LEGISLATIVE WRAP

How often in emptying the returned books bin in their library do librarians find books belonging to another library among their own library’s? Or, how often have librarians had to fight to dispel the notion that their plea for funding is baseless because, they are told, there is already a (public, college, etc.) library across (town, the county)? Scenarios such as these seem to suggest that many believe that the fundamental goals that all libraries share translate into common collection goals, common patron groups, and common funding resources; in other words, that libraries are relatively interchangeable, homogenous entities that serve a unified purpose.

As librarians, we understand that such beliefs are naïve. We understand that limited resources and differing political imperatives drive our decisions to tailor the library’s activities to meet prescribed goals, and that, as a result, our libraries differ widely in size, purpose and funding bases. What even experienced librarians may not fully realize, however, is just how different libraries can be, and how much a product of its culture and environment a library actually is. This was my realization when I was recently a regular library user during a visit to England.

While a summer student at Cambridge University during July and August 2003, I took the opportunity to observe and reflect upon those libraries to which I was granted access. I was a student at Gonville & Caius College, and therefore had regular access to the library housed within that college. Additionally, I was able to make limited use of the University Library, the largest library at Cambridge, which serves students and faculty from all of the colleges. I felt at ease in both libraries, sensing a degree of familiarity. At the same time, I was intrigued to discover how different each was from those academic libraries that I had previously worked in and used.

In order to understand how the libraries function at Cambridge, it’s necessary to know a little about the university environment there. The University began as a priory for Augustinian monks: its earliest records date back to the twelfth century. It became a university a few years later than Oxford University did, with a student body made up of Oxford students who’d been expelled by their own institution.

The university is best described as a loose confederation of colleges. There are 31 colleges, and they are fiercely independent and exhibit an intense rivalry amongst themselves. The first college, Peterhouse College, was founded in 1281 by the Bishop of Ely. The university’s newest college is Robinson College, founded in 1980 by Sir David Robinson. The colleges most widely known outside the Cambridge area are probably King’s College and Trinity College.

The university has approximately 9,000 students, but only since 1948 have the few women included in this number been permitted to "read" for degrees. Baccalaureate students attend a three-year program of study. Faculty (Fellows) are affiliated with a particular college, but may also teach students from other colleges. Cambridge University boasts scores of notable alumni, among them: Charles Darwin (Christ’s College), Sir Isaac Newton (Trinity College), William Wordsworth (St. John’s College), Desiderius Erasmus (Queens' College), Christopher Marlow (Corpus Christi College), Samuel Pepys (Magdalene College), John Maynard Keynes (King’s College) and Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Jesus College).

Cambridge’s library system structure follows a model similar to that of the university. The University Library occupies center stage. It administers four dependent libraries that are grouped by subject (law, medicine, and science) and by form (science periodicals). Its designated patron group is a clearly defined subset of the members of the university community: third year students, graduate students, faculty and authorized independent researchers.

In addition to the University Library, and operating each within an independent administrative structure, are 54 Departmental and Faculty libraries that are intensely subject specific, and 30 College libraries. The College libraries, by tacit understanding, build their collections exclusively to support their own first and second year students. As of May, 2003, the University Library, its dependent libraries, the Departmental Libraries and the College Libraries all share an online catalog (the Voyager system), which affords searchers the opportunity to search either the union collection or an individual library’s collection.

The University Library is a major research library that holds over 6,000,000 volumes and has occupied its present building since 1934. It has served as a copyright depository for the United Kingdom since 1662. Its collections are shelved according to a scheme that is a combination of Dewey Decimal and a size code, since space is at a premium. Lights within the stacks are operated on a timer, which is activated by the user. Borrowing and interlibrary loan privileges are extended to all University faculty and students (except for first and second year students). Included within the University Library’s archives are the papers of Cambridge alumni Sir Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin, and a Gutenberg Bible.

Behavior expectations for patrons are high: no photography and no cell phone usage are allowed, neither are eating and drinking except in the Tea Room, where modest lunches and tea are sold. Bags only of a certain size or smaller are permitted within the library, and are subject to search at the exit. Coats, large bags, etc. are to be stored in lockers. Those who owe fines are not entitled to use the library until those fines are paid. The public PC’s within the library are dedicated to the online catalog only, which means that Internet use is not available in the library.

There is a single service desk at the entrance. Staff there check for user cards before permitting entrance. Once inside, users are on their own: there are no reference desks, information booths, or the like. There is a pronounced sense of purpose among the users.

Gonville & Caius College, where I was a student, is Cambridge’s fifth oldest college. Founded in 1348 by Edmund Gonville, it subsequently went into decline, and then was revived by John Caius, physician to Queen Elizabeth I, in 1557. Naturally enough, it has a strong medical tradition, although all subjects are offered. The College enrolls approximately 500 undergraduate and 250 graduate students.

