Cambridge University Library

The Cambridge University Library is the centrally-administered library of the University of Cambridge in England. It comprises five separate libraries: Download high resolution version (939x704, 169 KB)The Cambridge University Library by Giles Gilbert Scott (1931-34). ... Download high resolution version (939x704, 169 KB)The Cambridge University Library by Giles Gilbert Scott (1931-34). ... The University of Cambridge, located in Cambridge, England, is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world, with a reputation as one of the worlds most prestigious universities. ... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: God Save the King/Queen Capital London Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq mi  Population    - 2005 est. ...

• the University Library main building
• the Medical Library
• the Betty and Gordon Moore Library (Centre for Mathematical Sciences)
• the Central Science Library (formerly the Scientific Periodicals Library)
• the Squire Law Library.

The Library was housed in the university's "Old Schools" near Senate House until it outgrew the space there and a new library was built. The large site on the western edge of Cambridge city centre is now between Robinson College and Memorial Court, Clare College. The current librarian is Peter Fox. The Centre for Mathematical Sciences at the University of Cambridge houses the universitys Faculty of Mathematics, the Isaac Newton Institute, and the Betty and Gordon Moore Library. ... The Senate House of the University of Cambridge in the centre of the city is used mainly for degree ceremonies and formerly for meetings of the Council of the Senate. ... Shown within Cambridgeshire Geography Status: City (1951) Region: East of England Admin. ... Full name Robinson College Motto - Named after Sir David Robinson Previous names - Established 1977 Sister College St Catherines College Warden (Anthony) David Yates Location Grange Road Undergraduates 390 Graduates 96 Homepage Boatclub Robinson College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge. ... Full name Clare College Motto - Named after Elizabeth de Clare Previous names University Hall (1326), Clare Hall (1338), Clare College (1856) Established 1326 Sister College(s) Oriel College St Hughs College Master Prof. ...

Architecture

The library was built between 1931 and 1934 under architect Giles Gilbert Scott, who also designed the neighbouring Clare Memorial Court (part of Clare College). It bears a marked resemblance to Scott's industrial architecture, a famous example of which is Bankside Power Station. Its tower stands 157 feet (48 metres) tall, six feet shorter than the top of St John's College Chapel and ten feet taller than the peak of King's College Chapel. Contemporary reports stated that in opening the building, Chamberlain referred to it as "this magnificent erection", although this phrase is also attributed by tradition to George V. The fictional "Dark Tower" in the novel of that name (attributed to C. S. Lewis) was a replica of this building. Sir Giles Gilbert Scott (November 9, 1880—February 8, 1960) was an English architect known for his work on such buildings as Liverpool Cathedral and Battersea Power Station. ... Full name Clare College Motto - Named after Elizabeth de Clare Previous names University Hall (1326), Clare Hall (1338), Clare College (1856) Established 1326 Sister College(s) Oriel College St Hughs College Master Prof. ... Bankside Power Station after conversion to the Tate Modern, from the Millennium Bridge Bankside Power Station is located on the south bank of the Thames in the Bankside district of London. ... A foot (plural: feet; symbol or abbreviation: ft or, sometimes, ′ – a prime) is a unit of length, in a number of different systems, including English units, Imperial units, and United States customary units. ... The metre, or meter (U.S.), is a measure of length. ... Full name The College of Saint John the Evangelist of the University of Cambridge Motto Souvent me Souvient I Often Remember Named after The Hospital of Saint John the Evangelist, Cambridge, named after John the Evangelist Previous names Incorporates part of what was Merton Hall which no longer exists Established... Kings College Chapel (partially obscured by the Gibbs Building), seen from The Backs Fan vaulting diagram Kings College Chapel is the chapel to Kings College of the University of Cambridge, and is one of the finest examples of late English Gothic or Perpendicular -style. ... Arthur Neville Chamberlain (18 March 1869 – 9 November 1940) was a Conservative British politician and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1937 to 1940. ... George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 - 20 January 1936) was the first British monarch belonging to the House of Windsor, as a result of his creating it from the British branch of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. ... The Dark Tower is a fragment of a novel attributed to C. S. Lewis and published posthumously by his personal secretary, Walter Hooper, in 1977. ... Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963), commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis, was an Irish author and scholar. ...

