Imperial College Central Library

Last updated

Imperial College London Abdus Salam Library
Imperial College Central Library on Queen's Lawn.jpg
Abdus Salam Library overlooking Queen's Lawn
Imperial College Central Library
51°29′54″N0°10′42″W / 51.49833°N 0.17833°W / 51.49833; -0.17833
Location Queen's Lawn, London, England
Type Academic library
ScopeSpecialises in science, technology and medicine [1]
Established1959 [2]  (current building 1969)
Collection
Items collected
Access and use
Population servedImperial College London (and limited other groups on application) [3]
MembersImperial College London
Other information
DirectorChris Banks
Website www.imperial.ac.uk/library/

The Abdus Salam Library is the main academic and research library of Imperial College London. The current library opened in August 1969, taking over from the original Lyon Playfair Library which had opened in 1959. [2] The collection grew out of earlier libraries of the various departments and colleges, the oldest collection of which dates back to 1845. [4] : 18  The Central Library is the largest of the 7 libraries at Imperial with its collection covering all of the college's research departments, forming the main reference library for the college. [1] It is situated on Queen's Lawn next to Imperial College Road, and across from Queen's Tower. [5]

Contents

History

The earliest library collection associated with the college was that of the Royal College of Chemistry, which opened in 1845. [6] The collection was open not only to students, but also benefactors of the college, as a way of attracting funding and backing. The college went on to form part of the Royal School of Mines and then the Normal School of Science, with each having their own libraries, often part of larger museum collections. A central library at Imperial College dates back to the construction of the Royal College of Science's building after the formation of Imperial in 1907, part of which became home to the Science Museum library. Although this was not part of the college, it was used extensively by members of the college, acting as a reference library for items departmental collections did not cover. [4] : 18, 21–22, 69, 306 

Bookplate from the Lyon Playfair Library Lyon Playfair Bookplate, Imperial College.jpg
Bookplate from the Lyon Playfair Library

For most of the early 20th century the college's collection was spread out over the various constituent colleges and departments. The City and Guild's College building was home to a technical collection, with the Royal College of Science building containing a chemical reference library. [6] Early on some professors, including Harold Maxwell-Lefroy, let students access their private collections due to the lack of extensive provisions at the college, however, in time the departmental libraries grew with donations of books from their leading academics, whose name they generally took, including the Egerton-Hinchley library at the Department of Chemical Engineering and the Department of Geology's Watts Library, the latter of which had by 1934 a collection of nearly 7000 books. Books left by students in Beit Hall were collected into a circulation library of around 400 items for personal non-academic recreational reading in the Union Building; this became known as the Haldane Library, named after Richard Haldane, who had been involved in the formation of the college. It eventually moved out of the Union to a larger college facility, growing to 4500 volumes by the mid-1950s. [4] [7] The college also had access to the University of London's library at Senate House for further material. [8]

In 1959 the first central library at Imperial was opened, known as the Lyon Playfair Library, at 180 Queen's Gate. [2] It was named after Lord Playfair of St Andrews, who had been a professor of chemistry at the Royal School of Mines. [7] The initial collection was focused on engineering, as it was formed out of the Unwin Library, created through the amalgamation of many of the engineering department libraries. Although for the time being most science departments retained their own collections, the library expanded swiftly to cover the rest of the college's activities. [4] : 306  [9] In the 1960s Imperial College quickly expanded in both facilities and population as part of an expansive programme of government investment. [10] This resulted in the construction of new purpose built facility for the central library, which was completed in 1969 along with the adjoining College Block, today the Sherfield Building, with the Science Museum Library moving to the new building the same year. It was originally proposed for the Science Museum Library to be fully subsumed by the college's, however this plan was dropped by 1971. [2] [11]

Top floors and main stairs Fourth Floor from stairs, Imperial College Central Library.jpg
Top floors and main stairs

In 1992 the college's and the Science Museum's collections were merged into a single library. Following a consultation with Foster and Partners in 1994, the library was renovated and a Waterstones bookstore opened as part of an expansion of the ground floor in 1997. [4] : 641  Two additional modern glass-clad floors were added to the top of the building, with the extension designed by John McAslan + Partners. [12] By the same year the Haldane collection, formed earlier from the amalgamation of the Haldane library in the Central Library, had over a collection of over 40 000 items. [13]

The Science Museum Library finally closed in 2014, with resources being moved to the Dana Centre on Queen's Gate and off-site archives. [14] From 2017 through to end of summer 2018 the library underwent significant renovations, including the introduction of air conditioning, at a cost of £11 million. [15]

