FROM THE LIBRARY Liz Osman, Librarian
12 ANNUAL REVIEW COLLEGE NEWS
I
hoped in 2021 my report would not contain much mention of COVID, but unfortunately we continue to be doing our best to support students in the Library through challenging times. But happily I do have much else to talk about as well. In January our Deputy Librarian Rosie Austin welcomed her daughter Edith and we welcomed Alina Wanitzek to cover her maternity leave. Alina’s arrival coincided with a decision to close the physical Library for a period, offering remote support and a click and collect service. Not the welcome I wanted to give Alina, but one she jumped into wholeheartedly. Click and collect enabled us to continue providing books to students whilst protecting all Library users and staff. It also allowed all staff members to spend some time on site each week, which made working from home much easier. When we did reopen the Library in March we moved back into staff bubbles, with each bubble working in the Library two to three days per week. We finally ‘popped’ these in August and it has been a joy to have the whole team working together again. We have learnt a lot from remote working, particularly around communication and cooperation – there are definite bonuses to be seen from what we have undergone. But for the staff to be together alongside the wider Homerton community was a real homecoming. One thing we were able to continue with throughout the disruptions was purchasing of new stock. Primarily this is, of course, material from reading lists, but we also began purchasing a few items for our rare books collection with
a view to increasing diversity. This is a hot topic and one which is a real challenge when looking at a predominantly British and American collection spanning 18th – mid-20th centuries. The colonial spirit is exceptionally strong in much of the material. We are not seeking to censor issues of race, class, disability, gender etc. in the material we hold; it is important that these books can be studied in full. However, we do want to acknowledge, for example, some of the underappreciated works of the same period by authors of colour. This rebalancing work will continue, but in parallel still with collecting material that does not sit so well with modern sensibilities. The strength of our collection should be to reflect all aspects of children’s literature: the good, the bad and the ugly. The second half of the year, and particularly Michaelmas term, has felt like getting back to (nearly) business as usual. Masks and social distancing have still been in place, but running in-person inductions for Freshers and seeing the Library alive again has been cheering, whilst at times a little unnerving. I think we all felt a little rusty after a year without inductions, but it soon came back to us and we really value these short, early interactions to get to know the new students and be seen as friendly, helpful faces. I was fortunate to be involved in the recruitment of our new Principal, as one of the search panel. The time and effort put in by all has been amply rewarded with the arrival of Simon Woolley. I found the whole process fascinating, having never been involved in such high-level recruitment before. I also found it so heartening to be part of a community with such great hopes and ambitions. The calibre of all the candidates was phenomenal.
