This is the only publication that the FCO produced about their library. It is rather a short booklet more than an actual book and contains a series of short articles that give a brief overview of the history, of mostly the Foreign Office library. (The Commonwealth Office being largely ignored).
It is interesting to see the great diversity of work done by the librarians in the 19th century, going from merely looking after the books, to actually preparing documents recommending current policy. It seemed there was a gradual move away from history to studying modern issues. This was changed in the early 20th century when there was a move to employ historians to write background sections on different areas of the world that would be available for politicians and diplomats.
It was also interesting to see that at this time Britain was lacking behind France and Germany in it's use of the Archives and library to produce accurate modern history. There was a great example that stated how as soon as the ink on the Treaty of Versailles was dry it was being used by German historians to defend their position in the war, and therefore excuse their responsibility, whereas here historians were only allowed to look at documents up to 1860 (this changed to 1875 in 1924).
It comes across as an interesting place to work, a library combined with historical research and modern international policy formation. Of course as a woman I wouldn't have been able to work their, at least up until the 20th century, (and they never had a woman Head Librarian). In the 19th century there was 1 woman who worked as a maid and helped them put out a fire in the library but that was all.
The end of the book gives a list of the Head Librarians, a brief chronology and a list of quotations. It was printed in 1995 and since then the library has been divided up, and King's College, London has been given the Historical collection on loan. At university we had a visit from an Information Specialist at the House of Commons library. It seems to me that the two libraries started very similarly where the House of Commons has been able to adapt successfully to changing information needs and remain a vital part of government, whereas the FCO library has not.
I felt that this was informative, (though at 24 pages absurdly brief) history of the library. I would have liked to have learned more about the 19th century, particularly as I am interested in Victorian libraries, and 4 pages on the subject didn't really seem enough beyond letting you know who was in charge, and what their general policies were.
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