Historic library's £6m extension

The library has jottings by Edmund Halley about his comet

A new £6m extension to the world-famous University of Cambridge library opened on Monday.

It has been built to house some of the country's rarest manuscripts which all have to be stored at a constant temperature and humidity.

The library contains the jottings of Edmund Halley when he spotted a comet in 1682.

It also contains a 16th Century college admissions book which includes the playwright Christopher Marlowe.

The oldest document in the collection dates back to 1266.

But it is not just historic documents that are kept in the library. It also stores copies of almost every book and journal published in the UK every year.

That is the equivalent of around two miles of new books added to the collection each year.