Promoting an Exhibition

Posted on 10 February 2023 by Caitlín K. — No Comments ↓

One of the exciting projects we can get involved in as trainees is preparing for and promoting library exhibitions, whether open to the public or exclusively to university staff and students. For LGBT+ History Month, New College Library will be putting on an exhibition on Queer Love & Literature in our collections on 25th February. We have a display case in the main library for small, longer-term exhibitions of about ten items, accessible to college members only. However, this is not suitable for large exhibitions like this one. We therefore book a room in college with enough space for long tables, which also allows us to open our exhibitions to the public. The downside is the room is not secure enough to leave any of our rare books and manuscripts overnight, therefore our large exhibitions are open for one day and one day only! This involves a lot of preparation to make sure we can set up and take down the exhibition as quickly and securely as possible on the day.

However, without people coming to see our wonderful collections, all our preparation would be in vain. For this exhibition, we’ve used some successful promotion tactics from our previous exhibitions as well as some new ones to usher as many people as possible through our doors on the day. First of all is the fun bit, designing a poster for the exhibition on Canva, with a uniform logo we’re using on all of our social media channels. We then sent the design off to a print company to have it printed in A2, A3, and A4. We “launched” the news of our upcoming exhibition on the 19th January on our social media, and sent an email out to the OLIS, Oxford Libraries Information System, mail list. I also changed our Twitter and Facebook profile headers to advertisements for the exhibition. Thanks to my fellow trainees, I sent out some posters to go up in other libraries and increase awareness of the exhibition throughout the university. I also go on a wander around college putting up posters in common areas such as the café/bar and the JCR. I’m also trialling some QR codes, linked to the event page on our website, displayed around the library. The LGBTQ+ Officers for the college’s JCR and MCR do a great job of organising their own events throughout the year such as queer drinks and LGBTQ+ formals, so we let them know about our exhibition so they can spread the word around college.

As our exhibition is for LGBT+ History Month, a campaign founded by Schools OUT to increase the visibility of queer people’s histories and experiences, we added our event to their public calendar. However, we’ve found social media is the most effective method to reach a wider audience outside just New College and the University. On our Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, we’ve been further teasing our exhibition by posting some of the items we’ll be displaying on the day with our exhibition banner underneath to make sure our followers don’t get sick of the same poster over and over again. I have scheduled a sneaky motion graphic to go out in the week before the exhibition, just to add a little spice. We also asked the Lodge to let us put a poster in an A-frame outside the college entrance on Holywell Street on the day to draw in any walk-ins and notify visitors where the exhibition actually is, as New College can be a bit of a maze. We’re quite lucky that our collections speak for themselves, including a 15th-century manuscript copy of Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, early printed books relating to King James VI and I, Oscar Wilde’s Ravenna inscribed by the author, and a first-edition copy of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando. There might be a few surprise additions on the day as we continue compiling the labels, but we’re hoping to show at least 30 items of queer literature.

We’re quite a small library and our exhibitions only last one day, so we don’t have the same resources and following to generate as much hype as some larger libraries’ incredible exhibitions, such as those at the British or Bodleian libraries, but we try our best! We’re also looking into putting on online exhibitions, so that our collections can be viewed digitally for longer, as it’s a shame they’re only on display for 6 hours at a time. This is the first of our exhibitions that we’ve put in this much work to promote, particularly on social media, so only time will tell if it works.

The Alpine Club Library

Posted on 26 January 2023 by sojkovab — No Comments ↓

Outside my day job as a graduate trainee librarian, I am a keen climber with an interest in climbing and mountaineering history and literature. In the past, I served as the Librarian of the Oxford University Mountaineering Club and the editor of its journal, and I spent long days paging through the OUMC’s rich guidebook collection, dreaming of working in a specialised library. When I first started my library traineeship and was encouraged to see various libraries, arranging a visit in the library of the Alpine Club was one of the first things on my to-do-list.

I do not suppose many of our readers will be familiar with arcane mountaineering terminology, so a bit of a background: the Alpine Club is the oldest mountaineering club in the world, founded in 1857 to facilitate access and exploration of the mountains of the world. Since its inception, its members have been the leading mountaineers and explorers of their generations, including household names such as George Mallory, one of the first mountaineers to attempt to climb Qomolangma (Mount Everest) in 1921, 1922, and 1924. Today, the Alpine Club is based in Shoreditch, London, and houses one of the most extensive collections of mountaineering literature in the world: over 30 thousand books, magazines, photos, and other archival material. Truly an exciting place for a budding climber-turned-librarian.

12 book spines in vibrant reds, greens, blues and browns. Many of them have gilt detailing or other decorations. — Pretty bindings in the Alpine Club Collection

To organise the visit, I reached out to Nigel Buckley, Assistant Librarian at Balliol College (my DPhil home) and the former Librarian of the Alpine Club. Nigel very kindly agreed to travel with me to London to show me around on a particularly sunny November Tuesday.

Upon our arrival to the hip borough of Shoreditch, the first of our two stops was the Library itself. Full of excitement, I foolishly did not take many photos, so my description will have to do. The Library, located in the first floor of the club house, is a small room with a handful of reading spaces, full up to a brim with all kinds of mountaineering literature: guidebooks, maps, biographies, historical accounts of climbing, or magazines. I even spotted the issues of Oxford Mountaineering Journal that I edited! After some time ogling at the shelves, Nigel showed me the digital catalogue that he created during his appointment using the free library management software called Koha.

The second stop – the basement – proved to be even more exciting than the Library. It houses all kinds of material, from journals, outdated climbing guidebooks, and historic collections, to paintings, photographs, and all sort of mountaineering paraphernalia. Ice axes, ropes, compasses, tents, you name it. At one point, Nigel opened a random drawer, and there was a pair of solid leather mountain boots!

What were some of my favourite objects? I fell in love with ice axe that used to belong to Dorothy Pilley (1894-1986), a pioneer British female climber who established many routes in Wales as well as further afield in the Alps. Although hundred years old, this tool seemed much lighter and sleeker than my own modern ice axe, and it has probably seen more action in the mountains as well.

