Hello! I’m Jess and I’m the Graduate Trainee Library Assistant at New College, Oxford.
Founded by William of Wykeham in 1379, New is one of the oldest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford, and it’s a truly beautiful place to study and work.
I joined the library team at the very end of my doctoral degree; before I submitted in late September, I was putting the finishing touches to my thesis in the evenings after work! Based at the University of Leicester, my PhD research focused on surviving manuscripts commissioned, copied, owned and read by women in early medieval Western Europe. The experiences and opportunities I had during the course of this research, which included travelling to libraries in the UK, France, and Germany to study manuscripts, inspired me to pursue a library career.
For a medievalist, like me, New College Library’s collections are a treasure trove. The college houses almost 400 medieval manuscripts and has retained more manuscripts from its medieval library than any other Oxford or Cambridge college.
I’m excited to work with some of these manuscripts over the coming year. I will be helping to organise exhibitions and facilitate access for researchers, whose work enhances our understanding of collection items. I will also have the chance to do some of my own research into items within the library’s collections and hope to write up my findings for New College Notes, the college’s scholarly e-journal.
I have joined the New College Library team at an exciting time. Last week, an exhibition about Cardinal Reginald Pole (1500 – 1558) opened at Lambeth Palace Library in which manuscripts from New College Library are on display. The exhibition, which runs until mid-December, explores the life of the last Catholic archbishop of Canterbury. Copies of Reformation Cardinal: Reginald Pole in sixteenth-century Italy & England, an edited collection of essays about various aspects of Pole’s life and work published to mark the exhibition, were delivered to the library last week.
I am very much looking forward to my year here at New College Library. I enjoyed meeting the first-year undergraduate students during 0th week and giving induction tours of the library. I’m excited to support New College students in getting the most out of the services and resources we provide and hope to encourage lots of them to access our wonderful special collections!
