COLLEGE LIBRARY

By Dr David Johnson

It came as rather a surprise when, late in Trinity Term, we received several requests for books to be delivered to rooms whose inhabitants had contracted COVID-19 and, in consequence, were isolating. This had not otherwise happened since early in Michaelmas. Equally, your Librarian (although not perhaps those more perspicacious Library staff) was surprised when during the usual push to ensure that those leaving Oxford had returned all their books, one undergraduate repeatedly had to extend her loans having contracted the virus and become seriously unwell as a result.

That said, this all represents a major improvement on the situation of ever-evolving rules and higher rates of infection in the previous year. A visitor to the Library in Hilary 2022 would have noticed little difference between the way things were then, and the way they had been two years before. Little difference that is with one exception. For more or less the entire year, the reading-rooms were busier than was ever the case, certainly in recent memory. Readers arrived early and left late; and it was not unknown for those coming later in the day to discover no space could be found, and so leave disappointed. A lack of seating in the Library has, of course, long been a problem. But, as we have noted before, one continuing effect of lock-downs and restrictions has been an increase in the desire for what was denied. Observation of Library users suggests that any desire to work in one’s room has more or less perished. People may wish to work alone; they don’t wish to work in isolation.

We had begun the academic year with in-person inductions to the Library for the first time since Michaelmas 2019. There was some debate about this, although most (if not all) college libraries followed a similar path. Nevertheless, we changed the way in which inductions were offered, not because of COVID but as a response to alterations in the Bodleian’s procedures. They had decided to offer less in the way of instruction on “SOLO”, Oxford’s online finding-aid for information resources. In addition to introducing the Library and its facilities, your librarian and the College’s new deputy librarian, Rosie Lake, therefore provided a much more comprehensive overview of SOLO than was done before. As a result, we went from not offering in-person inductions in 2020 to spending twice as much time with new arrivals as before the pandemic in 2021.

A major difficulty at the start of the year, and indeed throughout the whole of Michaelmas term, was a delay in completing renovations to the lower floor of Linton House. We were able to arrange for the company that had removed and stored the books normally shelved in the Lower Library to keep them for longer; but consequently, they remained inaccessible until the end of term. With work-space in such great demand, this delay proved doubly challenging.

New storage for the Wulstan collection was also created at the north end of the lower floor of Linton House. When access to this floor was restored in the last week of Michaelmas term, we were able to recruit a small team of students to help us in moving that collection (we hope for the last time) during the Christmas Vacation.

In large part because of COVID, this year’s theme was “trying to be the same, but ending up slightly different”. Some other changes were more fundamental. Nothing is more important to an organisation than those who make it work. This year has been “bookended” (pun shamelessly intended) by staff changes.

The redoubtable Rosie Lake, who joined us in summer 2021, established herself as a formidable presence in, and vital part of, the Library. She voiced new ideas and made different things happen exactly as was wanted. But, sadly for St Peter’s, at the end of Trinity our Library Assistant, Ana Belén Rodríguez Riego, decided to leave Oxford and return to Spain. Ana joined the College in 2016 and, putting it simply, has ever since done everything asked of her with the least amount of fuss, (relatively) quietly and always (supremely) efficiently. She was vital to the Library’s smooth functioning in difficult times. Especially in the year in which we lacked a permanent deputy librarian, Ana kept things running and ensured that your Librarian didn’t entirely lose his marbles albeit that, on occasion, he might temporarily have misplaced them.

Ana now plans to return to work in the Spanish library system. She will be an asset to it, and a loss to St Peter’s. Plus ça change - of course. Plus c’est la même chose – of course not. Independent-minded personalities always suggest changes and bring new ideas, as Rosie has done and as Ana did before. But, whilst doing so, the Library’s unchanging objective of facilitating intellectual exploration remains the same. Plus c’est la même chose – of course.

BOOKS PRESENTED DIRECTLY TO THE LIBRARY 2021–2022

Mr D Ashton

The family of the late Mr C. Bailey

Mr M. Cheesman

Dr T. Clack

Col. N.A. Collett

Prof L. Goldman

Mr D. Hardcastle

Mr R. Heffer

Dr R. Hirschon

Mr J.R. Knight

Mr M. Lazar

Mr W.K. Lee

Mr P. Longshaw

Mr J. Poole

Mr M. Tiley

Lady Tovey

Dr S. Tuffnell

Dr C. Williams