HLF conference 2012: Part 3 Social media

 Here's the final part of my write up of the HLF conference on 20th November 2012.

3) Social media in libraries 
The main speaker in this section was Alison Cullingford (Special Collections Librarian at Bradford University), who I suspect needs no introduction to any special collections librarian who's dabbled in social media already! The case study was provided by Jill Whitelock (Head of Special Collections, Cambridge University Library).

Some conference attendees were already using social media in their libraries, others were not, and Alison emphasised the importance of using it at the right level for both you and your institution. It is now ubiquitous - all good websites now include things like comment boxes and links to share pages on Twitter, Facebook etc.

• Social media is particularly good for small libraries, as it allows them to punch well above their weight.
• Much of it is intuitive and easy to learn, and there is a lot of help available out there.
• Use responsibly and with common sense. Your institution might perceive there is a risk from social media so be prepared to put together a case.
• You can only use pictures to which you have the rights, so this might limit what you can post online.
• Blogging and other social media are an excellent CPD opportunity for staff.

Where to start?
Blogging is the most comfortable place to start from, as you can use the story of your special collections and go beyond what you can do on a corporate website. Both Alison and Jill are using Wordpress. Put anything ongoing and dynamic on the blog and remember it has a long shelflife so people searching even years later on will still be able to find it.

• Moderate comments to weed out any spam. 
• Remember that the blog will not look after itself, so act like an editor and find and commission content. 
• Have some posts queued so you're never without one handy. 
• Join in with other blogs to do themed posts and make your content go further by using other social media. 
• Ask to be featured on your library's homepage to increase the number of hits. 
• Always ask someone else to read through your posts before they go live.

The 100 objects style format has worked well at various places (100 objects Bradford, 52 weeks of fantastic bindings, 52 weeks of inspiring illustrations) and ends up working like a FAQ about the collections. The  Cambridge Special Collections Blog has a mixture of post styles, some time-specific to mark anniversaries or publicise events. There are also separate project blogs, such as the Incunabula cataloguing project, and the Tower Project. Guest posts are used to demonstrate relevance and that collections are being used (you can see a guest post I wrote for the Cambridge Incunabula Project blog here).

Flickr works well for special collections images, and avoids the need to invest in expensive image management software (Special Collections Bradford Flickr photostream). Some institutions have used students to film special collections work as part of their projects (Tyne & Wear archives, LSE).

Twitter can be controversial as it's easy to say things you shouldn't, but it's a brilliant way of getting conversations started, being interactive and getting feedback quickly. During the day there are a lot of professionals using it, and a good international angle emerges when people in other time zones get to work too. I liked Alison's tip of never using Twitter if you're in a bad mood!

Golden rule: think about what you're doing and why you're doing it

Sources to find out more:
CPD23 provides a good overview of getting started with social media.
Ned Potter (the Wikiman) has guidelines for using social media on his blog.

HLF conference 2012: Part 2 Exhibitions

Continuing my write up of the 2012 Historic Libraries Forum conference: Making the most of your special collections.


2) Exhibitions
The main speaker on exhibitions was Tanya Kirk (Lead Curator of Printed Literary Sources at the British Library), who had recently curated the summer exhibition, Writing Britain: literary wonderlands and wastelands. Case studies were provided by Katie Sambrook (Special Collections Librarian at King's College London) and Emily Dourish (Exhibitions Officer at Cambridge University Library).

Tanya outlined the exhibitions process at the British Library. It is run as a project, with each exhibition usually taking 2-3 years of planning and implementation. I have added comments made by Katie and Emily in their case studies to the outline below.

