Books and Books

The Cambridge University Library is one of the five biggest libraries in the UK. Before yesterday, I had only used it to get a library card and see an exhibit called “Wrongdoing in Spain and England in the Long Nineteenth Century.” So I decided to explore it. I knew before I walked in that I could spend all day there, so I disciplined myself and resolved only to spend an hour.

Not only is that building massive, but it is packed to the gills with books and periodicals. You barely have enough room to walk between the shelves to pick out a book. And if it’s not on that shelf, it very well may be six stories above you.

My favorite part of the library was the reference room. It contained rows of reference books on the sides and ends of the room, and in the middle were traditional-style desks with lamps above them. Dozens of Cambridge scholars were reading or working on papers as I walked around the room, reminding me that I still have to finish my fourth paper.

On the fourth floor of the North Front wing were the archives of the Cambridge University Examiner, the campus newspaper. I looked in the 1992 archive, and found that on the day of my birth, the Student Senate met to discuss matters regarding cancer research in their genetics program and a change in their law program. To think all that was happening right here when I was in a hospital on the banks of the Missouri River…

When my hour was up, I contentedly exited and gazed up at the enormous structure that is the biggest library in which I have ever set foot.