The Arcadia Fellowship Programme has continued to make real progress towards achieving its original objectives of transforming the academic library services at Cambridge University Library, through Fellowship training, improving the library’s digital capabilities and enhancing the external environment of University Library.

This year is the second year of the programme, which has involved a series of intensive Fellowship projects, an ambitious series of seminars and an annual lecture – all with a focus on the importance of ensuring that the Library will play a leading role in digital curation and scholarship, and in teaching and learning within the University. Detailed information about these projects.

The $980,000 grant, awarded to Cambridge University Library by Arcadia, has also helped to fund the Library’s seminar programme, with the aim of creating an intellectual ‘buzz’ by bringing a group of speakers to discuss the emerging digital ecosystem and its implications for those who work in libraries. Access podcasts of a number of these presentations.

Students and visitors alike can now enjoy the newly-improved external environment of University Library, with better parking arrangements and improved landscaping at the front of the building. Most notable has been the redesign of the front pathway of the building. A public art display by sculptor Harry Gray has been created, consisting of 14 vertical cast bronze artworks based on book forms and located near the front entrance to the Library. Each piece is illuminated by low-level uplighters that help to create a more attractive and welcoming environment in the evenings. Anne Jarvis, Cambridge University Librarian, said: “The objective was to delineate the entrance to the University Library, create a sense of arrival for pedestrians and simultaneously form a barrier to motor vehicles. The Library is proud of the result.”

Cambridge University Library’s public art display »