Celebrating Black History Month at the Taylor Institution Library 

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The Research Collection’s Black History Display in the Enquiry Desk room

As Oxford University’s library of modern languages and literature, the Taylor Institution has around 750,000 items in its care. These collections represent and explore a wide range of research interests, from Europe to the Caribbean, Celtic nations to Africa, and beyond. In doing so, the collections also recognise the problematic, colonial role Europe has played in Black history around the world. To celebrate Black History Month 2023 at the Taylor, and to demonstrate the diverse yet complex nature of our subject specialisms, I was given the opportunity to put together two book displays, one in the Teaching Collection and the other in the Research Collection, to celebrate this BHM’s theme: Saluting our Sisters. Here, I want to describe the display to you, as well as explain some of the reasoning behind picking out the books that I did!

The Books

Deciding where to start when choosing books for the display was difficult, to say the least – there were so many books that deserve the spotlight! Eventually, I settled on attempting to provide a taste of the wide range of resources we provide at the Taylor, while sticking to the theme as closely as possible. I also wanted to demonstrate the ever-evolving nature of the scholarship available. As a result, I decided to start with texts on Black feminism to give readers the chance to understand the theoretical background of the other materials on display. For the most part, these texts can be found in the gender studies section of the Main Reading Room and include the likes of Patricia Hill Collins’ Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment (2009) and Jennifer C. Nash’s Black Feminism Reimagined: After Intersectionality (2019). These texts focus on theories of intersectionality and the lived realities of Black women. Collins explores the complexities of Black women’s experiences in dealing with hierarchies of oppression and power. Meanwhile, Nash’s more recent work provides a new perspective by challenging the direction that Black feminist theory is currently headed within the field of women’s studies. By suggesting these two texts, I hoped to provide a basis from which to understand Black feminist theory, as well as an indication of where the field is headed.

The Black History Month Book Display on the First Floor of the Teaching Collections.

Works on the literature of Afro-Caribbean and Lusophone African writers also feature on the displays. In particular, they focus on the works of Black women such as Maryse Condé and Gisèle Pineau, with the likes of Reimagining Resistance in Gisèle Pineau’s Work (2023) and Conversations with Maryse Condé (1996) highlighting their work. Pineau’s novels are especially important in challenging Europe’s “colour-blindness,” and many of her works are available at the Taylor in the original French, such as Un Papillon dans la Cite (1992) and L’exil selon Julia: Récit (2020). Condé, on the other hand, is famous for her transgressions of identity, whether that be racial or gendered. She draws heavily on history to inform her own writing, for example in her work Ségou (1984) and Moi, Tituba, Sorcière (1986). To offer background for these texts, I also included American Creoles: The Francophone Caribbean and the American South (2012), as I thought this shed an up-to-date and exciting light on the historical impact and future potential of Caribbean literature.

Natalya Vince, Our Fighting Sisters: Nation, Memory and Gender in Algeria, 1954-2012

In terms of history, some of the texts also explore the contributions that Black women made in establishing civil rights, as well as national independence from colonial oppression. Two that stood out to me the most included Tiffany N. Florvil’s Mobilizing Black Germany: Afro-German women and the making of a transnational movement (2020) and Natalya Vince’s Our Fighting Sisters: Nation, Memory and Gender in Algeria, 1954-2012 (2015). Florvil focuses on sexuality and race to demonstrate the impact that Black German women played in forming the cultural, intellectual and social movement of Black German liberation in the 1980s. Meanwhile, Vince bases her research on women’s oral testimonies of the Algerian fight against French colonialism from 1954 to 2012. In doing so, she provides insight into how women perceived their nation post-independence and how this impacted wider national memory. Both are completely different in their methodological undertakings but are equally fascinating areas of twentieth  century history!

Tiffany N. Florvil, Mobilizing Black Germany: Afro-German Women and the Making of a Transnational Movement

Lastly, as I pulled the displays together, picking books and narrowing down my choices, I found that themes of resistance and identity were very strong in almost all of the texts. To provide background for this, I felt it was also necessary to display Franz Fanon’s seminal work on anti-colonialist theory, The Wretched of the Earth (2004 [1961]), as well as the more recent work on postcolonial writings such as postcolonial writings such as American Creoles. Ultimately, this tied into my aim with the display: to recognise where today’s scholarship in Black history and literature stems from, and where it is going now.