An ice axe with smooth wooden handle and metal pick. It is held in someone's hands over its storage box which lies open underneath and contains book bound in black textured leather surrounded by tissue paper. — The ice axe of Dorothy Pilley

I also want to mention a couple of illustrations. The 19^th-century edition of Edward Whymper’s Scrambles Amongst the Alps made me excited for its excellent illustrations and lovely Victorian binding. Whymper (1840-1911), the first ascensionist of Matterhorn in 1865, was an engraver before he was a mountaineer, and his illustrations are an absolute joy. Furthermore, I loved the book plate of The Ladies Alpine Club (founded in 1907 and merged with the Alpine Club in 1975) which seems to capture the spirit of mountaineering very well.

There are many more books, paintings, and objects that Nigel showed me that day, but these should be enough to showcase the atmosphere of the library and the collection. We eventually made our way back upstairs to see the archives, and then moved towards the bar to finish our tour off with a pint. There was a lecture planned that evening – the cutting-edge British mountaineer Tom Livingstone spoke about his latest ascents in the Himalayas – so we stayed in London until about 10pm before catching the train back to Oxford.

I have enjoyed the visit tremendously, and I encourage you to make use of the Alpine Club collections if you are in the slightest interested in mountaineering and climbing. Many thanks, of course, go to Nigel Buckley for taking the time to show me around and chat about librarianship and mountaineering.

A black and white line drawing depicting four men on a mountain. The first man is falling off an icy overhand, his guide rope still attached but flying loose in the air. Below him three men stand on a ridge watching. Two simply lean against their sticks and observe, the third has sunk his ice axe into the ground beside him and has his arms wide in shock. — Illustration from Edward Whymper’s “Scrambles”

A decorative bookplate with a picture of a mountain scene. Below it texts reads: "The Library of the Ladies' Alpine Club" Above their moto reads: "per aspera as astra" with a small semi-circle containing seven stars right at the top. Around everything is a thin checkered border. — Bookplate of the Library of the Ladies Alpine Club

Library Lates: Sensational Books and Excavating the Egyptians

Posted on 7 December 2022 by watsonl — No Comments ↓

From reading rooms that smell of Rich Tea biscuits to practising calligraphy and visiting the fascinating Tutankhamun exhibition, the Library Lates at the Weston Library have been among the highlights of the first Michaelmas term working in Oxford for myself and previous and current trainees. The Library Lates took place in the evening between 7.00pm and 9.30pm and featured free talks, drop-in activities and exciting performances.

Sensational Books

The first Library Late took place in October and showcased the delightful Sensational Books exhibition at the Weston. It began with a guided tour of the exhibition by one of the curators, who spoke about the aims of the exhibition: to highlight different ways in which readers engage and interact with books using senses such as sight, sound, taste, smell, touch and proprioception. Books on display included illuminated manuscripts, pop-up books, very large and very small books that need to be moved with extreme care, books made from fruit and vegetables, the ‘cheese book’ (a book kept permanently in a fridge and made entirely of cheese slices, as the name suggests!), along with many more interesting and unusual items.

I was very much intrigued by the collection of bottled scents available for visitors to smell. Each one captured the aroma of certain books in the Bodleian Library’s vast collection, or the smell of certain readings rooms. For instance, the Duke Humphreys Library, I can now testify, smells of Rich Tea biscuits.

Following the tour, we had the opportunity to engage with a number of activities set up in the Blackwell Hall. These included embossing our initials in a Gothic font, attempting calligraphy, speaking with members of Bodleian Conservation and learning a bit more about the work they do. Along with other trainees, I found myself gravitating towards the Guide Dogs and then the printing press, where we had the exciting opportunity to create our own little prints which we proudly took home. We also had the chance to choose and take home a flip book – artwork commissioned by Oxford for the Sensational Books exhibition [1].

As well as activities, there were also several short lectures that visitors were invited and encouraged to attend. Topics ranged from the creation of multisensory books to the use of smells to support children’s engagement with books and their stories, as well as unusual books (including a presentation on a book covered in mushroom spores!) and what this means for libraries and conservators.

Excavating the Egyptians:

The second Library Late took place in mid-November (100 years since Howard Carter and his team discovered Tutankhamun’s tomb) and celebrated the wonderful exhibition: Tutankhamun: Excavating the Archive, which is still on at the Weston. A wide range of performances, presentations and activities awaited us in the Blackwell Hall. From watching screenings of an artist’s work, listening to analyses of Carter’s diaries, writing our names in hieroglyphs, playing ancient Egyptian board games in the Weston café, to being inspired by images of the golden Shrine to Nekhbet in order to create and emboss our own foil decorations, we trainees had an enjoyable and entertaining evening at the Weston.

I highly recommend visiting the wonderful (and free) Tutankhamun: Excavating the Archive exhibition, which is running until the 5th of February next year. Items on display include photographs and annotated drawings of the archaeological discoveries made during the excavation of Tutankhamun’s tomb, as well as pages from the diary Carter kept in 1922. Nearer to the end of the exhibition there was a short video which used records from archives to show what the tomb must have looked like originally in 1922 when it was first discovered.

References:

[1] https://visit.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/event/sensational-books

Trans Awareness Week at New College Library

Posted on 18 November 2022 by Caitlín K. — No Comments ↓

Here at New College Library, we put on a number of different book displays each term, ranging from new acquisitions that catch our eye, to showcasing certain awareness campaigns. This week it’s Trans Awareness Week, in which the trans community and its allies highlight the issues faced by trans, non-binary and gender-diverse people, and celebrate those raising awareness. This annual week of observance will culminate in Transgender Day of Remembrance on Sunday, to honour the memory of those whose lives were lost in acts of anti-transgender violence. In light of this week-long campaign for trans issues, I pulled together a display of books from our ‘Q’ shelfmark, set up a few years ago by a former trainee, comprised of LGBTQ+ histories, biographies, and fictional works. With so many interesting titles, I thought I’d take the opportunity to showcase a few of my favourite reads!

Juliet Jacques, Trans: A Memoir

This memoir by writer and filmmaker, Juliet Jacques, explores the personal story of her transition, while also critiquing 1990s and 2000s trans theory, literature and film. Jacques narrates her journey of self-discovery, giving an in-depth account of her entry into the LGBTQ+ community and her struggles with her identity; ‘I felt trapped not by my body, but by a society that didn’t want me to modify it.’ From her earliest experimentation with her presentation, we learn how films, books, and music that focus on trans identities helped Jacques explore and come to terms with her own identity. In 2012, Jacques chronicled her sex reassignment surgery in the Guardian, hoping to educate others on the harsh reality of transitioning and the importance of trans rights. Jacques’ memoir combines the personal with the political, exploring controversial issues in trans politics and promising to redefine our understanding of contemporary trans lives.