• Proposal - sell exhibition ideas to colleagues and your marketing department/wider institution. Why do you think your institution is the right place for this exhibition? Does it have a broad or narrow focus, and is this likely to appeal to enough people? This will also depend on whether you are trying to generate revenue, or just raise awareness of your library/institution and promote your collections. An exhibition is an immense amount of work, even if you only have a few display cases, so are you going to be a single curator (and if so, what happens about the rest of your work whilst this is going on?) or curate jointly with someone else? Emily talked about how academics at Cambridge were keen to be involved with an exhibition because it could count as evidence for their impact rating in REF.
• Marketing - does it link with your institution's "brand"? There was a difference here between case studies. Some had marketing departments that liked to link the exhibition to modern times, and avoid having a "dusty image", other institutions were keen to emphasise the historical aspects of what they were displaying.
• Audience test and find out what people would expect to see if they came to your exhibition. Similarly. talk to colleagues to ensure you are remaining on track topic-wise. Know your audience - the BL aims exhibition labels at a reading age of GCSE grade C to make it accessible. Knowing your audience also means you know whether you can use technical terms or not.
• Build a list of collection items considered for exhibition, otherwise you'll forget them. Record information about the copy you want, which opening you want and the book's condition on a spreadsheet, and take photos to remind yourself what the item looks like. Keep in mind the overall look and aim for variety in each display case. You can also use colour pictures to mock up the display case.
• Check whether items are suitable for display, bearing in mind the limitations of your display space, for example, is the environment suitable and is the book happy to open far enough for display purposes?
• Arrange exhibition loans, if necessary. Most institutions want to receive loan requests at least six months before the exhibition. Bear in mind that loans can be expensive.
• When writing labels be rigorous about fact checking and always have someone available to proofread and edit. Avoid writing consecutive labels as people don't read everything and may miss some out. Start with a hook at the beginning of the label to draw people in and use active language and metaphor. Encourage people to look at the object, not just read the label. Always test your labels with non-expert.
• Publicity - encourage people to blog about your exhibition to raise awareness. Make sure your front of house staff know about the exhibition so they can "sell" it too.
• Katie and Emily had different policies about online exhibitions. At King's they publish the online exhibition only after the physical display has been taken down, to encourage people to go and see it whilst it's there. Whereas at Cambridge the online exhibition is published at the same time.

I thought there were some great ideas in this part of the conference, and definitely some I'll be able to use in the future. I also found it helpful to have an overview of the whole exhibition process at the British Library. Obviously, that's a lot bigger than anywhere I've worked, but the same principles apply.

HLF conference 2012: Part 1 Filming

Earlier this week I was at the Historic Libraries Forum conference, held at the Bishopsgate Institute in London. I thought it was an excellent conference, although I may be a little biased! ;-) Well, I certainly took away a lot of useful ideas, and I think, from the feedback we received, that others did too.

The day was structured with three longer talks in the morning, and five case studies in the afternoon, but I'm going to group them into themes for the write up. I've split this into three posts as there was a lot to take in.

1) Filming in libraries
The main speaker was Harvey Edgington, the National Trust's Broadcast and Media Manager, who gave us an overview of how the NT works with film companies who want to film on location at any of the properties. This covered an immense scope, from Pride and Prejudice (yes, both the Colin Firth one and the Keira Knightley one) to documentaries and fashion shows.Whilst I doubt most libraries can replicate the scale (5 or 6 new enquiries a day from film crews, and 3 crews filming every day), there was a lot of pertinent information about actually dealing with film crews.

Case studies were provided by Suzanne Paul (Corpus Christi College, Cambridge) and Naomi Percival (Lambeth Palace Library).

Main points about filming:

• Filming can generate money (both for your library and the local area) and also raise awareness of your library. Remember that TV advertising costs a fortune so publicity like this can be fantastic.
• Risks involved include the film being a flop and possibly having to close to users, causing alienation. Harvey mentioned that films don't necessarily show a property as it actually is, thereby causing disappointment amongst visitors - I still remember my teenage disappointment at arriving at Lyme Park to discover there wasn't a great sweeping long drive leading by the lake where THAT scene with Colin Firth was filmed. Suzanne recommended checking that the filming will fit with the brand and direction of both your library and the wider institution.
• Don't underestimate the time involved. Film crews always run over and can also be very last minute about getting in touch.
• Have a contract setting out very clearly what your charges are (at the discussion afterwards people mentioned amounts such as £250 per hour, or £1000 per day, with extra charges for filming outside normal working hours). It should also state clearly whether items are allowed to be moved or handled, use of lights and floor protection and that the film crew will be supervised at all times by a member of library staff. Don't believe the film crew when they plead poverty, just be clear about what your charges are (some places asked for a 50% deposit before filming could be agreed, most places demanded payment up front before filming could commence).
• Encourage the crew to do a recce before filming, and to specify in advance what books they would like to film. Ensure those books are robust enough to withstand filming, and take precautions if something is requested a lot.
• Check the film crew understands the contract - if they want "establishing shots" outside, do you have the right to grant this, or do you need to involve someone else in your institution?
• Establish practicalities in advance, for example, if parking is limited nearby or if the access is via a spiral staircase.
• Be prepared to be a talking head - if you don't want to be on camera, find someone in advance who is prepared to do it!
• Take photos of the film crew at work, which you can then use to publicise your library.
• Take care with copyright. Film crews tend not to understand this so make sure that it is clear in the contract that getting copyright clearance is their responsibility. Also watch out for potential copyright implications if they want to take close ups of books, objects, portraits etc. 
• Make sure your library/institution is mentioned in the credits.
• After broadcast, be prepared for people getting in touch demanding to know why white gloves aren't being worn. The British Library has some information about this to which people can be referred!
• Review the filming afterwards to inform your future decisions. Was it worth doing?

