New Trainees
The 2008-2009 trainees have now offically taken over running the CATALOG website!
Trinity College and the Great War, 1914-18To coincide with the 90th anniversary of the Armistice on 11th November this year, a small exhibition is being held in the Wren Library, Trinity College. Drawing on the modern manuscript and photograph archives at Trinity, this exhibition will provide snapshots into the lives of the college and its members during the Great War. With the outbreak of war, and the departure of many undergraduates, postgraduates, and senior members into national service, the complexion of the University changed. Trinity, like several other colleges, fulfilled an important role in providing a location for the accommodation, training, and recuperation of officers and officer cadets.
The J.R.M. Butler archive in particular reveals the personal impact of the war upon members of the college. Henry Montagu Butler was Master at the outbreak of war. Until his death in 1917, he was in close correspondence with each of his three sons – James, Gordon, and Nevile – each of whom was serving abroad. The arrival of troops in Cambridge, the receipt of James’s mobilisation papers, Nevile’s release from German captivity, Gordon’s lucky escape from a shot in the thigh, and his untimely death from a brief illness while serving in Egypt, all feature in these letters.
The impact of the Great War was felt deeply throughout Britain; its past and present tranquillity notwithstanding, Cambridge was no exception. An exhibition of personal letters from our collection serves as a timely reminder of the anxieties and hopes, and the pain and loss inflicted by major warfare upon its participants and civilians alike.
The Wren Library is open to the public between 12.00 noon and 2.00pm Monday-Saturday. Entry is free, and all are welcome to attend.
Classics Library news
Catrin Lewis, the graduate trainee at the Classical Faculty Library, is going to move to the role of Library Assistant there, from August 2008. Congratulations!
Library School news
Liam Sims, the graduate trainee at Trinity, and Hazel Pointon, trainee at St John's, have both been accepted for the MA Library & Information Studies at UCL. Congratulations!
Opening of the new Taylor Library at Corpus Christi
Liam Austin, the graduate trainee at Corpus, has had an exciting week moving the College's undergraduate library! The Butler Library has now become the Taylor Library— a state of the art working library with three floors, about one hundred study places, a media centre, and an increased stock (from 28,000 to 45,000 books)!
Future Trainees
Although we (seemingly) have just started, if you are interested in replacing us, now is the time to think about applying for the 2008-09 traineeships! Most of our jobs are being advertised on CILIP.
New Trainees
The 2007-2008 trainees have now offically taken over running the CATALOG website - watch this space for updates!
Promotion of trainee
Colin Higgins, graduate trainee at Christ's, is moving to the role of Assistant College Librarian from the beginning of July. Congratulations!
CamTools group
The trainees at Cambridge are now all part of a CamTools group, through which we can discuss the running and development of the Catalog website. For more information on CamTools, visit the website.
New trainee position
Welcome to Liam Austin, who is now the graduate trainee at Corpus Christi College Library. This is the first time that Corpus have had a trainee position.
More Library School News
Congratulations to Colin who has been accepted onto the distance learning MSc Econ in Information and Library Studies at Aberystwyth!
Library School News
The two trainees who applied for the UCL MA in Library and Information Studies have both been accepted for the course. Well done Steven and Rebecca!
ebooks@cambridge has grown
The CCLF electronic books project has now purchased 219 books for permanent access, including the original 118 titles set up last year and an additional 101 titles from two suppliers, NetLibrary and MyiLibrary. In addition, Netlibrary also provides access to over 3000 publicly available books including reference works, scholarly monographs, literature and fiction. For more information on how this exciting project is developing, see the ebooks@cambridge website.
New trainees
There are two new additions to the Cambridge group of library trainees: Charlotte Cairns, who replaces Naomi Herbert at St. John's, and Jonathan Gray, who starts as trainee at Queens' College Library, a new part-time position.
Promotion of trainee
Naomi Herbert, graduate trainee at St. John's has been promoted to Librarian's assistant. Congratulations!
