Notes from the Librarian

For the second time, I find myself writing this report from my office at home. The ebbs and flows of the pandemic continue, but thankfully vaccinations offer hope of life returning to some degree of normality in the coming months.

Hatfield College and the wider University have done their best to continue to educate and provide resources to students, but there have been many challenges to overcome. Hatfield Library was closed from the first lockdown in March 2020 and throughout the summer. In the summer, to help postgraduates, we offered to purchase books and have them posted directly to the student, to be returned to the Library and catalogued when they were finished, which some students gratefully accepted. In September, following Covid-19 checks completed by College Operations, and discussions with College Officers, the Library was able to reopen for Michaelmas Term, albeit in a much-reduced capacity. Following models developed by the Bill Bryson Library over the summer, Hatfield Library offered students living out the ability to request books via a web-form, which were then packaged for them to collect – a ‘Click & Collect’ service. Liversin could access the library for 30-minute ‘Browse & Borrow’ appointments, which happened throughout the week. By the third week of Michaelmas Term though, most liver-in households were in lockdown isolation due to someone testing positive for Covid-19, so a third service – to deliver books via the internal post to isolating students – was introduced as well.

Due to a lack of ventilation (after all, the Melville building is nearly two centuries old!), the B-Stairs Study Room and the Computer Room were completely offlimits. The A-Stairs Study Room had one small openable window, allowing for one person at a time, so it was decided to become the book collection point for livers-out. Despite the inconvenience of small mostly unopenable windows, at least there was a door from the rear carpark (near Kingsgate Bridge) that would allow students to come to the Library without going through a ‘household’ of livers-in. However, the small size of the Library itself, and closeness between bookshelves and desks, has meant no spaces for study have been available to students since March 2020.

The December lockdown (from which we are only just emerging now at Easter 2021) required even greater restrictions; no students could be allowed in the Library, so Library Assistants and I have been working hard to provide books to all Hatfielders via the ‘Click & Collect’ service. We also introduced postal loans and chapter scanning to students not in Durham.

Despite the huge disruption to services, new books continue to be purchased, and donations added to the collection. So far nearly 50 new books have been purchased and catalogued. Unlike most years, very few books were donated by graduating students, but of course no one was here to do so! We did, however, have a generous donation of over 200 academic books by Anthony Bash, our outgoing Vice-Master/ Senior Tutor, mostly concerning theology, history, and philosophy.

The Student Library Assistant Team have done a brilliant job this year helping provide ever-changing services to keep Hatfield Library running. They include returners Declan Merrington, Chloe Ellison, and William Hutchings, and new Library Assistants Kim Devereux-West, Anthony Morris, Charlotte Cox, Katie Yau, Jess Norton Raybould, Naomi Rescorla-Brown, and Charlotte Davies, who started in October 2020. We are all looking forward to the next academic year when (hopefully) things will be a little more normal.

Hatfield Library is always working to develop the collection to ensure our relevance to the College and its students. To support that aim we are always happy to accept donations of modern editions of academic books and/or financial donations. Many thanks!

Dr Kevin Sheehan

New signage to maintain Covid-safe protocols at the Library

Library books in quarantine External A-Stairs door to the back of College facilitating the Covid-safe one way system