CILIP Government Information Group

Photo Credit: Mary (Marette) Hickford (2026) This summer, GIG were hosted by colleagues at the Bank of England’s library and archive in the City of London. Here, in a post originally written for the British Library’s internal Reference Services blog, Marette Hickford (Business & IP Information Specialist, British Library) discusses the past and present of information services at the Bank. The Bank of England might be an intimidating building, but the door to enter is small. After being checked and waved through by the friendly security guard, the group were collected from where customers queued to deposit their bags of gold and silver. I was disappointed that the deposit counter didn't match my expectations, having watched Mary Poppins on numerous occasions! The visit started with a presentation about how the Bank of England came into being and how the building has changed over time. I have always associated the building with Sir John Soane , but very little of his building rem...