I'm a library lover, but my only two (attempted) visits to the British Library left me annoyed (at best). The first time was in the 80s. I joined a queue to go

I'm a library lover, but my only two (attempted) visits to the British Library left me annoyed (at best). The first time was in the 80s. I joined a queue to go into the library. I thought that was weird, but what the hey. After many long minutes we went into the library. Great. Time to start exploring the rooms, wander through the aisles, have a great day fossicking about right? Wrong. It turned out what I was queuing for was the opportunity to be marched into the reading room, stand there for 30 seconds or so, then be marched straight out again. One of the true WTF moments of my life. In London again in 2014 I decided to check out the new British Library, heavily promoted. Surely things have changed. I rock up. There are any number of guides, promotions, pamphlets, exhibitions, whatever on offer. After a while though I realised that I wasn't going to be in luck this day either. I approached the friendly ladies at the information counter. "I just want to go into the library and read some books. That's not going to be possible is it?". "No, no it's not" she replied just slightly sheepishly.