s “The Complete Sherlock Holmes,” studied in the reading room. In the 1893 short story “The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual” (sometimes abbreviated as “The Musgrave Ritual”), he studied “those branches of science which might make me more efficient” in the reading room. He learned other information from the British Museum in chapter 15 of 1902 novel The Hound of the Baskervilles and “The Tiger of San Pedro” chapter, within a 1917 collection entitled His Last Bow: Some Reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes (sometimes abbreviated as “His Last Bow”). There are mentions of libraries in the short stories “The Five Orange Pips”, “The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb”, and “The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet” in the 1892 short story collection The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

The same is the case for “The Musgrave Ritual,” “The ‘Gloria Scott’”, and “The Reigate Squires” all within the 1893 short story collection The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, and the stories “The Adventures of the Three Students” and “The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez” in the 1905 short story collection The Return of Sherlock Holmes. Apart from that, chapter 10 of The Hound of the Baskervilles, chapter 7 of the 1915 novel The Valley of Fear, and the story “The Problem of Thorn Bridge” in the 1927 set of short stories The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes feature libraries as well. Lastly, there’s a mention of a London Library in St. James’s Square and Lomax, who is said to be a “sublibrarian,” in “The Illustrious Client.” This is another short story within The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes.

In an email communication, Nathalie Belkin, an archivist who works for the London Library, told me that Doyle was a library member, joining in 1896 after his friend, and fellow writer, Arthur Griffith, nominated him. According to Belkin, Doyle was an active library user, even serving on the library’s committee. In fact, it is believed that The Illustrious Client, also entitled The Adventure of the Illustrious Client, was written in the library’s main reading room. While the borrowing history from the time has been lost, he was a “well-known fixture” of the library.

Otherwise, Karl Marx formulated ideas on communism, including within Das Kapital (also known as Capital), in the aforementioned reading room within the British Museum. Displays within the room describe it as a place for diverse thought. Many patrons left behind their mark in the visitors log. It was even one of the first places in London to have electric light (in 1879)! The room could, at maximum, hold 302 readers sitting at 38 tables, sitting across from each other, and was heated from underneath. Readers would consult a catalogue of printed books in the room’s center, then fill out a request form. In some ways, this makes this room similar to the Library of Congress’s Reading Room, since books for the British Library could be accessed there until they were moved to their current location in 1997. In fact, 62,000 people came when this reading room opened in 1857. A sign, when looking into the reading room, tells visitors to be quiet, feeding into the common conception of libraries as quiet places, which is not always the case for all libraries anymore.

What Rick Steves didn’t mention is that the historic reading room only re-opened to the public in 2024 after being closed for eleven years. The room was designed by Sydney Smirke, inspired by Rome’s domed Pantheon, and opened in 1857. It first re-opened to visitors in 2000 (after it stopped being an active reading room in 1997), then closed in 2013, when it was used for archival storage. The room, described by some as “legendary,” “stunning,” and an impressive sight for bibliophiles (protagonist and book-defender Elianna Bernstein of Bibliophile Princess would be right at home there) is not technically a library anymore. You can’t borrow any of the 25,000 books, and photography is now permitted (it wasn’t previously). Even so, it is still a marvel to see. You can even go on a twenty-minute tour there and there is currently a plan to completely transform the galleries and reading room.

The second highlight was the Enlightenment Gallery, formerly known as the King’s Library. It once held the British Library’s treasures when it was founded in 1753. Today it holds objects about the Age of Enlightenment, as Rick Steves notes. A display board, when you enter the room, says that it was developed in partnership with the House of Commons Library and the Natural History Museum. The current books on display are being loaned from the House of Commons Library. The aforementioned display notes that those who lent non-book artifacts to the gallery included the British King, the Science Museum in London, King’s College in London, Wellcome Collection, Society of Antiquities of London, Victor and Albert Museum, the Linnean Society of London, and the Royal Asiatic Society (also in London). Of these institutions, most have their own libraries. In fact, the D. Leonard Corgan Library at Kings College, the college’s main library, served as a location in Dan Brown’s controversial novel The Da Vinci Code. The building’s exterior appeared in the 2020 film Enola Holmes, a mystery film about Sherlock Holmes’ teenage sister.

The room itself was originally created, in 1823, to house King George II’s library, hence the original name. It was designed by architect Robert Smirke, known for the British Museum’s main facade and block, along with various clubs and houses within London. Of these, the Inner Temple, for which he did some work on, has a library, which continues to operate to this day, as did Bickley Hall. Smike also completed building restoration of the Bodleian Library’s Upper Reading room, which is part of the “old library.” As for the Enlightenment Gallery, it has a Greek Revival design, with neoclassical decoration. It’s said to be in keeping with the “styles of libraries in grand houses all over Britain” at the time, with claims it has echoes of “ancient wisdom and learning.” In 1998, the British Library moved to a new location across from the current St. Pancras station. The latter is not to be confused with pancreas or the Japanese anime film which centers on libraries and librarians, entitled I Want to Eat Your Pancreas. It is far too easy to call it “pancreas” by mistake, a name that almost stuck with me.

This gallery is where thousands of objects can be viewed and serves as an introduction to the British Museum’s collections. Even so, for me, I visited it at the end of my time at the overcrowded museum. I was inspired to visit this room by one particular scene in the December 2011 anime film, K-On! the Movie, a spinoff from the 2009-2010 anime series, K-On!. It features two episodes with libraries, including one about studying in the library and featuring a student librarian at an information desk. In fact, I rewatched this film before my trip to London, just for this scene. During the film, Yui Hirasawa, Ritsu Tainaka, Mio Akiyama, Azusa Nakano, and Tsumugi Kotobuki bop around London, visiting many sites, including walking through the strangely empty Great Court of the British Museum. They make their way into the gallery. During a short scene, Azusa points out that the Rosetta Stone (she put it on their itinerary) is also a replica. In fact, they used a replica in a school play as the death stone for a Romeo & Juliet play, because the fake tombstone they wanted to use had been misplaced.

The British Museum also has the actual Rosetta Stone in the Egyptian sculpture room, but like Yui, Ritsu, Mio, Azusa, and Tsumugi, I only looked at and touched the replica. The aforementioned gallery likely would have been overcrowded, as the gallery rooms I visited were extremely overcrowded and not suited for visitors. They had inadequate airflow and no overhead fans. As for the film, there were a few other short library scenes in the private all-girls school the protagonists attend, Sakuragaoka High School.

The same day I visited the British Museum, I visited the British Library. It sits across from St. Pancras station, and would be the last library I visited in the U.K. As Rick Steves put it, the British empire built its “greatest monuments out of paper.” The library holds every publication within the U.K. and Northern Ireland, with over 170 million items, such as sacred texts, maps, the Magna Carta, Leonardo Da Vinci’s notebook, plays by William Shakespeare, and lyrics of songs by the Beatles. This library, established by an act of Parliament in July 1972 and opened in July 1973, is one of the biggest in the world. It’s only rivaled by the Library of Congress, Russian State Library in Moscow, or Shanghai Library in China. Many such institutions are the legal deposit libraries for their respective countries. Anyone is open to explore the British Library reading rooms and peruse exhibits. You can get a readers registration pass if you are over 18, allowing you to enter the reading rooms.

When I visited, on August 3rd, the reading rooms for humanities, manuscripts, rare books, music, science, maps, and Asian and African studies, were not open. I even saw rooms reserved for the sole purpose of prayer, and went through the “Treasures of the British Library” exhibit in the St. John Ritblat Gallery. It contained many of the artifacts I noted in the previous paragraph. Perhaps because they have the space, the British Library holds the library collections of the British Museum. Rare books fill the middle of the library in a massive climate-controlled column, allowing the upper floors to only be accessed by stairs or elevators, and affecting the structure of each floor. There was also a fascinating collection of foreign currency, stamps, and other postage from former British colonies, called the Philatelic Collection. It could be easily overlooked, but was fun to look through, especially in the way it was displayed.

Like the British museums I visited during my travels, they asked for a donation, but they were free to enter, without payment or restriction. The number of visitors using the study area made clear that they were open to all, in line with library ethical principles, as did the books in their bookshop, some of which would likely be on banned books lists of in U.S. libraries. In the next part of this series, I’ll talk briefly about the university library I visited in Belgium.