The library has been extended several times. The main building houses the Japanese and Chinese collections in the Aoi pavilion, an extension donated by Tadao Aoi and opened in 1998. There are over 5.5 million books and pamphlets in the library, more than 1.2 million periodicals, many maps, manuscripts, and specialist collections including that of the Royal Commonwealth Society. Mr. ... A chained book in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University A book is a collection of paper, parchment or other material with text, pictures, or both written on them, bound together along one edge, usually within covers. ... Polish soldiers reading a German leaflet during the Warsaw Uprising A pamphlet is an unbound booklet (that is, without a hard cover or binding). ... This article is about the journal as a written medium. ... MAPS could refer to: Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies Mail Abuse Prevention System Multi-jurisdictional Automated Preclearance System This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... A manuscript (Latin manu scriptus written by hand), strictly speaking, is any written document that is put down by hand, in contrast to being printed or reproduced some other way. ... The Royal Commonwealth Society is a British organization which aims to promote an understanding of the nature and working of the British Commonwealth. ...

Legal deposit library

As a legal deposit library, it is entitled to claim without charge a copy of all books, journals, printed maps and music published in Britain and Ireland. The library is open to all members of the University of Cambridge (although undergraduates in their first two years and University Assistants cannot borrow any books). As is traditional amongst British university libraries, research postgraduates and academics from other UK universities are allowed reference-only access to the library's collection, and members of the public can apply for access with an academical letter of introduction and on payment of a fee. The library is unique amongst the UK's legal deposit libraries in keeping a large proportion of its books on open access and in allowing some categories of reader (for example Cambridge academics, postgraduates and final-year undergraduates) to borrow from its collection. It has a well-used "Tea Room" in which full meals, snacks and beverages are available. The library regularly puts on exhibitions, usually free to the public, and featuring items from its collections. United States Library of Congress, Jefferson building A national library is a library specifically established by the government of a nation to serve as the preeminent repository of information for that country. ...

Special collections

As part of its collection of more than 7,000,000 volumes, the library contains a wealth of printed and manuscript material from down the centuries [1]. These include:

• Library of Lord Acton, Catholic historian and Regius Professor of Modern History in 1885–1902. The extensive library (around 60,000 volumes) collected by Lord Acton for research was bequeathed to the University Library on his death. The collection contains books from the 15th to 19th centuries, with emphasis on European history and church history. Many of the books contain annotations in Lord Acton's own hand.

• An archive of Charles Darwin's correspondence and books from his working library (including copies of his own works).

• The Hanson collection, containing important books on navigation and ship-building, as well as maritime atlases, some dating from the 16th century.

• The Bradshaw collection, containing more than 14,000 books relating to Ireland, printed in Ireland, or written by Irish authors. This is one of the most important collections of its kind in the world. At present, the emphasis is on books printed in Ireland before 1850.

• The library of the typographer Stanley Morison, who had close links with Cambridge University Press.

• "The Royal Library," actually a very important collection of more than 30,000 books assembled by John Moore (1646–1714), Bishop of Ely. The collection was bequeathed to the University Library by George I in 1715, hence the name.

• The library of the Royal Commonwealth Society, containing books, periodicals, pamphlets, photographs and manuscripts relating to the British Empire and the Commonwealth.

• The Bible Society library and the library of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK).

• The Taylor-Schechter Genizah Collection, a store of 140,000 manuscripts and manuscript fragments, mainly in Hebrew and Arabic, from the Ben Ezra synagogue in Cairo.

• E.G. Browne's collection of around 480 codices in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish.

• Papers of Isaac Newton, Lord Kelvin, Ernest Rutherford, George Gabriel Stokes, Joseph Needham, G. E. Moore and Siegfried Sassoon, among others.

• Archives of the Royal Greenwich Observatory.