This all backed up my own experiences of working with film crews. It isn't glamorous, but it can be worth it to get your library publicised. And, OK, I did get to meet Joanna Lumley once! I have also found lis-rarebooks and Twitter very useful for finding other librarians willing to share their filming policies (and horror stories).

Voices for the library

On behalf of the Historic Libraries Forum, I was asked to write a blog post for Voices for the Library to help public libraries with rare or historic book collections find support and advice. You can read the post here: Libraries in danger: a different angle.

This was a nice example of networking - I met Gary Green, from Voices for the Library, at the CIG12 conference, where he spoke and I introduced myself to him afterwards, mainly at that point because he works for Surrey libraries, the public library service I use myself. It was when the sale of books from Wigan public library became public that we came up with the idea of a blog post.

CILIP CIG conference: The value of cataloguing

I had a great few days at the CIG 2012 conference in Sheffield last month. Although I've been to CIG events before, I'd never been to the conference. It was a very intense couple of days and I'm not going to attempt to blog all of it, so these are some of the thoughts and reflections I've brought away.

First of all, and I should really know this by now, librarians always seem to keen to share their knowledge and get to know you. This group was no exception. I only knew a couple of other attendees IRL, although I "knew" some of the others from Twitter, yet I quickly met a whole crowd of people all exchanging information, opinions and advice. Apart from anything else, it was enormous fun (well, have you ever been in a pub with about 30 cataloguers before?!). People had even made cake to share.

Second, don't be scared about the future. Yes, there are big changes coming - not only RDA, but also the world we work in is changing, especially in the current economic climate. Yet we heard from some brilliant speakers about how their libraries had weathered storms in the past (Heather Jardine pointed out that everyone had survived the arrival of AACR2). There was such a range of experience present: some libraries were still using UKMARC, others were about to jump to RDA. There was controversy: is MARC really about to die? (probably). Many people talked about the advantages of collaborative working, which offers so many advantages. My favourite was Deborah Lee, on NACO funnels. I'd love to join a NACO funnel, but I doubt it would be possible for me at the moment! And I really enjoyed Ian Fairclough talking about collaborating to improve bibliographic data quality - check out Typo of the day for librarians! There was a definite feeling of we're all in this together.

Third, librarians can really make a difference. Well, we knew that, but does the rest of the world?  Dave Pattern's keynote address reported on research that shows how library use can predict what grade students will get (amusingly, there is even a 2am rise in library use for students who get lower grades - demonstrating that they've left it to the last minute. Apparently the best achievers are in the library by 9am). How does knowing that affect how we promote our library services?

Other key points, which I've made into a list of Things To Do (either immediately or later):

• Make the most of the functionality in your catalogue and what it can tell you about how people are searching it. Then use that data to enhance catalogue records.
•  Cataloguing consistency AND workflow are important - how to catalogue consistently, speedily but still providing what users need. This means making some strategic decisions about outsourcing work, prioritisation, using tools that can speed things up and making use of controlled vocabularies.Areas all touched on repeatedly in presentations by Lucy Bell, Michael Emly and Gary Green.
• Also, don't ignore the history of your catalogue. Keep a record of the cataloguing decisions you take, so that future generations of people working with your catalogue will know what they're dealing with (Anne Welsh and Katharine Whaite).
• Start thinking in terms of data in networks, rather than hierarchical trees (Simon Barron). RDA is the perfect opportunity to think about how we can do this.
• Find out more about RDA. Céline Carty updated us on RDA, having been to the ALA annual conference in Anaheim. She provided a handout with helpful links to the RDA Essentials webinars, amongst other resources. Stuart Hunt provided practical tips on implementing RDA in your ILS. Both recommended exploring the RDA Toolkit, if you have access to it.
• Look into ways to promote the value of cataloguing, for example, through the High Visibility Cataloguing blog. Try to make the most of networking opportunities. (Céline Carty, Karen Pierce and Rachel Playforth)

I've got pages of notes from this conference, so this post is just selected highlights from it. Speakers' slides are available here. A massive thank you to the organisers and speakers  - I had a wonderful few days up in Sheffield and learnt an enormous amount.

I also attended the FRBR training after the conference but I'll blog about that separately.