© 2025-2026 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

Sources used

• “About this Reading Room,” Library of Congress, 2025.
• “About Us,” British Library, 2025.
• “About us,” House of Commons Library, 2025.
• “About us,” Royal Asiatic Society, 2025.
• “About us,” Wellcome Collection, 2025.
• “Archives,” London Library, 2025.
• Barker, Sam. “The British Museum’s Secretive Round Reading Room Has Reopened To The Public,” Secret London, 4 Jul. 2024.
• “Bickley,” Wikishire, 13 Jul. 2025.
• “D. Leonard Corgan Library,” Kings College, 2025.
• “Dana Research Centre and Library,” Science Museum, 2025.
• “Everything you ever wanted to know about the Rosetta Stone,” British Museum, 2025.
• Fox, Caroline. “Every Enola Holmes Filming Location (And What Every Place Looks Like Now),” ScreenRant, 26 Oct. 2020.
• Funk, Alex. “The British Museum’s mysterious domed Reading Room has officially reopened to the public,” TimeOut, 3 Jul. 2024.
• Hermann, Burkely. “Librarians and libraries in anime,” Pop Culture Library Review, 2025 (orig. 25 Jul. 2020).
• Hermann, Burkely. “More than a coming-of-age drama: The value of libraries and librarians in “I Want To Eat Your Pancreas”,” Pop Culture Library Review, 8 Jan. 2024.
• Hermann, Burkely. “Recently added titles (March 2025),” Pop Culture Library Review, 2 Apr. 2025.
• Hermann, Burkely. “The fictional library and the value of studying redux,” Pop Culture Library Review, 30 Jul. 2024.
• Hickley, Catherine. “British Museum’s historic Reading Room opens to the public after 11 years,” The Art Newspaper, 3 Jul. 2024.
• “History of The London Library,” London Library, 2025.
• “Library,” Linnean Society of London, 2025.
• “Library & Collections,” Society of Antiquities of London, 2024.
• Mathur, Rhea. “The British Museum’s Reading Room: Past and Present,” gowithyamo, 2 Sept. 2024.
• Moran, Sarah. “The British Museum’s Stunning Domed Reading Room Reopens to Public,” Home Journal, 27 Sept. 2024.
• “National Art Library,” Victor and Albert Museum, 2025.
• “Philatelic Collections: Introduction,” British Library, 29 Mar. 2010.
• Hermann, Burkely. “Remembering “Bibliophile Princess” and its significant fictional depiction of libraries,” Pop Culture Library Review, 14 May 2024.
• “Spaces at the Bodleian Old Library,” Bodleian Library, 2025.
• “Spotlight: the Reading Room,” British Museum, 2025.
• Steves, Rick and Openshaw, Gene. London (24th Edition, US: Avalon Travel, Sept. 2022): 212, 214-215, 236, 238, 240, 244-247, 249.
• “Strand Campus: Self-guided tour,” King’s College, 5 Oct. 2014, p. 8.
•  “The British Library Philatelic Collection,” The Royal Philatelic Society London, Nov. 2005.
• “The Present Buildings,” Inner Temple Library, 2025.
• “Treasures of the British Library,” British Library, 2025.
• “Update on progress with the Masterplan,” British Museum, 19 Dec. 2024.

#AncientEgypt #archives #ArthurConanDoyle #artifacts #BeatrixPotter #Belgium #BibliophilePrincess #BlackPatrons #BlackPeople #BramStoker #BritishLibrary #BritishMuseum #China #ChinesePatrons #colonialism #communism #electricity #EnolaHolmes #HouseOfCommonsLibrary #JapanesePatrons #JenniferSnoekBrown #KOn #KOnTheMovie #KarlMarx #LibraryOfCongress #libraryStereotypes #libraryTourism #LondonLibrary #MarcusGarvey #MohandasKGandhi #quiet #railroads #reading #ReelLibrarians #restrictions #RickSteves #RosettaStone #royalLibraries #royalty #Russia #RussianStateLibrary #ShanghaiLibrary #SherlockHolmes #SunYatSen #SylviaPankhurst #TheBeatles #TheDaVinciCode #TheIllustriousClient #trains #VirginiaWoolf #WhiteLibrarians #WhiteMen #WhitePatrons

Library of Congress: Web Archiving at the Library After 25 Years. “The Web Archiving Program started as a small pilot program to archive the 2000 Presidential election. The following year, the September 11th attacks happened. Suddenly, there was a lot of material online about the terrorist attacks. The Library and some external partners quickly ramped up web archiving efforts to try to preserve […]

Perlmutter Tells SCOTUS Trump is Making ‘An Inexcusable Mess’ of Library of Congress Governance – IPWatchdog.com -Patents & Intellectual Property Law

By Eileen McDermott, 7 hours ago

Perlmutter Tells SCOTUS Trump is Making ‘An Inexcusable Mess’ of Library of Congress Governance

“The question here is not whether the Register of Copyrights or the Librarian of Congress has any functions that can be characterized as ‘executive’ for constitutional purposes; it is whether Congress decided to organize the Library as an ‘Executive agency’”.

Two weeks after the Trump administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay an interlocutory injunction issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, in September that allowed Register of Copyrights Shira Perlmutter to return to her post pending her lawsuit against President Donald Trump for allegedly illegally removing her from office, Perlmutter has responded.

In her opposition to the application for a stay, filed on Monday, Perlmutter accused the administration of making “an inexcusable mess of Congress’s plans for the governance of its Library.”

Trump’s application argued that the D.C. appellate court’s injunction represents “another case of improper judicial interference with the President’s power to remove executive officers” and that its “analysis contravenes settled precedent and misconceives the Librarian’s and Register’s legal status.” The powers of the Librarian and Register have been classified as executive by the Supreme Court, said the administration’s brief, “such as the power to issue rules implementing a federal statute, to issue orders in administrative adjudications, and even to conduct foreign relations relating to copyright issues.”

But Perlmutter argued in her opposition that “the question here is not whether the Register of Copyrights or the Librarian of Congress has any functions that can be characterized as ‘executive’ for constitutional purposes; it is whether Congress decided to organize the Library as an ‘Executive agency’—not just for purposes of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998 (“FVRA”), 5 U.S.C. § 3345 et seq., but for all of the purposes for which the same definition of “Executive agency” is used in Title 5, 5 U.S.C. § 105.”

Continue/Read Original Article Here: Perlmutter Tells SCOTUS Trump is Making ‘An Inexcusable Mess’ of Library of Congress Governance – IPWatchdog.com | Patents & Intellectual Property Law Perlmutter Tells SCOTUS Trump is Making ‘An Inexcusable Mess’ of Library of Congress Governance

#inexcusableMess #copyright #dCCircuit #donaldTrump #intellectualProperty #ipwatchdogCom #libraryOfCongress #patents #scotus #shiraPerlmutter #trump #uSCongress #uSCourtOfAppeals

White House fires commission expected to review Trump construction projects – The Washington Post

WP Exclusive

White House fires arts commission expected to review Trump construction projects

The move comes as President Donald Trump pursues efforts to build a White House ballroom and a triumphal arch in Washington.

Updated, October 28, 2025 at 7:44 p.m. EDT, today at 7:44 p.m. EDT

By Dan Diamond

The White House on Tuesday fired all six members of the Commission of Fine Arts, an independent federal agency that had expected to review some of President Donald Trump’s construction projects, including his planned triumphal arch and White House ballroom.

“On behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position as a member of the Commission of Fine Arts is terminated, effective immediately,” reads an email reviewed by The Washington Post that was sent to one of the commissioners by a staffer in the White House presidential personnel office.

The commission, which was established by Congress more than a century ago and traditionally includes a mix of architects and urban planners, is charged with providing advice to the president, Congress and local government officials on design matters related to construction projects in the capital region. Its focus includes government buildings, monuments and memorials. White House officials have traditionally sought the agency’s approval.

President Joe Biden appointed the six sitting commissioners to four-year terms, several of which would have extended through 2028. Their termination comes as the White House gears up for several Trump construction projects, including his planned $300 million White House ballroom, and seeks to install allies on key review boards.

A White House official confirmed that the Commission of Fine Arts members had been terminated.

“We are preparing to appoint a new slate of members to the commission that are more aligned with President Trump’s ‘America First’ policies,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters.

Bruce Becker, an architect who was appointed to the commission last year and was terminated Tuesday, praised its work in an interview Tuesday night. The agency “plays an important role in shaping the way the public experiences our nation’s capital and the historic buildings it contains, which serve as symbols of our democracy,” Becker said.

The White House in July also fired Biden appointees from the National Capital Planning Commission, another urban-planning agency that is required to review external construction projects at the White House. Trump allies now make up a majority of the 12-member board, including its chairman, Trump staff secretary Will Scharf.

The White House has said it will soon send Trump’s ballroom plans to the National Capital Planning Commission, which will decide whether to approve the new building. White House officials previously declined to comment on whether they planned to also send the plans to the Commission of Fine Arts, and whether approval from that agency was necessary for the ballroom project to move forward. An official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing construction said that “all necessary agencies and entities who need to review the project” were in the process of being consulted.