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Check out our X (Twitter) page to find out what else we Trainees have been doing to celebrate Black History Month! 

 

 

Bibliography:

Collins, Patricia Hill Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment, 2nd edition, (London: Routledge, 2009)

https://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/44OXF_INST/35n82s/alma990168122200107026

 https://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/44OXF_INST/35n82s/alma990214674470107026 (Tenth Anniversary e-book edition)

Connell, Lisa A. (ed.), Reimagining Resistance in Gisèle Pineau’s Work (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2023)

https://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/44OXF_INST/35n82s/alma990234024960107026

Condé, Maryse and Françoise Pfaff (ed.), Conversations with Maryse Condé (London: University of Nebraska Press, 1996)

https://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/44OXF_INST/35n82s/alma990121592680107026

Fanon, Franz, and Richard Philcox (trans.), The Wretched of the Earth (New York: Grove Press, 2004 [1961])

https://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/44OXF_INST/35n82s/alma990159505740107026

Florvil, Tiffany Nicole, Mobilising Black Germany: Afro-German women and the making of a transnational movement (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2020)

https://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/44OXF_INST/35n82s/alma990223034800107026

Munro, Martin and Celia Britton, American Creoles: The Francophone Caribbean and the American South (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2012)

https://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/44OXF_INST/35n82s/alma990193363250107026

e-Book edition: https://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/44OXF_INST/q6b76e/alma991022071082907026

Nash, Jennifer C., Black Feminism Reimagined: After Intersectionality (Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 2019)

https://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/44OXF_INST/35n82s/alma990217959030107026

E-Book edition: https://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/44OXF_INST/35n82s/alma991002555199707026

Vince, Natalya, Our Fighting Sisters: Nation, Memory and Gender in Algeria, 1954-2012 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2015)

https://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/44OXF_INST/1mkpd6e/alma990203307750107026

Lara Hatwell, Bodleian Law Library

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Hello! I’m Lara, one of two trainees at the Law Library this year, alongside Wanne, who beat me to the punch with his introductory post!

Immediately before joining the trainee programme, I had just finished my undergraduate degree in Ancient and Modern History at Lincoln College  – so I haven’t travelled far! Despite this, I had never once set foot in the Law Library, and was pleasantly surprised with how it looked inside, as from the outside it looks rather square and imposing. As most young people who love books, I’d always entertained the idea of working in a library, but was unwilling to fully commit to taking another degree, without knowing whether library work was the right fit for me. While working in some other historic sights of Oxford, such as the Ashmolean Museum and Christ Church college, I saw the trainee programme and I knew it was an opportunity I couldn’t miss.

The rolling stacks of Official Papers

The two Law Library trainees are split between Information Resources (me) and Academic Services (Wanne). This means I am much more involved with initial processing of books, and have spent much of my first month labelling, stamping and figuring out how to work the printer (the labels always print slightly slanted so this is a much harder task than it first may appear). Aside from this, a rather unexpected, but particularly enjoyable undertaking has been the sorting of official documents sent from the Irish Government. This is because the Law Library is also home to Official Papers, which houses British and Irish parliamentary papers and publications of other international organisations such as the United Nations. I am acquiring niche knowledge on various Bills and Acts (such as in 2021 the Irish Government banned the import of non-native honeybees – Bill No. 133 of 2021), which I hope will one day be put to use in a dramatic final round of a pub quiz.

Over the past week, the library has begun to grow much more alive, having been quite quiet when we first started. It’s been great to chat to all the new and returning students, although it really is challenging my knowledge of where everything is – I promise I do usually know, what I have yet to work out is how to give easy-to-follow directions. In the coming months, I’m looking forward to exploring all the different facets of academic librarianship and mastering the ground plan of the library!

Nia Everitt, Bodleian Old Library

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Hi! I’m Nia and I’m the new Graduate Trainee at the Bodleian Old Library. The Old Library contains two reading rooms, as well as the Duke Humfrey’s Library- of Harry Potter fame. It features as the restricted section of Hogwarts Library, but it is certainly not restricted to students wanting to study or read in there. The staff study in DH has also been home to me whilst completing my mandatory training- the most aesthetically pleasing place any online work training has taken place, I’m sure!  

