Interview – Russell Thompson, National Poetry Library
TYPE! has landed itself slap bang in the National Poetry Library, where our back issues are surrounded by an incredible quarter of a million(!) poetry resources. NPL team member Russell Thompson tells us more about this central London library for lyric lovers, the ode-obsessed and even verse-virgins.
Tell us a bit about the National Poetry Library…
The NPL is England's main resource for the study of 20th and 21st century poetry. We collect everything published in the UK and people can even submit self-published works for us to consider. It's a lending library as well as a reference library. It's open every day apart from Mondays, and most days it remains open until 8pm, thus accommodating visitors with busy work schedules. There are nine of us in the team working across our extensive opening hours.
When was the library opened and why?
The library dates from 1953. Originally co-existing with the Arts Council premises in London, we've been part of Southbank Centre since 1988. Last year we celebrated the 70th anniversary with our 'Seventy-Poet Challenge', in which members and customers were invited to use the library to discover the work of 70 poets they'd never come across before. Since you ask, the poet whom the most people 'discovered' was Alice Oswald.
Any interesting facts and anecdotes?
We've got about a quarter of a million items. As for anecdotes, some of the enquiries we get on the front desk can be quite interesting. My personal favourite is 'Have you got any poems about life?'
What are you / your colleagues most proud of?
We're just pleased that we are able to offer a decent, well-informed service. For the most part, we get a resounding thumbs-up from library users. If people want a book that we haven't got, we'll try to obtain a copy. If they've had a mysterious line of poetry stuck in their head for fifty years, we'll try to identify it for them. We're lucky in that our team includes people with different areas of knowledge: I can advise customers on Rupert Brooke and G K Chesterton while my colleagues can talk to them about what's hot off the press this week.
What do you have coming up?
Our current exhibition, Making Poetry, has just opened and will run until January. It's a showcase for the work of Astra Papachristodoulou, an innovative visual poet who explores the crossover between texts and objets d'art.
Tell us about your magazine collection…
We have magazines going back to when we opened, and today we subscribe to about 200 different periodicals. They're mostly UK titles, but we also stock some from Ireland, the US, Australia, New Zealand, France and various other parts of the world. We've often got complete runs of magazines which may have had very limited circulations, and we're probably the only place where you can find some of them - so we're very proud of the collection. In many ways it's the jewel in our crown.
Tell us about your members…
Unlike many other specialist libraries, membership is free. We've got something in the region of 12,000 members. Anyone is welcome to join if they have a UK address. Membership is only necessary for borrowing books; non-members are welcome to come in the library to browse the collection. Our only stipulation is that anyone using the space is working on poetry in some way - reading it, writing it, researching it.
Any rarities?
We have a whole room full of rare items. This isn't directly accessible to the public, but we can fetch out anything they'd like to consult. It's full of first editions, limited editions, signed items, items from bequests, very rare magazines and so on. It's impossible to choose just one object. But we're very fond of our bronze bust of Dylan Thomas, which stands on a plinth in the library. We regard it as the library's presiding deity.
Why is poetry important?
It's important because it complements other forms of writing, and can enjoy considerable crossover with other artistic practices. It's like a glue that holds lots of disparate things together. Obviously it's a thing in itself, too - a thought-provoking and beautiful thing that comes in a multitude of forms: you can read a clerihew or you can read the Mahābhārata. The possibilities are endless.
How are you funded?
As mentioned, we're part of the Southbank Centre, which is funded by Arts Council England and from its own commercial revenue.
Anything else you'd like to add?
We're very proud of our collection of press cuttings. They're slightly hidden away, so people don't always know they're there (once again, we've got a whole roomful). If you're researching a particular poet or a particular aspect of poetry, this collection should be your first port of call. And finally, best of luck to all at TYPE! Keep up the good work.
++ Learn more about the National Poetry Library here. And if you visit, you can now read TYPE! for free on the premises.