The College Record 2022
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Reports and <strong>College</strong> Activities<br />
Credit: John Cairsns<br />
A YEAR IN THE LIBRARY<br />
Dr Matthew Shaw<br />
<strong>College</strong> Librarian<br />
<strong>The</strong> year has been marked by a return to the usual patterns<br />
of activity in the Library, despite the challenges of the Delta<br />
and Omicron variants – from inductions and tours in<br />
Michaelmas Term to the packed desks of Sixth and<br />
Seventh Weeks as junior members prepare for exams.<br />
While the Library has been able to operate almost as usual<br />
during the pandemic, we finished Hilary Term with the<br />
removal of social distancing limits on seating in the New<br />
Library reading room, and with it the end of special<br />
measures. We have retained some things, such as a<br />
popular ‘click and collect’ service outside of the library for<br />
busy students, intelligent use of Teams video calling and imaging for remote<br />
researchers, and a better understanding of healthy ventilation and monitoring of air<br />
quality in the reading rooms: there is now even less of an excuse to fall asleep at<br />
one’s desk in the fug of an overwarm, under-oxygenated library.<br />
<strong>The</strong> collections continue to grow. In part due to the donation of several collections<br />
resulting from the changeover of some Fellows’ rooms, over 800 volumes have<br />
been processed and added to the collections by our librarians. <strong>The</strong>se have been<br />
augmented by increased access to digital books and other online resources, working<br />
in collaboration with other college libraries and the Bodleian Libraries. Circulation of<br />
physical books among readers have also returned to pre-pandemic levels. Contributing<br />
to the social life of the <strong>College</strong>, a small collection of board games, such as Mysterion,<br />
can also be borrowed from the New Library, and the Library has investigated and<br />
augmented its Ukrainian collections (some of which were on display in the Hall during<br />
the coffee and cake morning in aid of the Red Cross Ukrainian appeal). Existing<br />
collection items continue to give up their secrets, such as the provenance of a folio of<br />
Piranesi engravings, or the prior ownership of several rare books by Robert Southey,<br />
the poet laureate from 1813 to 1843 who, like the <strong>College</strong>, possesses a strong<br />
connection to the Lake District. <strong>The</strong> discovery of an account of a <strong>College</strong> bicycle ride in<br />
the Historical Society minute book from 1922 led to the ride’s centennial re-enactment<br />
in June <strong>2022</strong> by Fellows, staff and Old Members. Sadly, the ferry at Bablock Hythe<br />
exploited by the earlier cyclists was no longer running.<br />
Books (and manuscripts) have also been out on display in the Upper Library.<br />
In Michaelmas Term, the Library celebrated the work and career of Prince Akiki<br />
Nyabongo: novelist, ethnologist, and Ugandan administrator who studied at Queen’s<br />
in the 1930s. <strong>The</strong> exhibition featured on BBC South News, made use of photographs<br />
provided by Nyabongo’s son, and it included a curatorial tour and discussions for the<br />
JCR. In Hilary Term, we contributed to the <strong>College</strong>’s sustainable food initiative, with<br />
a display on ‘Dining Right’, drawing on the Library’s collection of JCR suggestions<br />
40 <strong>The</strong> Queen’s <strong>College</strong> | <strong>College</strong> <strong>Record</strong> <strong>2022</strong>