Seventy years later, I’m the current Guardian librarian. The 21st-century news library is essentially a host of databases, used to research information for – and by – Guardian journalists across the globe, working on a 24-hour news cycle. Along with most of the other Manchester Guardian staff his shift started at 3pm, the first clatter of a typewriter key announcing that the working day had begun. After winning a battle to have a telephone installed, memos from the Guardian archive reveal a “tart” exchange with management about purchasing a photocopier. Much harder was wresting control of the book collection from an old man who also called himself the librarian.

Source: The Guardian June 06, 2021 12:56 UTC