Glasgow University Library
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Glasgow University Library is one of the oldest and largest libraries in the United Kingdom. Its holdings currently stand at around two million volumes and more than ten thousand journals are subscribed to in both print and electronic formats. Each year, over two and a half million pounds is spent on new items.
The main building consists of twelve floors including a closed stack and a Special Collections department but in addition, there are branch libraries for Dentistry (known as the James Ireland Memorial Library), Veterinary Medicine (named for James Herriot) and Chemistry. Additionally, the large Adam Smith branch library specialises in psychology and the social sciences. The main library building dates from 1968, but major extensions were added in the 1980s and as recently as 1997.
The library provides a resource not only for staff and students but also for the local community and visitors from around the world. It can seat over two thousand readers and contains over four hundred computers providing networked study facilities.
The Special Collections Department is one of the foremost resources in Scotland for academic research and teaching. Constructed over a period of more than five hundred years by purchase, gift and bequest, the collections now contain more than two hundred thousand manuscript items and around two hundred thousand printed works, including over a thousand incunabula.
The library functions as one of the most comprehensive European Documentation Centres of the continent. The EDC holdings can be found, along with a vast collection of maps and parliamentary papers on Level 7 at the Maps and Official Publications (MOPs) Department. At present, the library staff comprises the Director of Library Services, around thirty-five professionally qualified librarians and more than two hundred support staff including library assistants, IT assistants, clerical staff, attendants and shelvers.
[edit] History
The earliest reference to the Library dates from 1475, shortly after the founding of the University, and records the gift of two manuscript volumes of Aristotle, presented by John Laing, Bishop of Glasgow. The collections grew slowly, for until the end of the 17th century, the Library depended largely on gifts, its only income being the small payments made by students at matriculation and graduation. In 1644, the visitors noted that the Library was "but verie small for ane Universitie", and even by 1691, it had only 3,500 volumes.
Thereafter, the Library grew rapidly. From 1709-1836, it was a legal deposit library, entitled to a copy of every book deposited at Stationers' Hall in London. Dr. McGill, Professor of Divinity, remarked in 1826 that the library received very few valuable books and "a great many idle books". When legal deposit was reviewed in 1836, Glasgow lost its copyright library status for an annual lump sum, which allowed it to develop its collections more systematically. The very respectable figure of 150,000 volumes in stock by 1888 was in part also due to the great tradition of large donations by wealthy private collectors, such as William Hunter, John Smith of Crutherland, George Walker-Arnott, William Euing and David Murray, which have greatly enriched it's collections, a tradition which, happily, continues to this day.
