A poster advertising the British Library’s Business and Intellectual Property Centre shows a padlocked garden shed, on which the following words have been painted: “Inside is your invention. We’ll help you stop it becoming someone else’s.” Nothing could better symbolise the suburban smallmindedness underlying this initiative.

I find it depressing because it represents an absolute repudiation of the role of libraries. Has the British Library forgotten that, along with archives and museums, libraries make up the memory business, preserving the resources of the past for present and future use? At the heart of this business lies an optimism, a generosity of spirit, an understanding of …