Penumbra visit - Selwyn College

"Quit ye like men"

Beginning this blog post about my penumbra visit to Selwyn College Library, I thought, what does penumbra actually mean? It means "partial shadow, between regions of complete shadow and complete illumination." I thought this was very apt, not only on a personal level, or a physical level (the weather), but the whole point behind the penumbra scheme is to shadow other librarians in their work and gain inspiration, illumination, from it. Anyway, I was told by my deputy librarian that the Greek words above Selwyn college's main gate translate as “quit ye like men”. The full meaning is actually "Stand fast in the faith, quit ye like men." I took this to mean take courage or don't be nervous. But it could also have meant acquit yourself well. If I was nervous, all fears went away at the sight of this:

Selwyn College

Selwyn College may not be as old as the majority of the Cambridge colleges, but it's still stunning and I love the Victorian era and everything from it: buildings and literature especially. History lesson: Selwyn College was founded in 1882. It looks imposing, especially with the chapel, but the courtyard is wide and open. There are also gardens next to the chapel, but I didn't have time to look around those.

This is because I was kept very busy. Sarah Stamford, the head librarian, met me in the friendly Porter's Lodge and then gave me a brief tour of the grounds, including the beautiful chapel. It was a welcome change to not have the crucifixion above the chapel altar. Instead there is a much more uplifting scene of the ascension. I always consider it a privilege to be able to visit the Cambridge colleges and I try to take advantage of every opportunity to do so. The penumbra placements are perfect, not just to visit different colleges and departments, but to see how different libraries work. There is always something to learn, take away and get inspired by. The sunshine, beautiful court and feel-good chapel set the tone for my visit. Everyone I met was welcoming, from the library assistants to the porters, the lunch staff to the people I met in the hall.

Onto the library part, which obviously was the point of the visit! Before I even went, I liaised with Sarah Stamford, the head librarian, about what I would like covered during the visit. A structure is then set out so you know, roughly, what will happen in what order. This is especially important for Selwyn, so the right members of staff will be there as some are part-time. It will turn out to be more of a guideline as things can easily overrun. I chose Selwyn College Library over the other libraries on offer for penumbra placements because, if I ever leave the Judge Business School, it would be for a college library. I would like to work with older books, as well as modern books and ebooks like I do now. I wanted to learn how to repair books from an expert: the excellent Katie Turner. I also wanted to pick Sarah Stamford's brains about ebooks; I'm doing my Library MSc from Aberystwyth and my dissertation is on ebooks, specifically the impact they are having on printed books in academic libraries.

Selwyn College floorplan (Prezi)

Sarah took me for a tour around the library and I got my first glimpse of rare books. Although the Judge is a very modern library and I work with databases, social media and ebooks amongst many things, I'm traditional at heart. I love the feel and smell of books. I've only been to a few colleges and even fewer libraries, so I can't compare Selwyn to other college libraries, but I can say that the atmosphere was wonderful. Everyone studying there respected each other and the space. There was an almost palpable sense of quiet, broken only by the turning of pages, footsteps and the now omnipresent sound of computers. However the computers were segregated in their own sections. One of the reasons why I would like to work in a college library is for the community aspect, which I do get at the Judge but to a lesser extent. Selwyn has a student-run DVD collection and a general fiction collection named after Gus, the Master's cat. These are for people who need to relax and take their mind off things; we have a DVD collection in our library for the same reason. Selwyn's library also has a jigsaw puzzle. The holistic side to the library profession has always fascinated me and Selwyn gets it just right.

Then it was back to the office and a long chat with Sarah. I can't tell you everything we talked about, but it was very wide-ranging covering library management, reclassification (going from their own system to Dewey), the history of the library, user surveys... Sarah Stamford is the font of all library knowledge! Go on one of the penumbra placements and you have the opportunity to learn from libraries and librarians all over Cambridge. Don't be afraid to ask questions, no matter how silly or obvious they seem. To get the most out of a penumbra placement, you need to go with an open and curious mind. Giving Sarah's voice a break, Michael Wilson, the assistant librarian, took me to see the rare books and archives. For a person who has only seen old books in glass cases before, this was a real treat for me. We talked about the rare books project and the difficulties in finding the books; surely it's every librarian's nightmare not to know where books are in your own library! However I spent most of the time marvelling over the books, holding one from the Tudor period, seeing a poor vellum book possibly beyond all hope as rigor mortis has set in. I stopped short of smelling the books, but I stared in wonder at ages-old book graffiti and my favourite was Bewick's History of British Birds, which featured in one of my favourite novels, Jane Eyre.

Bewick's History of British Birds

Needless to say we were late for lunch. It was a far cry from relaxing with my packed lunch overlooking the Fitzwilliam Museum. It was another ambition fulfilled eating in one of the Cambridge College halls, even if it did give me a flashback to my old school canteen. It was now my turn to be questioned, talking about the library I work at with Michael. After lunch it was onto book repairs with Katie. It is all to easy to replace a damaged book, but I feel we should never give up until the pages are all falling out, the spine is cracked and no amount of glue can fix it. Katie made it look so easy and even asked if I wanted a go, but I didn't as I didn't want to look bad, even if the books she was demonstrating with were not going back on the shelves. I learned a lot in a short space of time and plan to revive some of our own books.

Finally I had a long chat with Sarah about ebooks, in terms of acquisitions and collection development, reading lists and faculty engagement, the balance between print and electronic, the differences between college and subject libraries, the future of libraries; it turned quite philosophical. I madly made notes and got advice and inspiration for my dissertation.

My head was spinning by the end of the visit, full of information, ideas and insight. The time flew by and I wholeheartedly enjoyed every moment of it. Sorry, no hyperbole intended. I urge everyone to take full advantage of the penumbra and visit one of the penumbra libraries. Or even offer a placement of their own!