Cambridge University Library is the centrally administered library of the University of Cambridge in England. It comprises the main University Library and eighteen Affiliated libraries:
- African Studies
- Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Library
- Betty and Gordon Moore Library (Centre for Mathematical Sciences)
- The Central Science Library (formerly the Scientific Periodicals Library)
- Education Library
- English Library
- Haddon Library
- Marshall Library of Economics (includes a collection of Development Studies books)
- Medical Library
- Mill Lane Library
- Pendlebury Library of Music
- Philosophy Library
- Radzinowicz Library, Institute of Criminology
- Seeley Historical Library (includes the holdings of the Latin American Studies Centre Library)
- Social and Political Sciences
- South Asian Studies
- Squire Law Library
- Whipple Library
The University of Cambridge has over 100 libraries. Cambridge University Library, referred to within the University as "the University Library" or just "the UL", is the central research library, which holds around 8 million items (including maps and sheet music) and, in contrast with the Bodleian or the British Library, many of its books are available on open shelves. It is one of the six legal deposit libraries in the United Kingdom, and is therefore entitled to request a free copy of every book published in the UK and Ireland. Through legal deposit, purchase and donation it receives around 100,000 books every year. In addition to the University Library and its Affiliated libraries, every faculty has a specialised library, which, on average, hold between 30,000 and 150,000 books; for example the History Faculty's Seeley Historical Library possesses more than 100,000 books. Some Affiliated libraries, such as the Pendlebury Library of Music have significant pre-1900 collections, and rare items even archival materials and ephemera (Marshall Library of Economics). Also, every college has a library as well, partially for the purposes of undergraduate teaching, and the older colleges often own many early books and manuscripts in a separate library. For example Trinity College's Wren Library holds more than 200,000 books printed before 1800, while the Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, has one of the greatest early medieval European manuscript collections in the World, with over 600 manuscripts. The total number of books owned by the university is about 15 million.
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 Anne Jarvis -- the first woman to hold the post -- who succeeded Peter Fox on 1 April 2009.
History
The library has existed in some form since the beginning of the 15th century. In 1416 William Loring bequeathed books to the library thus: "Item volo quod omnes libri mei juris civilis remaneant in communi libraria scolarium universitatis Cantebrigg' in perpetuum." The earliest catalogue is dated ca. 1424, at which time there were 122 volumes in the library. From the 16th century onwards it received generous donations or bequests of books and growth was considerably increased once the privilege of legal deposit had been granted (it is still one of only three copyright deposit libraries in England under British law).
Architecture
The current UL building was constructed 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 (the home of the Tate Modern). The library 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. Contrary to popular belief, pornographic material is not stored in the tower.
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.
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. This has contributed to the library's large holdings of over seven million books and 1.5 million periodicals. The annual intake of the library is around 100.000 books. The library is open to all members of the University of Cambridge. 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 [1] may apply for access to use the Library for reference if their research requires access to materials held there.
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 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.
Special collections
As part of its collection of more than 8,000,000 volumes, the library contains a wealth of printed and manuscript material from earlier times. This includes:
- A copy of the Gutenberg Bible from 1455, the earliest European example of a book produced using movable type.
- 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 shipbuilding, 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. The collection was formed by Henry Bradshaw, d. 1886. 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", an 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.
- Codex Bezae Cantabrigiensis, an important codex of the New Testament dating from the fifth century, written both in Greek and Latin. The Greek text is unique, with many interpolations found nowhere else. It was given to the University of Cambridge by the Protestant scholar Theodore Beza, friend and successor of Calvin; hence the name.
- The Cambridge Songs (Carmina Cantabrigiensia), a collection of Goliardic medieval Latin poems, preserved on ten leaves of the "Codex Cantabrigiensis".
- E.G. Browne's collection of around 480 codices in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish.
- Several composer archives: William Alwyn, Arthur Bliss, Roberto Gerhard, Peter Tranchell.
- 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.
- Material and archives of the University of Cambridge, from probates and graces to records of various student societies.
- Around 1.5 million maps.
Janus
In 2002 the library began a project called "Janus" (after the Roman god) to provide a single point of networked access to catalogues of archives and manuscript collections held throughout Cambridge. A widening number of participating repositories - both University and non-University - promises in due course the near comprehensive coverage of archives in the city and surrounding area.
Digitisation project
In June 2010, Cambridge University announced that a £1.5 million donation would allow them to start digitising some of the collections in the University Library and eventually provide access to them free of charge over the Internet via the Cambridge Digital Library website. Initially the project will focus on two collections called "The Foundations of Faith" and "The Foundations of Science", which includes writings by Isaac Newton and his contemporaries, as well as documents from the Library's archives of Christian, Islamic and Jewish texts.
Staff
Abraham Wheelocke was librarian of the "Public Library" at Cambridge University, and was also Reader in Anglo-Saxon in the 17th century. Augustus Theodore Bartholomew was a librarian at Cambridge University for over twenty-five years. The classicist A. F. Scholfield was Librarian from 1923 to 1949. More recent University Librarians have included E. B. Ceadel, F. W. Ratcliffe (1980-1994), and Peter Fox (1994-2009). Other notable members of staff include the bibliographer Henry Bradshaw and the Uranian poet Charles Edward Sayle, author of a history of the library.
See also
- Marshall Library of Economics
- Pendlebury Library of Music
- Seeley Historical Library
- Cambridge University Library, Ff. i.27
- Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 76
References
Bibliography
- Bradshaw, Henry (1889) Collected Papers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Textus
- Fox, Peter (ed.) (1998) Cambridge University Library: the Great Collections. Cambridge University Press ISBN 0-521-62636-6 (Paperback ISBN 0-521-62647-1).
- Oates, J. C. T., & McKitterick, D. (1986) Cambridge University Library: a History 2 vols.
- Oates, J. C. T. Cambridge University Library: a History; [Vol. 1]: From the beginnings to the Copyright Act of Queen Anne. Cambridge: University Press ISBN 0-521-30656-6
- McKitterick, David Cambridge University Library: a History; [Vol. 2]: the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Cambridge: University Press ISBN 0-521-30655-8
- Ratcliffe, F. W. (2007) Books, Books, Just Miles and Miles of Books: across the library counter, 1950-2000. Cambridge: F. W. Ratcliffe (autobiography)
- Sayle, Charles (1916) Annals of Cambridge University Library 1278-1900. Cambridge: University Library
Descriptions of collections
- Oates, J. C. T. (1954) A Catalogue of the Fifteenth-Century Printed Books in the University Library, Cambridge. Reissued: Cambridge: Cambridge University Press ISBN 978-1-108-00848-8 Extracts
- Reif, Stefan C. (1997) Hebrew Manuscripts at Cambridge University Library: a description and introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press ISBN 978-0-521-58339-8 Extracts
- Wade, Thomas Francis; Cambridge University Library (1898). A catalog of the Wade collection of Chinese and Manchu books in the library of the University of Cambridge. Compiled by Herbert Allen Giles. University Press. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
- Cambridge University Library (1898). A Catalogue of the Collection of Chinese and Manchu Books Given to the University of Cambridge. The University Press. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
External links
- Cambridge University Library website
- Library catalogue search
- Cambridge Digital Library
- Photographs taken during building
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