July 16, 1999

Efficiency, Not Charm, Helps New British Library Win Scholars' Affection

By CAROLYN J. MOONEY

Okay, so Prince Charles didn't care for the architecture of the new British Library. And it's true that the new neighborhood lacks the faded literary charm of Bloomsbury, where the old library, housed in the British Museum, was surrounded by used-book shops and pubs, leafy squares, and quiet streets lined with pale townhouses. As for the loss of the old library's beloved Round Reading Room, under whose immense dome Gandhi, Marx, and Virginia

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