Picture used by permission of the library.
A party from our library visted the Betty and Gordon Moore library today. The library is part of the University's Cambridge University's Centre for Mathematical Studies site.
The following interesting issues were highlighted:
Digital archiving - The first thing most Mathematicians all over the world do when they wake up is to read the latest articles posted that day in ArXiv, an online depository universally accepted as the main place to post your research before it is processed by publishers. This means that anyone can have free access in a single resource to all mathematical research published anywhere. Mathematicians reportedly do not read much else, thus potentially saving thousands of pounds of journal subscriptions.Is this the voice of the future for all subjects? I asked myself.
Open access internet computers- I have never visited a library where users could just sit in front of a computer and use the internet without logging in. If they can do it here why isn't it possible everywhere? The barriers placed (often by necessity) between users and the internet in many libraries often makes me think that Ranganathan would be turning in his grave (fourth law, save the time of the reader- as explained to me fifteen years ago by Alan Stevens.)
Public access rolling stacks- only the second place I have ever seen these. Why do most library designers only keep rolling stacks in closed access areas? (If they deemed safe then they are surely safe for all.)
Issues involved in downgrading and upgrading posts. We learned how a post was recently downgraded in this library.
Collection policy We learned how the allocation of copywrite books between dependent libraries and the decision of where to store theses is often a grey area. Staff availability to process the material is often a factor to be considered.
Colours - the colours of the library are taken from a Bridget Riley painting, Cantus Firmus. The colour of the carpet (see this flickr photo) is that used to paint the walls of primary schools in Scandinavia where it is thought to be beneficial to learning.
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