Jen Manion, Female Husbands: A Trans History

In this dynamic LGBTQ+ history, Jen Manion uncovers the stories of ‘female husbands’, a term from the 18th and 19th centuries that referred to female-assigned individuals who lived as men and married women. Manion recounts the stories of these queer pioneers, who exposed themselves to media sensationalism and, at worst, violence or threat of punishment. Rejecting the notion that reclaiming transness in the past is ahistorical, Manion refuses to define the gender identity of these ‘female husbands’, among them Charles Hamilton, George Johnson, Frank Dubois, walking the line between recovery and historicization. It is precisely this complexity that makes this such a powerful read, forcing us to challenge modern binaries of gender and sexuality as we retrace the histories of our queer ancestors.

Christine Burns, Trans Britain: Our Journey from the Shadows

Through a number of very personal stories, this book retraces the journey of the trans community in Britain from the margins of society to the visible phenomenon we recognise today. In their own words, trans rights advocates tell the story of the fight for their rights in the face of overwhelming opposition, and it is impossible not to respect their determination. For those interested in the current ongoing discussions about trans rights, this book is an excellent resource, despite being a difficult read at times.

Kai Cheng Thom, Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl’s Confabulous Memoir

This surrealist novel tells the story of a young, unnamed, transgender woman who lives with other trans women on the Street of Miracles, where different kinds of sex work take place. In response to the murder of another trans woman, the others form a vigilante gang and start attacking men on the street. Kai Cheng Thom herself is a non-binary transgender woman, who, as a writer and poet, exaggerates people from her life as characters in her work. As a response to the trope of transgender memoirs educating cisgender individuals about trans lives, Thom instead wrote Fierce Femmes to be the book that would have best helped her as a transgender teenager.

An Expedition to St Edmund Hall

Posted on 18 November 2022 by Ruth — No Comments ↓

In the middle of a mild October, myself and some of my fellow trainees attended a tour of the libraries at St Edmund Hall (SEH). This visit was prompted by their exhibition of ‘Poem, Story & Scape in the work of Kevin Crossley-Holland’ and also, admittedly, curiosity to see how another college organised their libraries.

When I reached out to the library team at SEH about visiting the exhibition, they very kindly offered to talk us through not just the exhibition, but also give us a behind the scenes of the Hall and its libraries (and medieval crypt! Result!)

A photograph of pillars in the medieval crypt, a small window lets in a little light. The ceiling is made up of a series of arches. — A snap of the medieval crypt beneath the church, now library!

Curated by Dr Catherine Batt, Senior Lecturer in Medieval Literature at the University of Leeds[1], the Crossley-Holland exhibition was first shown at the Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery. Since this debut it has made its way to Oxford and, more specifically, the Old Library at SEH.

Crossley-Holland studied English at SEH and is a ‘prize-winning children’s author, translator, poet, librettist, editor and professor’[4]. I was familiar with his Arthur books from reading them as a child. These absorbing stories intertwine Arthurian legend with the story of a boy living at the turn of the 13^th century who sees these myths unfolding in a lump of obsidian[5]. It could be fair to say that these books (along with the BBC’s Merlin, of course) sealed my fate with regards to my un-wandering obsession with the knight-errant.

Crossley-Holland is an honorary fellow at SEH so it seems fitting that an exhibition charting his explorations of language, place and legend would be held there, possibly where his love for all things Arthurian began.

On the day of the tour, we learnt that the library collection at SEH began under the crafty eye of Dr Thomas Tullie, who was the principal of the Hall from 1658 – 1676. He introduced a tradition by which departing students would gift the Hall with a book or silver plate worth £5. That was no small fee in those days – £5 would be what a skilled labourer would earn in 71 days![2]. These rather substantial tokens of gratitude for lessons learned at SEH shaped the collection that still survives to this day.

Before Tullie’s scheme, the Hall (the first documented reference to which dates to 1317[3]) had existed for many years without a library, but on our visit to SEH we were treated to tours of not one but two libraries, and I feel as though their addition can only have changed the Hall for the better.

The Old Library

The first stop on our tour was the Old Library – this is where the books that were gradually gifted by students as they left the Hall from the 1680s found their first home.

The books in this library cover a range of subjects and serve as a window into the tastes and tilts of the Hall’s attendees across its history. Upon our visit, yet another window into the Hall’s more recent history was open to us.

The ‘Poem, Story & Scape in the work of Kevin Crossley-Holland’ exhibition tracks the works of Crossley Holland chronologically, beginning at one end of the Old Library with books containing the Old English texts and fragments he would have studied as a student, and ending with his most recent publications. This journey through literary history and Crossley-Holland’s own academic ventures ducks and dives in and out of rabbit holes of a creative’s endless fascinations – we see explorations into photography, fiction, poetry, translation…

The closest end of the table upon entering the Old Library was laden with what felt like a crash course in Old English. I felt transported back to the beginning of my own degree in English Language and Literature, with manuscripts holding translations of Cædmon’s Hymn and many versions of Beowulf, including a translation by Crossley-Holland himself. It felt like watching the new iterations of inspiration from texts that have moved readers, writers, artists and students for hundreds of years literally spill out of these works as you moved through the room and exhibition.

A photograph of a book open to a page of an image of a man kneeling, being knighted with a sword on his shoulder by a man dressed in medieval knight's attire. — Crossley-Holland book image – a knighting. Held open by a snake weight!

Prior to starting at Christ Church as a library graduate trainee I spent some time working in a gallery. I am really interested in how the space an exhibition is displayed in influences and informs the work and the way it’s experienced. At the Old Library at SEH you spiral up a narrow staircase to a room filled with dark wood, grated bookshelves and warm light – the exhibition is just asking to be poured over.

One of my favourite aspects of the exhibition was the artworks that Crossley Holland has commissioned over the course of his career to compliment his work. Hung from the grating on the shelves, these images ranged from intricate prints to expressive illustrations.