Launch of new website
The CATALOG website has been successfully migrated to a new address: http://www.cambridgelibrarytrainees.co.uk. As well as being easier to find and remember, our new web host (until now the website has been kindly hosted by Christ's College) should give us easier access to our site. Tools and statistics provided with the package will also be of great help.
Ebooks project set to continue in 2007
The trial year of the Cambridge electronic books project ran by the CCLF special project team is almost over. During the trial, the number of hits for the e-books on Netlibrary was 7785, clearly showing a demand for continued access to electronic resources. To respond to that demand, the e-books team has written a five-year strategic plan for the e-books project, and has made an application for funding to the Newton Trust. Almost all Cambridge colleges have also agreed to contribute to the funding of the project, thus ensuring its continuation in 2007.
Charity book sale in aid of the CLG Tsunami Appeal
The Cambridge Library Group is hosting a charity bookstall on Cambridge Market Square opposite the Guildhall on 14th of May in aid of the Group's Tsunami Appeal. Books have been generously donated for sale by several Cambridge libraries and private donors. All funds raised will be used for re-building school libraries in the areas devastated by the tsunami in Sri Lanka. The stall will be open from 10am until 4pm.
Inspire in the East of England
Inspire, a national programme that seeks to support learning at all levels of education by providing readers easy access to all partner libraries regardless of sector or geography, is expanding in Cambridge. Inspire was launched in the East of England in 2005 and in March 2006 college and faculty libraries were invited to participate. So far, Queens', St John's and the Classics faculty libraries have registered for participation, with several other colleges considering joining.
Ebooks@cambridge collection now available
The CCLF (Cambridge Colleges' Libraries' Forum) electronic books project team has announced that the ebooks@cambridge electronic collection of titles is now available. The aim of this year-long trial is to provide greater access to over 100 of the books most used by students. These have been selected on the basis of demand and include titles from several subject reading lists. In addition to these, there are also 3400 publicly available books including reference works, scholarly monographs, literature and fiction. This project has been made possible by a generous donation from Professor Robert Z. Aliber of St John's College, Cambridge. For more information, see here.
St John's College Old Library Awarded Designation Status
The Old Library of St John's College has recently been awarded Designation Status by the Museums Libraries and Archives Council. This prestigious award recognises the 'outstanding national and international importance' of the resources held within the Old Library.
St John's College Library is formed of a Working Library which contains collections of material for current undergraduate and postgraduate students and an Old Library which preserves material from the history of St John's College. The collections within the Old Library include over 32,000 volumes published before 1800, 270 medieval manuscripts, of which the earliest dates from the tenth century, personal papers from a large number of Old Johnians and artefacts such as the Nobel Prize won by the physicist Paul Dirac and the eighteenth-century materia medica cabinet of Dr. William Heberden, the 'Father of Rheumatology'. The diversity of the Old Library is demonstrated in browsing the shelves where nineteenth-century photographs of the Victorian polymath Samuel Bulter are found alongside autograph poems by William Wordsworth, letters and papers of the anti-slavery campaigners William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson, the collection of books and manuscripts given by Shakespeare's patron, the Earl of Southampton Henry Wriothesley, and the personal papers of Sir Fred Hoyle, coiner of the term 'Big Bang'.
The Designation scheme has for some years been open to non-national Museums in England, but in 2005, for the first time, libraries and archives have been eligible to apply. Collections in just twenty-eight libraries and archives have been awarded Designated status. The only other Designation in Oxford and Cambridge in this round has gone to the Churchill Archives Centre in Cambridge. Recognising that organisations with such collections care for a significant part of England's cultural heritage, the Designation scheme sets out to identify and celebrate the pre-eminent collections of national and international importance held in England's non-national museums, libraries and archives. Applicant institutions have to demonstrate that they maintain their collections in appropriate conditions, and, crucially, that they make every reasonable effort to enhance access, so that people from all sectors of the community can use, and benefit from, the Designated collections.
That the Old Library has been recognised by this designation status is an attribute to the treasures held within its walls and the preservation of these national resources by Library Staff in the last centuries.