In 2023, the Central Library was renamed after Nobel laureate Mohammad Abdus Salam, who founded Imperial College's theoretical physics department. [16] [17]

Building

The Abdus Salam Library building was opened in 1969 with the rest of what is today known as the Sherfield Building, and extensively uses exposed concrete surface as was common with British architecture at the time. [4] The top two floors are more modern, with an open-plan interior and glass exterior walls, being built in 1997. [12] The library contains training facilities, groups study areas, and an IT cluster and service desk. The Library Café is on the ground floor, next to the main entrance. [18]

Access

The library primarily serves students and researchers at Imperial, with the library open 24 hours a day all week, excluding Friday night. [1] [19] However, the library accepts requests from members of the public for access to specific materials, and requests for inter-library loans. [3]

Related Research Articles

University College London, which operates as UCL, is a public research university in London, England. It is a member institution of the federal University of London, and is the second-largest university in the United Kingdom by total enrolment and the largest by postgraduate enrolment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Imperial College London</span> Public university in London, England

Imperial College London is a public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cultural area that included the Royal Albert Hall, Victoria & Albert Museum, Natural History Museum and several royal colleges. In 1907, Imperial College London was established by royal charter, unifying the Royal College of Science, Royal School of Mines, and City and Guilds of London Institute. In 1988, the Imperial College School of Medicine was formed by merging with St Mary's Hospital Medical School. In 2004, Queen Elizabeth II opened the Imperial College Business School.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scottish National Gallery</span> Part of National Galleries Scotland in Edinburgh

The National is the national art gallery of Scotland. It is located on The Mound in central Edinburgh, close to Princes Street. The building was designed in a neoclassical style by William Henry Playfair, and first opened to the public in 1859.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Science Museum, London</span> Museum in Kensington, London

The Science Museum is a major museum on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, London. It was founded in 1857 and is one of the city's major tourist attractions, attracting 3.3 million visitors annually in 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Imperial War Museum</span> British national military museums organization

Imperial War Museums (IWM) is a national museum with branches at five locations in England, three of which are in London. Founded as the Imperial War Museum in 1917, the museum was intended to record the civil and military war effort and sacrifice of the United Kingdom and its Empire during the First World War. The museum's remit has since expanded to include all conflicts in which British or Commonwealth forces have been involved since 1914. As of 2012, the museum aims "to provide for, and to encourage, the study and understanding of the history of modern war and 'wartime experience'."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abdus Salam</span> Pakistani theoretical physicist (1926–1996)

Mohammad Abdus Salam was a Pakistani theoretical physicist and a Nobel Prize laureate. He shared the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics with Sheldon Glashow and Steven Weinberg for his contribution to the electroweak unification theory. He was the first Pakistani and the first Muslim from an Islamic country to receive a Nobel Prize in science and the second from an Islamic country to receive any Nobel Prize, after Anwar Sadat of Egypt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albertopolis</span> Area in South Kensington, London

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Duff (physicist)</span> British physicist

Michael James Duff FRS, FRSA is a British theoretical physicist and pioneering theorist of supergravity who is the Principal of the Faculty of Physical Sciences and Abdus Salam Chair of Theoretical Physics at Imperial College London.

Playfair may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beit Hall</span> Student hall of residence of Imperial College London

Beit Hall, forming part of Beit Quadrangle, is a hall of residence and one of Imperial College London's oldest and most historic buildings. Beit Hall is named after Alfred Beit and is located on Prince Consort Road, next to the Royal Albert Hall in London. The north side of the quadrangle forms the Union Building, home to Imperial College Union, and is not part of Beit Hall. The Union Building was the site of the first Queen concert, and has hosted events associated with the BBC Proms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Government College University, Lahore</span> Public research university in Lahore, Pakistan

The Government College University, is a public research university in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. GCU is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in Pakistan. Founded as Government College, Lahore, in 1864 under British administration, it became a university in 2002.

