Donating my night shelf

Stephen Town, Director of Information and University Librarian, talks about why he's donating over fifty books to the University Library

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Stephen Town, Director of Information
and University Librarian

As some of you may know, I have decided to retire at the end of this academic year. As a retirement gift to the University Library, which I have been proud to lead for 7 years, I have decided to donate fifty books, one for each week of my remaining tenure.

These books will be taken mainly from my “night shelf” and so will be a personal, idiosyncratic and broad selection, hopefully providing an interesting and intriguing read for any member of the University community.

The titles I have chosen to donate are intended to supplement the fund for “popular but serious” books, and if the Library already has the book then I will donate an equivalent sum to the general collection fund. This fund was created at the suggestion of the Pro Vice Chancellor for Teaching, Learning and Information, John Robinson, to reflect our belief that the University Library should be universal in scope, and that reading for a degree means more than reading only for that degree.

Photo: Book collection.

Each week the blog will have a post on the chosen book, including its influence on my own learning and how I hope it will inspire and challenge future readers.

The intent here is to encourage reading, thought and discourse; so please feel free to share your comments.