Quirky library rules of the past
The library was not always a relaxed space where students were allowed to eat, drink and chat. Take a look at some of the weird and wonderful rules, myths and curiosities around the library through the centuries.
- The first set of library rules appeared in 1643. Copying the University of Edinburgh Library’s rules exactly, they prohibited writing in the books, reading near an open flame, and making a noise above a whisper.
- The rules and regulations were revised in 1768. Two new rules introduced stated that “students may not loiter in the library if they have nothing to do in it,” and all students were permitted to borrow books “provided they shall pay two Shillings in the Year to the Library Fund.”
- For hundreds of years, it wasn’t permissible to borrow fiction; students could only borrow books which were “proper to their present study, and none which may have a bad influence upon their principles and morals.” When the rules were eventually “relaxed”, fiction was permitted but only if the book was written in a foreign language.
- For much of the library’s history, books were not removable; they had to be read within the building. When this eventually changed, only two books at a time were allowed to be taken away, and only on Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays, to be returned on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
- When the new building opened in 1968, library users were forbidden to bring in bags, coats, parcels or briefcases. Everything had to be left behind in the staffed cloakroom.
- A cheeky rumour did the rounds in the 1980s, claiming that the library’s architect had failed to take the weight of hundreds of thousands of books into account, and the library was slipping down Hillhead Street towards University Avenue. Happily, this proved to be groundless.
This article was first published in December 2018.