From the Library

It certainly has been a strange way to spend my tenth year at Homerton, one that I’d be happy not to repeat, although it has brought with it opportunities to reflect and adapt too.

January and February seem a lifetime ago, but the start of the year saw myself and my Deputy Rosie Austin presenting at the Cambridge Libraries Conference on our involvement in an ARHC project considering diversity in children’s literature rare books collections such as our own, and issues around digitisation. Unsurprisingly, our collection is not diverse, and contains a fair amount of challenging material reflecting opinions and attitudes of earlier times. The project continues and we are awaiting more analysis of our holdings from the research assistant so we can explore how we can address the issue and create a better balance of material.

February also saw me trial my first sessions using Lego as a tool for study skills education. It may not seem obvious that being asked to build a duck out of Lego can be helpful in finding sources and referencing work correctly, but it can! The teaching was well received and I’m looking forward to delivering more.

Then came Covid, and a rapid succession of plans for ‘amber’ and ‘red’ levels, mostly thrown out the window as we quickly shifted to a full closure. I can’t praise my team enough for being calm, efficient and supportive, and continuing to give their all to help students as they left College.

One small thing we were able to do as create The Little Library. Housed on trolleys in an accessible space, The Little Library was a selection of adult and children’s fiction, DVDs and our Wellbeing Collection, covering everything from coping with anxiety to recipe books. This ran on an honesty basis for everyone remaining on site until the Library re-opened.

we packed up and closed the doors was to Liz raided the archives for an online talk on Pantomime

Lego study skills

Running a Library from home is challenging. Praise and thanks must go to the Cambridge University Library ebooks team for responding quickly to requests for electronic copies of key texts.

Once we were all set up at home, we moved to supporting students remotely via email. We continued to buy new books for the Library in anticipation of re-opening and helped students as they sat their exams and alternative assessments in early summer. There were many small frustrations, but I was amazed at how well we were able to help, and the adaptability of the students to such an entirely different situation.

I also began to plan for re-opening, which included having various scenarios from being fully open to a limited click and collect model. We’ve been extremely fortunate, due to the layout of the Library, to be able to open fully, and to lose only a few study spaces to social distancing. Perspex was erected around the enquiry desk, hand sanitiser and wipes were distributed throughout the Library and staff returned to work in two bubbles in September, alternating days on site with days working from home.

Along with all other libraries, we had the mammoth task of trying to get books returned from graduating students who were now spread across the world. We agreed to accept book returns for any library and, with co-ordination from the University Library, books were then crated up and returned to their home libraries. This went on all summer, with a much smaller number of now graduates to continue chasing into the autumn.

We had to move our usual inductions of freshers online. We all missed the opportunity to meet everyone in small groups, but we hope what we were able to provide still gave them a start in how to use the Library. Library Assistant Gabriel Duckels got the starring role in our Library walkthrough video.

As term began, we introduced a new chat service allowing students to talk to us in real time over the internet. We felt this might be a welcome service for some who did not wish to physically come into the Library, and just another convenient method of communication for others. There hasn’t been a high take up, but it has been appreciated by those that have used it, and I see no reason to discontinue it post-Covid.

We also got into a new rhythm for returning books from students, putting in place a 24 hour quarantine before they were returned to the shelves, and extra wiping for books with plastic covers where the virus could survive for longer. This seems to have worked well and I hope it has increased the confidence of students to use our books.

Rosie and I also had to work out how to adapt what is usually an extremely hands on session for the Children’s Literature MPhil students. Whilst the PowerPoint presentation was easy enough to do over Zoom, allowing the students to see and explore our rare

books was a challenge. We decided to show them various items over the video, and also set them tasks using some images before the class. We then offered follow up one-to-one sessions with me where they could be hands on with items either selected by me or that fitted with an interest they already had.

Finally, in late November I was able to deliver a talk on pantomime over Zoom, using a number of our rare books. This was quite a challenge –both in reading up on the history of panto, and in working out the best way to share our items with the audience. It seems fitting this year to say, as we enter 2021 “it’s behind you!”

However, in what has been a challenging and changeable year, some things remain the same. The enthusiasm of students, the kindness of Homerton and, for the Library, eagerness to help, providing as much of a service as possible, exhibitions in the display cases, Christmas decorations in November and a smiling face behind the desk, though sometimes hidden by a mask.

So with those things in mind we look forward to 2021 and taking forward what we have learnt and experienced. We look forward too, to the birth of another junior librarian courtesy of Rosie Austin and a new staff member whilst she is on maternity leave n

New signs ensure social distancing

Library staff shield behind perspex screens