No More Pens

I would have thought they would have done this long, long, long ago. All those precious books.

This Is London: British library to ban pens---

The British Library is banning pens from all of its reading rooms to protect its precious books.

The home of the Magna Carta and Lindisfarne Gospels will only allow in scholars with pencils.

A spokeswoman said: "This policy is intended to protect the most precious and vulnerable collections that ink can cause.

"Marks made with ink are particularly difficult to remove and sometimes defaced books cannot be replaced and have to be withdrawn from use."

The pencils-only policy comes into force from January next year.

Pens have already been banned from its Rare Books and Music, Manuscripts, Maps, Oriental and India Office and Philatelic Reading Rooms.

The ban will be extended to all reading rooms at St Pancras, as well as the reading room at Boston Spa.