Why we miss the old main library

Those booths you could sleep in are just the beginning

library tab uni UoB

Even though UoB’s new library has some noticeable improvements on the old one, it’s still safe to say that we still have fond memories of the old library, which is going to be knocked down and turned into green space. We’re not sour about it at all…

Here are a selection of the memories about the old library, as commented by UoB students on the ‘Fab N Fresh’ page on Facebook:

Reminiscing about the days you could enter this majestic building

You could actually get a seat:

“The ability to get a seat, and not having to walk around for 20 minutes peering down corridors”

There were those super anti-social booths:

“Being able to sleep in the booths amongst the books without people seeing you”

“Those prison style booths where you could work with zero human interaction”

You could bring in food and drink:

“Seats, chairs, space, the lack of people whose voices drift up from the ground floor yelling: “Excuse me you can’t take that drink inside”

“The fact that you could have coffee as you work”

Printing was so much more straight forward:

“The ease of photocopying and printing – why are the new printers so hard to navigate?”

The aesthetics were actually better:

“The orange room, the purple room. colour in general”

“Being in a library rather than an industrial airport”

“The graffiti in the booths”

The library had a robot:

“I liked that robot thing”

The layout made much more sense:

“The order of horizontal bookshelves and study spaces. Now it’s all just a mess”

“Feeling like you could leave a silent study space to talk on the phone and getting some privacy, rather than the whole floor hearing”

Can’t take pics like this anymore

It wasn’t the antarctic inside:

“The fact that it was a billion degrees”

There was signal:

“Having phone signal”

“After all the song and dance they made about how much this library cost to build, why is the wifi still rubbish?”

It was perfect for a good old game of hide and seek:

“You could play hide and seek!”

Just basically everything:

“Everything, the normal speed of service in the cafe, the quiet zones, eating anywhere, the stairs, the lifts, every room, how big it was”