The Selden End of Duke Humfrey’s

A few months ago, I was studying at the University of Manchester for my undergraduate degree in English Literature. Manchester is home to some amazing libraries and archives, and it is during my time as an undergrad that I discovered my love for this area of work. I volunteered at the Portico Library, located in Manchester city centre, which has a great collection of 19th century ‘polite literature’. I also spent some time archiving for the Pankhurst Centre, which is a women’s centre, heritage site and museum all–in–one. 

Working at the Old Library, however, is quite different to anything I’ve experienced before. You really feel the significance of hundreds of years of history, with the eyes of 202 great scholars and thinkers following you as you wander the Upper Reading Room. This collection of portraits is called the painted frieze. It’s exciting to play a part in such an awe-inspiring facility.

So far, my favourite part of my job has been that I get to chat to so many different people every day. The Old Library has such a variety of readers and visitors. When I’m working on the Main Enquiry Desk, I answer emails from people who are in the neighbouring building, to scholars on the other side of the world! I’ve also learned how to process new books going on to displays or the open shelves, which includes tattle-taping and stamping items. There is a desk dedicated to this, which sort of feels like an arts and crafts corner. It’s safe to say I am thoroughly enjoying getting to grips with all the different facets of working at the library.

A heron we’ve noticed on our trips back from The Punter- which we hope to see again and are dutifully searching for an ‘H’ name for- any suggestions? Humfrey? Hildegard?

As a student who spent their first year of university locked down in halls, my library was a sanctioned place I could go to feel less isolated. Although we’ve emerged out of the pandemic, I believe that the importance of this has not waned, and so I’m really keen to get involved with using the library as a place to promote student wellbeing. Aside from this, the training sessions that introduce us to different careers in librarianship, such as our recent talk on cataloguing, will be incredibly useful in helping me decide on how to move forward in this field. It also helps that there is a great cohort of trainees this year and that we’ve enjoyed many trips to the pub already!

If you see me in the Old Library or in the Radcliffe Camera (I can often be found in the Lower Gladstone Link, staring quizzically at the Nicholson sequence) please don’t hesitate to say hello and ask me any questions you may have!

 

 

 

Jessica Hodgkinson, New College Library

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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.

Picture of New College Library
New College Library in the sunshine!

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.

It’s amazing to have the opportunity to look at manuscripts like this early-fourteenth century Anglo-Norman Apocalypse (New College Library, MS 65).

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!

Anna Roberts, Sainsbury Library (Saïd Business School)

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The annexe, Sainsbury Library

Hello! I am Anna, and I am the Graduate Trainee at the Sainsbury Library.

The Sainsbury Library is the University’s Business and Management Library and is based on the first and second floor of Saïd Business School, Park End Street. Saïd Business School is the large building next to the train station, with a green ziggurat acting like a look-out tower. We are small, compared to some libraries, with a general purpose lower reading room, a cosy annexe, and a bright, airy upper reading room for silent study. My main duties so far have been to process new journals and books, repairing a book, helping out at the desk and with circulation, assisting with the Executive Education team and their reading lists (which is a whole other blog post!), and assisting with a variety of exciting projects. For instance, I put together a ‘Welcome to the World of AI’ book display (please visit or check out online). I am looking forward to other projects like an ongoing assessment of the sources used by students and making some new Libguides (guides for library users). I have also been learning about the subject of Business Information, in particular, the Business Information Ecosystem and the 60 business-related databases. Unsurprisingly, I still have a lot to learn and lots of database training to do!

The Library has another location at Egrove Park, in Kennington, where Saïd Business school hosts Executive Education courses. I am based at Park End Street but am looking forward to making a visit to Egrove. I have heard it is beautiful location as it is situated in 37 acres of wooded parkland with wildflower meadows. A colleague even spotted some deer waltzing around! However, apparently, the brutalist architecture is not for everyone but I reserve my judgment until I visit.