Here are a couple of my favourites:

Lino print framed image of a battlefield with two knights on horses in the centre attacking each other with spears. — ‘Malory’ by Edward Bawden

This piece is titled ‘Malory’ and is a lino print by Edward Bawden: bold, with a particularly playful depiction of chainmail, though a rather violent depiction of everything else…[6]. Bawden and Crossley Holland worked together on Chronicles of King Arthur.

Photograph of the front cover of a book, a block print of a man and a large cat standing behind him. — The front cover of Axe-Age, Wolf Age by Kevin Crossely-Holland, illustrated by Hannah Firmin.

Hannah Firmin’s pieces in Axe-Age, Wolf-Age particularly charmed me. Plus, the brightly coloured block prints in this selection of Morse Myths make for a lovely contrast to the bold black and white of Bawden’s lino prints.

Student Library

Towards the more joyfully bizarre end of the Oxford libraries spectrum we have SEH’s working library – housed in a 12^th century church, St Peter-in-the-East. The church was deconsecrated in 1970, but readers in this library still work above a medieval crypt – one wonders if there is a notable influence on student’s work from such proximity…

Photograph of books on a shelf moved aside to reveal tiling with an angel face and gold wings on it. — Tiling revealed from behind a wedge of German Dictionaries – it makes me wonder what other treasures might be lurking behind the books across Oxford…

The approach to the library is a pathway through a graveyard – a rather maudlin approach to a study session, perhaps. (If you want to become better acquainted with those lining such an expedition, SEH’s website has transcriptions of the names on the gravestones[7]). Once in the library and weaving through student desks, our guide pointed out gorgeous tiling decorated with angels – hiding, slightly shyly, behind a row of German dictionaries. Stained glass splashes the working space with colour and a stone tomb stands in line with a study desk. The bronze plates that adorn its surface were apparently pilfered from another tomb – the features of a different family are thought to be engraved on the other side!

A photograph of the surface of a stone tomb decorated with thin bronze plate int he shapes on people, engraved with finer details. — A stone tomb with gorgeous bronze inlays.

All the accoutrements of a church used as a place of worship until 1965[8] brush shoulders with the conveniences of a modern library here, and the effect is distinctly unique. Slinking through the stacks in this library feels like embarking on a treasure hunt – can you spot all the signs of hundreds of years of history?

I’d like to finish this post by thanking the lovely library team at SEH who very kindly showed us around and shared the fascinating history of the Hall and its libraries with us – we had a wonderful time!

References:

[1] https://library.leeds.ac.uk/events/event/1900/galleries/413/poem-story-amp-scape-in-the-work-of-kevin-crossley-holland

[2] I think this is my new favourite website…https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/currency-converter/#currency-result

[3] https://www.seh.ox.ac.uk/discover/explore-teddy-hall/history-of-the-hall

[4] https://www.seh.ox.ac.uk/news/poem-story-and-scape-in-the-work-of-kevin-crossley-holland

[5] https://www.kevincrossley-holland.com/fiction/

[6] See more of Bawden’s work here: https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O88947/the-lord-of-the-tower-book-illustration-bawden-edward/

[7] https://www.seh.ox.ac.uk/discover/explore-teddy-hall/history-of-the-hall/history-of-st-peter-in-the-east/gravestone-transcriptions

[8] https://www.seh.ox.ac.uk/discover/explore-teddy-hall/history-of-the-hall/history-of-st-peter-in-the-east

Pharaoh-d to Discovery: Tutankhamun 100 Years On

Posted on 4 November 2022 by JAI — No Comments ↓

‘Never give up, you might be closer than you think’ seems like the kind of statement you would find on a fridge magnet, but also has surprising relevance when it comes to one of the greatest archaeological discoveries in modern history.

After several fruitless dig attempts, Howard Carter and his team were almost at the point of downing tools and leaving the Valley of Kings for good when, one hundred years ago exactly, the steps to the tomb of Tutankhamun were suddenly unearthed, and the field of Egyptology changed forever (Carter, 1972).

Although Carter seemingly adopted an air of nonchalance, simply recording ‘first steps of tomb found’ in his diary (The Griffith Institute, 2022a), the excitement at such a significant discovery must have been palpable. 100 years on, Tutankhamun remains somewhat of a figurehead of Egyptology, and our fascination with the Boy King shows no signs of slowing. In Oxford alone, there are talks and exhibitions celebrating the anniversary of the discovery, and I was lucky enough to assist the Egyptology subject librarian, Susanne Woodhouse, with a book display in the Sackler.

As the Sackler houses a large collection of Egyptology books, there is naturally a plethora of resources related to Tutankhamun. Fortunately for me, Susanne had already decided which books should be featured in the display, focusing on four clear categories: the excavation of the tomb; Tutankhamun and the British Museum; Tutankhamun and Oxford (Howard Carter’s excavation archive was moved to the Griffith Institute, housed within the Sackler by his niece, Phyllis Walker after his death (The Griffith Institute, 2022b)); and Tutankhamun’s place in history. All that was left for me to do was track down the required titles (with a little help from the incredible interactive floorplan of the Sackler) and create a mock-up of the display to make sure it was aesthetically pleasing but with enough structural integrity to prevent collapse if readers wanted a closer look at some of the items, before setting up the final display on the ground floor. As well as the books and journals, we also added some flyers for the exhibition on Tutankhamun at the Weston Library and used a reproduction of one of the painted sides of a box found in the tomb to create a visually striking display (Davis and Gardiner, 1962).

As someone working in the library sector, I particularly enjoyed learning how objects from the tomb were handled- Carter had no formal archaeology training, but working with a small team, managed to carefully catalogue, transport and protect over 5000 items (López and Healy, 2022).

Tutankhamun has captivated people around the world for one hundred years- from cigarette cards and hieroglyphic wallpaper in the 1920s (Masters, 2014/ Riggs, 2019) to today’s increase in Egyptian-led excavations in and around the Valley of the Kings. And with the new 889-million-pound home for the objects found in Tutankhamun’s tomb (The Grand Egyptian Museum) hopefully opening in 2023 (Mueller, 2022), Tutankhamun’s popularity shows no sign of waning.

Although we may never know the full truth about Tutankhamun’s short life and unexpected death, the tomb and its contents still have secrets to share. Professor Yehia Gad, a geneticist and expert in the field of DNA analysis of ancient mummies, is currently studying samples from Tutankhamun with the hope of shedding some light on his family history and potential hereditary conditions (Mueller, 2022).