What the new ballroom means for the White House

Above above video from WP: The new White House ballroom marks one of the biggest changes to the presidential residence in decades — raising questions about tradition, legacy and power. (Video: Jonelle La Foucade/The Washington Post)

The Commission of Fine Arts has traditionally reviewed and voted on major projects at the White House, such as approving a tennis pavilion project overseen by first lady Melania Trump in 2019. But President Trump may sidestep its review of his ballroom, citing historical precedent and his desire to rush its construction, architectural experts said. During a 1947 battle with President Harry S. Truman, who sought to add a balcony to the White House, CFA’s then-chairman said the panel could serve only in an “advisory” role to the president. Truman ultimately proceeded with his plans, setting an example that Trump appears ready to follow.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: White House fires commission expected to review Trump construction projects – The Washington Post

#2025 #America #Ballroom #CommissionOfFineArts #DonaldTrump #Education #EstablishedByCongress #Fired #Health #History #Libraries #Library #LibraryOfCongress #Opinion #Politics #Resistance #Science #TheWashingtonPost #Trump #TrumpAdministration #UnitedStates #WhiteHouse

Trump’s Unauthorized East Wing Demolition – A Special Report – October 24, 2025

Trump’s Unauthorized East Wing Demolition

DrWeb Editorial:

I was afraid this might be long. So I’ll be brief.
Like the flickering TV and ads and social media posts and messages that fly by like so much dust in the wind (we used to call it a firehose). And in these times, (I have take to calling it Trump2.XKNGS) –some Americans accept the shutdown, some look away, some wait, some hesitate, some ignore. But, I go off on a tangent.
The sudden, complete destruction of American history, the complete East Wing –shows us much is wrong with American Democracy –our protections for it; our legal system for it; our states’ rights to their protections, in a federal system. We are weaker than I thought, less capable of fighting authoritarianism, corrupt and cruel leaders starting with Trump. We need to fix Democracy, too, after his failed administration fails, and he is gone.
Most Americans know that if One Man can do this, and worse, and kill “suspected” drug dealers in the Caribbean –he can do whatever he wants. That is not Democracy.
Oh, he and his broken circle will try to corrupt and disturb the 2025 November elections –trial run for Presidential election in 2028– so they will be monitored by the states and Democratic coverage.
This is an example of our failures –to modernize our government; to ensure protections exist for Trump-like attacks, balance the Supreme Court and enlarge it for balance, reduce Presidential authority over Congress 100%. We have a system with flaws, and GOP and Trump and ghost figures like Musk, Bannon, and Miller and the dark ones in the shadows, and we failed clearly to see Project 2025’s actions were not imaginary after all.
The East Wing Destruction (EWD) is a metaphor for all that’s wrong. In real time. We saw what HE seems to be allowed to do. Today (October 25), I see lawsuit is filed, perhaps more to follow. These are the darkest days of our nation and Democracy since the Nazis. We all allowed some of this darkness to descend. Let’s learn, pull on our asbestos suits, and fight like Hell for the nation WWII and since showed America’s strength. We need that strength now. –DrWeb

Top Ten Major Media Stories – The East Wing

1. BBC – “Satellite images show extent of demolition at the White House” (October 24, 2025)1
2. CBS News – “Where is debris from the White House East Wing demolition being taken?” (October 24, 2025)2
3. PBS NewsHour – “The East Wing of the White House has been demolished. Here’s a look at its history” (October 24, 2025)3
4. ABC News – “White House East Wing demolished, new images appear to show” (October 23, 2025)4
5. CNN – “See the White House’s East Wing demolition from satellite images” (October 23, 2025)5
6. NBC News – “White House’s East Wing demolition finished as Trump makes way for new ballroom” (October 23, 2025)6
7. CNN – “Why Trump’s sudden East Wing demolition is extraordinary” (October 22, 2025)7
8. Reuters – “White House East Wing will be torn down fully to make way for Trump ballroom” (October 22, 2025)8
9. The New York Times – “See the White House as It Stood and What Trump Envisions” (October 22, 2025)9
10. USA Today – “Trump exposed a ‘loophole’ to demolish the White House East Wing” (October 23, 2025)10

Best Five Images – Major Media

1. CNN Photo Gallery – “In pictures: Trump’s East Wing demolition” – Complete visual documentation of the demolition process11
2. Getty Images – “Trump To Demolish Entire East Wing” collection – 23 professional images12
3. ABC News Australia – Satellite imagery showing complete demolition13
4. PBS NewsHour – “PHOTOS: White House starts East Wing demolition”14
5. Yahoo News Canada – “Photos reveal shocking destruction of East Wing” – Ground-level destruction images15

What in World is Trump Doing Now?
Why Would He Do This?

The Trump administration’s stated rationale centers on a complaint –that no one made–about inadequate space for large-scale diplomatic functions16. Trump also argues –though again, no one said this anywhere–the federal government has lacked adequate space for large gatherings at the White House for 150 years16.
It’s a home, a house, a symbol, a residence, a meeting space for small gatherings, the First Lady’s staff and space. The new 90,000-square-foot ballroom will accommodate nearly 1,000 guests, compared to the East Room’s 200-person capacity14.

However, critics question the timing and priorities. The project costs an estimated $300 million during a government shutdown that has lasted nearly three weeks [as of 10/24/2025], halting most government expenditures16, including damaging Americans health care and food support.

Christina Hurt, director of government ethics at Santa Clara University, questioned whether it’s “justifiable for an administration to embark on costly, primarily aesthetic projects while ordinary Americans are experiencing financial hardships and federal employees are going unpaid”16.

–Christiana Hurt’s view

The funding comes from private donations and corporations, including major defense contractor Lockheed Martin and tech giants like Amazon and Google16. Ethics experts warn this fundraising approach could foster corruption, with companies “clearly doing so to curry favor with the government,” according to Richard Painter, former chief ethics lawyer during George W. Bush’s administration16.

Best Editorial Quotes – Suggested by Perplexity and approved

“This encapsulates Trump’s presidency in a single image. Illegal, destructive, and not beneficial to you.”
— Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)17

“Oh you’re trying to say the cost of living is skyrocketing? Donald Trump can’t hear you over the sound of bulldozers demolishing a wing of the White House to build a new grand ballroom.”
— Senator Elizabeth Warren18

“I didn’t know draining the swamp meant Donald Trump building a $200 million ballroom for billionaires to bend the knee for special favors.”
— Senator Elizabeth Warren19

“The people’s house is basically being sold to the highest bidder. It is corruption at its core.”
— Former White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre20

“The companies providing funds are clearly doing so to curry favor with the government and enhance their visibility among federal officials.”
— Richard Painter, Corporate Law Professor and Former Ethics Lawyer16

MLA Bibliography – Thanks Perplexity!

1. BBC News. “Satellite Images Show Extent of Demolition at the White House.” BBC, 24 Oct. 2025, www.bbc.com/news/videos/c4gkrnn4892o.

2. CBS News. “Where Is Debris from the White House East Wing Demolition Being Taken?” CBS News, 24 Oct. 2025, www.cbsnews.com/news/white-house-east-wing-demolition-debris/.

3. PBS NewsHour. “The East Wing of the White House Has Been Demolished. Here’s a Look at Its History.” PBS, 24 Oct. 2025, www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/the-east-wing-of-the-white-house-has-been-demolished-heres-a-look-at-its-history.

4. Hutzler, Alexandra, and Isabella Murray. “White House East Wing Demolished, New Images Appear to Show.” ABC News, 23 Oct. 2025, abcnews.go.com/Politics/new-images-show-entire-white-house-east-wing/story?id=126800684.

5. CNN. “See the White House’s East Wing Demolition from Satellite Images.” CNN, 23 Oct. 2025, www.cnn.com/2025/10/23/us/east-wing-white-house-satellite-photos-invs.

6. NBC News. “White House’s East Wing Demolition Finished as Trump Makes Way for New Ballroom.” NBC News, 23 Oct. 2025, www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/white-house-east-wing-demolished-new-ballroom-rcna239399.

7. CNN. “Why Trump’s Sudden East Wing Demolition Is Extraordinary.” CNN, 22 Oct. 2025, www.cnn.com/2025/10/22/politics/white-house-east-wing-demolition-trump.

8. Reuters. “White House East Wing Will Be Torn Down Fully to Make Way for Trump Ballroom.” Reuters, 22 Oct. 2025, www.reuters.com/world/us/white-house-east-wing-will-be-torn-down-fully-make-way-trump-ballroom-official-2025-10-22/.

9. The New York Times. “See the White House as It Stood and What Trump Envisions.” The New York Times, 22 Oct. 2025, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/10/22/us/politics/east-wing-trump-ballroom.html.

10. USA Today. “Trump Exposed a ‘Loophole’ to Demolish the White House East Wing. Here’s What We Know.” USA Today, 23 Oct. 2025, www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/10/23/trump-white-house-east-wing-demolition-explained/86837471007/.

11. CNN. “In Pictures: Trump’s East Wing Demolition.” CNN Politics, 22 Oct. 2025, www.cnn.com/2025/10/22/politics/gallery/east-wing-white-house-demolition.

12. Getty Images. “Trump To Demolish Entire East Wing To Build White House Ballroom.” Getty Images, 2025, www.gettyimages.com/editorial-images/news/event/trump-to-demolish-entire-east-wing-to-build-white-house-ballroom/776405723.

