Fond memories
Read some of the moving testimonials left by library users, part of the 50th anniversary exhibition, which celebrate personal memories of the library, as well as some of the memories users have left on the UofG Library's social media pages.
The first time I came here I was awed to have access to eleven floors of books. I have borrowed so many over the years. I come here sometimes just to get some peace from my young family. I’ve elected a desk with a great view on level nine. I come in early and sit there and do some writing for four hours in a row. It’s utter bliss. Happy birthday GUL.
Dear library, Happy 50th Birthday! Thank you for the beautiful views that make studying a bit bearable. We love you. Here’s to many more.
The view from the 11th floor is :) and sunsets, obviously, worth studying!
I fell in love with you 19 years ago, as an undergraduate. Although I didn’t graduate from Glasgow, I went on to graduate from two other universities and I am about to start a third uni degree. I never forgot my FIRST LOVE, UofG Library, where I fell in love with books, especially old books, in the first place. Thank you for always inspiring and helping me dream …
I have grown up in this library, quite literally! My dad brought me here on a daily basis during his PhD and haggled with security so they would let me in. I was always lost on level 5. Now I work at this university and am soon to graduate. Still, I’m always lost on level 5.
Happy birthday, library! You’ve got a lot prettier and more comfortable in the last few years, and there’s always someone available to help find good resources.
I love all the different spaces, the comfy chairs, the group study rooms and cool design! The quiet system and café are amazing too! I love coming here! Thank you, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY LIBRARY!!!
Library is my second home here!!! I will definitely miss the days and nights I spent in the lovely library with my dearest friends. I will be back!!!
My best memory was sitting on a sofa on one of the upper floors, calmly reading, when another student came in, sat opposite me and started taking things out of his bag. Books, computer, notepads, as you’d expect. Then comes a small microwave, which he proceeds to plug in and cook his lunch in!!
I was a student at UofG from 1995 to 2000 and have fond memories of sitting for hours on level 9. Watching the sun go down and the sky go red while writing notes from piles of books and turning them into essays. Handwritten in the first couple of years, I think, then probably by fourth year using the computers. No laptops or tablets. I did have a phone, though, and my friends and I would text each other to gather from our various floors and nip across the road for a cheese toastie break. I also remember using the round reading room and the rooms in the first floor being great for group study. My dad, also a UofG graduate, was horrified to learn that spotty UGs were now allowed in the rooms. In his day they were for PG only!
Not all love letters come handwritten. Here are some more memories taken from the digital world of the Library's Twitter page, and from other social media.
My dad was a labourer who helped to build Glasgow Uni Library. He couldn’t speak English and never had a formal education. All four of his children spent time there; three of us have PhDs.
As a BMus student in the 70s, meeting in a quiet room with Dr Warwick Edwards to sing four-part Renaissance vocal music from original part-books in 16th-century notation. Coming back to the MLitt in 2015 and now PhD @UofGWriting the Library still feels ‘new’ because my thinking is!
My first experience of a uni library as a person starting a couple of Sixth Year Studies courses in a backwater Ayrshire town. We had a “day out” at the Glasgow library to find and photocopy(!) information that might be interesting in the following school year.
As a student: sitting behind the pillar in the corner of the 10th floor occasionally lifting my head from a book on the old wooden tables to look at the city below. As staff: walking about underground in the old stacks.
As an innocent student, I wandered up to the new library building hoping to search out any relevant material for my research. Approaching the desk with the greenery sprouting from behind my ears, I tentatively asked “Do you have anything by John Kerr?”. The diligent staff suggested I returned tomorrow to see what they could find. I returned the next day anticipating some new information, but I was astonished to be given JOHN KERR’S ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT on the Optical Kerr Effect. Wow! I had to sign a document saying that I would look after it, and return it the following week. Maybe that would not happen today, but I guess we were more trusting in these days. It is a mightily-valuable document in the history of physics, and honestly, the scribble “Colin was ‘ere” on page 6 is not mine! Only joking, it was treated with due reverence.
This article was first published in December 2018.