(11) The Classics Library

Due to taking a Late Antiquity paper in my first year, the Classics library is one of the few that I had already been to before I began my library hopping. However, it's conveniently located on the edge of the Sidgwick site and it's seemed like a good idea to return to it with a new perspective.

Quite a classy sign

Is that person pointing to the library?

Upon entering, I was immediately confronted by a couple of statues of naked men, which, I must admit, is fairly novel and certainly gets one into the 'classical' frame of mind. Beyond the naked men, the library is a very long room, neatly laid out with tables on either side and bookshelves in the middle.

Not your usual library decoration

Ironically, given that I was in the classics library, I was reading books discussing issues of modernity and using phrases such as 'transcend the historical obliqueness of these constructed dichotomies'. This was around the point that my mind stopped working and I started to have a good look round. 

Cute little wooden block lamp

All the bookshelves run down the centre of the room, with clear labeling on the end of each, making it very easy to find whatever you're looking for.

Lots of fairly standard bookshelves

Down both sides of the room are six-person tables. Each seat has it's own block-of-wood-lamp with an individual switch, which is a nice touch.

To add to the organisation of the place, each table is numbered, presumably this makes it easier to remember where you left your books. It also means that I can state with some certainty that there were 23 tables, and a quick calculation tells me that gives the library a full capacity of 138. This seems pretty decent for a course with around 80 in a year.

Many classicists, much work being done

Well organised layout, lots of space, comfy chairs, and bookshelves full of identically jacketed old-looking books - the Classics library certainly has a lot going for it.  

If the sight of this bookshelf doesn't fill you with joy, I don't want to know you