13. Allison, Charmayne. “Satellite Images Show the White House’s East Wing Has Been Demolished.” ABC News Australia, 24 Oct. 2025, www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10-24/white-house-east-wing-demolished-trump-ballroom/105930582.

14. Associated Press. “PHOTOS: White House Starts East Wing Demolition to Build Trump’s Ballroom.” PBS NewsHour, 21 Oct. 2025, www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/photos-white-house-starts-east-wing-demolition-to-build-trumps-ballroom.

15. Yahoo News Canada. “Photos Reveal Shocking Destruction of East Wing as Crews Work to Build Trump’s $300M Ballroom.” Yahoo News, 22 Oct. 2025, ca.news.yahoo.com/photos-reveal-shocking-destruction-east-193833511.html.

16. Deutsche Welle. “Trump’s White House Ballroom Sparks Criticism Amid Shutdown.” DW, 23 Oct. 2025, www.dw.com/en/trump-ballroom-project-white-house-renovations-shutdown/a-74478671.

17. The New York Times. “The White House Wrecking Ball.” The New York Times, 22 Oct. 2025, www.nytimes.com/2025/10/22/us/politics/trump-white-house-demolition.html.

18. Benzinga. “Elizabeth Warren Says Trump Is Deaf To Cost Of Living ‘Over The Sound of Bulldozers.'” Benzinga, 21 Oct. 2025, www.benzinga.com/news/politics/25/10/48320523/elizabeth-warren-says-trump-is-deaf-to-cost-of-living-over-the-sound-of-bulldozers-knocking-down-white-house-wing-for-new-grand-ballroom.

19. QuiverQuant. “Press Release: Senator Elizabeth Warren Critiques Donald Trump’s $200 Million Ballroom for Billionaires.” QuiverQuant, 15 Oct. 2025, www.quiverquant.com/news/Press+Release:+Senator+Elizabeth+Warren+Critiques+Donald+Trump’s+$200+Million+Ballroom+for+Billionaires.

20. Fox News. “Trump White House Ballroom Sparks Liberal Outrage Over Demolition.” Fox News, 24 Oct. 2025, www.foxnews.com/media/democrats-liberal-media-figures-fume-over-trump-demolishing-white-house-east-wing-ballroom.

Additional Citations – Added October 25, 2025

What’s Been Lost In Donald Trump’s Teardown Of The East Wing To Build A White House Ballroom – Analysis- https://deadline.com/2025/10/trump-white-house-east-wing-demolition-1236595980, October 23, 2025

White House East Wing demolished, new images appear to show – https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/new-images-show-entire-white-house-east-wing/story?id=126800684 October 23, 2025

The Daily, New York Times’ podcast, “The Trump administration completed its demolition of the East Wing of the White House on Thursday to make way for a new presidential ballroom” – https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/24/podcasts/the-daily/demolition-white-house-east-wing-ballroom.html October 24, 2025

Google News – Lawsuit(s) East Wing – https://news.google.com/search?q=lawsuits%20east%20wing&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen October 25, 2025

#2025 #America #Demolished #Demolition #Destroyed #DonaldTrump #DrWebEditorial #EastWing #Education #Health #History #Images #LawSuits #Libraries #Library #LibraryOfCongress #Opinion #PerplexityAI #Politics #Resistance #Science #SpecialReport #Trump #TrumpAdministration #UnitedStates #WhiteHouse

Trump’s Unauthorized East Wing Demolition – A Special Report – October 24, 2025

Trump’s Unauthorized East Wing Demolition

DrWeb Editorial:

I was afraid this might be long. So I’ll be brief.
Like the flickering TV and ads and social media posts and messages that fly by like so much dust in the wind (we used to call it a firehose). And in these times, (I have take to calling it Trump2.XKNGS) –some Americans accept the shutdown, some look away, some wait, some hesitate, some ignore. But, I go off on a tangent.
The sudden, complete destruction of American history, the complete East Wing –shows us much is wrong with American Democracy –our protections for it; our legal system for it; our states’ rights to their protections, in a federal system. We are weaker than I thought, less capable of fighting authoritarianism, corrupt and cruel leaders starting with Trump. We need to fix Democracy, too, after his failed administration fails, and he is gone.
Most Americans know that if One Man can do this, and worse, and kill “suspected” drug dealers in the Caribbean –he can do whatever he wants. That is not Democracy.
Oh, he and his broken circle will try to corrupt and disturb the 2025 November elections –trial run for Presidential election in 2028– so they will be monitored by the states and Democratic coverage.
This is an example of our failures –to modernize our government; to ensure protections exist for Trump-like attacks, balance the Supreme Court and enlarge it for balance, reduce Presidential authority over Congress 100%. We have a system with flaws, and GOP and Trump and ghost figures like Musk, Bannon, and Miller and the dark ones in the shadows, and we failed clearly to see Project 2025’s actions were not imaginary after all.
The East Wing Destruction (EWD) is a metaphor for all that’s wrong. In real time. We saw what HE seems to be allowed to do. Today (October 25), I see lawsuit is filed, perhaps more to follow. These are the darkest days of our nation and Democracy since the Nazis. We all allowed some of this darkness to descend. Let’s learn, pull on our asbestos suits, and fight like Hell for the nation WWII and since showed America’s strength. We need that strength now. –DrWeb

Top Ten Major Media Stories – The East Wing

1. BBC – “Satellite images show extent of demolition at the White House” (October 24, 2025)1
2. CBS News – “Where is debris from the White House East Wing demolition being taken?” (October 24, 2025)2
3. PBS NewsHour – “The East Wing of the White House has been demolished. Here’s a look at its history” (October 24, 2025)3
4. ABC News – “White House East Wing demolished, new images appear to show” (October 23, 2025)4
5. CNN – “See the White House’s East Wing demolition from satellite images” (October 23, 2025)5
6. NBC News – “White House’s East Wing demolition finished as Trump makes way for new ballroom” (October 23, 2025)6
7. CNN – “Why Trump’s sudden East Wing demolition is extraordinary” (October 22, 2025)7
8. Reuters – “White House East Wing will be torn down fully to make way for Trump ballroom” (October 22, 2025)8
9. The New York Times – “See the White House as It Stood and What Trump Envisions” (October 22, 2025)9
10. USA Today – “Trump exposed a ‘loophole’ to demolish the White House East Wing” (October 23, 2025)10

Best Five Images – Major Media

1. CNN Photo Gallery – “In pictures: Trump’s East Wing demolition” – Complete visual documentation of the demolition process11
2. Getty Images – “Trump To Demolish Entire East Wing” collection – 23 professional images12
3. ABC News Australia – Satellite imagery showing complete demolition13
4. PBS NewsHour – “PHOTOS: White House starts East Wing demolition”14
5. Yahoo News Canada – “Photos reveal shocking destruction of East Wing” – Ground-level destruction images15

What in World is Trump Doing Now?
Why Would He Do This?

The Trump administration’s stated rationale centers on a complaint –that no one made–about inadequate space for large-scale diplomatic functions16. Trump also argues –though again, no one said this anywhere–the federal government has lacked adequate space for large gatherings at the White House for 150 years16.
It’s a home, a house, a symbol, a residence, a meeting space for small gatherings, the First Lady’s staff and space. The new 90,000-square-foot ballroom will accommodate nearly 1,000 guests, compared to the East Room’s 200-person capacity14.

However, critics question the timing and priorities. The project costs an estimated $300 million during a government shutdown that has lasted nearly three weeks [as of 10/24/2025], halting most government expenditures16, including damaging Americans health care and food support.

Christina Hurt, director of government ethics at Santa Clara University, questioned whether it’s “justifiable for an administration to embark on costly, primarily aesthetic projects while ordinary Americans are experiencing financial hardships and federal employees are going unpaid”16.

–Christiana Hurt’s view

The funding comes from private donations and corporations, including major defense contractor Lockheed Martin and tech giants like Amazon and Google16. Ethics experts warn this fundraising approach could foster corruption, with companies “clearly doing so to curry favor with the government,” according to Richard Painter, former chief ethics lawyer during George W. Bush’s administration16.

Best Editorial Quotes – Suggested by Perplexity and approved

“This encapsulates Trump’s presidency in a single image. Illegal, destructive, and not beneficial to you.”
— Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)17

“Oh you’re trying to say the cost of living is skyrocketing? Donald Trump can’t hear you over the sound of bulldozers demolishing a wing of the White House to build a new grand ballroom.”
— Senator Elizabeth Warren18

“I didn’t know draining the swamp meant Donald Trump building a $200 million ballroom for billionaires to bend the knee for special favors.”
— Senator Elizabeth Warren19

“The people’s house is basically being sold to the highest bidder. It is corruption at its core.”
— Former White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre20

“The companies providing funds are clearly doing so to curry favor with the government and enhance their visibility among federal officials.”
— Richard Painter, Corporate Law Professor and Former Ethics Lawyer16

MLA Bibliography – Thanks Perplexity!

