Talk:Harleian Library

Article name

I am surprised that this article should be entitled the "Harley Collection", rather than the "Harleian collection". I appreciate that Harleian is an antique adjectival form. However, that is what the collection is still called by the British library, as should be apparent from the name of the external links. Peterkingiron (talk) 13:17, 26 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the move. Peterkingiron (talk) 23:51, 22 April 2009 (UTC)

I don't know whether there's been a change in policy in the last two or three of years, but the BL website now appears to refer throughout to the "Harley collection" and "Harley manuscripts". Moreover, when I recently tried to order a MS as "Harleian MS 1234" the online system didn't recognise the reference, which I had to re-enter (successfully) as "Harley MS 1234". Does anyone know any more about this? On the evidence to hand, I think the article title should probably revert to "Harley Collection". GrindtXX (talk) 00:27, 13 November 2013 (UTC)

Yup. It sucks. I appreciate that Harleian is the superior (not "antique") adjectival form but, if the thing has changed its name, it's time to change ours.

Also worth looking into: is the COMMON name really the "Harley Collection"? The Latin name is certainly "library" and seems to be a semi-official designation as well. — LlywelynII 13:41, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

Agree with Llywelyn. The proper name should be "Harleian Library", the correct translation of Bibliotheca Harleiana, regardless of what the trendy modernisers of the BL want to call it now. It formed the Library of Robert Harley, and is still largely intact, just now on different shelves. Some readers may get confused into thinking a library is just a building, hence probably the BL's use of the term "collection", whilst in fact it also means "a collection of books". Many uses of such terminology survive, e.g. see the British Museum website:[1] "The King's Library was a royal collection of books created by King George III and donated to the nation...". This article is not only about the collection of books today, but also about the library as it existed in Harley's time. Page move to "Harleian Library".(Lobsterthermidor (talk) 18:03, 1 January 2016 (UTC))

Oh, and you waited a whole 5 minutes for discussion before moving it! Bad move, but whatever. Johnbod (talk) 13:56, 2 January 2016 (UTC)

I disagree with this move per WP:COMMONNAME. The Harleian collection is the accession of documents that are now housed in the British Library. I don't think this fact should be so easily dismissed as "what the trendy modernisers of the BL want to call it". There is no Harley Library. It doesn't exist and you can't go to it. Chris Troutman (talk) 01:25, 15 March 2016 (UTC)

Agreed. The article is not about Harley's "library" at all, but his collection of manuscripts. No doubt the Harleys had many other printed books, but they are rightly not mentioned, and don't form part of the BL holdings. I think Harley Manuscripts might be the best name, as the BL calls them (Harley manuscripts already redirects). Johnbod (talk) 03:37, 15 March 2016 (UTC)