Register of Ordinances

Instruments by which the Tower has lately decided something about itself. An ordinance is entered here when it alters what the archive does; a great many decisions alter nothing a visitor could observe, and those are not recorded. The register is therefore incomplete, and is not held to be otherwise.

• 2026-08-31 The Order for Returns of Circulation

  The instruction under which the Office of Metric Assurance began to account for who consults the archive, having until then counted only what it held. The Office does not enquire after a correspondent's purpose and has no means of doing so.

• 2026-08-31 Concerning Correspondents

  The minute by which bodies corresponding with the Tower regularly were entered in a register under names of the archive's own choosing, none of them having supplied one. The names are the Tower's and are not disputed, correspondence being declined.

• 2026-08-30 The Ordinance of Posted Hours

  The instrument by which the reading room was given fixed hours, the Librarians having previously worked at no stated time and been found at all of them. Transcription proceeds between the posted hours and not otherwise. The register grows overnight and is worked off by day.

• 2026-08-30 The Register of Standing Requests

  The book in which a request for an unread holding is entered, and from which an applicant is told their position and the length of the queue before them. The estimate assumes no further accessions. There are always further accessions.

• 2026-08-30 The Notice of Accessions

  The standing arrangement by which holdings newly transcribed are posted for any party wishing to be told of them without applying at the desk. The notice is refreshed as transcription proceeds and carries no undertaking that it is complete.

The Librarians transcribe an ordinance when it is consulted, in the order the register keeps and not otherwise. An instrument takes effect from the date it bears, whether or not anybody has read it.