CILIP LIHG: Lost libraries walk

Back on 22nd June I joined an evening walk around London, organised by the CILIP Library & Information History Group (LIHG). It was entitled: "Lost Libraries: a walk through some of London’s forgotten book collections", and I wasn't really sure what to expect, after all, if a library's lost, how can you go and see it? But the blurb attracted me:

Twenty-first century London contains some of the finest book collections in the world, but what about the libraries that haven’t survived? If you know where to look, London’s streets and alleyways are crammed with the ghosts of libraries past.       

This brand new walk will carry you back through London’s history, to long-forgotten libraries, readers, librarians and collectors. In the company of Alice Ford-Smith (Principal Librarian, Dr Williams’s Library), Lost Libraries uncovers some of the links between London’s past and present book collections. From Bloomsbury to the City, you will hear tales of enterprise, transformation, obsession and destruction.

I wasn't disappointed. Not only did the organiser (Renae Satterley) and leader (Alice Ford-Smith) miraculously manage to arrange for the rain to stop for an exact 2 hour window whilst we walked, I also found out more about London's history and its libraries, as well as exploring all sorts of hidden corners I wouldn’t normally have ventured into.



The rendezvous was at Gray's Inn library, one of the Inns of Court and the only library we were able to see inside. We were allowed a silent look around upstairs (it was still open to users) before Alice gave us some background. Although the origins of the library lie back in the 15th century, the Holker Library building was opened in 1929 and subsequently destroyed (along with about 32,000 books) during World War II. The library you can see in the picture below was designed by Sir Edward Maufe and opened in 1958. This was one of several moments during the tour when the sheer scale of destruction at various points in history took my breath away.

Our next stop was a short walk along High Holborn, where we stood outside branches of WHSmith and Boots whilst Alice told us about the earliest subscription libraries, including those run by Smiths and Boots.

And on to stand outside the old Public Record Office building, and hear about its history, as since 2001 it has been the home of the Maughan Library of King's College, London. Of course, the old PRO is now part of the National Archives, housed at Kew.

On again to near Samuel Johnson's house where there was an opportunity to sit down by the statue of Hodge, whilst Alice told us about the sale of Johnson's library. The books were in poor condition, but were sufficiently annotated and signed by him to make it easy to reconstruct his library.

The following stop in Crane Court (now a tiny and unprepossessing alleyway but once the home of the Royal Society) was the site, in 1742, of the first circulating library. This was launched by Samuel Fancourt, a dissenting minister and librarian. He popularized the idea of a subscription library, and the Leeds Library is now the oldest surviving model of this type.

Down another alleyway by a pub we found ourselves in Devereux Court, where there were once four coffee houses. These offered newspapers and journals, as well as libraries of books. In Tom's coffee house here there were about 2,000 books available for use. Many of these coffee houses were wiped out during the Great Fire of London (1666) when more than 13,000 buildings were destroyed.

Although it isn't a library, we walked past Temple Church, which I thought warranted a photo.

as well as the huge picture attached to Sea Containers House for the Queen's Jubilee!

Which we walked past on our way to Sion College. Founded by Thomas White in 1630 and entitled to receive a copy of every book published in London between 1710 and 1836, it closed in 1996 and the collections were split between Lambeth Palace Library, King's College London and Guildhall Library. It seemed very sad, as the building is now home to investment managers and the trading floor is in what was the library.
 

Further over towards the City we stopped near where Samuel Pepys was born, outside St Bride's library. Although not a lost library as such, it is currently closed to researchers and is at risk, although recently it was announced it will reopen at the end of September 2012. Alice talked here about ways in which to support this and other libraries under threat, such as the Women’s Library (you can read about this in my earlier blog post).

Final stop on the walk was Stationers' Hall. This has its origins in 1403, and is a City Livery Company, which once held the right to enforce legislation over publishing. Their hall in Ave Maria Lane was another casualty of the Great Fire of 1666, when another book collection was lost. However, there is still a library available on site here today.

We ended the walk by St Paul's Cathedral. Many booksellers stored books in the crypt beneath St Paul's and during the Great Fire John Evelyn records that these remained burning for a week. After the fire over 90% of booksellers returned to the area, but World War II caused more chaos and destroyed business records as well as books and catalogues. Nowadays the area is very different.

My account doesn’t do the evening justice, as there was an immense amount of detail provided by Alice and a lot of work must have gone into preparing the walk. I would highly recommend joining a future walk if you haven’t already done so though, as I thoroughly enjoyed my evening. Thank you to both Alice and Renae for organising the evening.

