Libraries and Archive
The College Libraries
Queens' has two libraries, both of which are located in the oldest part of the College.The War Memorial Library supports junior members, providing a study space and core resources across the range of tripos subjects. The Old Library houses the College's manuscripts, rare books and other special collections and documents.
Above is an image of stained glass windows in the Old Library
The War Memorial Library
This library is housed in the College's original 1448 chapel and is named in commemoration of the members of Queens' who were killed during the Second World War. It is located in Old Court and entered from Library Passage, which links Old Court and Walnut Tree Court. It was refurbished in the 1990s and provides modern facilities in surroundings that have been sympathetically restored.
Access
Current members can gain access using their Cambridge University Cards. Old members and visiting scholars can visit during vacations by prior arrangement with the College Librarian. The library has no lift and upper areas are reached using spiral staircases. Library staff will be pleased to assist any member experiencing difficulty using any of the library facilities.
Library Opening hours
The Old Library is open to visitors by appointment with the College Librarian (contact details below). Opening hours of the War Memorial Library are:
Michaelmas, Lent and Easter terms: 7am until 2am daily
Easter vacation: 7am until 2am daily
Summer vacation: 9am until 10pm daily, but closed to readers from 1st to 31st August inclusive.
Finding Books
The War Memorial Library comprises resources to support all tripos subjects and some postgraduate courses. It also includes reference and local collections and bound copies of past exam papers.
The College's Heritage catalogue can be searched on the local area network only.
Queens' books can also be identified using the Newton catalogue, which is hosted by the University Library and includes the holdings of most College and Departmental libraries. It can be found on the Newton Catalogue. Please note that the vast majority of Queens' Old Library books are not yet listed on Newton or Heritage.
Both catalogues give location information; the former also shows whether items are available for loan, and offers recall and renewal options. Queens’ uses the Bliss classification scheme and subjects are ordered alphabetically according to class mark. The shelf sequence begins on the ground floor, which also houses the main reference section. The library has several floors and maps showing subject locations can be found in the lobby, and via the Enquiry screen of the catalogue search terminals.
Electronic resources
A range of ebooks, ejournals and databases is available within the University and library staff will be pleased to advise on the use of these resources. Information about access to electronic textbooks can be found at: ebooks. Additional information about ejournals and databases can be found at: Ejournal & database information
Borrowing and Reserving Books
Queens' has a self-issue system and current members can borrow up to 10 items for 7 days. Books borrowed in term time can be renewed once, for a further 7 days. Recall, reservation and overdue notices are sent by email and overdue books attract fines, which are added to termly bills. Details of end of term recall dates and vacation loan periods are posted on Library notice boards.
Purchase Requests
Members can request new titles by contacting the College Librarian or completing one of the request cards that are kept by the enquiry terminals in the lobby. Orders for books that are not on Part One reading lists must be countersigned by a Director of Studies. An online request form is in preparation.
Computing
Network points and Lapwing wireless access enable portable computers to be used on the Mezzanine and in the Law Library. For the convenience of others, readers are requested not to use laptops on the ground floor. Extensive computing and printing facailities are available in the Essex building. Photocopies can be made in the library using the Cambridge University Card, with charges being added to termly bills.
Contacts and Library Staff
College Librarian: Dr Tim Eggington librarian@queens.cam.ac.uk
Reader Services Librarian: Mrs Miriam Leonard, BSc (Econ) library@queens.cam.ac.uk
Library Assistant: Ms Lise Field
Fellow Librarian and Keeper of the Old Library: Dr Ian Patterson Email: ikp1000@cam.ac.uk
Fellow Archivist : Dr Richard Rex Email: archive@queens.cam.ac.uk
The Old Library and Special Collections
The Old Library is open to visitors on certain formal occasions throughout the year. The College Librarian also arranges exhibitions and private visits. Scholars and student study groups are welcomed and specific items from the collection can be consulted by appointment.
Finding Old Library Books
Please note that limited resources mean that Old Library books are not yet listed on Newton, but a printed catalogue, prepared in 1827 by Thomas Hartwell Horne, can be consulted by appointment. The full title of Horne's three volume work is Catalogue of the Library of St. Margaret and St. Bernard, commonly called Queens' College in the University of Cambridge. Copies are held in other libraries around the world and several have been digitised and are available online via Google books.
