(4) The English Faculty Library

It's a beautiful winter's morning, the last day of week eight and I'm back to the Sidgwick site for a trip to the English library, another of the history faculty's neighbours.

Everything's so square and rectangular

To be blunt, the English faculty looks like it's made out of lego. It's essentially a big orangey rectangle, which stands out among the architects playground of the Sidgwick Site purely for it's apparent lack of imagination.

Lego?

It was only when I entered that I realised just how uncultured my comments were. Apparently, it won the '2005 building of the year' competition. I can only wonder what the other entries were...

I think this might be serious, but it seems a bit sarcastic.

The reception had festive decorations up, and the staff were very friendly. I immediately warm to any library that has fairy lights and Christmas trees.

Pretty fairy lights!

Most importantly, there are beanbags in the English library. Actual beanbags. Brilliant. I didn't sit on them because I was already nodding at a desk and lying on a beanbag would have had disastrous consequences for my work rate.

Real beanbags, in a university library

This library had gone for practical yet stylish white rectangular shelves.

There's even a helpful stepladder in case you want a book from a high shelf

 I was a little bit surprised by how small the library seemed to be. This might have been partly due to the layout. There were not vast rows of desks, but rather a few groups of tables either side of the bookshelves, with smaller individual desks upstairs. It somehow manages to be both cosy and airy at the same time. 

Artwork on the walls, airy desk spaces

9/10 - Nice desks, friendly librarians and BEANBAGS

Finally, a legal case for nominative determinism

(3) The Social and Political Sciences Library

I've been a little bit under the weather recently and have spent a lot of the last week in bed, rather than exploring the world of libraries, but I'm feeling better now, so it's time for library number 3, in which I leave the Sidgwick Site comfort zone, and branch out to see what else Cambridge has to offer. The subject matter, on the other hand, is still reassuringly familiar.

Cambridge is pretty 

A world away from the Sidgewick site

This unassuming little library tucked away in Free School Lane is a far cry from the open spaces of the History and Law libraries. It caters for a smaller number of students and consequently doesn't have as much desk space, although there are still plenty of books.

About as modest as any library gets

Slightly strange hole in the floor, because why not

I was signed up for borrowing rights by one of the friendliest, most enthusiastic librarians I have yet encountered in Cambridge. You can borrow books for four days and renew them up to four times. After being subject to the totalitarian regime of the Seeley for two and bit years, this is a revelation. They've also marked their new books with a special sticky label so they can check whether or not students have been making notes in them.

So shiny, so new

On the other hand, I do have to question their definition of 'new' in some cases:

Not that shiny

A 'new' book that's been in the library since before I started secondary school. I feel quite young now.

It feels a bit like a school library, in that it's small with standard bookshelves, wooden tables and the generic bluey-grey carpet, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

There did seem to be an alarming number of chains hanging off the ceiling which I was initially confused by, until I realised that they enabled the lights to be closer to the bookshelves - a thoughtful addition.

Birds eye view of an awful lot of bookshelves

However, all was not well. At approximately 3pm a couple of the librarians started talking loudly downstairs. I can only assume that they had a very good reason for their conversation, for example, if someone was in a life or death situation. I can't see any other decent excuse for that level of spoken noise inside a library. 

I then discovered that there was a toilet and a water fountain inside the library itself and suddenly the sins of the talkative librarians were forgotten. Sometimes, having to walk down 80 steps to get to a water fountain/toilets just isn't appreciated (yes, caius library, I'm looking at you). Thanks to the brilliant layout of the SPS library, hydrating while you work has never been easier.

A WATER FOUNTAIN. IN A LIBRARY. GENIUS.

Ten minutes before closing time, dedication

8/10 - friendly library, comfy seats, conveniently located facilities, sensible rules to stop people writing in books, but let down by a very relaxed attitude towards chatting...

Today's reading sees the return of J. G. A. Pocock and his irritating overuse of 'scare quotes'

(2) The Squire Law Library

For the second library of this endeavor, I went next door to the law faculty. I've been in the building before, as we sometimes need to have lectures in the basement. The history faculty, in all their infinite wisdom, did not commission a building with any rooms large enough to fit more than 60 or so historians at a time. There are about 200 in a year, so this can present some logistical problems (not too many, though, because historians are renowned for their relaxed approach to lecture attendance)

Anyway, back to the law library:

The start of a very small adventure

The Squire Law Library is a multi-floored, disconcertingly modern beast. Integrated into the law faculty, it reaches dizzying heights, looking down over all of the Sidgewick site, so that prospective lawyers can get accustomed to being richer and more important than everyone else, or something like that.

Looking down at the slightly inadequate history faculty 

Stairway to books about international law

Once you make it the top of the many stairs (the second floor desks are exclusively for the use of phd students) the views are impressive. Looking out to the town centre, you can catch a glimpse of the spires of Kings College chapel. Meanwhile, I can also see into the corridor that I lived in for first year, which adds a nice little dose of nostalgia to today's library session.

Treetops and a beautiful winter sky 

Long desks, tall bookshelves

The library is sectioned off from the rest of the building by large glass panels, probably to stop noise travelling. There's a rather eerie silence that's occasionally broken by someone rustling five desks away, or on the odd occasion, a voice from a few floors below. Sound carries easily within blocked off section. Even without the little bit of a draft that I managed to position myself next to, there's something rather cold about this library.

