CLG are pleased to share our next quarterly wrap up.
May: Graduate Trainee Talk
In May we held our annual Graduate Trainee Talk, which is one of our highlight events of the year. We invite current Graduate Trainees at Cambridge to tell us about their year, and highlight a project they've been working on. It is always great to see aspiring librarians!
We heard from four trainees, who have been working on a range of projects. My highlight was hearing about the Library moving at Christ's College!
After their trainee year some of the trainees will go on to further study, such as a Master's in Librarianship, or they'll find work in other Library settings.
We wish them the best in their next ventures!
Contributed by Katherine Burchell
Social Media Editor
June: Living Water Exhibition at Pembroke College: talk by Dr Mark Wormald, curator of the Exhibition
Living Water: Poetry, Art and the Fight for Clean Rivers is a major exhibition held in partnership between Cambridge University Library and Pembroke College which explores the work and passions of expressionist Anglo-Irish artist Barrie Cooke and his circle of friends, among them Seamus Heaney and Pembroke alumnus Ted Hughes.
We were warmly welcomed by the Exhibition's curator, Dr Mark Wormald, who delved into detail about the material on display, which includes letters, fishing rods, artworks, and even a boat. We heard the story of how Dr Wormald met Barrie Cooke towards the end of his life, and how Cooke unexpectedly showed him the remarkable collection of letters and other archival material which have since come to Pembroke College Archive (many of which can be seen on display). This unique exhibition uncovers a side to these remarkable and creative individuals that is not often seen, and reveals how their friendship was formed through a love of fishing and water.
Contributed by Natalie Kent
July: Talk and Tour of A G Leventis Library with Ellen Woolf
Once again the CLG was lucky enough to go somewhere and be shown a library that has a unique setup and location which really shows the breadth of what there is in Cambridge Libraries.
Within the David Attenborough building is the Cambridge Conservation Initiative, a wonderful collection of 11 collaborators with the mission to "work together and with others to conserve and restore life on Earth." With each partner having their own offices but in a shared building it gives a wonderful vision of how groups can work together but still have their own identities. It looks like a wonderful way of working and has an amazing array of different artworks on each floor which adds to the different environment alongside great facilities such as an enormous common room space. And at the top is the AG Leventis library.
Ellen is someone I knew worked at the Medical Library but I had no idea that she also had this role, which although is only for a few hours a week is obviously a very important job for the people in this building. Ellen gave us a wonderful talk about the work of the CCI and how she provides services for the staff and then we went to see the library. Although it is a small library room it is wide ranging and laid out with a very strong breadth of materials.
I always like going to libraries in subjects that are not connected to my own workplace (Neuroscience) but did recognise several themes that I recognised from personal interests. You can see the strength of how things have been chosen and organised. Great to walk into a library and feel its worth to its community as it addresses the needs for a common but diverse range of partners.
And I really liked one nice little thing shown on an information posters. Instead of reshelving things if people are taking things off the shelf and not scanning them out people are asked to put materials in Attenbird's tray. Attenbird is the Library mascot and goes to show that a mascot is certainly a thing we all need (and adds to the greater knowledge as what is actually getting used! 🙂
CLG are pleased to share our next quarterly wrap up which highlights our events held from January to April 2026.
January: Twelfth Night at CUP Bookshop
To kick off the New Year, CLG members were invited to our annual Twelfth Night event at the CUP bookshop. Members enjoyed the opportunity to chat over nibbles and wine, whilst browsing the bookshop after hours.
We're incredibly grateful for the CUP bookshop staff giving up their time to allow us to enjoy this evening.
Contributed by Katherine Burchell
February: Tour of Clare College Library and Fellows' Library
When you get to visit the old and the new in a college that you have never been into you know you are going to get to see very different ways of not only engaging with students but showing off the very impressive collections that colleges often have.
And Clare was certainly not one to disappoint.
The newer of the two libraries we were to visit, the Forbes Mellon Library, is now 40 years old but it has the impact of being a supportive work and study space with facilities and posters as soon as you step through the door and once you are into the main room you can see the way that space and seating was designed to make the most of what students need with a large amount of seating with a wonderful layout of shelving but so much space above you rather than a tight restrictive environment.
Being shown round by the staff is always a great way to see and hear about the actual elements of the jobs that we know from our own locations and so getting ideas from colleagues being that sharing information, different forms of signage and chairs or promotion of events is always most welcome.
After leaving the Forbes Mellon we walked in the dark over Queens Road, down The Avenue and into the older college buildings and through the dark wooden rooms into the Fellows Library. Designed in 1792 and only recently refurbished it is exactly what you would expect a serious collection in a college to be. But we were very lucky indeed to have Dr Tim Chesters, the Fellow's Librarian and our guide to the wonders that Clare had to offer. He is an Associate Professor of Early Modern French but with the knowledge and love he has for the contents of the Library, you'd think that he had always been a Librarian and had been in situ for a very long time indeed.
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| Photos contributed by Katherine Burchall |
With cabinets showing off some of their treasures such as the earliest printed Latin translation of the Quran from 1543, a treatise on head wounds from 1616 along with diagrams for trepanning and of course a first edition copy of Isaac Newton's Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica from 1687. These are a wonder to see and a tiny amount of what the library has to offer.
Even upon leaving, in the room next door, was an armoured iron bound loan chest from 1390-1420 that would most likely have been the original version of the College library back in the Middle Ages.
It is this sort of thing that makes the CLG eminently important to join as we have been lucky enough to see so many things that are hidden behind those places we always walk past but never get to enter.
Contributed by Kevin Symonds
March: The All England Lawn Tennis Club Library & Archive, Wimbledon
To read about our first joint event with the Cambridge Archivists Group, Lizzy Ennion-Smith has kindly shared her blog post for Cambridge Library Group to enjoy: https://cambridgearchivistsgroup.wordpress.com/2026/04/14/the-all-england-lawn-tennis-club-library-archive-wimbledon/
April: Pub Quiz
In April, CLG hosted their first in-person quiz. The rounds were varied and covered film and television, books, music, geography, and pop culture. Sadly, despite our professions, our team weren't as successful in the books round as we'd hoped! It was a really fun evening and Natalie, fellow CLG committee member, was a fantastic quiz master. A particular highlight was the music round which consisted of Natalie playing her ukulele and then asking us to guess the artist and song title. It definitely brought out all of our competitive sides!
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| The winning team! |
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| Photos contributed by Natalie Kent |
A huge thank you to the Maypole for hosting us and for providing such a delicious array of food and drinks throughout the evening.
Contributed by Lily Swain