News and Events

Library Celebrates 50 Years of Achievement

11 July 2007

Camilla Cobham, Lady Cobham, Chair of the University Board Alan Frost, and Professor Vice-Chancellor Paul Curran

We’ve marked 50 years of academic achievement by renaming our Library and Learning Centre in memory of one of Dorset’s leading figures.

Our library service was first established in 1957 as part of the institution’s predecessor, the Bournemouth Municipal College.

To mark the occasion, our five-storey Library and Learning Centre has been renamed in memory of Sir Michael Cobham, a significant contributor to our success, who died in April 2006. A plaque honouring Sir Michael was unveiled by his widow, Lady Cobham.

Sir Michael, recipient of an Honorary Doctorate from BU, was a former Chairman and Life President of Cobham plc, the aerospace company founded in Wimborne by his father, Sir Alan Cobham. Our Cobham Lecture Theatre is named after Sir Alan, a pioneer aviator of the 1920s and 1930s.

“Michael was proud to receive his Honorary Doctorate from Bournemouth University in 1994,” said Lady Cobham, accompanied by her daughter Camilla.

“He was very interested in the University and impressed with its work; he would be delighted to see it today and to see his contribution put to such good use.”

Today, the University Library provides impressive facilities on both of its campuses. The five-storey Library and Learning Centre on our Talbot Campus was formally opened by HRH the Duke of Kent in 2003.

The newly-named Sir Michael Cobham Library

Always innovative in embracing technology, the Library is recognised as a leader in the provision of electronic information, and for its integration into the fast growing virtual learning environment. It is now also starting to exploit the possibilities of Web 2.0 technologies in support of students and researchers.

University Vice-Chancellor Professor Paul Curran led the applause for representatives from organisations who had contributed to the library, including the Valentine Trust, JPMorgan Chase Bank, the Garfield Weston Foundation, the alice Ellen Cooper-Dean Charitable Foundation and constructors Raymond Brown.

Former librarians Angus Sutherland and Edward Oyston also joined in the festivities to mark 50 years of Innovation for Learning.

“When I was appointed librarian all of those years ago, I never imagined that we’d now be standing in such a magnificent facility,” said Sutherland, who served as Librarian at the Municipal College and the Dorset Institute of Higher Education until his retirement in 1983.

Sutherland recalled that the original library opened at the Lansdowne in Bournemouth had just 12 reader spaces with books and other resources in an area of just 1,200 square feet.

A donor board placed in the Library features the names of others who have made contributions, and small plaques feature on chairs with the names of alumni who have donated via our Annual Fund, which has also contributed to e-books.