It’s clear that although Tutankhamun may be long gone, his legacy continues to inspire- who knows what the next 100 years will uncover?

Tutankhamun: Excavating the Archive is a free exhibition at the Weston Library (in collaboration with The Griffith Institute) running until the 5th of February 2023. More information can be found here.

[NB the Sackler Library has now been renamed to the Art, Archaeology and Ancient World Library]

A table with books on Tutankhamun — The finished book display at the Sackler Library

Carter, H. (1972) The tomb of Tutankhamen. [Abridged]. London: Sphere. CHAPTER 5, p.31

Davies, N.M. and Gardiner, A.H. (1962) Tutankhamun’s painted box : reproduced in colour from the original in the Cairo Museum. Oxford: Griffith Institute.

López, A.L. and Healy, P. (2022) Filled with riches- and meaning. Washington: National Geographic. November 2022, pp.74-75

Masters, T. (2014) ‘Tutankhamun: How ‘Tut-mania’ gripped the world’, BBC News, 24 July. Available at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-28403598 (Accessed 31 October 2022)

Matḥaf al-Miṣrī (1926) A short description of the objects from the tomb of Tutankhamun now exhibited in the Cairo Museum. [Cairo: Egyptian Museum].

Mueller, T. (2022) ‘Egypt’s new £889 million museum is fit for a pharaoh’ , National Geographic, 19 October. Available at https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/history-and-civilisation/2022/10/egypts-new-ps889-million-museum-is-fit-for-a-pharaoh (Accessed 31 October 2022)

Riggs, C. (2019) Photographing Tutankhamun : archaeology, ancient Egypt, and the archive. London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts (Photography, history: history, photography).

The Griffith Institute (2022a) Excavation journals and diaries made by Howard Carter and Arthur Mace. Available at: http://www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/discoveringTut/journals-and-diaries/season-1/diary.html (Accessed 31 October 2022)

The Griffith Institute (2022b) Tutankhamun: Anatomy of an excavation. Available at: http://www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/discoveringTut/journals-and-diaries/season-1/diary.html (Accessed 31 October 2022)

A look at New Books for Black History Month at the EFL

Posted on 28 October 2022 by Abby — No Comments ↓

One of my favourite trainee jobs is getting to spend time with all the new books that arrive at the EFL – from stamping and stickering to putting them out on display. I also write a blog post each month highlighting a few of the new books that caught my eye. Some months, we have so many interesting books that I simply can’t choose and end up writing two posts! That’s what happened in October – we had a lot of new books by black British and African American writers arrive at the library and, seeing as October is Black History Month, it seemed like a good opportunity to spotlight a few. If you’re interested in other new books at the EFL, you can check out our monthly blog posts or find all our new books on LibraryThing. If you’re visiting the library, be sure to check out the selection on the new books display!

Ferdinand Dennis, The Black and White Museum (2022).

Ferdinand Dennis was born in Jamaica before moving to London with his family at the age of eight, and themes of migration and one’s roots are woven into the very fabric of his work. The Black and White Museum, a short story collection which follows a series of characters in London, is no exception. Together, the stories encompass ‘generational conflict, the social threat of black men, the wistful longings that disrupt lives, [and] the powerlessness of the old’ (from the publisher) against a backdrop of gentrification and change in London since the mid-twentieth century. As Dennis’s characters grow older, some are tempted to leave London and return ‘home’, only to find that just like the London of their youth, home has changed too. Dennis often leaves his characters and their stories abruptly, before any sense of resolution is reached. This has the effect of underlining the uprooted, interrupted, and diasporic experiences of so many of Dennis’s characters, all of whom ultimately want only to feel that they belong.

Also by Ferdinand Dennis at the EFL: Duppy Conqeuror (1998) ; Voices of the Crossing: The Impact of Britain on writers from Asia, the Caribbean and Africa (2000).

Natasha Brown, Assembly (2021).

Perhaps the first thing you might notice about Natasha Brown’s debut novel is its brevity – it runs to only 100 pages, and even the narrative style is characterised by brief and fleeting vignettes in the life of its unnamed narrator. That narrator is a black British woman who has achieved all the trappings of success, from an Oxbridge education to homeownership and a successful career. But when she is diagnosed with cancer, those successes start to ring hollow. By unpacking her narrator’s experiences, Brown confronts the reader with the endless, everyday racism black British women face. This, then, is ‘a story about the stories we live within – those of race and class, safety and freedom, winners and losers’ (from the publisher). The brevity of Brown’s prose does not detract from the relentless and exhausting racism her narrator comes up against, nor does it diminish the emotional punch of the novel’s conclusion.

June Jordan, The Essential June Jordan (2021). Edited by Christoph Keller and Jan Heller Levi.

June Jordan (1936-2002) was an American poet, activist, journalist, essayist, and teacher. She wrote prolifically, publishing over 25 works of poetry, fiction, and essays, as well as children’s books, journalism, and even lyrics for musicians, plays and musicals. Not only was she an active participant in the politics and struggles that defined the USA in the second half of the twentieth century – from civil rights and feminism to the anti-war and gay and lesbian rights movements – she chronicled those movements too. In this collection, you will find poems exploring issues of gender, race, immigration, and much more, all characterised by Jordan’s ‘dazzling stylistic range’. These are poems ‘moved as much by political animus as by a deep love for the observation of human life in all its foibles, eccentricities, strengths and weaknesses’ (from the publisher). While her poems can and indeed should be read as revealing the heart of the politics, debates and struggles of twentieth-century America, they should also be celebrated for their beauty and musicality.

African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle & Song (2020). Edited by Kevin Young.

This anthology of African American poetry, edited by Kevin Young, covers an incredible breadth of poets, poetry, and time periods. The poems are presented in chronological blocks, taking the reader all the way from 1770 to 2020. The poetry styles range from formal to experimental, vernacular, and protest poetry. The selections are hugely varied in terms of theme, too, encompassing ‘beauty and injustice, music and muses, Africa and America, freedoms and foodways, Harlem and history, funk and opera, boredom and longing, jazz and joy’ (from Young’s Introduction). Featuring contemporary African American poets alongside little-known and often out-of-print older works, this is a truly expansive anthology. But Young doesn’t only offer us an enormous breadth of poetry and poets. Each work sits alongside a biography of its author, as well as comprehensive notes which highlight the cultural and historical contexts of the works and, indeed, of the African American experience since the late eighteenth century.

