Three weeks ago, Liz Jolly – the British Library’s Chief Librarian – claimed “racism is the creation of white people”, and came out in support of changes to displays and collections in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests to purge the library of racism. The library’s “Decolonising Working Group” even claims the building itself is an imperialist symbol because it resembles a battleship…

Guido thought he’d look into how the British Library themselves were doing in fighting racism – by FoI’ing their own workforce demographics – and can reveal only 5.0% of their total workforce who have declared an ethnicity are black full-time employees (73), representing 4.6% overall. Even including part-time BAME workers, only 5.5% of the library’s staff represent the diversity they claim to so strive for.

This is in stark contrast to the demographics of Camden – the area in which the library is located – which boasts 34% BAME demographics as of 2011. Guido hopes the Chief Librarian will look into her own unconscious bias when it comes to her hiring policy…