Our September 2024 meeting was an in-person visit to Newnham College Library to explore the main library, the Rare Books room, and two of the exhibitions displayed in the building. The CLG was split into small groups to take the tour, to minimise disruption to the small number of library users working at desks, before the rest of the college returned at the start of term.
The first stop was the Jaffé exhibition, a display on female wood engravers. The works of multiple artists were shown not just with book illustrations and title covers, but also wood engraving tools, loose drawings, and a small, sewn red horse, which was a character in a children’s book displayed next to it. Many of the engravers had a link to Newnham, and many of the items displayed came from donations to the college. The exhibition itself was located in a corridor in the library building, but separated from users by a door, so that visitors could discuss the displayed works without disrupting anyone’s studying. The librarian had put a lot of thought into how to set up the display, including where the average visitor’s eyeline would rest, having a mix of items to look at, and ensuring adequate lighting. Her usual method when accepting donations was to only accept one of each book, but she made an exception for a certain title, as one copy was perfectly, printed, and the other showed red ink mixed in with black as the result of a printing error. Wood engraving and printing often create identical images, but these small differences due to ink or process issues allow for uniqueness in books to occur.
Next was a tour of the library itself. We started in the old part of the building, which had an intriguing combination of high, vaulted ceilings, engraved with publisher’s marks, above cosy studying nooks where desks sat surrounded by bookshelves on three sides. Locked cases had been incorporated into the shelves to display rare titles. The chairs were old and wooden, so the library had brought in newer, adaptive chairs in some areas. There was also a soft seating area, incorporated into the old architecture, for students to take a break from work. However, after passing a display on dissertation and work/life balance books, we crossed into the modern addition to the library. The design kept the same high vaulted ceilings and space structure but used metal and glass to give the section a newer feel. This space also housed DVDs, newspapers, graphic novels, and boards for students to display book recommendations.
We then visited the Bletchley exhibition. Like Jaffé, it was also housed in a corridor that was slightly closed off from the library. Along one side of the corridor were bright displays of information and photos, positioned on a shelf that had been carved to resemble a strip of computer code. On the other side was a display case of letters, several of which discussed using Cambridge linguistics students to help with code breaking and other tasks during the war.
The last part of the tour was the Rare Books room, where the librarian explained the recent renovations made to the room. The biggest changes were the skylight being covered over, and insulation being added to the walls, which had the unfortunate effect of bringing the walls closer in and therefore reducing shelf space. The books were removed during the renovation, but were slowly being added back in, shelved alongside books of similar height to maximise space and reduce book warping. The librarians were also creating detailed records of where the books were shelved as they put them back on the shelves, so that rare books (most without spine labels) would be easier to locate in the future.
The visit was a very enjoyable one, which let the CLG explore the library that users visited daily, the exhibitions that drew in curious visitors, and the storage of rare books so that the library could continue to provide research services.
