(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'