Whilst I am doing my traineeship in the Business Library, my background is nothing to do with the subject. I did my undergraduate degree in Philosophy and Mathematics at the University of Aberdeen and then an MLitt in Philosophy at SASP (St Andrews and Stirling Graduate programme in Philosophy). Aberdeen’s university library was a wonderful place to study, and the library is famous for looking like a massive ice cube and being inside of it certainly gives a similar impression, with all the outside facing walls being windows of glass. This allows you to see the city, from any point of the library and enjoy the coastline whilst freaking out about exams (hopefully it is calming and not stormy)! I continued working within various universities as a non-medical helper, primarily as Specialist Note-taker (if you need some fast typing let me know). This role meant I got to sit-in on lectures, take notes, and assist students who were studying a whole variety of subjects including Computing, History of Art, Childhood studies and even PGCE teacher training. It was lovely working with students to help achieve their goals and I knew I wanted to continue to assist others in any role I did in the future.

Me, next to part of the book display in the lower reading room, Sainsbury Library

I have always enjoyed libraries since childhood and in Sixth Form had one week of work experience at my local public library. I also worked at Bookends, a student-run bookshop on Aberdeen’s campus where I got a little snippet of shelving, auditing and processing books into our system (much simpler than Alma!). I am interested in librarianship because I believe in the key principle of libraries as preservers of past knowledge for future generations whilst providing access to information and resources to people now. For one of my dissertations, I did a lot of research about the philosophy of democracy. A key pillar of democracy (ideally) is to have a citizenship with a right to access a wide range of ideas and information. This broadens our horizons,  helping us to make informed choices and judgements, whilst also holding fellow citizens in roles of responsibility accountable. Every right we have has a corresponding duty/obligation that we have to each other to make sure everyone’s rights are fulfilled. Libraries act as a physical manifestation to fulfil important rights plus they act as great spaces to study and get lost in a book! I think it would be great to work in a field that has this grand role for society, but that achieves these abstract ends in very practical, everyday means by helping readers and preserving our collections. The combination of person-focused support and technical systems means that there is lots of variety in the field, on top of the variety brought by all the different subjects and I think this makes it quite an exciting career choice. I do not yet know if I want to focus on the readers services or the cataloguing/ technical side because, as perhaps shown my joint degree, I am bad at choosing between two things I enjoy!

I  hope to be an asset to the team at the Sainsbury Library, not just because they are fun and fantastic, but because they have been without a full-time graduate trainee for several years and they are very happy to finally be fully staffed! I am extremely grateful to be given the opportunity to work within such an esteemed institution as the Bodleian Libraries. Also, participating in their great training sessions on different aspects of librarianships, has so far, and I’m sure will continue, to be great!

 

Sorrel Fenelon – St John’s College Library

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Hello! I’m Sorrel and I’m this year’s trainee at St John’s College.

The Ortelius Atlas and other early printed books and manuscripts in the Old Library, ready for a Special Collections appointment

The Library and Study Centre in St John’s is roughly comprised of two main parts: a modern section, completed in 2018, and an older section. The latter comprises the Laudian Library and the Old Library, dating from 1635 and 1598 respectively. Fortunately for me, the beginning of my trainee year coincided with the reopening of the two older libraries, following a long process of renovation. I am lucky to have reason to work frequently in both spaces, shelving in the Laudian and helping with Special Collections consultation appointments in the Old Library.

Like many of the other trainees, my workload is very varied, and no two days are really the same. The past weeks have seen me processing books, checking reading lists, moving manuscripts, photographing early printed books, and preparing posters for new displays. Dealing with Special Collections has definitely been one of the most exciting parts of the job so far. The Library is home to around 400 medieval and modern manuscripts, 20,000 books printed before 1850, and the personal papers of the likes of Robert Graves and Spike Milligan. Some of the materials I have handled in my first weeks include a painstakingly hand-coloured ‘Ortelius Atlas’, dating from 1603, and a 18th century physician’s scrapbook, with ‘A piece of The tapeworm’ pasted and carefully labelled inside.

Before the traineeship, I was working in France as an au pair, studying French and volunteering at the American Library in Paris in my spare time. Before that, I completed my BA in History at the University of Cambridge, specialising in cultural and social history. Alongside my degree, I worked in a small Art museum, and it was this experience which really got me passionate about helping people to access information and ideas.

