The current British Library‘s free ‘Out Of This World‘ exhibition (on until 25th September 2011) is a fine example of making the most of relatively modest resources.

Its subtitle is ‘Science Fiction but not as you know it‘ and it aims to explore the genre through literature, film, illustration and sound.

It is curated by Andy Sawyer of Liverpool University. Aside from a replica of Doctor Who’s Tardis (you can’t go inside) there are few fancy props.

It is essentially an exhibition built around a display of books which potentially sounds very dull but this has been intelligently supplemented by snappy info stands and funky extras.  There are clips of silent sci-fi movies, videos of writers saying why sci-fi fiction rocks plus headphone stands with playlists of music inspired by Sci-Fi and space travel (from Joe Meek’s Telstar to Flaming Lips Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots).

There’s also a chance to converse with a computer (Elizabeth the Spacebot) and a cute design your own digital alien.

It’s not that big an exhibition and at one point my wife asked me “Is there anything on the other side?”. “That’s the question Sci-Fi writers have been asking for decades”, I replied.