NoViolet Bulawayo, Glory (2022).

Glory is NoViolet Bulawayo’s second novel and, just like her debut (We Need New Names, 2013 – also at the EFL), it features on the Booker Prize shortlist. Bulawayo here satirises Robert Mugabe’s surprise fall from power in Zimbabwe, in the form of a reimagining of Orwell’s Animal Farm described as ‘allegory, satire and fairytale rolled into one mighty punch’ (from The Guardian’s review, March 2022). The country of Jadada has the longest-serving leader any country has ever had, a horse named Old Horse – that is, until he is deposed and supplanted by his erstwhile vice-president turned rival. The hope that regime-change brings quickly gives way to despair once it becomes clear that the corruption, violence, and struggles of daily life in fact remain the same. Into the gap left by lost hope steps Destiny, a young goat newly returned from exile, who seeks to witness and document the cycle of revolution and violence. While anyone familiar with the events in Zimbabwe of late 2017 will recognise certain figures and moments, there is also a universality to Bulawayo’s observations and the innovative dexterity of her prose that speaks to something timeless and entirely human.

Also by NoViolet Bulawayo at the EFL: We Need New Names (2013).

Race in American Literature and Culture (2022). Edited by John Ernest.

In this volume of essays, edited by John Ernest, you’ll find explorations of the representations of race in nineteenth- and twentieth-century American literature, representations which – it is argued – are key to understanding the whole of the United States. After all, race shapes everything, from economic policy to where people live, forming the ‘ominous subtext’ of the legal, judicial, and wider governmental infrastructure of the state. The contributors to this volume explore how literature has variously been used both to cement racial visual images in the public consciousness and to fight back against those images, to separate people along racial lines and to form communities. Taken together, the essays do not aim to provide a comprehensive or chronological history of race in American literature; rather, they seek to ‘place readers in this chaotic process of literary and cultural development – caught up in a story, already in progress’ (from Ernest’s Introduction).

Also available as an ebook.

Black History Month at the SSL

Posted on 26 October 2022 by morganashbycrane — No Comments ↓

A snapshot of the SSL's Black history month display, featuring four books: Black Faces, White Spaces, 100 Great Black Britons, Voices of the Windrush Generation, and The Color of Law. — Part of the SSL’s Black History Month Display

In my introductory post, I mentioned a Black History Month display, and in this post I hope to talk a little more about how it was put together at the SSL. While I organised and physically constructed it, the credit for text and research goes to the subject librarians. I asked them in the last weeks of September to put forward a book with an accompanying recommendation, either reviews of the book that they thought held it in high regard, or their own words on why they thought it was an important, worthy read. A balance had to be found between books that were good recommendations, but also ones that we had in the library as physical copies.

The actual display in the SSL: four books are accompanied by their recommendations, and a final shelf displays images of three e-books as further reading. — The main Black History Month Display in the SSL

As I received e-book recommendations as well, I provided posters with QR code links through to the online resource, as we would normally for the month’s new e-book acquisitions. As a rule, these tend to be titles on reading lists, and are on balance intended for a more academic audience. The books we displayed physically are by and large a little more appropriate as general reading for people regardless of their academic background.

I transcribed the recommendations onto documents in the SSL’s house style and sourced some display stands, then arranged to replace half of our new books display with the BHM display for the duration of October. I was keen to get the display on show during 0th week when we had our tours going around the library; it’s of course important when welcoming new students that you give a positive impression of the library (and university). I hope that we therefore established ourselves as an institution that is keen to engage in learning how to be anti-racist, and indeed one that is keen to take anti-racist action. This is just a display, and to live up to that hope we’ll need to take action year-round and be conscious of what we can do to stand up against racism (and anti-blackness in particular) both within the university and outside it.

The books and recommendations can be seen in more detail on the SSL blog.

If anyone has suggestions for other books we should highlight, I’d be delighted to hear in comments below, or marked for my attention in an email to ssl@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Morgan

Visit to the Inns of Court Libraries

Posted on 15 July 2022 by brownj — No Comments ↓

Planning the trip

Heather Barr, St Edmund’s Hall Graduate Library Trainee

Lucy showing us the shelves that house the 1800s collection — Lucy showing us the pre 1800s texts

One of the really great things about the Oxford Traineeship programme is that we get to spend time as a cohort training (and socialising!) together. It is wonderful to have a ready-made network of other early-career librarians, and to be able to learn from and share with each other. I know that I have felt exceptionally lucky to work alongside the other trainees, and I have really valued the chance to learn about the workings of different libraries across the university. So, when Abi Cass (Bibliographic Services Librarian, Gray’s Inn) was looking for visiting opportunities for the Graduate Trainees at Gray’s Inn, London, I was immediately keen to get in touch! Abi and I organised a tour-swap, giving the Inn trainees an opportunity to visit a variety of Oxford libraries and a group of Oxford trainees the opportunity to visit Gray’s Inn. In addition, Abi even negotiated the Oxford trainees a free lunch at Gray’s Inn, and visits to the Lincoln’s Inn and Middle Temple Libraries as well, which was extremely generous. Six of us made the trip to London, where we were hosted by Lucy Fletcher (Graduate Trainee, Gray’s Inn).

A personal highlight for me was Lucy’s excellent overview of the history and role of the Inns of Temple (of which Gray’s Inn is one of four). Historically, it was the Inns which provided legal education. Today, it is still only through membership at one of the Inns that you may train to become a Barrister, and they each provide teaching support, scholarships, and – of course – libraries of resources for their members.

A statue of Francis Bacon in front of the ivy covered facade of Gray's Inn Library — Francis Bacon in front of the library

Gray’s Inn Visit

Elizabeth Dawson, All Souls College Graduate Library Trainee

A view of the reading room from the first floor gallery — Overlooking the main reading room from the gallery

We were met by Lucy Fletcher, who started her traineeship in April, but nevertheless gave us a great tour of Gray’s Inn Library and an overview of how the Inns of Court work. There are four Inns of Court: Gray’s, Lincoln’s, Inner and Temple, each of which has its own legal library. Not coming from a law background, I was interested in how barristers and law student use the space, and how much they used those pesky law reports that I am always processing in the college library I work in! In academic libraries, we have seen a decline in use of physical law reports, in favour of online versions, but Lucy informed us that barristers still frequently use the physical copies. They need to submit the original page numbers of the reports to the court and online versions are not reliable – so many would prefer to photocopy the physical copies.

