Letters from England (No. 3)

Barbara Wittman

Letters from England is written by Barbara Wittman, archivist of the Rotch-Wales Collection at the Massillon Public Library. Wittman is currently telecommuting to Massillon from Cambridge, where she is a Visiting Scholar, Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge.

The Cambridge University Library is a jewel of a place, dominating the university, opened in 1934. In total it holds around 8 million books, around ¼ of which are in open shelves, making it the largest open access library in Europe. The Reading Room with rows of long desks and chairs houses around 17,000 titles. The library contains over 160 kilometers of shelving, has 355,000 registered users, 350 members of staff including 100 working on research projects with outside funding. In 2011, there were 205,281 loans, which comes down to 821 loans per day in 250 working days per year. The Book fetchers fetch around 1,000 books per week.  Only 5 books on loan at a time allowed, probably to remind people to get on with it and return their books.

Cambridge Library Floorplan

 When you come up to Cambridge, to gain entrance to the library, you first have to present your paper work to the admissions office, have your photo taken, and explain why you need entrance before receiving a computerized card which passes you into the library. In some cases, pre-registration can be done on the Library web site.  After receiving your official card, you proceed to the cloak room where you deposit your coat on a rack with your umbrella, book bags and extraneous stuff into a computer lock box before proceeding into the library. Many people take computers into the library and for pence 20 you can buy a plastic library sack for pens, notebooks, glasses and change.  As you approach the tea room on the north wing, a large sign informs you that books are not to be taken into the room and a table is provided for you to deposit library books while you are inside. The tea room food is super, complete with scones and all sorts of morning coffees. You are checked digitally when you leave the library, proceeding again to the cloak room to retrieve your belongings. The library is open 9AM to 7 PM, 5 days a week and 9AM to 5 PM on Saturday with meals available on all days.  Closed Sunday and holidays.  The library is a wonderful place that welcomes us all as does Massillon Public Library. Each of the colleges has its own libraries as do most departments, so we have books here in abundance.