Sir Frank Francis

Roughly how many volumes does the British Museum Library hold?

Roughly eight and a half million volumes… occupying, say, about a hundred and sixty, seventy miles of shelves.

How does this rank in the world as far as size is concerned?

Well, it's probably less it's certainly less than the Lenin Library in Moscow and the Library of Congress in Washington.

When was the library formed?

It was formed in seventeen hundred fifty three as a result of the will of a court physician named Sir Hans Sloane.

How many new books come into the library every year?

Something like ninety to a hundred thousand. That's books alone, of course.