We were greeted by David Wills, the Library Manager, and his deputy Peter Zawada, who had kindly given up their morning to show us around. After a welcome coffee, we started our tour at the base of the atrium where David showed us how the space we were in extended to the top of the building. With our backs to the expanse of glass we could see the wide stairs connecting the edges of the three floors above us and the general impression was one of space and light. However, the design did mean that sound apparently travelled into the reading areas from the basement so last year a glass screen was installed to cut down on noise.

The basement floor is taken up with a meeting space for the students and lecture theatres with reception and office space on the ground floor and the main library enquiry desk on the first floor. The library also extends to the floor above and there are places for study, some of which have their own terminals. In addition, there is an IT training room containing 24 desks with inbuilt flat-screen terminals where various databases can be demonstrated.

The library serves a population of nearly 1400 students and staff and as well as having a broad spread of material also contains significant collections in US, European and Commonwealth law, Public International law, Commercial and Corporate law. There are collections of civil law material for a wide range of countries with, for example, 100 US law periodical titles alone amongst the 1500 serials taken.

There is also a much in demand, working Legal History section with complete nominate collections, texts and treaties covering Roman and International law as well. The Library does not offer a commercial document delivery system but people are able to look at their holdings via the University of Cambridge Union Catalogue. There is also a separate Centre for European Legal Studies, a Tax and a Commercial Law Centre

From the top floor people can see both the Criminology department in its separate building and the general spread of modern buildings extending out to the west of the original core university buildings, demonstrating the rapid growth Cambridge has undergone in the last ten years. The placing of the new by the old was vividly demonstrated as we went to have an excellent lunch in the Victorian panelled splendour of Selwyn College dining hall and then walked over afterwards to Trinity College where we were given a tour of the truly magnificent Wren Library by Alison Sproston.

The library is housed in a purpose built room, designed by Wren after the original college library was destroyed by fire. There is a pleasant modern library next door for students but the eye is drawn to the great stained glass window at the end of this library as well as the statues and busts of famous people such as Newton, Byron and Bacon. The 26 bay windows, 20 feet high, extending above the chequered black and white floor, make the place very open and light and some of the bays of books still contain the original stools and tables.

While the collection obviously concentrates on older material such as copies of the early 8thC Pauline Epistles, the 11thC Winchester Gospels and Sir Isaac Newton's Notebooks, more up-to-date material deposited includes an eyewitness account of the first atomic bomb test at Alamogordo, New Mexico in 1945.

It was an excellent trip, full of fascinating detail, and the group's sincere thanks go to David, Peter and Alison for their time and kind efforts to give us a thorough and interesting visit, and especially to Zosia for her time and organisational skills.