if academic libraries had never existed, and you were designing a space for scholars to congregate . . . Would you, as at Oxford, build over 120 of them? Yes.

if academic libraries had never existed, and you were designing a space for scholars to congregate . . . Would you, as at Oxford, build over 120 of them? Yes. At least, in a university that was structured similarly to Oxford. I think an important point is that Oxford and Cambridge are collegiate universities: undergraduates spend a lot of time in their college, which provides accommodation, catering and libraries; if academic libraries had never existed and I were deciding how many study/congregation spaces to create, I would definitely have one in each college, and in each department. Oxford has 38 Colleges and 6 Permanent Private Halls, which this accounts for a significant proportion of the libraries. As most colleges and departments have some kind of hall/cafeteria, the number of places in the university serving food may also seem excessive to you.