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! 🙂
