St John’s College Library Newsletter L
MICHAELMAS 2020
VOLUME 4, ISSUE 1
The Working Library is awarded accreditation In June 2020, the College Library was granted the Technology Excellence in Libraries Award (TEiLA) by Book Industry Communication (BIC), a dedicated book industry supply chain organisation in the UK. The purpose of the accreditation is “to assure the quality of the institution or program and to assist in the improvement of the institution or program”. The TEiLA accreditation scheme focuses on evaluation of the technologies in contemporary libraries. It offers an opportunity for library staff to demonstrate their expertise in implementing beneficial technologies to improve library services, as well as assessing their cost efficiency and effectiveness. It would not be correct to claim that until now, no evaluation of the Working Library’s efficiency and effectiveness has taken place. Many Fellows and students will have participated in the quadrennial user survey that aims to give Fellows and students a voice as to how well the Working Library meets their needs. However, while the quadrennial user survey
constitutes an internal (College) evaluation, the TEiLA accreditation scheme sets external professional standards, and is awarded by a body representing the professional book industry. Importantly, however, these two forms of evaluation – the internal College quadrennial user survey, and the external technologybased accreditation – measure different facets of library provision and are thus considered by Library staff to be of equal importance. To achieve this award, we were required to demonstrate how our Library uses technologies to streamline the workflow to provide a more efficient library service. The main criteria to be met included the use of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology for self-issue/self-return of library items; security and stock checking; the employment of the EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) function in the library management system to facilitate an efficient communication with book suppliers for library orders and invoices; demonstration of how the Library supports the adoption of new technologies in its work; and how it obtains accurate, up-to-date and comprehensive bibliographic information for use by library staff and users. It is apparent from these criteria just how dependent are contemporary library practices on various technologies. As far as I am aware, we are the first Cambridge college working library to have received such accreditation, the characteristics of which are based on data-driven external evaluation that measures performance against criteria representing the highest professional standards. It thus enjoys robustness and credibility, especially
when compared with other types of evaluation. This accreditation award is of particular significance for members of St John’s College for the following reasons. Firstly, College Fellows and students as library users can be assured that they are receiving a high-quality provision of library services. Secondly, the award provides validation for library staff that effective and efficient practices are being adopted, commensurate with the highest professional
standards. The accreditation is granted for a year and may be renewed annually provided that the relevant criteria continue to be met. Hence a further benefit of this accreditation scheme is that it not only reassures colleagues that present practices meet the highest professional library standards, but it provides an incentive to seek continuous improvement. Janet Chow, Academic Services Librarian
Setting up a virtual study space Being away from the Library over lockdown really brought it home to me that a library isn’t just a space full of books. Yes, I did miss the books and the daily workout of the shelving but, more than anything, I missed being inside a place that was alive with people. Whilst on lockdown, I read an article about the growing number of online reading groups and I wondered if it would be possible for the Library to host an online study group. In a period of lockdown with many students seemingly struggling to study in isolation, an online study group might help students feel more connected, and for those students finding it difficult to be productive, they might commit to a period of concentrated work. In fact, it might – at least partially – become something of a substitute for the College Library that was no longer physically part of their student lives. As the idea of a virtual study group grew, I mentioned it to my Library colleagues in a staff meeting and received their enthusiastic support. There followed a period of planning, during which I consulted the Library team at Wolfson College for advice –
Meet the Graduate Trainee Hello, my name is Katie and I was recently appointed as the Library Graduate Trainee for 2020-21. I started at the Library in August, and although I’ve only been here for two or three months, it feels like I have been here for years! After graduating in summer 2019 (I studied History and French), I took a year out to contemplate what I wanted to do with my career, and decided that libraries were the place I wanted to be. When I saw the Old and Working Libraries during my interview for this post, I knew that St John’s Library was for me, and my
as they had introduced a similar scheme – on detailed practical issues on setting up such a group and hosting it. I then set up a weekly ‘virtual study space’ on Zoom for John’s students – with myself acting as ‘host’ – just after the start of the Easter Term. The students would sign in to the meeting and, after initial greetings, would commence their individual study. We would have a tea break after an hour when students would discuss the learning progress they had made. The group would then work for another hour before coming together at the end of the session to review and share their learning accomplishments. Each week for the last few months, the same group of students has come together at a set day and time to exchange greetings and welfare concerns, then to work hard individually for the duration of the virtual study group session. As host, it was really rewarding for me to see the students working individually, while sharing virtual study space. Many of them have been kind enough to let me know how much it has helped them to focus during lockdown and over the summer. In the feedback I requested from the students, I was delighted to have the study space described as a ‘safe haven’, ‘a piece of John’s and sanity’ and ‘just like being in the Library’. That was exactly what I was hoping to hear. Rebecca Le Marchand, Library Assistant
experience so far has exceeded every expectation I had. The College is absolutely beautiful, and it’s been especially lovely to be able to go and sit on Backs to eat lunch in the sunshine (the Buttery definitely gets a big thumbs up from me, the veggie options are delicious!). The Library itself is also amazing, and the extent of its resources is just phenomenal.
Shelving books is currently one of my favourite jobs as it gives me an excuse to go and examine the shelves, and see the vast array of books they house. I especially like going into the basement, as it’s such a treasure-trove, you never know what type of material you’re going to come across!
well into the daily routine of the Library, but while it was relatively quiet prior to the start of term, now that term has started, the job has become busier but no less enjoyable for that!