I'm not a massive fan of the chairs either.

Not one of my favourite chairs 

Being law-abiding

As far as the books are concerned, a lot of them don't seem to be borrowable. From what I understand, the Squire Law Library is some kind of subsidary of the UL and is designed to be a reference only library, which is great because it means you won't get fined.

A book that I sadly could not borrow

Hardworking lawyers

It stays open until 9, which is pretty late as far as subject specific libraries go. However, I decided that having dinner was more important that the novelty of staying until closing time, so left just before 6. It was getting quite chilly in there. 

Festive looking tree

3/10 for comfort, friendliness and ease of locating books
9/10 for a cold clinical atmosphere in which you're almost certain to get some work done. 

Thought for the day, courtesy of Rousseau

(1) The Seeley Historical Library

It might be cheating a little bit to start with one of the few libraries that I do regularly visit, but I needed a lot of books, so it made sense to base myself here for the rest of the Saturday afternoon after Ely (aka the post-Ely Seeley, which is far more fun to say than it is to do). I'll start getting more adventurous soon, I promise!

Glass and bricks

Once compared to a panopticon prison during a lecture on nineteenth century crime and punishment, the Seeley is often accused of being too cold in the winter, too hot in the summer, and too ruthless with their library fines to risk borrowing anything.

Bricks and glass

From the outside, the history faculty is a perfect example of why there should have been a limitation on the use red bricks and glass during the 1960s. Once inside, it's modern and airy, with an alarmingly shiny floor and a lot of very angular bookshelves. 

The view from a computer desk

I don't know how much money the Seeley manages to rake in from absent minding historians who never quite get their books back on time, but at a rate of £1 per item per day, borrowing is certainly a risky business for the student. Up until this academic year (2014-15) there was a non-renewable one day loan policy. It's now been extended to two days, which is very generous of them. On the plus side, it means that you're almost guaranteed to find any book you need within a maximum of three days.

It's threatening and in bold so you bring the books back.

But the most recent bookplates are much friendlier 

Despite the dangerous loans, the Seeley has a great collection of printed journals on sliding shelves in a little side room. It's hard to explain to people just how much fun turning the handles to retrieve a large and impressive looking tome is. Partly because by 'fun' I mean 'a pleasant distraction in exam term'.  

Basically a playground

There's a lot of desk space. Even in exam term, the Seeley is rarely at full capacity, but on a Saturday afternoon, I could count about 10 people including myself. Each desk has two little lights which are always turned on. Whilst this doesn't seem particularly energy efficient, when it gets dark there's a sort of fairy light effect, which is cute.

There are also a few tables in small indentations away from the main open space of the library, if that's more your thing, as well as desks looking out onto the Sidgewick site with plug sockets so you can distract/entertain yourself by people watching on weekdays.

Look at the pretty lights!

Bookshelves, person working, funny angle because I was trying to take photos without looking like I was taking photos.

There weren't enough people in the library to create a very studious atmosphere, but with the large desks, endless supplies of books and the open feeling that makes you think that someone is watching you and judging you for texting instead of reading, I've found that the Seeley is quite conducive to productivity.  

Just to prove that I was reading something, here is a page that had far too may words in inverted commas. 

10/10 - would visit again (if only because there's no way that my degree will get done if I don't)

The Plan

There are many libraries in Cambridge. It is, therefore, slightly disappointing that in the two years and nearly one term of my degree so far I have only ever been to four.

My degree will eventually cost me £27, 000 in tuition fees alone. As a history student, it's not always easy to see where that's going. There isn't any lab time, we rarely have field trips, and there aren't that many lectures. I do have one hour of one-to-one tuition a week (which is great, but probably doesn't quite add up to £9000 a year) and few classes, all of which are just spent talking. Then I remembered about the libraries. The books that we have access to are probably worth *a very large number* (historian, not a mathmo) times as much as I'll ever pay back out of my student loan.

According to the UL Libraries Directory, there are 140 in Cambridge, which means that even if I visited one every day for the remaining terms of my degree (excluding Sundays because most of them are closed) it's still not possible to get round all of them.

Luckily, some of them are college libraries that I don't have access to, and others are obscure collections that don't normally allow undergrads in, so that narrows them down to a slightly more manageable number.

The challenge is to see how many libraries I can visit in the increasingly short amount of time I have available and to discover the best/nicest/friendliest libraries in Cambridge.

It would be all to easy to simply walk in and out of a load of libraries in one day and claim that I've achieved my goal so here are some criteria for what constitutes a successful library visit:

1. Only one library a day. Probably going to be looking at about two or three a week given training.
2. Try to spend at least three hours there.
3. Work.

Whilst there is a cynical making-the-most-of-my-money aspect to this, it's also about taking advantage of the opportunities available, ensuring that I get enough work done this year, and just spending time in libraries. My time in the Cambridge bubble is limited, and soon I'm going to have to enter the real world, where, apparently, spending all day in a warm room with books doesn't normally constitute work.

So hop aboard for a not particularly thrilling account of all the varieties of library that one small town in the Fens has to offer...