1. BBC News. “Satellite Images Show Extent of Demolition at the White House.” BBC, 24 Oct. 2025, www.bbc.com/news/videos/c4gkrnn4892o.

2. CBS News. “Where Is Debris from the White House East Wing Demolition Being Taken?” CBS News, 24 Oct. 2025, www.cbsnews.com/news/white-house-east-wing-demolition-debris/.

3. PBS NewsHour. “The East Wing of the White House Has Been Demolished. Here’s a Look at Its History.” PBS, 24 Oct. 2025, www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/the-east-wing-of-the-white-house-has-been-demolished-heres-a-look-at-its-history.

4. Hutzler, Alexandra, and Isabella Murray. “White House East Wing Demolished, New Images Appear to Show.” ABC News, 23 Oct. 2025, abcnews.go.com/Politics/new-images-show-entire-white-house-east-wing/story?id=126800684.

5. CNN. “See the White House’s East Wing Demolition from Satellite Images.” CNN, 23 Oct. 2025, www.cnn.com/2025/10/23/us/east-wing-white-house-satellite-photos-invs.

6. NBC News. “White House’s East Wing Demolition Finished as Trump Makes Way for New Ballroom.” NBC News, 23 Oct. 2025, www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/white-house-east-wing-demolished-new-ballroom-rcna239399.

7. CNN. “Why Trump’s Sudden East Wing Demolition Is Extraordinary.” CNN, 22 Oct. 2025, www.cnn.com/2025/10/22/politics/white-house-east-wing-demolition-trump.

8. Reuters. “White House East Wing Will Be Torn Down Fully to Make Way for Trump Ballroom.” Reuters, 22 Oct. 2025, www.reuters.com/world/us/white-house-east-wing-will-be-torn-down-fully-make-way-trump-ballroom-official-2025-10-22/.

9. The New York Times. “See the White House as It Stood and What Trump Envisions.” The New York Times, 22 Oct. 2025, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/10/22/us/politics/east-wing-trump-ballroom.html.

10. USA Today. “Trump Exposed a ‘Loophole’ to Demolish the White House East Wing. Here’s What We Know.” USA Today, 23 Oct. 2025, www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/10/23/trump-white-house-east-wing-demolition-explained/86837471007/.

11. CNN. “In Pictures: Trump’s East Wing Demolition.” CNN Politics, 22 Oct. 2025, www.cnn.com/2025/10/22/politics/gallery/east-wing-white-house-demolition.

12. Getty Images. “Trump To Demolish Entire East Wing To Build White House Ballroom.” Getty Images, 2025, www.gettyimages.com/editorial-images/news/event/trump-to-demolish-entire-east-wing-to-build-white-house-ballroom/776405723.

13. Allison, Charmayne. “Satellite Images Show the White House’s East Wing Has Been Demolished.” ABC News Australia, 24 Oct. 2025, www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10-24/white-house-east-wing-demolished-trump-ballroom/105930582.

14. Associated Press. “PHOTOS: White House Starts East Wing Demolition to Build Trump’s Ballroom.” PBS NewsHour, 21 Oct. 2025, www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/photos-white-house-starts-east-wing-demolition-to-build-trumps-ballroom.

15. Yahoo News Canada. “Photos Reveal Shocking Destruction of East Wing as Crews Work to Build Trump’s $300M Ballroom.” Yahoo News, 22 Oct. 2025, ca.news.yahoo.com/photos-reveal-shocking-destruction-east-193833511.html.

16. Deutsche Welle. “Trump’s White House Ballroom Sparks Criticism Amid Shutdown.” DW, 23 Oct. 2025, www.dw.com/en/trump-ballroom-project-white-house-renovations-shutdown/a-74478671.

17. The New York Times. “The White House Wrecking Ball.” The New York Times, 22 Oct. 2025, www.nytimes.com/2025/10/22/us/politics/trump-white-house-demolition.html.

18. Benzinga. “Elizabeth Warren Says Trump Is Deaf To Cost Of Living ‘Over The Sound of Bulldozers.'” Benzinga, 21 Oct. 2025, www.benzinga.com/news/politics/25/10/48320523/elizabeth-warren-says-trump-is-deaf-to-cost-of-living-over-the-sound-of-bulldozers-knocking-down-white-house-wing-for-new-grand-ballroom.

19. QuiverQuant. “Press Release: Senator Elizabeth Warren Critiques Donald Trump’s $200 Million Ballroom for Billionaires.” QuiverQuant, 15 Oct. 2025, www.quiverquant.com/news/Press+Release:+Senator+Elizabeth+Warren+Critiques+Donald+Trump’s+$200+Million+Ballroom+for+Billionaires.

20. Fox News. “Trump White House Ballroom Sparks Liberal Outrage Over Demolition.” Fox News, 24 Oct. 2025, www.foxnews.com/media/democrats-liberal-media-figures-fume-over-trump-demolishing-white-house-east-wing-ballroom.

Additional Citations – Added October 25, 2025

What’s Been Lost In Donald Trump’s Teardown Of The East Wing To Build A White House Ballroom – Analysis- https://deadline.com/2025/10/trump-white-house-east-wing-demolition-1236595980, October 23, 2025

White House East Wing demolished, new images appear to show – https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/new-images-show-entire-white-house-east-wing/story?id=126800684 October 23, 2025

The Daily, New York Times’ podcast, “The Trump administration completed its demolition of the East Wing of the White House on Thursday to make way for a new presidential ballroom” – https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/24/podcasts/the-daily/demolition-white-house-east-wing-ballroom.html October 24, 2025

Google News – Lawsuit(s) East Wing – https://news.google.com/search?q=lawsuits%20east%20wing&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen October 25, 2025

#2025 #America #Demolished #Demolition #Destroyed #DonaldTrump #DrWebEditorial #EastWing #Education #Health #History #Images #LawSuits #Libraries #Library #LibraryOfCongress #Opinion #PerplexityAI #Politics #Resistance #Science #SpecialReport #Trump #TrumpAdministration #UnitedStates #WhiteHouse

Trump’s Unauthorized East Wing Demolition – A Special Report – October 24, 2025

Trump’s Unauthorized East Wing Demolition

DrWeb Editorial:

I was afraid this might be long. So I’ll be brief.
Like the flickering TV and ads and social media posts and messages that fly by like so much dust in the wind (we used to call it a firehose). And in these times, (I have take to calling it Trump2.XKNGS) –some Americans accept the shutdown, some look away, some wait, some hesitate, some ignore. But, I go off on a tangent.
The sudden, complete destruction of American history, the complete East Wing –shows us much is wrong with American Democracy –our protections for it; our legal system for it; our states’ rights to their protections, in a federal system. We are weaker than I thought, less capable of fighting authoritarianism, corrupt and cruel leaders starting with Trump. We need to fix Democracy, too, after his failed administration fails, and he is gone.
Most Americans know that if One Man can do this, and worse, and kill “suspected” drug dealers in the Caribbean –he can do whatever he wants. That is not Democracy.
Oh, he and his broken circle will try to corrupt and disturb the 2025 November elections –trial run for Presidential election in 2028– so they will be monitored by the states and Democratic coverage.
This is an example of our failures –to modernize our government; to ensure protections exist for Trump-like attacks, balance the Supreme Court and enlarge it for balance, reduce Presidential authority over Congress 100%. We have a system with flaws, and GOP and Trump and ghost figures like Musk, Bannon, and Miller and the dark ones in the shadows, and we failed clearly to see Project 2025’s actions were not imaginary after all.
The East Wing Destruction (EWD) is a metaphor for all that’s wrong. In real time. We saw what HE seems to be allowed to do. Today (October 25), I see lawsuit is filed, perhaps more to follow. These are the darkest days of our nation and Democracy since the Nazis. We all allowed some of this darkness to descend. Let’s learn, pull on our asbestos suits, and fight like Hell for the nation WWII and since showed America’s strength. We need that strength now. –DrWeb

Top Ten Major Media Stories – The East Wing

1. BBC – “Satellite images show extent of demolition at the White House” (October 24, 2025)1
2. CBS News – “Where is debris from the White House East Wing demolition being taken?” (October 24, 2025)2
3. PBS NewsHour – “The East Wing of the White House has been demolished. Here’s a look at its history” (October 24, 2025)3
4. ABC News – “White House East Wing demolished, new images appear to show” (October 23, 2025)4
5. CNN – “See the White House’s East Wing demolition from satellite images” (October 23, 2025)5
6. NBC News – “White House’s East Wing demolition finished as Trump makes way for new ballroom” (October 23, 2025)6
7. CNN – “Why Trump’s sudden East Wing demolition is extraordinary” (October 22, 2025)7
8. Reuters – “White House East Wing will be torn down fully to make way for Trump ballroom” (October 22, 2025)8
9. The New York Times – “See the White House as It Stood and What Trump Envisions” (October 22, 2025)9
10. USA Today – “Trump exposed a ‘loophole’ to demolish the White House East Wing” (October 23, 2025)10

Best Five Images – Major Media

1. CNN Photo Gallery – “In pictures: Trump’s East Wing demolition” – Complete visual documentation of the demolition process11
2. Getty Images – “Trump To Demolish Entire East Wing” collection – 23 professional images12
3. ABC News Australia – Satellite imagery showing complete demolition13
4. PBS NewsHour – “PHOTOS: White House starts East Wing demolition”14
5. Yahoo News Canada – “Photos reveal shocking destruction of East Wing” – Ground-level destruction images15

What in World is Trump Doing Now?
Why Would He Do This?