The blackened facade of the only building to survive the blitz, still located in the main square. Where Charles Dickens worked as a clerk. — The original building where Dickens worked as a clerk

I was struck with how similar the architecture of the Inn and the library is to Oxford colleges. Even their terms have the same name! Although, there have been law clerks on the site of Gray’s Inn since the 14th century, the library was rebuilt following heavy damage during the Blitz. As well as the main library, we also visited the stacks upstairs, where the less heavily used and some of the pre-1800 texts are kept. Dusty, secret areas of libraries are always exciting places to visit, and we were even lucky enough to glimpse the historical plans of the building.

Another thing I found surprising was how the Inns are used as venues for other events – not just for the lawyers. Historically, Gray’s Inn mounted masques and revels; William Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors is believed first to have been performed in Gray’s Inn Hall. Ok, I admit I am an English Literature graduate and most of what I know of Gray’s Inn is from Dickens. Incidentally, one of the few surviving buildings in Gray’s Inn Square is where Dickens worked as a clerk!

Following the tour, we went to the hall for our lunch. Meatball marinara ciabatta and wedges – yum! It also gave us a chance to chat with Lucy about her traineeship at the library.

Website: www.graysinnlibrary.org.uk

Lincoln’s Inn Visit

Juliet Brown – Old Bodleian Graduate Library Trainee

The building housing Lincoln's Inn Library, proceeded by a vibrant green lawn — The outside of the library building

Following our delicious lunch, Lucy helped guide us through London to Lincoln’s Inn, the second of our library visits that day. Lincoln’s Inn is the oldest Law Library in the country, and it was the only library on our tour to emerge unscathed from the Blitz, so looking around this building was like stepping into history.

After a brief introduction to the library and its collections, we were free to explore the space for ourselves, immersing ourselves in the collections and navigating the abundant staircases (one of which was hidden behind a thick velvet curtain)!

The main reading room in Lincoln's Inn Library, as seen from the second floor gallery — A view of the reading room from the second floor gallery

Lincoln’s Inn houses roughly 150,000 volumes, with a strong emphasis on English legal materials for practitioners and bar students alike – though the Library is also well known for its extensive Commonweath and Parliamentary collections. Interestingly, although the Inn libraries cater primarily to their own members, they tend to collaborate when it comes to specialist subjects. This prevents duplicate purchases of large collections and allows for the Inn’s to collect the widest range of material possible, to best support the varied research needs of their members.

Similarly to Gray’s Inn, the librarian spoke a little about the transition towards digital resources for initial research needs, though emphasised the continued necessity of physical collections for court submissions. I was most impressed with the extensive services provided by the library team, who offer an efficient document supply service, research support through their enquiry desk team, and a wide variety of training guides and courses for all members throughout the year.

Website: lincolnsinn.org.uk/library-archives/

Middle Temple Visit

Josie Fairley Keast, Bodleian Law Library Graduate Library Trainee

The third and final library we visited was the Middle Temple Library. (These mystical-sounding names come courtesy of the nearby Temple Church, in case you were wondering.)

An image of the specialisms of each Inn Library. A pdf document with the list can be found here: https://www.graysinn.org.uk/app/uploads/drupal-media/documents/library/Inn%20Libraries%20Specialisms_0.pdf — © Gray’s Inn

As with the other Inns, the Middle Temple’s collections are wide-ranging, but their specialisms include ecclesiastical law and capital punishment. Our guide, assistant librarian Jake Hearn, told us a little more about how these topics and jurisdictions are divided among the libraries (see picture to the left for Inn specialisms). For the most part the libraries follow historic tradition, but a committee of librarians meet at regular intervals to discuss newer or changing topics. For example, although material on EU law was collected by all four libraries while the UK was still a member state, there is some discussion as to whether this will change in the wake of Brexit.

This was somehow the first library where I managed to take a closer look at the shelfmarks – as a current trainee at the Bodleian Law Library, I was excited to recognise some MOYS, a Library of Congress style system specifically designed for law collections. The Bodleian Law Library is currently halfway through reclassifying our Jurisprudence (legal philosophy) collection, and upon chatting to one of the library staff, I found that we shared similar sentiments on the triumphs and tribulations of the process.

Other interesting features of the library include the photographic record of UK Prime Ministers adorning the walls, the twin Elizabethan globes situated in the upper gallery (although, full disclosure, one of them was away on display in Liverpool when we visited), and the verdant colour scheme. Although we were asked not to share any photos of this library, I highly recommend looking it up – it’s truly fabulous.

Website: middletemple.org.uk/library

Overall, our trip was a wonderful opportunity to explore a new area of librarianship, and we are extremely thankful to all of those who helped organise it, as well as those who gave their time to provide the tours and answer our many questions – we can only hope we were able to provide the same level of detail when we hosted Lucy and her colleagues Abi Reader (Graduate Trainee, Gray’s Inn) and Lily Rowe (Graduate Trainee, Inner Temple) in Oxford last month!

The OxCam College Librarians’ Virtual Conference 2022

Posted on 24 March 2022 by barrh — No Comments ↓

At the end of March 2022, the OxCam College Librarians’ Conference was hosted online for the very first time. Held every two years, OxCam brings the college librarians from Oxford and Cambridge together to share experiences and knowledge, reflect on library practices, and of course, engage in some friendly rivalry (cake competition anyone??)! Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we were unable to meet in person, but instead joined a virtual conference spread over Thursday 24, Monday 28 and Tuesday 29 March. This was an excellent opportunity for us as trainees to hear from library professionals from across the Universities, and we are very grateful to Cambridge for hosting this year and for putting together such a fantastic programme! Each day was structured around a central theme, so here are a few thoughts about what was said and what we learned.

