The Saltire Centre is a modern and stylish library located on the Glasgow Caledonian University…read morecampus, near Buchanan Bus Station. It is also a public library, though if you do not have a student card you cannot take the books out of the library itself. Given the student population, there is not as many books as you might expect. It does have some you wont find elsewhere, including older ones and a good variety of academic journals. It has a speedy free wifi connection and a good cafe on level 0, with regular events ongoing in the building. It is also open 24 hours, seasonally. A great open plan environment that stimulates the senses and is always bustling with life. A great place to work, study and on occasion, play. When it is time to get down to some work, there are quiet floors that generate a more library-like feel. It is ALSO ideal if you are bursting for the toilet at Buchanan Bus Station and dont want to give them a billion pounds or whatever it is now to use their toilets. Power to the people.

If you have been a student at Caledonian in the last 5 years you will realise that the old library…read moreand the new library have no comparison to one another. The Saltire Centre, otherwise known as the new library is a wide expanse of computers and space, with books scattered throughout. The Saltire works so well in cold wintery Scotland because it joins most of the academic buildings, four in total can be navigated through this fine construction. I have heard a little on the architecture and the effect I think is achieved as a lively and yet calming environment to work individually and as a group. This is something that most universities do not have, instead it is silence as the traditional library is known. Well, I would say the Saltire with rather lax rules can be a bit too noisey and probably doesn't have enough computers for the student number. The cafe sells bananas for 25p though and scones with raisins which are often nice.

A lumbering, monstrous biulding, Strathclyde uni's library can be found on Cathedral Street, at the…read morenorth-east corner of the campus. Five levels of educational goodness await inside. Entering on level 3, there are 2 levels above you, and 2 below.The quiet study areas are often plagued by people indulging in fervent whispered conversations in the futile hope that this will not disturb other users. In the months and weeks leading up to exams, seats become increasingly rare and it is especially annoying if you need computer access to do work and other people are using them to chesk Bebo and Youtube. All the staff I have dealt with are helpful and professional. The library also carries an extensive back catalogue of academic journals, useful when conducting research. Discussion levels are provided on each level and these have proved invaluable during a group research project we carried out last semester. All in all, a good, well-stocked library!

Having studied at both of Glasgow's universities, I must say that while Strathclyde has a better…read moremix of students and dare i say it, better teaching, it's library just can't compete with the 12 floor behemoth in the West end. That's not to say it's not adequate. There are of course thousands upon thousands of books, plenty of computers (though at busy times you won't get near one), a cafe and "discussion areas" where silence isn't required, but it just never really felt like a place I wanted to study, and compared to Glasgow Uni the opening times are pretty limited. Good, but could be better.

I've sailed the ships of both Strathclyde and Glasgow university, and despite having learned a…read moresubject that has some relevance in the real world at this one, I can still firmly declare it as the second best uni in the city. The atmosphere at Strathclyde is far removed from the traditional / bohemian feel at it's rival, down to a combination of Strathclyde's concentration on engineering and business subjects, and it's tendency to attract a more state-school crowd. Though I found the teaching to be of a very high standard, I did find the atmosphere of the campus itself a little dull, though in fairness that may be to do with the fact i was doing a postgrad here and so less invovled in the after-class scene. The grey buildings and fairly featureless surrounding area are far less inspiring than the grandeur of Glasgow Uni and it's surrounding area, and the tired student union that seems to get less busy each year doesn't help. Ironically enough had I done my undergrad here I would probably have fitted in a bit better than I did with the more eccentric Glasgow Uni crowd, but it was those exact eccentricities that I loved about the place. At Strathclyde you'll never get the pleasue of watching your millionaire roomate stomping up and down on an anti-poverty march whilst being entirely unaware of the irony, nor will you get dusty old lecturers who still wear academic robes. You will however get a high standard of education and good student support in a functional, campus, so still top marks.

A great University with a good reputation…read more The campus is all over the place, in two different locations in fact. Unless you do teaching though, you're likely to be situated in the John Anderson Campus which provides sufficient challenges to navigate your way around from class to class. Good exercise! It's located near some great hot spots for nightlife, shopping, eateries and everything else worth investigating. They have a good Careers Service and a really good library. A PROPER library, where you can't even sneeze. The buildings are not as eye-catching as those at Glasgow University, and the overall teaching is not, in my humble opinion, as that of Glasgow Caledonian. Strathclyde is so huge, numbers wise that it's easy to get lost in the crowd and fail to make connections with staff. It's a great University nonetheless, overall.

