The Second Reading Room
The Reading Room for Journals serves as an extension of the Study Area and was initially designed to consult one specific collection type: journals.
This 'second reading room' was conceived by van de Velde and then chief librarian René Apers as a room dedicated to modern scientific research, which was (and is) mainly published in journals. This was the place where a selection from all scientific disciplines was presented for consultation – the joinery, designed by van de Velde, was intended for this.
Due to the rise of databases and electronic journals in the 1990s and the digitisation that followed, the importance of printed scientific journals has gradually disappeared. Just like in the Study Area, the consultation has thus made way for new functions: meeting and studying.
Related to the journals were the (historical) newspapers, which could be consulted via a spiral staircase on the -1 in the so-called ‘newspaper cellar’. These newspapers are now available in the Reading Room for Special Collections.