The Trump administration’s stated rationale centers on a complaint –that no one made–about inadequate space for large-scale diplomatic functions16. Trump also argues –though again, no one said this anywhere–the federal government has lacked adequate space for large gatherings at the White House for 150 years16.
It’s a home, a house, a symbol, a residence, a meeting space for small gatherings, the First Lady’s staff and space. The new 90,000-square-foot ballroom will accommodate nearly 1,000 guests, compared to the East Room’s 200-person capacity14.

However, critics question the timing and priorities. The project costs an estimated $300 million during a government shutdown that has lasted nearly three weeks [as of 10/24/2025], halting most government expenditures16, including damaging Americans health care and food support.

Christina Hurt, director of government ethics at Santa Clara University, questioned whether it’s “justifiable for an administration to embark on costly, primarily aesthetic projects while ordinary Americans are experiencing financial hardships and federal employees are going unpaid”16.

–Christiana Hurt’s view

The funding comes from private donations and corporations, including major defense contractor Lockheed Martin and tech giants like Amazon and Google16. Ethics experts warn this fundraising approach could foster corruption, with companies “clearly doing so to curry favor with the government,” according to Richard Painter, former chief ethics lawyer during George W. Bush’s administration16.

Best Editorial Quotes – Suggested by Perplexity and approved

“This encapsulates Trump’s presidency in a single image. Illegal, destructive, and not beneficial to you.”
— Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)17

“Oh you’re trying to say the cost of living is skyrocketing? Donald Trump can’t hear you over the sound of bulldozers demolishing a wing of the White House to build a new grand ballroom.”
— Senator Elizabeth Warren18

“I didn’t know draining the swamp meant Donald Trump building a $200 million ballroom for billionaires to bend the knee for special favors.”
— Senator Elizabeth Warren19

“The people’s house is basically being sold to the highest bidder. It is corruption at its core.”
— Former White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre20

“The companies providing funds are clearly doing so to curry favor with the government and enhance their visibility among federal officials.”
— Richard Painter, Corporate Law Professor and Former Ethics Lawyer16

MLA Bibliography – Thanks Perplexity!

1. BBC News. “Satellite Images Show Extent of Demolition at the White House.” BBC, 24 Oct. 2025, www.bbc.com/news/videos/c4gkrnn4892o.

2. CBS News. “Where Is Debris from the White House East Wing Demolition Being Taken?” CBS News, 24 Oct. 2025, www.cbsnews.com/news/white-house-east-wing-demolition-debris/.

3. PBS NewsHour. “The East Wing of the White House Has Been Demolished. Here’s a Look at Its History.” PBS, 24 Oct. 2025, www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/the-east-wing-of-the-white-house-has-been-demolished-heres-a-look-at-its-history.

4. Hutzler, Alexandra, and Isabella Murray. “White House East Wing Demolished, New Images Appear to Show.” ABC News, 23 Oct. 2025, abcnews.go.com/Politics/new-images-show-entire-white-house-east-wing/story?id=126800684.

5. CNN. “See the White House’s East Wing Demolition from Satellite Images.” CNN, 23 Oct. 2025, www.cnn.com/2025/10/23/us/east-wing-white-house-satellite-photos-invs.

6. NBC News. “White House’s East Wing Demolition Finished as Trump Makes Way for New Ballroom.” NBC News, 23 Oct. 2025, www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/white-house-east-wing-demolished-new-ballroom-rcna239399.

7. CNN. “Why Trump’s Sudden East Wing Demolition Is Extraordinary.” CNN, 22 Oct. 2025, www.cnn.com/2025/10/22/politics/white-house-east-wing-demolition-trump.

8. Reuters. “White House East Wing Will Be Torn Down Fully to Make Way for Trump Ballroom.” Reuters, 22 Oct. 2025, www.reuters.com/world/us/white-house-east-wing-will-be-torn-down-fully-make-way-trump-ballroom-official-2025-10-22/.

9. The New York Times. “See the White House as It Stood and What Trump Envisions.” The New York Times, 22 Oct. 2025, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/10/22/us/politics/east-wing-trump-ballroom.html.

10. USA Today. “Trump Exposed a ‘Loophole’ to Demolish the White House East Wing. Here’s What We Know.” USA Today, 23 Oct. 2025, www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/10/23/trump-white-house-east-wing-demolition-explained/86837471007/.

11. CNN. “In Pictures: Trump’s East Wing Demolition.” CNN Politics, 22 Oct. 2025, www.cnn.com/2025/10/22/politics/gallery/east-wing-white-house-demolition.

12. Getty Images. “Trump To Demolish Entire East Wing To Build White House Ballroom.” Getty Images, 2025, www.gettyimages.com/editorial-images/news/event/trump-to-demolish-entire-east-wing-to-build-white-house-ballroom/776405723.

13. Allison, Charmayne. “Satellite Images Show the White House’s East Wing Has Been Demolished.” ABC News Australia, 24 Oct. 2025, www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10-24/white-house-east-wing-demolished-trump-ballroom/105930582.

14. Associated Press. “PHOTOS: White House Starts East Wing Demolition to Build Trump’s Ballroom.” PBS NewsHour, 21 Oct. 2025, www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/photos-white-house-starts-east-wing-demolition-to-build-trumps-ballroom.

15. Yahoo News Canada. “Photos Reveal Shocking Destruction of East Wing as Crews Work to Build Trump’s $300M Ballroom.” Yahoo News, 22 Oct. 2025, ca.news.yahoo.com/photos-reveal-shocking-destruction-east-193833511.html.

16. Deutsche Welle. “Trump’s White House Ballroom Sparks Criticism Amid Shutdown.” DW, 23 Oct. 2025, www.dw.com/en/trump-ballroom-project-white-house-renovations-shutdown/a-74478671.

17. The New York Times. “The White House Wrecking Ball.” The New York Times, 22 Oct. 2025, www.nytimes.com/2025/10/22/us/politics/trump-white-house-demolition.html.

18. Benzinga. “Elizabeth Warren Says Trump Is Deaf To Cost Of Living ‘Over The Sound of Bulldozers.'” Benzinga, 21 Oct. 2025, www.benzinga.com/news/politics/25/10/48320523/elizabeth-warren-says-trump-is-deaf-to-cost-of-living-over-the-sound-of-bulldozers-knocking-down-white-house-wing-for-new-grand-ballroom.

19. QuiverQuant. “Press Release: Senator Elizabeth Warren Critiques Donald Trump’s $200 Million Ballroom for Billionaires.” QuiverQuant, 15 Oct. 2025, www.quiverquant.com/news/Press+Release:+Senator+Elizabeth+Warren+Critiques+Donald+Trump’s+$200+Million+Ballroom+for+Billionaires.

20. Fox News. “Trump White House Ballroom Sparks Liberal Outrage Over Demolition.” Fox News, 24 Oct. 2025, www.foxnews.com/media/democrats-liberal-media-figures-fume-over-trump-demolishing-white-house-east-wing-ballroom.

Additional Citations – Added October 25, 2025

What’s Been Lost In Donald Trump’s Teardown Of The East Wing To Build A White House Ballroom – Analysis- https://deadline.com/2025/10/trump-white-house-east-wing-demolition-1236595980, October 23, 2025

White House East Wing demolished, new images appear to show – https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/new-images-show-entire-white-house-east-wing/story?id=126800684 October 23, 2025

The Daily, New York Times’ podcast, “The Trump administration completed its demolition of the East Wing of the White House on Thursday to make way for a new presidential ballroom” – https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/24/podcasts/the-daily/demolition-white-house-east-wing-ballroom.html October 24, 2025

Google News – Lawsuit(s) East Wing – https://news.google.com/search?q=lawsuits%20east%20wing&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen October 25, 2025

#2025 #America #Demolished #Demolition #Destroyed #DonaldTrump #DrWebEditorial #EastWing #Education #Health #History #Images #LawSuits #Libraries #Library #LibraryOfCongress #Opinion #PerplexityAI #Politics #Resistance #Science #SpecialReport #Trump #TrumpAdministration #UnitedStates #WhiteHouse

September 25, 2025 – by Heather Cox Richardson

https://substack.com/session-attribution-frame

Letters from an American

September 25, 2025

Heather Cox Richardson

Sep 25, 2025

Today, with the popularity of President Donald J. Trump and his administration dropping, Trump’s disastrous performance at the United Nations, the return of comedian Jimmy Kimmel to the airwaves, and the Tuesday’s election in Arizona of Democratic representative Adelita Grijalva, who will provide the final signature on a discharge petition to demand a floor vote in the House over releasing all the government files on convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the administration appears to be making a dramatic push to seize complete control of the government.

