When Newcastle United announced plans to change the name of its historic and well-loved St James' Park stadium to raise sponsorship money, it unleashed a torrent of incandescent rage from fans.

Now the renaming of another august institution has provoked a wave of resentment from its supporters. Academics at the University of Cambridge are furious that officials are offering to alter the library’s title in exchange for cash.

“At this rate, one might set off for the University Library one morning to find it turned into a branch of Tesco,” Gill Evans, emeritus professor of medieval theology and intellectual history, said.

Professor Evans continued: “What is there to stop someone buying the library? The problem is that there could be a trade-off between the scale of the benefaction and restrictions on use for members of the university.

“People get very angry about name changes — it’s the kind of thing that really gets people’s goat. What if the library was to be sponsored by Bill Gates, or a firm of the calibre of Enron, or indeed Tesco? It could happen.”

Cambridge University Library is home to some of the most important collections of books and manuscripts in the world. But few people noticed a statement posted on the library’s website.

Marked with a weblink called “The ultimate commemorative naming opportunity”, it said: “Oxford has its Bodleian, Harvard has its Widener, Yale has its Beinecke, Manchester its Rylands. In Cambridge, the University Library is one of few such institutions of equivalent stature in the Western world that remains un-named. This represents a unique opportunity to recognise an exceptional and transformative benefaction in perpetuity.” It is also an extraordinarily timely opportunity.

“In 2009 Cambridge celebrates 800 years of the quest for understanding our world and ourselves, through scholarship. Its University Library has, for centuries now, been at the heart of this quest — and it remains so today. Astonishing in the scope, significance and sheer scale of its collections, the University Library is the nerve centre of learning and information at Cambridge, and alive to the needs of the future.”

The University Library has two million books on open stacks and 100 miles of shelves. It employs 350 people who acquire, catalogue, preserve and disseminate the many items that comprise the Library’s collections. The post of the university librarian itself is one of the most senior positions at the university.

Professor Evans told The Times: “The really strong feeling in the university is about the proposal to merge the University Library with various other things and radically alter its character ...

“There is huge fury about the lack of consultation about the big merger because it affects everyone involved in ‘learning and support services’ as it is now to be called, so any potential benefactor might become involved in deals to enable Cambridge to turn over resources intended for books to computing provision, language teaching, and all sorts of other pedagogical activities.”

A spokeswoman for Cambridge University said that it was “completely normal” for an institution of its calibre to explore the full range of fundraising opportunities open to it.

Anne Jarvis, Cambridge University librarian, said: “The University Library ... continues to seek external support so that it can enhance its collections and develop the services provided to its users. This proposal is no different to those already undertaken by most major research libraries.

“External donations are about helping the Library maintain its global position and enhancing the services provided, not detracting from them.

“With regard to potential figures/costs, that would obviously be a matter to be dealt with by negotiation at the appropriate time,” she said.

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