Visit to University of Reading Special Collections Library

On Thursday 28th April, CILIP TV ran a visit to the Special Collections Department at the University of Reading. The following account of the trip has been very kindly supplied by Sophie Dorman:

 Our trip to the special collections at the University of Reading began with some of us having an informal chat while we waited for everybody to arrive. The different people in the tour group came from a wide variety of backgrounds and careers so it was really interesting listening to everyone’s different experiences.

Our guide for the event was Erika Delbecque, one of the librarians for the University Museums and Special Collections Services. The event began with a quick introduction and a tour of the building. The special collections service shares a building with the Museum of English Rural Life (which was unfortunately closed during our visit), and the building was originally a hall of residence for the students at the university. As such, it was not at all purpose built for a library, and it was very interesting to see how the staff had made the most of the space they had available. Our tour took us to the Reading Room and into a room which housed the Samuel Beckett collection. There were several other rooms which contained other collections as well. After the tour we sat down for a short talk about the service and the collections which can be found there.

The collection has many strengths, including children’s books, the history of publishing, and rare books about science and medicine. Erika explained that their collection development policy generally focussed on building on existing strengths rather than developing new ones. However, since the existing strengths already cover an extremely wide range of subjects the librarians find that very academically diverse groups of students and researchers make use of the service, and users are not limited to one or two areas of study. We also found out more about the acquisitions process, with many books being donated to the collection but others being especially picked out and purchased by the library. It was interesting hearing about the compromises that had to be made in order to house the special collections in the building, including how a separate area needed to be built in order to provide things like climate control for the preservation of rare books.

Photo courtesy of
Jeff Howarth TUC Library Collections

 

The highlight of the event for me was the showcase of some of the items in the collection. These included a 15^th century printed book still with its original binding (and with contemporary notes written in the back!), one of the Orlando (The Marmalade Cat) books by University of Reading alumna Kathleen Hale, and a souvenir from the Great Exhibition. We had plenty of time to examine and ask questions about these items, and were even allowed to take photographs. Once the event had finished we also had the opportunity to have a look around the special collections’ Ex Libris exhibition, which concerned marks of ownership in rare books.

 

All in all it was a very rewarding trip, and I found it especially interesting as I have an interest in special collections but currently work in an environment which is very far removed from what we saw on the trip. A big thank you to Erika for being our guide and to Sonja for organising the event.

Librarian and author Outi Pickering talks about her debut novel 'Two Point Five Cheers for the Library'

On Wednesday 2^nd March we enjoyed a presentation from the local librarian-cum-author, at The King’s Arms in Oxford. Thanks to Matthew Henry for writing this blog post. 

Outi introduced her presentation by explaining her background. She is Finnish and moved to England just before the turn of the millennium after completing an MLIS at Åbo Akademi. She had previously worked for a library supplier and in adult education, and had studied English and Italian for her first degree, specialising in Scottish literature. She also admitted to having been writing from childhood.

Since 2000 Outi has been assistant librarian at Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust’s Warneford Hospital in Headington and it is, perhaps, this environment that has provided a rich source of inspiration for her book, which describes a service forever under pressure from “the powers that be” yet is always being asked to do more with less while accommodating constant user-survey feedback.

To set the scene, the fictional library has recently – and accidentally, of course – been relocated into a broom cupboard (literally) and is staffed by characters such as Simon Pendrive, Mimosa Macaroon, Vladimir Logoff and Claire Twinsett, suffering from syndromes such as COCRAN (coffee and chocolate-related aggressive nervousness). My personal favourite is Fiona Fatica (Outi’s Italian coming in handy there).

The NHS Trust in question is, naturally, in Cardigan Bay. Without giving too much away, the book is chock-full of clever coinages (‘health-scare library’, ‘nil by mouth’, 'only buy a book you can classify easily’) and scenarios that would have anyone who’s ever worked in an office environment chuckling with recognition. For librarians, it’s almost too close to the bone.

To finish, Outi read us a preview of the next installment. It wouldn’t be surprising if some enterprising TV producer decided to make Two Point Five Cheers for the Library into the next The Office, so get on-board before it takes off.

Two Point Five Cheers for the Library is published by Olympia Publishers, ISBN 9781848976146. £8.99 in paperback.

Matthew Henry, library assistant at St Hugh’s College, Oxford. Twitter: @matthew1001001

Visit to the new Oxford Brookes University Library

Our last visit of 2015 was to the new Oxford Brookes University Library - many thanks to Emily Green for writing the following summary of the visit. Thanks too to the staff at Brookes for being so accommodating! 

On a rainy afternoon in November, librarians from the Thames Valley and beyond, made their way through the vast John Henry Brookes Building to the new Oxford Brookes University Library. Upon arrival, we were greeted with generous servings of coffee and cake, and a warm welcome from Helen Workman, Director of Learning Resources at Brookes.

Helen began by admitting that her and her staff were still very proud to show off their new library which opened in February 2014. After telling us a little about the history of the University, she outlined some of the key issues involved in planning and designing the new library and the building in which it sits.

With planning permission sought in 2007, the award-winning building took seven years to complete. Alongside the library, it now houses student services including the Students’ Union, the Careers Service, and numerous teaching and social spaces.

The library itself is designed around several key requirements identified by staff and students. Thus it is IT compliant, easy to navigate, welcoming and secure, and incorporates a range of study and social spaces, as well as staffed and non-staffed services.

Having polished off our coffee and cake, we now had the chance to see all of this first hand. Our thanks go to Helen Whittaker (Academic Liaison Development Team Leader), Vicki Gledhill (Metadata Librarian), and Dave Nolan (Planning and Communications Team Leader) for being our tour guides for the afternoon.

The first stop on my tour was the new Special Collections Reading Room. After showing us around, Archivist Eleanor Possart explained a little about Brookes’ main collections, and showed us some of their particular treasures. I particularly enjoyed learning more about the history of the university and about the publishing and literary prizes collection. I was also struck by the warm welcome we received and was pleased to hear that everyone is welcome to use the collections, whether or not they are academics or members of the University.

Our tour then proceeded to the rest of the library. With many questions along the way, we wound our way through staff offices, book stacks, and study spaces; marvelling at the size of the building, and pausing to consider interesting features. Everywhere we went, there was an obvious focus on the design of different spaces for different purposes and I really liked this aspect of the library. Whilst individual areas feel self-contained and have clearly been designed with specific purposes in mind, the library as a whole feels open, flexible, and engaging, and its students and staff seem to be thoroughly enjoying it. Helen and her team are rightly proud of this library and I hope to revisit as a reader in the future.

Emily Green – Assistant Librarian, University College, Oxford.