The Quincentenary Library, Jesus

Best for: bringing out your creative side

Art is unavoidable in Jesus’ library – even the view of the world outside is interrupted by giant dinosaur sculptures on one side. You come across four pieces of art just by walking up the stairs. First, there’s Antonio Bellotti’s Annunciation; then a couple of luridly bright pop art prints; and, at the top, one of Antony Gormley’s metal casts of himself, which surveys the library like a skinny, nude library bouncer.

Gormley’s daughter Paloma studied architecture at Jesus, and is responsible for initially converting The Shop from a disused building on Jesus Lane.

Downstairs, there is a social area with newspapers and three huge tilted desks set aside for sketching and architectural work…and of course more works of art, this time including a stained glass window by Graham Jones.

But the best aspects of this library are the work booths at the top of the stairs. If the library isn’t too full, you can slide the door closed and hog one of these tiny chambers – with its wall-to-wall books and view of the college’s twelfth-century chapel – all to yourself.

The War Memorial Library, Queen's

Best for: its history

The old coincides with the new in this former fifteenth century chapel – a mural (albeit behind glass) is next to some metal stairs, while stained glass windows surround an open-plan design on the first floor.

The building was attacked during the Civil War by iconoclast William Dowsing, who destroyed the artwork and pulled up the altar steps – hard to picture in the quiet, studious calm of a Sunday afternoon. After the war, it was turned into a library, doubling as a memorial to members of Queens’ killed in action. By the nineties, however, more space was needed, and, as the college website puts it, “a new structure was created inside the shell of the building, as a ship is inserted into a bottle, touching the walls in as few places as possible.”

Library-crashers beware though – even if you slink in behind a cardholder, you need one to get out too.

The Jerwood Library, Trinity Hall

Best for: its view

This is the library you cycle past whenever you use Garrett Hostel Bridge (more commonly known by a cruder nickname) on the way to or from the Sidgwick Site.

The modern rafters are perhaps somewhat reminiscent of the Globe Theatre but from inside, the views are distractingly good. This is definitely the best library of the five to visit if you want the smug feeling of being in a place of work without actually doing any you will probably prefer spending the entire time gazing at the world outside. The windows at the front on each level overlook the water, so you can watch people in punts as well as passing cyclists. Even at the back, you get a view of the Trinity Hall grounds as well as Clare and King’s Chapel in the distance.

The library boasts of having been “designed to be comfortable” and this is no lie – there are cushioned window seats that, judging from the pile of pillows on each, double up as beds if you feel like a kip.

The Yates Thompson Library, Newnham

Best for: its beauty

This library is Grade II* listed and maddeningly beautiful – its blue and white domes and the half-crescent windows inspire a particularly intense library envy.

As well as its beauty though, the YTL has an intriguing history. Built in 1897, it was a vital resource for Newnham students before the ban on women accessing the University Library was lifted in December 1923.

A major expansion and refurbishment took place in 2004 and now a second library, the Horner Markwick - has been built adjacent to the original one.

At 90,000 volumes strong, it is still one of Cambridge’s best-stocked college libraries, and it continues to grow – over 1,000 new tomes are added annually.

King's College Library

Best for: its collections

An informal and cosy library in spite of all the majesty of its high, ornate ceilings and abundant wood-panelling. Well-worn scarlet carpets cover most of the bare floorboards, a world away from the regulation blue or brown stain-hiding kind you’re wont to find in most other colleges.

On the day I visited, someone had thought to dot a few empty bottles of Peroni around the entrance, as if to offset the dragon statue and sinister stone face.

The current building is relatively new. Before its completion in 1828, the college’s library had been housed, since the sixteenth century, inside several of the Chapel’s side panels.

The books were attached to their shelves by long chains, so that they could be taken down and read, but not stolen. This practice was commonplace at the time as books were so valuable and the library continued to implement it until 1777.

Now, the library holds around 130,000 volumes, a drop in the ocean next to the UL’s seven million, but supersize in comparison to most college libraries. King’s certainly seems to pop up perkily in nearly every Newton ‘Colleges A-N’ search!