In the coming months, I’m looking forward to getting to know the library and the cross-library systems well enough to answer almost any reader enquiry with confidence! I’m also hoping to assist with work to ensure that our collections are accessible to an ever-increasing range of people.

Wanne Mendonck, Bodleian Law Library

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Hello all! I’m Wanne, one of the two trainees in the Bodleian Law Library this year, working in its Academic Services department. We share our lovely Brutalist building with the English Faculty Library, and I’m getting rather attached to the soft greys and whites of the peaceful Law Library reading room!

The Bodleian Law Library Main Reading Room before readers arrive
The BLL Main Reading Room

The BLL holds a varied mass of legal material, from law reports and legal journals over monographs on Roman, International and European Union law to books on Criminology and Legal Philosophy/Jurisprudence. We’re also home to the Bodleian’s Official Papers collection, comprising Bills and Parliamentary debate records, Royal Commission reports, UN material, and much more.

All this is quite a new world for me (and much more varied than I had imagined – Law really does engage with all aspects of life, as they say). During the earlier half of this year, I was working in the collection logistics department of Cambridge University Library (book moving, fetching, and all that), and, before that, finishing a PhD in English Literature at Cambridge (delving into the socialist poets and novelists of the Victorian and Edwardian period, and relations between literary form and the structures of political thinking). It’s great to explore a new field of information and how it’s curated – I’m learning about law reports with their different levels of authority, the differences between Bills, Acts and Statutory Instruments, the intricate citation styles of EU treaties, and all kinds of (to me, at least) formerly somewhat mysterious publications. Even more than that, though, it’s a delight to get to know all the various tasks that come with librarianship – by actually doing them, through enquiry desk shifts, shelving, editing online reading lists, getting to grips with Alma (together with everyone in the Bodleian – which is quite encouraging), loose-leaf filing (surprisingly relaxing), book moving, giving introductory tours, scanning material, checking catalogue records, etc.

Several rows of bookcases filled with legal monographs and law reports
A view along our cases, from private law to UK law reports and legal journals

My personal highlight, so far, is working with the library’s people, both my new colleagues, who have already been more than generous with their time and help, and the readers – something I very much craved after 4 years of solitary research. The satisfaction that comes with actually being able to help a reader is wonderful, and I’ve enjoyed learning about the links between librarianship and teaching, too. I don’t doubt this year will bring much more surprises: I’m looking forward to delving a bit deeper into cataloguing, looking into the way the other Bodleian libraries (and the CSF) do their library thing, and maybe even getting creative with my trainee project!

Some colleagues at the Cam UL may have jokingly referred to my Oxford move as a minor act of treason, but I’m very glad I committed it (and grateful to the spirit of Bodley for having me)!

Connie Hubbard, Oxford Union Society

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Me, looking awkward and librariany.

Hello! I’m Connie, the trainee for The Oxford Union Society. I graduated with a BA in Classical Studies from Reading University in July 2023. Throughout my final years of university I worked in my local public library, first as a volunteer, then as a Saturday assistant.

I love working for the Union, although it is not what you might call a normal library, though there are some aspects which are standard: our library, like the Bodleian, has many smaller libraries within it – the Old Library, the Poetry Room, the Goodman, the Gladstone Room and the President’s Office. We classify our books by the Dewey Decimal system or versions thereof. This is, however, where normality ends. The Library Committee, a group of all-powerful students, decide which books we will buy and which we will remove. We have fiction books for those who want to read for pleasure and famous Pre-Raphaelite murals in the Old Library which illustrate the story of King Arthur, from adolescence to death, in ten hard-to-see paintings. These faded because the artists, which included Dante Rossetti, William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones, did not prepare the wall first. Honestly! Didn’t they know what they were doing? The answer is no, definitely not – they were in their 20s (except Rossetti) and were paid in “tonic” (really gin). Meaning a group of young men were up ladders, possibly drunk, on the very narrow and rather high gallery (yet it is out of bounds today for health and safety reasons). On my first day the kitchen was being refurbished and, on taking up the floor, a ‘mysterious void’ was found with only a chair at the bottom. What the pit is, no one yet knows, although my co-worker insists that it is an oubliette. Unfortunately, we do not know if the chair had straps.

