The Sub-Librarian’s Annual Report

Our Departmental Aim is to provide a modern, efficient and welcoming Library service for all members of the College, and for all others with valid reasons to make use of the College’s library and archival collections and facilities, so enabling the College to fulfil its statutory and strategic aims.

‘Nothing is constant but change’

Our regular readers will have spotted that the physical format of this report has changed. To reduce environmental impact, we have dispensed with the plastic spiral binding. (While I would hope that you all treasure your Annual Reports in perpetuity, should you wish to recycle, this is now possible.) It falls to the SubLibrarian to write the Librarian’s report again this year, as Mark Nicholls has enjoyed a year’s well-deserved leave, so I have continued to manage the Department in his absence. My tenure as Acting Head of Department ended on 30 June. While the pandemic continued to affect many aspects of life and work, this year has seen a steady return towards ‘normality’, with Working Library hours gradually returning to 24/7, seating to full capacity, more readers being admitted to the Archives and Special Collections, together with in-person exhibitions, and public events. I am pleased to report that the Working Library was awarded TEILA accreditation again.

Staffing

Erika Csider, who joined us in December 2020 gave an invaluable year’s service keeping the Library clean and safe through particularly challenging times. Sadly for us her other part-time employer valued her skills too, and offered full-time work and a promotion. We were fortunate to be able to recruit Nancy Cleaver in her place from Housekeeping, who generously allowed her to join us in time for the Lent Term. Amy Leung, who produced last year’s report so professionally, has also moved on to another position. We wish our leavers well. We benefited from some temporary administrative support over the summer from an old friend of the Library, Rebecca Watts, while Amy’s position was vacant, before Meg Norman joined us in late September as Library Departmental Administrator, just in time to manage the production of this year’s Annual Report. Jess Hollerton’s year as Graduate Trainee simply flew past, with a welcome return to some in-person visits and activities for the Cambridge trainees. We haven’t actually said goodbye, as Jess is continuing to volunteer for us one day a week. Our trainee for 2022-3 is Caroline Ball who has a first class degree in Classics from Oxford and valuable work experience in York University Library. Dr Sarah Gilbert joined us on an all-too-brief eight-month contract, supported by a grant from the College’s Annual Fund, in which time she made a significant contribution to the planned new catalogue of medieval manuscripts.

Jess with her 'Goodbye' card

Teaching and learning

Whilst some changes to working practices brought by the pandemic were temporary, increased proficiency in the use of online tools has opened up new possibilities for student support. I am delighted to report that Library Assistant, Rebecca Le Marchand, has been awarded a teaching excellence award, nominated by the students, for the academic and personal support she offered through regular online dissertation workshops, in which she was assisted by Adam Crothers. We congratulate Rebecca on her achievement, which highlights the essential role that College Library staff can play in supporting the student learning experience. In addition, Lynsey Darby provided weekly online palaeography classes, giving students the opportunity to develop new skills and interact with historic documents from the Archives.

Events and Exhibitions

Katie Hannawin provided a thoughtprovoking online exhibition on the Huguenots for Michaelmas Term. 2022 saw a return to in-person exhibitions with Women and their Books, the first event in a year-long College-wide celebration of the fortieth anniversary of the admission of women. An online version of the exhibition was also produced, and a slimmed down version was re-mounted for attendees at the Johnian Dinner in July. The Student Art and Photography Competition was welcomed back after an enforced absence of two years, showcasing the talent of our junior members. Noticeably fewer human faces appeared in the photographs, perhaps reflecting the lack of social contact and mask-wearing of the last two years, but it was a particularly good year for birds. Traditionally our trainee curates the summer exhibition, for which Jess chose to feature Space and Time. The topic was of such broad appeal and displayed so many fascinating books from the Old Library that it remains in place for the Michaelmas Term.

For the Cambridge Festival, the Old Library hosted its first major exhibition since 2019. Ticketed timed-entry allowed visitors to explore in controlled numbers and with ventilation breaks. All 125 places were booked, and those attending clearly enjoyed the experience and took full advantage of their time to study the material in detail. Open Cambridge in September 2022 saw unrestricted public access to an exhibition From Babel to the Babel Fish: translation, transmission, and the technology of language featuring special collections items from the 12th to the 20th century. Coinciding with the week of the Queen’s death, numbers were

1585 illustration of part of an astrolabe from Space and Time exhibition

understandably lower than usual, but those attending were extremely appreciative.