John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton (January 10, 1834 - June 19, 1902), English historian, only son of Sir Richard Dalberg-Acton, 7th Baronet, and grandson of the Neapolitan admiral, Sir John Acton, 6th Baronet, was born at Naples. ... Charles Robert Darwin FRS (12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist [1] who achieved lasting fame by producing considerable evidence that species originated through evolutionary change, at the same time proposing the scientific theory that natural selection is the mechanism by which such change occurs. ... Stanley Morison (May 6, 1889—October 11, 1967) was an English typographer and literary editor. ... The headquarters of the Cambridge University Press, in Trumpington Street, Cambridge. ... Statistics Population: 15,102 Ordnance Survey OS grid reference: TL535799 Administration District: East Cambridgeshire Shire county: Cambridgeshire Region: East of England Constituent country: England Sovereign state: United Kingdom Other Ceremonial county: Cambridgeshire Historic county: Cambridgeshire Services Police force: Ambulance service: East of England Post office and telephone Post town: ELY... George I (Georg Ludwig) (28 May 1660 – 11 June 1727) was Elector of Hanover from 23 January 1698, and King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 1 August 1714, until his death. ... The Royal Commonwealth Society is a British organization which aims to promote an understanding of the nature and working of the British Commonwealth. ... For a historical list of territories that constituted the British Empire, see Evolution of the British Empire. ... The Commonwealth of Nations (CN), usually known as the Commonwealth, is a voluntary association of 53 independent sovereign states, the majority of which are former colonies of the United Kingdom. ... The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK) is the oldest Anglican mission organisation. ... The Cairo Geniza is an accumulation of Jewish manuscripts written from about 870 to as late as 1880 CE, that were found in the geniza of the synagogue of Fustat (Old Cairo), Egypt (built 882), the Busatin cemetery east of Old Cairo, and a number of old documents that were... Nickname: Al Qahirah (The Triumphant City) Cairos location in Egypt Coordinates: Governor Dr. Abdul Azim Wazir Area    - City 210 km²  - Metro 1,492 km² Population  - City 7,438,376  - Density 35,420/km²  - Urban 10,834,495  - Metro 15,200,000 Time zone EET (UTC+2) EEST (UTC+3... Edward Granville Browne (1862-1926) was a British orientalist who published numerous articles and books of academic value, mainly in the areas of history and literature. ... Sir Isaac Newton, FRS (4 January 1643 – 31 March 1727) [ OS: 25 December 1642 – 20 March 1727][1] was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, alchemist, and natural philosopher, regarded by many as the greatest figure in the history of science. ... William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin OM GCVO PC PRS FRSE (26 June 1824 – 17 December 1907) was a mathematical physicist, engineer, and outstanding leader in the physical sciences of the 19th century. ... Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson OM PC FRS (30 August 1871 – 19 October 1937), was a nuclear physicist from New Zealand. ... George Gabriel Stokes Sir George Gabriel Stokes, 1st Baronet (13 August 1819–1 February 1903) was an Anglo-Irish mathematician and physicist. ... Joseph Terence Montgomery Needham (December 9, 1900 – March 24, 1995) was a British biochemist and pre-eminent authority on the history of Chinese science. ... George Edward Moore, usually known as G.E. Moore, (November 4, 1873 – October 24, 1958) was a distinguished and hugely influential English philosopher who was educated and taught at the University of Cambridge. ... Siegfried Sassoon, 1916 Siegfried Loraine Sassoon, CBE, MC (September 8, 1886 – September 1, 1967) was an English poet and author. ... Royal Observatory, Greenwich The original site of the Royal Greenwich Observatory (RGO), which was built as a workplace for the Astronomer Royal, was on a hill in Greenwich Park in Greenwich, London, overlooking the River Thames. ...

"Fun" at the University Library

The UL towering over the Backs

Most students refer to the University Library colloquially as the "UL." On several occasions, less respectful names have been used, with several students and articles appearing in student newspapers claiming that the main building resembles a phallus. Many have also noted a resemblance to Orwell's "Ministry of Love," taken from the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. Download high resolution version (800x1067, 188 KB)Cambridge University Library; about as good a shot as you could possibly get of the vile building. ... Download high resolution version (800x1067, 188 KB)Cambridge University Library; about as good a shot as you could possibly get of the vile building. ... The Backs, or the Backs of the Colleges refers to an area of Cambridge at the rear of several colleges by the River Cam. ... Mural of Mercury in Pompeii. ... Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903[1][2] – 21 January 1950), better known by the pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist. ... This article is about the Orwell novel. ...

For many years the "UL paper trail" was an unofficial, secretive game played by library users. A cryptic clue tucked in a library book leads to another book, inside which is another clue, and so on; those who reached the end of the trail were duty-bound to add a new clue. Some clues are believed still to exist as of 2006.

Old graffiti, recently removed during the renovation of the men's toilets near the main entrance, referred interested readers to an obsolete encyclopedia of anatomy, the flysheets of which had been used by students to arrange sexual assignations.

Several triangular signs lie about the tables of the library with the words "Marking of books is forbidden." These, especially the underside, have become filled with writing. One contains a list of the dates when readers have looked under it, with the viewer being asked to add their date to the list which stretches back into the 1990s.

External links

• Cambridge University Library
• Search the library catalogue