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Coloquially referred to as the UL, the main building occupies a large site on the edge of Cambridge city centre. It houses over 5.5 million books and pamphlets and more than 1.2 million periodicalss. It was built between 1931 and 1934 under architect Giles Gilbert Scott and bears a marked resemblance to his industrial creations such as the Bankside Power Station.
As a legal deposit library, it is entitled to claim without charge a copy of all books, journals, printed maps and music published in Britain and Ireland. The library is open those with a Cambridge or Oxford degree or a university job. Members of the public can also pay to use it. The library is mainly used for reference since the Cambridge colleges have their own libraries for use by undergraduates.