Newnham College, Cambridge passionately that equality could only be expressed by women doing the same courses as the men, on the same time-table. This meant that Girton attracted a much smaller population in its early years. But the Newnham Council held its ground, reinforced by the commitment of many of its members to educational reform generally and a wish to change some of the courses Cambridge was offering to its men. In 1948 Newnham, like Girton, attained the full status of a college of the university. The university as an institution at first took no notice of these women and arrangements to sit
Libraries of the University of Cambridge have a working library, generally to support undergraduate teaching. Material in the College libraries will typically cover all Tripos subjects. Many of the Colleges also have special collections such as early printed books and manuscripts, and are often kept in a separate library. For example, Trinity College's Wren Library holds more than 200,000 books printed before 1800, while the Parker Library at Corpus Christi College, has one of the greatest early medieval European manuscript collections in the world, with over 600 manuscripts. Libraries of the University of Cambridge There are over 100 libraries within the University of Cambridge. These include