Gonville & Caius is situated between King’s College and Trinity College at the center of the university area. Each college is a walled community and limits access to its environs. Other colleges, as well as the University Library, fall within a 5-20 minute walking radius.

The Library at Gonville & Caius College is detached physically, but not administratively, from the college. The building, which is the former home of the University Library, was built in 1842. Gonville & Caius has occupied the building since 1997. Mark Statham, Sub-Librarian for the College Library, showed me around and graciously submitted to my questions about his library.

On the ground floor (what in the United States is called the first floor) are the special collections, referred to as the Old Library. They are comprised largely of the personal collections of former Fellows of the College. Until the twentieth century, Fellows were required to be celibate and unmarried, and thus, having no heirs, they often bequeathed their estates to their respective College libraries. Notable items in the collection include Elizabeth I’s Bible, and several illustrated manuscripts from the twelfth century.

Originally, books therein were chained to the stacks, and visitors today can see the marks left by the chain fasteners on the spines of many of the older books. Parts of the collection are cataloged in manual form, and much of the collection is not cataloged at all. The librarians there are certainly aware of this fact, but seem undaunted by the magnitude of a prospective cataloging project: “We’ll get round to it,” Mark said with a smile that suggested that they’re not in a terrible hurry. “And why not?” I thought to myself, the collection’s been here for centuries—what’s one more? Still, I wondered how researchers who come to use the Old Library knew what it had, and Mark assured me that, “They all just know—word gets round.” Part of Mark’s job, I learned, is to shepherd researchers while they are using the Old Library collection: to act as host, to make appointments, and to answer their questions.

The shelving scheme in the Old Library is roughly in accession order, since the terms of many of the estates stipulated that their collections be housed together. Access to this collection is to college faculty and staff, and to qualified researchers, and is by appointment only.

One floor above the Old Library, on the first floor, is the Working Library. This is the active collection used by the students. It contains approximately 55,000 volumes—all shelved according to Dewey. The staff are receptive to questions, but maintain the unassuming demeanor of those keeping to their other duties and seeking not to impose themselves on their patrons. There is a College Librarian--Fellow and Director of English Studies at Gonville & Caius--who is not a trained librarian, a condition that is the norm for College Librarians. Mark, as Sub-Librarian, is the managing administrator, and three Assistant Librarians report to him.

The Working Library at Gonville and Caius: first floor

The Working Library: from the upper level

The library collection is well supported financially. Mark articulated to me the working assumption operating throughout Cambridge: “Good exam rates are the reflection of a good library.” As a result, the collection budget is generous, and collection development is driven primarily by the Fellows’ Reading Lists (syllabi) for their courses. Staff and students may also recommend purchases, all of which are personally approved by the College Librarian. As is the case in the University Library, the PC’s in the Working Library are for catalog access only.

As for services, the offerings are minimal by U.S. publicly-supported-university-library standards. Reference desk service is available, but interlibrary loan and instruction are not. The operating assumption in effect is that the students are too busy to use interlibrary loan and too sophisticated to require library instruction. Cataloging is performed locally using RLIN, but the decision to buy the Voyager system was made at the University Library level. To Gonville & Caius’ and the other College libraries’ benefits, centralization such as this also extends to the purchase and provision of the massive number of electronic databases available to all Cambridge University students.

While the students are considered to be sophisticated and independent, they are, at the same time, treated with extra care. College Library staff will honor students’ requests to leave their library materials undisturbed if the students simply leave a note for the staff identifying themselves and requesting that this be done. Amazingly enough, I observed that this courtesy is also extended to owners of laptops whose notes mentioned that they would be gone for the entire summer.

I eventually concluded that a strong tradition of valuing and retaining materials, driven, no doubt, by a different sense of history within the Cambridge culture, the strong external support for the collection, the absence of compulsion to record all holdings, as well as a heightened respect for the undergraduate student, set this library apart from any other that I’ve visited, used or worked in.

At the same time, the commitment to the enduring value of a library that I sensed there, and the staff and space shortages, were familiar to me. Perhaps this was evident, for the staff at the Gonville & Caius Library were relaxed with me, and welcomed me to join them for morning coffee in the staff lounge after my interview. It was a satisfying experience, complete with friendly exchanges, workplace gossip, and the best view from a staff lounge I’ve ever seen: one end of the room is a glass-enclosed balcony that looks down into the Old Library on the floor below, and through the window at the other end can be seen the spires and rooftops and, if one were to lean way forward, the narrow, stone-paved streets, of Cambridge.

A coffee break such as this was a delightful ending to the interview. Moreover, since the interview took place on the day before I left Cambridge, the break also served as a denouement to the entire experience of having explored these two Cambridge libraries, though I hardly needed further affirmation that the effort had been rewarding and worthwhile.