Users of the Barber Fine Art love our quiet, traditional, reading room. How many changes can you find in these images of the library taken between the 1940s and today?
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 linoleum. 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, Librarian, is using one of the ladders.
The Reception Area
Frank Simpson, Librarian, when this was 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 cupboards and new cupboards and chairs were purchased for the Reception Area.
The Director’s Office, which became 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 was the Barber Director's office until the 1990s when it became part of the library. It housed the loanable books, PCs, photocopier and scanner. In April 2026 as part of the capital works programme this room ceased to be part of the library and became an office for academic staff in the Department of Art History, Curating and Visual Studies.
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.