Old Library History
The Old Library was completed in 1448 and, although none of its original collection remains, it contains many important manuscripts and early printed books, and some beautiful bindings. It has benefited from generous bequests, notably the Isaac Milner bequest of eighteenth-century French mathematical works and the Renaissance Humanist library of Thomas Smith. It also contains a representative collection of the works of Erasmus.
Conservation and Preservation
The Old Library collections are used by students and researchers from around the world but continued access to its old, often very rare, books requires careful maintenance. The College invests in a small but active conservation and preservation programme for the fabric, books and manuscripts. An early College's Donors' Book, which lists gifts to the Library over several centuries, has recently undergone refurbishment during which manuscript entries on several parchment pages were discovered after the removal of paper pastedowns. A facsimile of this book is being prepared and will be available for display. Other work has revealed a range of unusual original binding structures. All conservation work is documented and, as well as aiding the long term preservation of documents, is adding to our knowledge about the books in the College's Old Library and about book history in general.
We also continue to benefit from the generosity of old members and others. Most recently, this has allowed us to invest in a a purpose built, state of the art glass topped case that is enhancing displays of items from the special collections.
Special Collections
These include the Cohen Collection of books, pamphlets and other material bequeathed to Queens’ by J.M. Cohen, translator and literary reviewer. Cohen built his collection out of gifts from the authors or purchases made during visits to Spain and Argentina in the 1950s and to Mexico and Cuba in the 1960s and 1970s. It includes signed copies of works by writers of the first Cuban revolutionary generation; works by women, most of which were previously unrecorded in the West; an extensive collection of Soviet Russian literature; and studies on literary criticism and poetry, the pre-Columbian American past and Nahuatl literature.
The Kennett Collection is another valuable 20th century bequest. It comprises Old Testament and Semitic texts and was given by Robert Hatch Kennett in 1932. It is now housed in the library of the University's Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, to which all enquiries should be addressed.
There is also a Members' Archive, which is a collection of works by Fellows and past Fellows of the College, and (mostly literary works) of current and former members. Details of more recent publications form the core of an electronic database that will eventually be accessible from the College web site. Old members who would like their monographs to be added to this catalogue are welcome to send bibliographic details to the College Librarian.
Other Recent Developments
The Old Library is home to rare books and historical documents which, despite their age, provide a continuing source of interest and discovery. For example, during research for another project in early 2007, three illuminated manuscript miniatures were identified as the work of Pacino di Bonaguida, an eminent Florentine artist and illuminator of the early 14th century. The story of their discovery is described in an article, by Karen Begg, on the website of the Centre for Material Texts of the University's English Faculty (link to the Gallery arhive). A scholarly description of the miniatures and their art historical context, by Dr Stella Panayotova of the Fitzwilliam Museum, is available here. The works are leaves from a laudario, a manuscript containing songs of praise in Italian, that is believed to have been commissioned by worshippers at the church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence. Each depicts the martyrdom of a particular saint and is richly decorated in vivid hues and gold leaf. Art historians and manuscript curators at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge and the Getty Museum in Los Angeles have examined the miniatures and been able to add more to the growing body of knowledge about Pacino and his work. None of the laudario's leaves remains in Italy, but twenty-odd have been discovered around the world and it is hoped that the these might one day be brought together, perhaps in a digital format. Images of the Queens' leaves will be added to the College website in due course. The Cambridge leaves will feature in an exhibition entitled "Floentine Painting and Illumination in the Age of Giotto" that will be held in 2012 at the Getty Centre in Los Angeles.
A one day conference on special collections entitled 'Sharing the Wonder' was held at Queens' on 12th September 2011. The focus was on collaborative projects that enable greater access to the our resources and included contributions from the library, museum, conservation and archive sectors. Conference papers will be available online in due course and a link to them added here.
The College Archive
Most records relating to the College’s history and estates prior to 1800 are kept in the Archives Department of the University Library.They can be viewed on request in the Manuscript Reading Room but finding aids are limited and the documents are not yet listed online.
The personal papers of several former Queens' members are kept in the Old Library and will eventually be added to Janus, the online database for archives in Cambridge University that can be accessed via the University Library.
Requests for information about this material should be addressed to the Fellow Archivist: Dr Richard Rex Email: archive@queens.cam.ac.uk
