College Portal

The Memorial Library and Reading Room

 
Librarian: Ms L J Pilkington  
Library Assistants:        Mrs A Clark
Mrs J Haynes
 
 
Opening Hours: Monday - Friday: 0830 - 2115 
Saturday: 0830 - 1250
Sunday:

1400 - 1700

1400 - 1800 (Summer Term)
  
 
Housed on the top floor of North Block in Court, the Memorial Library has accommodation for over 40 pupils and provides an atmosphere conducive to quiet study and intellectual inquiry.
 

The library contains some 36,000 items, of which three quarters are on open access, covering all the main subject areas.

 

In the more relaxed atmosphere of the adjoining Reading Room there are facilities for consulting the extensive stock of audio-visual material.

 
Historical Notes on The Memorial Library 
 
 

Historical Notes on The Memorial Library

From 1848 the College`s main library was located in The Adderley in “C” House. This was a very attractive and much loved facility, but lack of space limited its use to members of the Fifth and Sixth Forms only. Many teaching departments developed their own specialised collections of books elsewhere.

In 1892 it was agreed to build a large Reading Room within the complex of North Block. The Reading Room was eventually opened in 1900, during the South African War, and was called The Memorial Reading Room in tribute to the memory of Marlburians who had fallen in the South African War.

The function of the Reading Room was originally to provide a heated and peaceful haven where more junior boys could have access to books and newspapers under conditions which would encourage private study.

In the early 1950s it was decided to close The Adderley Library and transfer all its books – together with those of several other smaller collections – to the Memorial Reading Room, which then was re-branded, as now, as The Memorial Library.

top