Day 1: Decolonisation

In many ways, the conference could not have gotten off to a better start than with the Reader Services Workshop led by the Cambridge Decolonising Working Group. This was a fascinating session which encouraged participants to think about the ways in which racial bias plays out in our libraries – primarily in virtual reader services scenarios – and how we as library professionals can respond to systemic issues such as unconscious bias, race- and name-based macroaggressions, and the degree awarding gap. In break-out rooms, we discussed the research of Sally Hamer (herself a former Wolfson College, Oxford, trainee!): ‘Colour blind: Investigating the racial bias of virtual reference services in English academic libraries’ (The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 47:5, 2021). Hamer’s research is an important read for anyone working in library services. In particular, it highlights how our response to a reader enquiry may be tied up with aspects other than the actual question – including, even, a reader’s name and the racial biases we have associated with that name. Yet what was also especially noteworthy about this session was that the break out groups fostered a real sense of involvement and discussion for participants. We were able to talk directly with people from different libraries in a range of roles and career stages: a really productive and, we think, a fitting start to OxCam 2022. You can watch Sally Hamer’s findings here: ‘Colour Blind: Investigating the racial bias of virtual reference services’.

After a short break – in which the virtual meeting room was left open for casual chatting as people ran for tea, bathroom breaks, and snacks – we reconvened for a panel discussion on Decolonisation & Discussion: Learning from Libraries Experiences. The three panellists were Genny Grim (Pembroke College, Cambridge), David Rushmer (English Faculty, Cambridge), and Renée Prud’Homme (Worcester College, Oxford). They began by each introducing the efforts taken in their library to decolonise the collections, before moving on to answer questions and discuss their work. Two things really came through in this session as being central to positive decolonisation work in Oxford and Cambridge libraries. The first was working directly with library stakeholders (students, other staff members, academics), and the second was committing to decolonisation as an ongoing, ever-evolving part of librarianship. Perhaps most poignant, though, was a parting question from the audience which asked, “can we decolonise the college library without decolonising the college [or the] wider Cambridge / Oxford library system”? This is something we are sure many of us will be thinking and acting upon in the future.

Day 2: Accessibility

The second day began with Accessibility and Inclusion in Libraries for Disabled Students, which was a reflection on a year of the Libraries Accessibility Service at Cambridge (Patrick Dowson, Accessibility Services Manager, Cambridge). The number of students with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND or SEN) has been increasing significantly and the shocking statistic that there is a 3% awarding gap between SEND students and students without SEND. In addition, SEND students have a lower continuity rate. These facts show us we need to think about the social model of disability in our libraries. The social model of disability says that people are disabled by barriers in society, not by their impairment or difference. The COVID-19 panic has increased some of these barriers, but also improved some, like hybrid study, ready access to scans, and more online resources. However, as Patrick Dowson stated, going back to the old normal before the pandemic is not an option – we must think about how libraries can work for SEND students in this ‘new normal’.

The following talk featured Eleanor Winterbottom (Apprentice Library Assistant, St Antony’s College, Oxford) and Aimee Burlakova (Librarian, St Antony’s College), who spoke about The Library, Information and Archive Services Assistant Apprenticeship Scheme: Opportunities for Diverse Applicants to Develop Careers in Libraries. The apprenticeship scheme is a great opportunity for those who want to work in libraries who did not necessarily go to university. You can read about Eleanor’s Day in the Life on the blog.

After a short break, we heard short talks about the Support Before Arrival: Enabling Non-Traditional Students to Thrive at Cambridge by Suzanne Tonkin, Librarian, Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge. The college’s new programme aims to improve students’ first-year experience and remove all barriers to success. This involves a bridging course between school and university, a residential summer school, and a scheme through which students could submit books they required from their reading lists and the library would buy them for them to keep for the year. Following this, Cecilia Vartholomeou, Senior Library Assistant at Christ’s Library, Cambridge, spoke about supporting students through the provision of accessibility equipment. Christ’s Library offers specialist and ergonomic equipment, but also resources which are available for all, such as coloured notepads and overlays, adjustable laptop or phone stands, magnifying glasses, book rests, and many more. She also spoke about library anxiety and readers experiencing threshold anxiety, which can be very common in the grand libraries at Oxford and Cambridge, and highlighted that it is important to offer up-to-date library and accessibility guides such as Cambridge’s College Access guide or Oxford’s Access Guide. Cecilia noted that the library’s book rests were very popular, and that the emoji stress balls were so popular that they all go as soon as they are put out.

Day 3: Lightning Talks

The final day of OxCam was a bit different from the first two – it was structured around 5- to 10-minute Lightning Talks. There were ten Lightning Talks in total, and they ranged in topic from how Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, has supported the University’s very first Foundation Year Students to to how Wolfson College, Cambridge, have welcomed and worked with early-career librarians looking for work experience.

There were also three Lightning Talks led by trainees – including one of our very own! Heather Barr (St Edmund Hall) spoke with Emma Anderson (Queen’s College, Cambridge) and Ellen Woolf (Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge) about what it has been like to enter librarianship during a time of such a shift in attitude, education, and behaviour around decolonisation. Heather says:

“I opened my part of the Lightning Talk by saying that our students are an exceptional resource to draw upon when we are thinking about decolonisation. But working closely with Ellen and Emma has really highlighted to me how valuable it is to collaborate with other librarians, especially from outside of our own institutions. We can all be each other’s resources! OxCam has been a wonderful opportunity to share ideas and experiences, and I can’t wait to build on the discussions we’ve had through the rest of my career.”

‘Frog on a log’ cake – one of the winners of the OxCam Bake Off by Jess from St John’s College, Cambridge

The conference ended with some interesting parting thoughts about decolonisation in libraries and improving accessibility. The winners of the logo competition and the bake-off were announced. Sadly, the cake submission from the Oxford graduate trainee housemates was not mentioned, but the winners were so impressive, we don’t really mind.

Further links

Relevant book titles:

Jess Crilly and Regina Everitt (eds), Narrative expansions: interpreting decolonisation in academic libraries (Facet Publishing, 2022).
Melissa Adler, Cruising the Library (Fordham University Press, 2017).
Hope A. Olson, ‘The Power to Name: Representation in Library Catalogs’, Signs, 26:1 (2001), pp. 639-68.
Rebecca Davis & Laura Saunders, ‘Beyond lip service: A call for research-informed services for Black and African-American students’, The Journal of Academic Librarianship (in press, 2021).

Events