Maintaining safety and security, whilst providing a warm welcome

While the year saw a steady trend towards ‘normality’, the continuing presence of COVID meant that precautions were only gradually removed, the priorities being to keep both library users and staff safe, and to maintain the resilience of services, ensuring that students’ studies were not disrupted, and researchers could continue to access the materials needed. At the same time, staff made considerable efforts to foster a welcoming and supportive working environment for library users. I am in awe of my Working Library colleagues’ ability to greet so many of our students by name. The move of general interest material to the Ground Floor, replacing some dauntingly heavy reference works, has also made the entrance to the Library less intimidating and more accessible both for new students and prospective students who are now returning to in-person visits to the College.

Students are now greeted by an attractive range of leisure reading on their entry to the Library.

Working Together

It is taken for granted in the 2020s that any cross-institutional committee within Cambridge will have representation from the Colleges, and expected that College libraries will contribute either financially or with staff time and expertise to new initiatives and services. This year has seen much collective work on guides for students, gathering together information on study skills training from a wide range of sources. Collaboration and knowledge sharing are not confined to Cambridge. A pioneering online conference, for which Janet Chow was on the organizing committee, took place over three days, bringing together some 130 library staff from Oxford and Cambridge Colleges to share best practice. Within the College community, the Library relies upon the professional assistance from and collaboration with many departments, and we are grateful to all our colleagues across St John’s. I have to give a special shout-out this year to the Maintenance staff who moved all of the bookcases in the Lower Library in order to improve air-circulation.

Challenges ahead

Interesting times? While some fragile early Chinese works have been digitized, digitization is costly and images require ongoing preservation management.

Along with everyone else, the College faces the challenges of cost of living increases coming hard on the heels of COVID, and the impact of climate change. There is an even stronger focus than usual on using resources as efficiently as possible to deliver the high quality services and resources required. Meeting the College’s ambitious targets for achieving zero carbon whilst maintaining both a comfortable working environment for all those using the Library’s facilities, and the optimum storage conditions for special collections and archives is undoubtedly a challenge in historic buildings, but we have a good team in place to seek creative and appropriate solutions and the will is there to do it. While there is an immediate need for greater storage space, the balance between physical and digital resources is gradually changing, and policies and practices are adapting accordingly. The digital shift creates challenges for providing essential learning resources for students in the format most useful for their studies, and for Special Collections and Archives to put infrastructure in place to accept ‘born-digital’ material, and to ensure the digital preservation of material in a range of formats. We live in interesting times (though hopefully not in the sense of the Chinese curse!).

A new era

Our Librarian since 1999, Dr Mark Nicholls, took early retirement in September. All the staff join with me in offering heartfelt thanks for his support over the years and very best wishes for a long and happy retirement. Restructuring of the department sadly meant that he did not return to the Library over the summer as expected, though he retains his Fellowship in retirement, so has not disappeared from the College entirely. The College Council have decided not to fill his role as Librarian at this time. The Sub-Librarian will now report to the Senior Tutor as line manager, whilst the Library and Records Committee will be replaced by three new committees, covering the Working Library, Historical Collections, and Records and Data. Professor Richard Beadle will chair the new Historical Collections Committee through its early stages. The Biographical Office staff, who have contributed so much to the department over the last 15 years, were transferred to the oversight of the Development Office from 1 July. The Library team are very sad to lose Fiona and Paul, as they’ve been such supportive and congenial colleagues. The Biographical Office thus contributes to this Annual Report for the last time. Indeed it will be up to the new committees to decide in what form Annual Reports should be made in future, so this publication itself may change. While a new management structure may alter the way the department is run, the focus, of course, remains on delivering the highest quality services in support of learning, teaching, and research, as ever tying in closely with the College’s overarching strategic aims. The formal positioning of the department under Education is a move which could have positive benefits, recognising the Library’s role as a hub for educational resources and facilities, and facilitating closer links with Tutors and academic teaching staff. I look forward with interest to seeing the summary of the department’s activities this time next year.

Kathryn McKee Sub-Librarian