Harold Cohen Library

The Harold Cohen Library is the University of Liverpool's main library for science, engineering and medical, dental and veterinary sciences. It also contains eight computer centres as well as the Wolfson training suite.

The library was funded by a donation of £100,000 by Harold Cohen, Chairman of Lewis's department store and the son of a former Lord Mayor of Liverpool. It was opened on 21 May 1938, in the presence of the Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin. Cohen died on the day he was meant to lay the foundation stone. The architect was Harold Dod. The frontage on Ashton Street, Liverpool is of Portland Stone. It is a Grade II listed building, and features a statue over the entrance entitled 'Learning' by Eric Kennington, also of Portland stone, which depicts a female figure holding a lamp and key in front of an open book [1] .

The library contained 200,000 volumes when opened, but this has now increased to over 500,000, on 12 miles of shelving [2] . Similarly the staff has increased from 15 to 90 [3] .

External links

* [http://www.liv.ac.uk/library/info/libinf_hcl.html Harold Cohen Library] [1] http://www.liverpoolmonuments.co.uk/buildings/cohen.html Picture of 'Learning' statue [2] http://www.liv.ac.uk/library/info/factsfigs.html [3] http://www.merseyworld.com/precinct/Jan98/prec6.html