Working in a library in the middle of this pandemic has been an interesting experience, but I think I have got to grips with all the new precautions. The one-way system is particularly difficult to get used to, but I think I am just about there with it now (it definitely helps to keep my step count up!) In general I feel like I’ve settled
Katie Hannawin, Graduate Trainee
Sugar and spice (and a roast beef dinner) When preparing a temporary exhibition in March for the first school group visit to the Archives I was to have received at St John’s – which due to Covid had to be cancelled shortly before it was due to take place – I decided to display a selection of the types of material held in the archives, focusing on the eras studied by the History students in the group. I decided to delve into a 17thcentury volume of Rentals, hoping to find material evocative of College life at the time. I wasn’t disappointed: these volumes are something of a goldmine for those researching not just College history, but topics such as social history, family history, and local history. Rentals are not, despite the name, just records of properties rented out by the College, but are annual accounts containing records of internal and external revenue and expenditure. Thus a typical volume includes payments made by tenants, stipends paid to the Master, Fellows, Scholars, Page of 'necessary expenses' for 1634, College rentals
and ‘greater servants’; Chapel expenses; Hall, Kitchen and Bakery expenses; Treasurer’s expenses; expenditure on the upkeep of the building; Library expenses; and most miscellaneous and therefore perhaps most interesting: ‘expensae necessariae’. In 1634, in Chapel expenses we find Robert Tayler being paid for putting ‘some old painted glasse in the great window’ and James Robinson for 45 pounds of wax candles, juniper, three brooms and a pan. Library expenses include 3 shillings and 6 pence for carriage of the Talmud from London. From ‘necessary expenses’ we glean details about the College grounds, learning that John Bright was paid 18 pence for mending the hedges and scouring the ditch around the new walks, and 3 shillings for making a willow fence on the west end of the bowling green. James Robinson pops up again, being paid for sugar, nutmeg, and other spices. The ‘cryer’ was paid 6 pence a quarter and Luke Ostler, the ‘scavenger’, 10 shillings. The audit occasioned a special roast beef dinner and payments are listed for the provision of biscuits, cheese and apples, beer and ale during the auditing process, as well as fodder for the auditor’s horse. In the final quarter of the year, wine was purchased for both the Feast of St John and for Christmas, which are only two days apart. These volumes are a treasure trove and one day it would be lovely to bring them, in detail, to a larger audience. A remote transcription project is ruled out by the size of the volumes, which are too large for a conventional book scanner, but perhaps one day an onsite volunteering programme could be established. A pipe dream in current circumstances, but one to think about for the future. Lynsey Darby, Archivist
For comments on this Issue, and contributions to future Issues, please contact Janet Chow. Email: jc614@cam.ac.uk; Tel: (3)38662.
New online exhibition – Wild world: visual representation of animals in manuscripts and early printed books Visual depictions of animals have served to decorate and illustrate written texts from early MS B.9. Vellum, 14th century manuscripts, through the dawn of the printed books, and up to the present day. This exhibition showcases some of the interesting examples of animal art that can be found in the manuscripts and early printed books held in the Library’s Special Collections, and presents relevant facts
The twentieth century is commonly described as the age of the American Empire, as the British Empire dominated the nineteenth. To examine this comparison, Britain’s leading imperial historian, Tony Hopkins, formerly Professor of Commonwealth History in Cambridge, moved to the United States on the day before 9/11 and worked there amid the controversy culminating in the invasion of Iraq. The result is a remarkable book, a profound rethinking of modern American history and the nature of empire. As themselves subjects of empire, America’s eighteenth-century colonists were both victims and beneficiaries of Britain’s imperial ambitions. While increased taxation to fund war with France provoked colonial rebellion, French allies provided military and diplomatic support. Yet even after gaining political independence, the United States remained during the nineteenth century a postcolony comparable to the independent Afro-Asian countries of the later twentieth century. This status was reflected in its dependence on the exporting of primary products, financial dependence on the
about the animals themselves and the often sobering nature of their relationship to humans. The exhibition is available to MS K.26. Vellum, late 13th view on the Library’s website at or early 14th century https://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/wildworld-visual-representationanimals-manuscripts-and-early-printed-books. Curated by Ellie Capeling, Graduate Trainee 2019-20
City of London, and incapability of challenging British maritime supremacy. It was also racked by political conflicts surviving from the independence struggle, notably, rivalry among the Union’s component states and border disputes with neighbours. Eager to assert national equality, Washington acquired the surviving fragments of Spain’s empire in Asia and Central America, but this was not a global empire on the British scale. It was a latecomer’s empire comparable to those simultaneously pieced together by Germany and Italy. It was never the object of a coherent imperial strategy – Hopkins provides a rare account of American colonial administration – and like the European empires it disintegrated in the wake of the Second World War. Yet that was iconic, for 1945 was the peak of American power, the moment at which its military and economic supremacy might have evolved into the global dominance that Victorian Britain had enjoyed. It did not, because the threat of Eurasian communism led Americans instead to support the recovery of potential allies and because idealism and hostility to outdated nationalism led American leaders to foster international organisations. Once this post-war moment was passed, as Hopkins demonstrates in a penetrating final chapter, the international economy developed in directions profoundly hostile to empire. After 1945 the exchange of manufactured goods for primary products that had enriched and empowered Victorian Britain became a declining element in world trade as manufacturing was globalised. Whereas London had lent to the world, Washington borrowed. What America did retain was military power on a terrifying and self-defeating scale. Hence Iraq. Professor John Iliffe, Fellow in History