You don't have to be a Strathclyde University student to go here, but a student anywhere will get…read moreyou in no bother. Not as lax as The Saltire Centre at Glasgow Caledonian University though, you need a student card to get in with a security dude there every minute of the day. It's proper quiet on the floors, proper quiet, and the staff are helpful and approachable. They have ALOT of books, with the majority of them being quite old it must be said. They are easy enough to find which helps. The PC's are good, but the printing involves alot more hassle than it deserves where you need to get a printing card and all sorts of nonsense. A good library, but not the best. There's a big merge coming up soon though with the Jordanhill Campus library though where they need to maximise the space in here somehow to include thousands more books. Good luck to them.

Much improved since I was a student here…read more A great library that students and academics of different institutions can use with ID and a SCONUL card. The merger with Jordanhill has taken place so loads of extra books are available on a variety of topics. At exam time it is open 24 hours and there are lots of new group study areas on level 2 as well as individual areas and power points for lap top usage on other floors. During day time hours, a little stationary/IT shop is open on level 3 and supplies are cheap. Great library, great resources and worth a visit for checking out those must have books or if you are just looking for a place to study!

Normally closed to the public it was opened for Doors Open Day. It started in 1855, has 12000…read moremembers around the world and holds over 35k publications. On a daily basis doctors wishing to specialise attend lectures and exams here. There's a lecture theatre and several libraries, I enjoyed reading about David Livingstone but I couldn't take my eyes off some of the art on the walls. I made a wee video http://ktch.tv/2lzH which shows some of it. As it's really three buildings merged into one there are a lot of nooks & crannies to explore but sadly they weren't all open to the public today :(

This wonderful branch of Waterstones is filled with gorgeous big bookcases full of every kind of…read morebook you could possibly want. I can easily spend hours in here, browsing the shelves, flicking through a few books and then wandering downstairs for a coffee at their little branch of Costa. Waterstones has managed to make this great big book shop into a comfortable and cosy feeling store that welcomes its customers warmly, with staff that are well read and more than able to advise on your purchases. A good old British book store that will be staying put for years to come.

This is not only Glasgow's largest Waterstones, it's Glasgow's largest bookshop. Actually, scratch…read morethat, I can do one better, it's Scotland's largest bookshop. This is a fact that Waterstones quite rightly takes a little pride in. It's split across five levels and includes a Costa Coffee in the basement. Certain indie coffee shop fans may turn their nose up at Costa, and while I sympathise, any coffee shop that's inside a bookshop automatically becomes a good coffee shop. I'm pretty sure that's a universal rule. I feel like in a good bookshop I browse differently to how I would online. If I'm looking for a book online, chances are I already know which book it is and I'm just trying to get the lowest price/nicest edition/fastest delivery time. In a real book shop you have that joy of exploring and of looking at books that you never knew you wanted (or even books that you never knew existed). It's easy to start on the top floor and lose 20 minutes, lose another 30 on the next floor down (that's non-fiction and reference covered), lose at least another hour on the next floor which contains most of the fiction, 20 minutes one floor below that , which is the level you enter on, the stock rotates a lot here and includes toys, gifts and (inhale sharply) stationary. See? You've already lost over two hours and you haven't even looked at the children's section or the young adult section. You've not even seen the books on travel! Or film! Or art! They're to be found across the next two floors alongside that coffee shop. It's a dangerous thing to enter a bookshop and the larger the shop the more dangerous it gets. Tell a friend to come looking for you if they don't hear from you after a day or two.

From my limited experiences of this institution I've mixed feelings. On one hand I think that new…read moreuniversities such as Cally, Napier, etc devalue higher education to some extent. They require few grades to get in and since their inception in 1992 the student population has grown to ridiculous levels, resulting in an over-populated graduate employment market and not enough jobs to go round. As a result many graduates find themselves rotting in call centres for years after their studies. On the other hand, Cally does seem to be well regarded in the I.T and science sectors, is one of the best places in the U.K if you want to study physiotherapy, and has an extremely vocational outlook in the subjects it offers. It also has incredibly modern facilities, the jewel in the crown being the futuristic looking library which is a far nicer study venue than the one at Strathclyde, which wouldn't look out of place on the wrong side of the Berlin Wall. Though the after-class scene has got a bit livelier in recent years, Cally students are mainly local kids still living at home or mature students and don't often stick around after 5pm and so the campus still has a bit of a day college feel to it, resulting in a fairly diluted university experience for many here. If you're planning on studying in Glasgow then Caledonian is obviously worth considering, but in most cases if you can get in elsewhere you'll be better off.

Glasgow Caledonian University is one of the more modern institutions in Glasgow and this is best…read morereflected in the new library, The Saltire Centre. The campus is all self contained which is excellent and the library links the different buildings together so that once you go inside, you dont have to go wandering around in the rain (as was once often the case all too often). It has a wide range of clubs and activities on offer in addition to a brilliant careers service and gym, with a notably excellent international students supports service. As such, the intake for international students is high. It is a lively place, with a bustling student body and committed staff who guided me safely through an Undergraduate Psychology degree. They are also very flexible with disabled students and offer great student support, in general.