The Sydney Jones Library opened in 1977. Until the completion of the Sydney Jones Library there was only one central library - the Harold Cohen Library. Due to the expansion of teaching and research activities and growth of the Precinct, the Harold Cohen Library became too small and inaccessible for many students and staff.
The library is named after Sir Charles Sydney Jones (1872-1947), a former Lord Mayor of Liverpool who served the University as a member of the Council for over forty years and held the Offices of Treasurer, President of the Council, and Pro-Chancellor. He was a generous benefactor to the University, committed to his belief in the value of education as the foundation of a meritocracy. For example, he endowed the Chair of Education, he bought and gifted properties on Abercromby Square to the University throughout the 1910s and 1920s and gifted around 150 books printed between 1501 and 1540, as well as for 46 incunables (the earliest complete work dating from 1465) to the University’s collections.
A197/I1/2 – I10/2 - Exterior of the Sydney Jones Library
The original library building comprised only the part now known as the Grove Wing. It was designed by Sir Basil Spence, Glover & Ferguson. He was a modernist Scottish architect well-known for his design of a new Cathedral of Coventry that became a symbol of Britain's post-war reconstruction. For this he was knighted in 1960.
The Grove Wing is distinctly modernist in its design with its exterior colours allowing it to blend in harmony with the Georgian brick of Abercromby Square. Independent study 'boxes' are the main feature of the facade.
Top: A197/J6 - Sydney Jones Library. Model
Left: A197/J6 - Sydney Jones Library. West elevation
Right: A197/J6 - Sydney Jones Library. North elevation
The Grove Wing was designed to accommodate 700,000 books and provide space for 670 readers and supporting administration facilities. The importance of an efficient air-conditioning system was stressed in the brief.
The central services core contains ducts, lifts and staircases with usable unrestricted areas situated around it. Precast concrete beams span 14.6m from the central core to the perimeter beams with lights and air-ducts carried in the gap. The floors are identical and were designed to allow for simple linear extension of all facilities if needed, while the reading areas were designed be easily rearranged.
Left top: A242/6 - Sydney Jones Library during construction
Left bottom: A242/6 - Sydney Jones Library during construction
Middle: A242/6 - Sydney Jones Library during construction
Right top: A242/6 - Sydney Jones Library during construction
Right bottom: A242/6 - Sydney Jones Library during construction
The interior features natural materials in juxtaposition with exposed brick and concrete. Bookshelves were considered as part of the design as well by providing additional colour.
Today the Sydney Jones Library houses books related to the Faculty of Arts and of Social and Environmental Studies in subjects like languages, literatures, history, philosophy, geography, the social sciences, as well as the University Library's Special Collections and Archives material.
Left: A268/41 - Students at work at Sydney Jones Library
Right: A268/41 - Students at work at Sydney Jones Library
With a catalogue of over one million volumes, it was decided in 1983 to fully automate the library. The University paid a local company a total of £100,000 to data-capture the entire catalogue and was the first large academic institution in the country to install Dobis/Libis library system.
Because of this the library became the focus of interest from many institutions in the UK and abroad. IBM, the company who created Dobis/Libis, awarded the University with a Study Contract, making it a demonstration and support centre for the system in the UK. Gratification was felt when The University of Oxford installed this system for the Bodleian Library.
By 1989 both libraries were fully computerized and cataloguing, ordering, accounting and book issue control were fully transformed. The new catalogue network made the library information and stock more accessible and largely increased the number of visitors. Nonetheless, some still felt a close attachment to the card system with a professor heard saying he will never be able to look up a book again.
Left: P5308/28 - Interior of the Sydney Jones Library. Reception desk.
Right: P5308/28 - Interior of the Sydney Jones Library. Study space and book stacks.
Sylvia Harrop, Decade of Change: The University of Liverpool 1981-1991 (Liverpool University Press, 1994)
In 2005 it was decided to extend the library to provide more study areas for the growing numbers of students.
A £17m scheme was developed to connect the library building with the adjacent Senate House building that previously housed offices. This doubled the size of the Sydney Jones Library and created a 'library plaza' outside formed by the two buildings and the newly constructed link.
The central atrium space was opened up to allow the space to flow from one building to another and many glazed elements were introduced to let in natural light and create a sense of spaciousness, possibility and optimism.
Left: LIB/4/5/1/3 - Sydney Jones Library. Elevation
Right: LIB/4/5/1/3 - Sydney Jones - new link. Elevation
Senate House was fully refurbished and renamed the Abercromby Wing, which is now the entrance to the library.
It provides space for group study areas and bookable rooms and includes the short-loan collection, law library, postgraduate study facilities, a dedicated IT suite and staff office facilities. The ground floor also features a cafe and large courtyard, creating a social focus for students.
Left: LIB/4/5/1/3 - Sydney Jones Library. Ground floor
Right: LIB/4/5/1/3 - Sydney Jones Library - new link. Ground floor
This video produced by the University Television Service in 1993 entitled 'The Library, A Learning Resource' provides an entertaining overview of how the University Library functioned thirty years ago. Students discuss the resources available at the Sydney Jones Library and Harold Cohen Library and how to make use of them. Academics discuss the importance of the library to the their own work and to the students' academic studies.
A254/4/1 - 'The Library, A Learning Resource'
Browse the rest of the exhibition: University Places and Spaces