Strange goings on in the library

Hey - put 'em OUT

The University of Oxford’s Bodleian Library used to require members to swear they ‘hereby undertake not to remove from the library, or to mark, deface, or injure in any way, any volume, document, or other object belonging to it or in its custody; not to bring into the library or kindle therein any fire or flame, and not to smoke in the library; and I promise to obey all rules of the library.'
 

Who’d have thought it?

It won’t escaped anyone who reads this blog or who is anyway connected to the University that we have a brand new, spangling library opened, right in the middle of our Luton town centre campus. State of the art? SURE! Look at all this:

The controversial National Library in Kosovo.
Byzantine, Arabic; or marshmallow fudge?

Some may argue that any student facility worth its salt should surely have way more than the one cafe (ours will be open for the start of the academic year), but we hope our libraries also provide contemplative, stimulating learning spaces whatever time of day it is (natch; both our Luton and Bedford libraries are, of course, open 24/7). And of course, there's no 'right' or 'wrong' shape for a library. Our new Luton library was designed after listening to the views of our students. Others serving different communities come in many shapes and sizes, from converted tank shaped vehicles in Argentina to vending machines in Beijing.

But still, here's more about us:

Libraries don’t immediately spring to mind as attractive settings for fiction. Haruki Murakami’s The Strange Library bucks this trend, however, with its tale of a young boy  visiting his local library on the way home from school, having wondered how taxes were collected during the Ottoman Empire. So far, so….. Ottamany. The ‘weird’ is then turned up as our young hero is led to and imprisoned in a reading room with a sheep man who makes excellent doughnuts and a girl who can talk with her hands.

Marshmallow fudge

For some, these kind of imaginative gymnastics will have eyes rolling up to the heavens; for others, there’s always our Creative Writing course.

Our recent Tell Us Student Experience surveys haven’t shown anything quite so surreal going on in our  own Learning Resource Centres, but the tastes and subjects covered by our academic librarians are so eclectic, you just never know…..

Marsh's Library. Nothing spooky here. Move on.

Other strange goings on in libraries include the haunting of Ireland’s first library, which was built by the splendidly named Archbishop Narcissus Marsh and opened in 1701. Marsh was a modest man – he called his library Marsh’s – although he was keen to share his success and invited his niece to stay. So far, so . But then, nieces in these sorts of stories being what they are, she promptly fell for and eloped with a member of the local clergy. Or a sea captain, depending on the account you read. Either way, Niece had a conscience and hid an apology letter in one of Marsh's books, without telling Uncle which one it was. As you do.

The niece's note

The hapless Marsh now reputedly haunts his library, looking for his niece’s note.