Research Libraries UK (RLUK) comprises 35 university libraries, 3 national libraries, and the Wellcome Collection in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Its aim is to increase the ability of research libraries to share resources among themselves. The holdings of these libraries provided the basis of the Copac online catalogue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Queen's Lawn</span> Green area situated at the centre of Imperial College London

The Queen's Lawn is a green lawned area situated at the centre of Imperial College London's South Kensington campus, next to the Queen's Tower and immediately to the north of Imperial College Road. It provides an open space of 1,600 sq metres, and is surrounded by the Abdus Salam Library, and the Sherfield administration, Chemistry, and Skempton buildings. It is often the site of college events, including student bands, fairs, and balls, as well as student activism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Surgeons' Hall</span> HQ of Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh

Surgeons' Hall in Edinburgh, Scotland, is the headquarters of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd). It houses the Surgeons' Hall Museum, and the library and archive of the RCSEd. The present Surgeons' Hall was designed by William Henry Playfair and completed in 1832, and is a category A listed building.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Museum of Scotland</span> Museum in Edinburgh, Scotland

The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland, was formed in 2006 with the merger of the new Museum of Scotland, with collections relating to Scottish antiquities, culture and history, and the adjacent Royal Scottish Museum, with international collections covering science and technology, natural history, and world cultures. The two connected buildings stand beside each other on Chambers Street, by the intersection with the George IV Bridge, in central Edinburgh. The museum is part of National Museums Scotland. Admission is free.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seifallah Randjbar-Daemi</span> Theoretical Physicist

Seifallah Randjbar-Daemi is an Iranian theoretical physicist. He is currently an Emeritus Scientist at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Imperial College Faculty of Engineering</span>

The Faculty of Engineering is the engineering school of Imperial College London, and one of the three main faculties the college. It was formed in 2001 from the former City and Guilds College and the Royal School of Mines—two of the three original constituent colleges of Imperial College when the latter was formed in 1907. The faculty is ranked as the top engineering institute in the UK in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blackett Laboratory</span> Physics research and teaching laboratory at Imperial College London

The Blackett Laboratory is part of the Imperial College Faculty of Natural Sciences and has housed the Department of Physics at Imperial College London since its completion in 1961. Named after experimental physicist Patrick Blackett who established a laboratory at the college, the building is located on the corner of Prince Consort Road and Queen's Gate, Kensington. The department ranks 11th on QS's 2018 world university rankings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Imperial College Road</span> Tree-lined road in South Kensington, London, England

Imperial College Road is a tree-lined road in South Kensington, London, England. It runs east–west with Queen's Gate to the west and Exhibition Road to the east.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Imperial College London</span>

The history of Imperial College London can be traced back to the founding of the Royal College of Chemistry in 1845 in London, with some ancestral medical schools dating back to 1823. The college was formed in 1907 out of the Royal Colleges in South Kensington, and throughout the 20th century became central to the national strategy for technical education and research. It existed for most of its life as part of the University of London, only becoming independent in 2007.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Imperial College London Library". Joint Information Systems Committee. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Morris, Peter (2010). Science for the Nation: Perspectives on the History of the Science Museum. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 150–151. ISBN   9780230230095.
  3. 1 2 "Imperial College Library". The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. 26 August 2015. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Gay, Hannah (2007). The History of Imperial College London, 1907–2007. Imperial College Press. pp. 18, 21–22, 69, 99, 102, 188, 207, 306, 418. ISBN   9781860947087.
  5. ↑ "South Kensington Campus Map" (PDF). Imperial College London. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
  6. 1 2 "Imperial College". British History Online. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
  7. 1 2 "Libraries of Imperial College". Archives in London and the M25 Area. October 2000. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
  8. ↑ "University of London Council agrees withdrawal arrangements". Imperial College London. 5 October 2006. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
  9. ↑ Kent, Allan; Lancour, Harold; Daily, Jay (1 December 1975). Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science: Volume 16 – Library and Segregation to Mainz on the Rhine and the Gutenberg-Museu. CRC Press. p. 309. ISBN   0824720164.
  10. ↑ "Imperial College Of Science And Technology (Expansion)". Hansard. Houses of Parliament. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
  11. ↑ "A timeline of College developments". Imperial College London. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
  12. 1 2 "Imperial College Library". AJ Buildings Library. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
  13. ↑ "Read all about it". Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine. 8 October 1997. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
  14. ↑ Corcoran, Janet (24 January 2014). "Science Museum Library closes to prepare for new research centre". Imperial College London. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
  15. ↑ Apostolakis, Lef (2 June 2017). "Central Library air-con cost £11m". Felix. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
  16. ↑ Dunning, Hayley (27 November 2020). "Blue Plaque unveiled for Nobel Prize-winner Abdus Salam". Imperial College London. Retrieved 11 August 2023.
  17. ↑ Haig, Michael (30 June 2023). "Abdus Salam Library named in honour of leading physicist". Imperial College London. Retrieved 11 August 2023.
  18. ↑ "Library Floor Plans" (PDF). Imperial College London. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
  19. ↑ "Central Library". Imperial College London. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.