Users of the Barber Fine Art love our quiet, traditional, reading rooms. How many changes can you find in these images of the library taken between the 1940s and today? Which room do you think has changed the most? For more information about the contents of the rooms, see Library interiors.
The Main Reading Room
The Main Reading Room c. 1940
The room is light and spacious. There are only three tables, and the floor is linoluem. The bookshelves are glazed, and the original globe light fittings hang from the ceiling.
The Main Reading Room c. 1960
The shelves now reach the ceiling, but the original light fittings are still there. Left to right: Richard James, Fine Art Lecturer; Kenneth Garlick, Curator and Fine Art Lecturer; Margaret Rogers, Secretary and Librarian; E. K. Waterhouse, Director of the Barber.
The Main Reading Room February 2023
The protective mats on the table tops and tub of wipes were introduced during the Covid 19 pandemic.
The Main Reading Room, February 2023
New ladders, designed to look like the ones they replaced but safer, have been installed and books removed from the highest shelves. David Pulford, Barber Fine Art Library Public Services Manager, is using one of the ladders.
The Reception Area
Frank Simpson, Librarian, in his office in the 1950s
This is now the Reception Area. The large cabinet containing a book lift to the basement and the scary looking heater have been removed.
The Reception Area, February, 2023
Left to right: Tina Keevil, Senior Library Assistant; Nick Cull, Senior Library Assistant.
The Reception Area, November, 2023
The Library was painted between 4 and 15 November and new furniture purchased for the Reception Area.
The Director’s Office, now the Small Reading Room
The Director’s Office, c.1960
E. K. Waterhouse, Director of the Barber, 1952-1970 with Margaret Rogers, Secretary and Librarian, in Waterhouse’s Office.
The Small Reading Room, January 2023
This room, which ceased to be the Director's Office in the 1990s, now houses the PCs, photocopier and scanner.
Barber Fine Art Library Store in the Research Reserve
Barber Art Library Store
Older and less used books and printed journals are housed in the Barber Library's own section of the Research Reserve. Until the new Main Library was built they were kept in the basement of the Barber in rooms known as the Kitchen Stack, the Yard Stack and the Meat Safe.