July 8: King's College Maughan Library & Special Collections

In the afternoon, we visited the Maughan Library at King’s College for a tour and a look at some of the items in its special collections.

King’s acquired the building in 2001 and sought to bring together all of its non-medical libraries into this space. The building was originally a public records office from 1850 to 1990, and was designed to keep those files secure and protected. The building is made of stone and is segmented into smaller rooms with iron doors to prevent the spread of a fire (shown below). (The British are SERIOUS about fire safety. Where we might see signs directing us to the restrooms in a building in the U.S., there are signs for fire exits in the U.K. Many of our tours, for class or recreation, have included notes on what to do in case of a fire and when the routine fire drills are set to occur. London has burned down a few times, so I can understand their sensitivity.)

The original shelving (shown below) are solid and great for air circulation. It’s a large, but not very flexible space, making it hard to adapt to a library collection. And the shelving is great for records, but not necessarily for library materials. In addition, the building has historical status, so they have to be careful about any changes they make to the building.

They have been able to open up the space some and add some modern touches. The collections are kept in more modern shelving that are broken up with open space for students to work.

On the ground floor, next to the Enquiries desk, there is a Compass desk dedicated to student welfare, where students can go with any non-academic questions. I thought that was a great idea, to make such a service so visible and accessible in a place that is students already visit so frequently during term.

The library has a laptop loan facility, where students can borrow laptops for use in the library.

There are also three types of study rooms available. One room allows talking, for students who need to discuss assignments in groups. It is also equipped with projectors for groups working on class presentations. Another room holds computers for student use (shown below). This room can also be booked for classes.

Finally, there’s a silent study room—the Round Reading Room—for those needing a really quiet place to study. There is even a “Noise Line” students can call or text to report someone making noise.

After the tour, we were taken into the Foyle Special Collections Library to see some of the treasures of the collection. There are around 180,000 printed works in the collection, covering theology, medicine, travel and exploration, science, and literature.

One item that caught my eye was a volume of issues of the Penny Lancet (the library has the complete run of the periodical). This was a medical magazine for the do-it-yourself crowd...you know, home remedies, how to operate on yourself, that sort of thing. (Yikes!)