The Union has been described by Harold MacMillan as “the last bastion of free speech” and the variety of people who speak in debates is testimony to this. In fact, in my third week at the Union, the Prime Minster of Pakistan came to visit so we had security and police officers crawling around the building. The Union has also invited celebrities including Jack Gleeson, Michael Gambon and Stephen Fry as well as controversial figures such as Jordan Peterson, Ricky Gervais, and Katie Hopkins. In fact, in the no-platforming debate of 2019, the Society voted by vast majority not to support no-platforming.

Fran Allen, Social Science Library

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Hello, I’m Fran, the Bodleian Graduate Trainee at the Social Science Library.  

As one of the newer Bodleian libraries, what the SSL lacks in antiquarian charm is more than made up with functional air conditioning, natural light study spaces, and an onsite cafe as well as a very long issue desk. Despite only working here for just over a month I feel like I have been part of the team for longer as everyone has been so welcoming and generous with their time and knowledge. The size of the team and the library means that my duties as Graduate Trainee are varied but so far have included tour guiding, book processing, invoice issuing, desk manning and reading list checking. The role allows for a lot of independent working, but with an exceptionally strong support system any time I need help or guidance.  

I applied for the traineeship after a year working in the Bodleian’s Legal Deposit department, a role that was itself a career pivot from archaeologist via administrator/receptionist. Working in Legal Deposits was my introduction to the world of academic librarianship, and the reason I have chosen to pursue a career in this field. Prior to applying I had been apprehensive that the Bodleian Graduate Trainee programme was focused on the recently graduated but have found that I am not the only trainee to be entering the world of academic librarianship as a second or even third career. The varied backgrounds and experiences of the trainee cohort are a positive, allowing us to approach the traineeship with different perspectives.  

The traineeship felt like a natural step towards a career in academic librarianship. The role means that I have been fully immersed in the working culture of the libraries, understanding what an everyday working week entails, but with additional training opportunities and experiences built in alongside.   

Erin Minogue, Bodleian Art, Archaeology and Ancient World Library

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Image of full height bookshelves in the Art Library
The Art Library lower ground floor

Hello! I’m Erin – this year’s trainee at the Bodleian Art, Archaeology and Ancient World Library (we’re going with Art Library for short, the acronym BAAAWL doesn’t quite roll off the tongue!). 

The Art Library brings together collections on a range of subjects, including Classics, Ancient History, Archaeology, Art and Architecture, and Egyptology, among others. I also work across both the Taylor Institution and the Nizami Ganjavi Library and have immensely enjoyed working out the quirks of each of the three libraries. The past month has largely involved getting to grips with ALMA, processing new acquisitions, as well as helping readers out with enquiries, and beginning to grow more familiar with the shelf-marks of our collections! 

I’m delighted to be returning to Oxford, having completed my undergraduate degree in English at Mansfield College in 2020. Upon graduating, I spent the pandemic teaching A Level English Literature and literacy intervention lessons in a secondary school, whilst also working in the school library. I particularly enjoyed matching student readers with the perfect book to get them started with reading, and enjoyed the thrill of connecting reluctant readers with books as much as I’ve enjoyed helping academic researchers track down academic articles about Ancient Greece this past month.

Image of books about museums and art galleries in the Art Library
Books about museums and curating in the Art Library

I’ve recently completed an MPhil in English Studies at the University of Cambridge, specialising in contemporary novels, examining attention and reading practices in works responding, either explicitly or more obliquely, to the climate crisis. Having made the most of my year in Cambridge with numerous visits to the extraordinary Kettle’s Yard – a house and exhibition space belonging to Jim Ede, one of the first Tate Modern curators – I knew I wanted to combine my love of art and literature into a job. As a result, working in the Art Library has allowed me to combine these interests and means I come across works by a range of artists as I process new books for our New Books Display. I’m also immensely excited to put on some displays in the Art Library in the coming months, delving through the breadth of our collections whilst addressing contemporary concerns including the climate emergency and conversations around current museum practices, questions of ethics and display, and cultural restitution.  

 

What excites me most about the traineeship is the possibility of getting involved in many distinct aspects of libraries, including spending time working with special collections and learning the ins and outs of cataloguing. I intend on fully making the most of the generosity and goodwill of the excellent Bodleian Libraries staff to learn as much as I can!