Last night, Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought tried to jam the Democrats into passing the Republicans’ continuing resolution to fund the government. Officials leaked a memo to Politico, Punchbowl News, and Axios—publications that focus on events concerning Capitol Hill—saying that if the Democrats refuse to pass the Republicans’ measure, the administration will try to fire, rather than furlough, large numbers of federal employees.

Such a move would be challenged in the courts, and the government has been forced to rehire many of the people it forced out earlier this year after those firings left agencies badly understaffed. But the threat is not idle; Vought is a Christian nationalist who has called for a “radical Constitutionalism” that demolishes the modern American state and replaces it with a powerful executive.

House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) responded: “Listen Russ, you are a malignant political hack. We will not be intimidated by your threat to engage in mass firings. Get lost.” Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said in a statement: “Donald Trump has been firing federal workers since day one—not to govern, but to scare. This is nothing new and has nothing to do with funding the government. These unnecessary firings will either be overturned in court or the administration will end up hiring the workers back, just like they did as recently as today.”

Trump appears focused on September 30, when the government funding crisis will hit, and the days after it. Although courts have ruled that he does not have the power to impose tariffs willy-nilly, today Trump announced new tariffs of 100% on pharmaceuticals, 50% on kitchen and bathroom cabinets, 30% on upholstered furniture, and 25% on “Heavy (Big!) Trucks” beginning on October 1. On social media, he claimed such tariffs were necessary “for National Security and other reasons.”

Today, James LaPorta of CBS News reported that the National Archives and Records Administration improperly released Democratic representative Mikie Sherrill’s full military records to an ally of her Republican opponent, Jack Ciattarelli, in the New Jersey governor’s race. The two candidates are tied, and Ciattarelli appears to be trying to link Sherrill to the 1994 Naval Academy cheating scandal involving more than 100 midshipmen.

Sherrill had an unblemished career in the Navy and as a midshipman, LaPorta notes. She did not turn in her cheating classmates, but she was never accused of cheating herself. The unredacted release of Sherrill’s records appears to violate the 1974 Privacy Act. Sherrill said: “That Jack Ciattarelli and the Trump administration are illegally weaponizing my records for political gain is a violation of anyone who has ever served our country. No veteran’s record is safe.”

While the National Archives maintained the release was a mistake and apologized for it, the administration’s influence in the Department of Justice tonight could not be explained away.

Days after Trump demanded that the Department of Justice move “now” to prosecute those he perceives to be his enemies, a federal grand jury has indicted former FBI director James Comey for allegedly lying to Congress and obstructing an investigation. Comey was an early casualty of Trump’s first administration, fired after he refused to kill the FBI investigation of the ties between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russian operatives.

Over last weekend, Trump exploded at then–acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Erik Siebert, a career prosecutor, after Siebert concluded there was not enough evidence of a crime to charge Comey for allegedly lying to Congress or New York attorney general Letitia James for alleged mortgage fraud.

On Monday Trump replaced Siebert with White House aide and Trump’s former personal lawyer Lindsey Halligan, and yesterday three sources told Ken Dilanian and Carol Leonnig of MSNBC that they expected Halligan to try to get a grand jury to indict Comey before the five-year statute of limitations on lying to Congress runs out next Tuesday.

Editor’s Note: My emphasis below… –DrWeb

Tonight the DOJ delivered an indictment against Comey.

“My family and I have known for years that there are costs to standing up to Donald Trump,” Comey said tonight in a video. “But we…will not live on our knees, and you shouldn’t either. Somebody that I love dearly recently said that fear is the tool of a tyrant, and she’s right, but I’m not afraid, and I hope you’re not either. I hope instead you are engaged, you are paying attention, and you will vote like your beloved country depends upon it, which it does. My heart is broken for the Department of Justice, but I have great confidence in the federal judicial system. I’m innocent. So let’s have a trial and keep the faith.”

Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: September 25, 2025 – by Heather Cox Richardson

#2025 #America #DonaldTrump #Education #EnemiesList #FBIDirector #FormerFBI #Health #HeatherCoxRichardson #History #Indiced #JamesComey #LettersFromAnAmerican #Libraries #LibraryOfCongress #Opinion #Politics #Resistance #Science #Substack #Trump #TrumpAdministration #TrumpEnemies #UnitedStates

Former FBI Director James Comey indicted amid Trump push to prosecute foes – The Washington Post

National Security Foreign Policy Intelligence Justice Military

Former FBI director James Comey indicted amid Trump push to prosecute foes

Comey, who has denied wrongdoing, is charged in connection with allegations he lied to Congress.

Updated, September 25, 2025 at 8:50 p.m. EDT, 10 minutes ago, 5 min

By Salvador Rizzo, Jeremy Roebuck and Perry Stein

Former FBI director James B. Comey was indicted Thursday on allegations he lied to Congress following an extraordinary demand from President Donald Trump for the Justice Department to prosecute a man he has long considered a political foe.

The indictment [ see below ] by a federal grand jury in Alexandria charges Comey with one count of making false statements and one count of obstruction of Congress, charges punishable by up to five years in prison.

Editor’s Note: The PDF is embedded here, and a download link.

Grand jurors rejected a third false statement count sought by prosecutors, the panel’s foreperson said during a brief court proceeding following their decision.

The White House recently forced out the previous top prosecutor on the case and replaced him with one of Trump’s former personal attorneys. The indictment makes Comey the first of several Trump targets to face charges following the president’s extraordinary demand last weekend that Attorney General Pam Bondi move swiftly to bring cases against several of his perceived political adversaries.

The case also means Comey is the first former senior government official to face prosecution in connection with an investigation that has become a central grievance for Trump since his first term — the FBI’s probe of Russian interference in his 2016 election victory.

Comey declared his innocence in a video statement posted to social media and vowed to take his case to trial.

“My family and I have known for years that there are costs to standing up to Donald Trump, but we couldn’t imagine ourselves living any other way,” he said. “We will not live on our knees and you shouldn’t either.”

Trump derided Comey as “the former Corrupt Head of the FBI” in a social media post Thursday evening after the indictment was returned.

“JUSTICE IN AMERICA!” Trump wrote, adding later of Comey: “He has been so bad for our Country, for so long, and is now at the beginning of being held responsible for his crimes against our Nation”

Bondi, in a statement Thursday, said “no one is above the law.”

“Today’s indictment reflects this Department of Justice’s commitment to holding those who abuse positions of power accountable for misleading the American people,” she said. “We will follow the facts in this case.”

Comey was originally appointed as FBI director in 2013 by President Barack Obama. He was fired by Trump in 2017 amid acrimony largely stemming from the FBI’s handling of the Russia investigation.

The case against him centers on testimony he gave before the Senate Judiciary Committee in September 2020 during a hearing on the FBI’s Russian interference investigation. Under questioning from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Comey testified he’d never authorized leaks to the media about the Russia investigation or a separate probe into then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.

Prosecutors now contend that answer was untrue, forming the basis for the first charge against him. The second count, obstruction of a congressional proceeding, relates to the same September 2020 testimony but does not specify the “false and misleading statements” Comey is alleged to have made that forms the basis for the charge.

Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: Former FBI Director James Comey indicted amid Trump push to prosecute foes – The Washington Post

#2025 #America #BidenAdministration #DonaldTrump #Education #FBIDirector #Health #History #JamesComey #Libraries #Library #LibraryOfCongress #Opinion #Politics #Reading #Resistance #Science #Television #TheWashingtonPost #Trump #TrumpAdministration #UnitedStates

Court Temporarily Stops Trump-Vance Administration’s Unlawful Attempted Takeover of the Library of Congress – Democracy Forward

Court Temporarily Stops Trump-Vance Administration’s Unlawful Attempted Takeover of the Library of Congress

Press Release September 10, 2025

Washington, DC — In a significant victory for the separation of powers, a federal court today granted an injunction pending appeal, temporarily preventing the Trump-Vance administration from unlawfully removing the Register of Copyrights and Director of the U.S. Copyright Office, Shira Perlmutter, from her position, and from installing Executive Branch officials to run the Library of Congress and the Copyright Office. Democracy Forward is representing Perlmutter in this case. 

The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia pauses, for now, what the court said might constitute a “grave intrusion by the President into the constitutional powers of a coordinate branch of government.” The ruling confirms that the President does not have the legal authority to fire or replace the Register of Copyrights — a position that can be filled only by the Librarian of Congress.

“This is a significant victory for the rule of law, the separation of powers, and the independence of Congress. The President does not have the authority to remove the Register of Copyrights or to install his own officials to run the nation’s library. We are proud to represent Shira Perlmutter in defending the integrity of our democratic institutions, and we will continue this fight as it proceeds,” said Brian Netter, Legal Director at Democracy Forward.

