Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
Gonville Hall had acquired a lending collection of common books for the fellowship by the early 15th century; by the 1430s these had a dedicated home in a library which remained on the same site (the east side of Gonville Court) until the 1850s when it was moved to the north east corner of the College. A reading room was added in 1909, and the Library gradually expanded into the upper floors of Gonville Court until its removal to the former University Library, the Cockerell Building, in 1996.
The College's library collection of manuscripts and of printed books, was largely built up out of the gifts of succeeding generations of scholars. To a quite exceptional degree, the College has preserved its medieval library. The Library was also regarded as a place of safe-keeping for objects of value to the College, such as artefacts like the astrolabes, and historical records, like Dr Caius' statutes. From 1839 onwards, a Library fund, levied from the fees of students to provide for the purchase of new books was revived. The purchase of new books, and the provision of a reading room in the early twentieth century reflected the development of a new role for the Library, in providing a service to the junior as well as the senior members of the College. A division emerged between the 'Working Library', a borrowing collection for use by all member of the College; and the 'Old Library' housing the manuscripts and early printed books.
The first mention in College records of the appointment of a Librarian from among the fellowship is in 1629. During the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the running of the Library has continued to be the responsibility of a fellow Librarian, with increasing support from professionally qualified staff led by a Sub-Librarian.
(For further information regarding the history of the Library and its collections, see the Library Booklet published annually by the Library, Caius and Cockerell: the transformation of a library (1997), J. Venn, Biographical History, Volume III, p.188 and C.N.L. Brooke, History of Gonville and Caius College, pp.33-7).