Running the Library

William
Wordsworth
(1770-1850)

Francis Jenkinson, University Librarian 1889-1923

Credit goes to Henry Bradshaw, Francis Jenkinson and A.F. Scholfield, Librarians from 1867, for the emergence of modern administration. They established an organisational structure and evolved cataloguing standards. The ineluctable growth in number and diversity of collections has seen an expansion in curatorial tasks, from cataloguing to conservation, and the number of staff required. In 1850 the Library employed five men. Today that figure is 350 men and women.

In 2002, the University Library is on five sites, including the main library on West Road. Its funding, roughly £10 million a year, comes mainly from the Higher Education Funding Council for England, but significant grants are also received from individuals, institutions and endowments.

600 years of
Cambridge
University
Library

8 October 2002 - 15 March 2003
Admission free

General superintendence of the Library lay until the Reformation with the University Chaplain. The first ‘librarian’ was appointed in 1577 at an annual salary of £10. Down the centuries there have been bad librarians and good; ‘library-losers’, such as Robert Peachey, persuaded to retire in 1684 before his lethargy caused any more muddle, and ‘library-keepers’ such as Abraham Whelock, Librarian 1629-53, under whose sway books were ordered on the shelves and catalogues produced.

University Library Staff Boat Club, 1910