–Democracy Forward

This case challenges the President’s unlawful actions, including attempts to appoint a Justice Department official as Acting Register of Copyrights and to name an Acting Librarian of Congress under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act — an action that is legally invalid because Congress structured the Library of Congress to be part of the Legislative Branch under the Act, not the Executive.

The court’s order ensures that Perlmutter remains the lawful Register of Copyrights, and that any actions taken by improperly appointed officials at the Library of Congress have no legal effect, while the case continues.

The case is Perlmutter v. Blanche. Perlmutter is represented by Democracy Forward’s Brian Netter and Allyson Scher, and Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP.

The court’s decision can be read here [and PDF below], and Democracy Forward’s initial complaint and motion for a preliminary injunction can be read here. 

Continue/Read Original Article Here: Court Temporarily Stops Trump-Vance Administration’s Unlawful Attempted Takeover of the Library of Congress – Democracy Forward

#2025 #America #Books #BrianNetter #CopyrightOffice #DemocracyForward #DistrictOfColumbia #DonaldTrump #History #Libraries #Library #LibraryOfCongress #Opinion #Politics #RegisterOfCopyrights #Resistance #Science #Trump #TrumpAdministration #USCourtOfAppeals #UnitedStates

Opinion | How Math Turned Me From a D.E.I. Skeptic to a Supporter – The New York Times

Opinion, Guest Essay

What I Got Wrong About D.E.I.

Sept. 5, 2025, Listen to this article · 5:32 min

By Eugenia Cheng

Dr. Cheng is the scientist in residence at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

As a woman in the male-dominated field of mathematics, I once opposed targeted efforts to help women succeed — what we now call diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, which are currently facing fierce backlash. I wanted to be judged on the merit of my mathematics alone.

When I was admitted to the University of Cambridge as an undergraduate in math in 1994, I felt that I was a part of a clear minority. I struggled to keep up with some of the men in my class, many of whom had gone to elite boys’ schools where they had intense preparation. Yet I would progress to a Ph.D. and a career as a research mathematician.

As my career has advanced, what I’ve learned is that D.E.I. initiatives helped others see value in my abilities and experience that would have been missed otherwise. And it was through the lens of math that I came to understand this.

Math is not just a way of calculating numerical answers; it is a way of thinking, using clear definitions for concepts and rigorous logic to organize our thoughts and back up our assertions. Numbers can tell us about representation, but they often don’t tell the full story. The percentage of female math graduates in the United States has improved to around 42 percent; however, still less than 18 percent of university professors in mathematics are women. A 50-50 gender split might seem like equality, but not if it was achieved by lowering standards to let more women in. We need to be more careful than that. The nuance found in mathematics can show us a clearer understanding of how to think about equality.

Math is famous for its equations, but equations are more subtle than they first appear. A simple equation like 4 + 1 = 1 + 4 shows not just that two values are equal but also that there are two subtly different ways of adding the same numbers to produce the same result. A similar approach applies to more advanced and complicated forms of math, such as the study of shapes or paths through space. We make choices about how to determine equality.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: Opinion | How Math Turned Me From a D.E.I. Skeptic to a Supporter – The New York Times

#2025 #America #ArtInstituteOfChicago #DEI #DonaldTrump #Education #Health #History #Libraries #Library #LibraryOfCongress #MaleDominatedField #math #Mathematics #Opinion #Politics #Resistance #School #Science #ScientistInResidence #Skeptic #SupportsDEI #TheNewYorkTimes #Trump #TrumpAdministration #UnitedStates

Accelerating AI adoption for the US government – The Official Microsoft Blog

Official Microsoft Blog

Accelerating AI adoption for the US government

Sep 2, 2025 | Chris Barry – CVP for US Public Sector Industries

Today, Microsoft and the US General Services Administration (GSA) announced a comprehensive agreement to bring a suite of productivity, cloud and AI services, including Microsoft 365 Copilot at no cost for up to 12 months for millions of existing Microsoft G5 users, to help agencies rapidly adopt secure and compliant advanced AI tools that will enhance operations, strengthen security and accelerate innovation for the American people.

As an unparalleled milestone in advancing GSA’s OneGov strategy, Microsoft’s offerings will be available through a governmentwide unified pricing strategy that is expected to drive $3 billion in cost savings in the first year alone.

Enabling AI innovation and acceleration for federal agencies

This expansive offering will help agencies achieve key pillars of the America’s AI Action Plan by enabling federal agencies to serve at the forefront on driving AI innovation and adoption in service to the American people. Through this agreement federal agencies will access the latest AI capabilities at scale, now integrated in many of the products they already use, to achieve key administration priorities:

• Transforming productivity with AI: A unique Microsoft 365 and Copilot suite, offered exclusively to the federal government, enables agencies to automate workflows, analyze data and collaborate more efficiently, freeing public servants to focus on their core mission.
• Driving automation with AI agents: With AI agents, and no per-agent fees, agencies can build solutions for citizen inquiries, case management and contact centers, extending the reach and responsiveness of government services.
• Accelerating cloud modernization: With significant Azure discounts and the waiving of data egress fees, agencies can modernize infrastructure, reduce barriers to interagency collaboration and unlock the full power of advanced analytics and AI.
• Streamlining government operations: Dynamics 365 applications help agencies enhance citizen service, optimize supply chains and increase field responsiveness, directly impacting everyday public outcomes.
• Strengthening security across all levels: Integrated platforms such as Microsoft Entra ID and Sentinel provide advanced identity and threat protection, supporting the Zero Trust journey across federal environments.

Federal agencies can opt-in to any or all of these offers through September 2026, with discounted pricing available for up to 36 months.

Continue/Read Original Article: https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2025/09/02/accelerating-ai-adoption-for-the-us-government/

#2025 #America #AmericaSAIActionPlan #DonaldTrump #Education #GeneralServicesAdministration #GSA #Health #History #Libraries #Library #LibraryOfCongress #Microsoft #Microsoft365Copilot #MicrosoftAI #Politics #Resistance #Science #Technology #Trump #TrumpAdministration #UnitedStates #Writing

DrWeb’s Domain – Deep Dive – Trump’s Circle Not Best, Not Brightest…

Video and podcast made with Google NotebookLLM, Headliner, Spotify, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and human brain power. Remember this?

The Best and the Brightest, by David Halberstam

The Best and the Brightest is David Halberstam’s masterpiece, the defining history of the making of the Vietnam tragedy. Using portraits of America’s flawed policy makers and accounts of the forces that drove them, The Best and the Brightest reckons magnificently with the most important abiding question of our country’s recent history: Why did America become mired in Vietnam and why did it lose? As the definitive single-volume answer to that question, this enthralling book has never been superseded. It’s an American classic. — Goodreads

Above, the discussion team tackle Trump’s “team” (little “t”)… they are, not surprised, the best nor the brightest.. the loyalty test seems like a raised arm salute, to me.

Continue Reading/Listening: DrWeb’s Domain | all things library and life.. from a librarian

#2025 #America #Books #DonaldTrump #DrWebSDomain #DWD #Headliner #History #Libraries #Library #LibraryOfCongress #Musk #NotebookLLM #Opinion #Politics #Reading #Resistance #Science #Technology #Trump #TrumpAdministration #TrumpSCabinet #TrumpSInnerCircle #TrumpSMinons #UnitedStates

Democrats and Republicans Unwilling to Hand Copyright Office to Big Tech https://petapixel.com/2025/05/14/democrats-and-republicans-unwilling-to-hand-copyright-office-to-big-tech/ #artificialintelligence #libraryofcongress #copyrightoffice #Technology #copyright #congress #News #Law #law #ai

Beiträge rund um die Library of Congress -Bibliothekarisch.de
https://bibliothekarisch.de/blog/2025/05/13/neue-beitraege-rund-um-die-library-of-congress/
#LibraryofCongress #CopyrightOffice #stopTrump #loc

❛❛“Donald Trump’s termination of Register of Copyrights, Shira Perlmutter, is a brazen, unprecedented power grab with no legal basis. It is surely no coincidence he acted less than a day after she refused to rubber-stamp Elon Musk’s efforts to mine troves of copyrighted works to train AI models,” Joe Morelle, a New York House Democrat, said in a statement Saturday.❜❜

#uspol #trump #libraryofcongress #musk #theft #ai #genAI #llms #theft #doge #copyrightoffice #copyright

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/library-congress-doge-trump-takeover-b2749631.html

@torrentfreak Copyright should go back to 14 years, with one 14-year renewal term. This would follow the letter and spirit of the #Constitution, as copyright was originally intended to be.

#copyright was never intended to be a continuing income stream for the creator, and certainly not for the #heirs and #estates.
#statuteofanne #library #libraries #publicdomain #publicdomainart #publicdomainday #publicdomaindedication #congress #loc #libraryofcongress #books #publishers #publishersweekly #bookpublishers #bookpublishing #bookpublisher #SimonandSchuster #hachette #hachetteaudio