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LIBRARIES
COLLEGE LIBRARY. Dr Waithe is on leave until Easter 2017 and Dr Stoddart has been Acting College Librarian for 2015–16. For the last two terms of Dr Waithe’s leave, Professor Harper will be Acting College Librarian. We were very sorry to say goodbye in June to Mrs Annie Gleeson, the Deputy Librarian (College Library) who has been with us for two years. We shall miss her: she has done a great deal for the College in improving facilities in the student library and also enhancing the presence of the library on social media to keep the students informed. She is moving to the post of College Librarian at Churchill College, where we wish her every success. In August we were joined by Tom Sykes who has been appointed to the Deputy Librarianship. Tom has been Assistant Librarian at Trinity Hall for three years, though before that he worked in a more junior role at Magdalene so he knows our library well and we were happy to welcome him back. Plans are being made for a significant alteration to the system of cataloguing books which is a University-wide change and should have the effect of upgrading the quality of the records, the management system and the user-interfaces. The Library has received a generous number of donations of books, for which we are very grateful. We are continuing to develop plans for a new undergraduate library; and the Fellows and staff on the planning committee have found it useful to visit a number of other college libraries to consider good practice. PEPYS LIBRARY AND OLD LIBRARY. Perhaps the highlight of the year has been the establishment of the scheme mentioned in last year’s report, called ‘The Friends of the Pepys Library and Historic Collections’. With membership topping 50, we have started a programme of special events in the College, including private viewings of exhibitions and a ‘Work in Progress’ session, when the Deputy Librarian discussed the latest conservation projects. Through the generosity of the Friends, the Old Library has been able to commission two beautiful oak units to house the recently restored Ferrar Papers. A special fundraising lunch in February 2017 will be a chance for Friends and their guests to hear Pepys’s famous song ‘Beauty Retire’, as well as other contemporary music. The menu will be a seventeenth-century taster menu including dishes enjoyed by Pepys himself. The occasion will also be an opportunity for the supporters of the historic libraries to assist us with the costs of the restoration of Pepys’s iconic presses (bookcases) which will start next year. The number of visitors to the libraries continues to increase, with a rise of nearly 6% in numbers this year: as we make our collections better-known through catalogues, on-line hand lists and participation in scholarly projects, the interest in the collections grows. The Deputy Librarian, Miss Catherine Sutherland, is now full-time allowing us to do even more to welcome both scholars and members of the general public.
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