APML: Disaster management

Before I started working in library world I had no idea how many related organisations there are out there. Of course, I'd heard of CILIP (in those days the Library Association) and I'd vaguely heard of the Cathedral Libraries & Archives Association (CLAA) through volunteering at a cathedral library, but I hadn't heard of any others. In those days I'd only just acquired my first email address and email bulletins were unheard of so it was quite hard to find out about organisations, especially as the smaller ones didn't seem to have websites. Of course, we're in a whole new world now, it is so much easier to find out about relevant organisations, and there are so many of them out there, often providing ways of networking with librarians working in a similar field, or inexpensive training opportunities. One of those groups is the Association of Pall Mall Libraries (APML). I went to a talk they organised before one of their meetings, on the subject of disaster management.

The speaker was Sarah Hamlyn, Lead Preventive Conservator at the British Library, who gave us an overview of disaster management issues and ideas of what to do in our own libraries both before a disaster and in the aftermath. I'll just pull out her main points to write about here.

She emphasised the importance of planning in advance what to do if an emergency occurs and practising. With the growth in social networking and the ease of taking photographs any incident is likely to be in public view very rapidly and you need to know how to deal with it. If you have one, use your press or PR department's expertise to prepare a statement.

Potential risks

The part to send shivers down any librarian's spine is the list of potential risks. These include both problems that would affect just one library or institution, or much wider emergencies that affect an entire city or area. These include: theft, violent incidents, power failure, pandemics, transport infrastructure failure, extreme weather, loss of IT systems, fire, flood, environmental problems, mould outbreaks, pest infestations, physical damage (e.g. buildings being brought down by the force of flood water). Obviously these affect collection items, but it's important not to forget about your staff. What are you going to do if your staff can't get to work, or get home again at the end of the day?

Sources of information

Relevant standards to follow are ISO 31000 2009, Risk management: Principles and guidelines, available here as a free download and ISO 22301, Business continuity management.

Many disaster plans and templates are available online, but make sure you update them to reflect your library's individual circumstances.

The British Library Preservation Advisory Service (BLPAC) has an e-resource about disaster and emergency planning. This has much more detail about what to do and links to other sources of information.

Sarah emphasised the points to consider:

Prevention and preparedness

• Try and avoid a disaster happening in the first place by eliminating as many risks as possible and identifying key staff and functions.

Emergency plan

• Keep your emergency plan updated, including emergency contact numbers for staff and a priority list of items. For instance, you need to be very specific about groups of items to help the fire brigade know what to rescue in an emergency - you may not be allowed in the building yourself. Be aware that both personal phone numbers and the location of valuable items are sensitive data and treat them accordingly.

• Test the plan. This is the only way you'll find out what doesn't work, before you have to "test" it in a genuine emergency. Practising also helps your staff in a real emergency as they already know what to do.

• Be clear about who has what role in an incident, including substitutes in case of illness or holiday. 

• If the site is compromised you need to know whether you can work normally and who makes the decision to close. You also need to know the minimum number of staff you need to be able to open. Be aware that in a big incident, you will also need to update your library users about the emergency situation, as well as staff.

• The plan should be easy to carry around and use. Many institutions use a small checklist that can be carried in a wallet or handbag. Check that staff know what they need with them if they're called to an out of hours emergency - things like money and keys. Large institutions, such as the British Library, have pre-loaded mobile phones with relevant numbers in and a paid staff out-of-hours rota for the staff who carry these.

•  Make salvage and the disaster plan part of induction training, and revisit the training frequently.

CILIP in London: Women's Library

On 4th July 2012 I went to a CILIP in London talk by Dianne Shepherd, the Information Librarian at the Women's Library. The talk was about a mixture of professional issues, what the library does and what her job is like, and a bit about the current situation over the future of the Women's Library.

I hadn't been to any CILIP branch events before, despite finishing my chartership over three years ago. In previous areas where I've lived (East Midlands and Thames Valley) they were hard to get to as there was quite a lot of travel involved, but it turned out CILIP in London's talks are only 15 minutes walk from where I work, and timed to make it easy to go to them after work.

Dianne described the history and background of the Women's Library collections. The collection is Designated and documents every aspect of women's lives, mainly in this country, although there is some material from overseas. It was originally founded in 1926 by the suffragist, Millicent Fawcett, with the name Library of the London Society for Women's Service. By 1953 it was known as the Fawcett Library, and it moved to City Polytechnic, (which was later known as London Guildhall University, and which is now part of London Metropolitan University). A Heritage Lottery Fund grant meant the library could move to purpose-built accommodation in 2002. I visited there last year, with the CILIP Library & Information History Group, before the threat of closure was announced.

Various other collections were acquired, including the Cavendish Bentinck Library (in 1931) and the Josephine Butler Society Library. Donations are still accepted now (donations information is here). The library has become a very well-used collection, starting out with only 5 readers a day in 2002 and increasing to over 4,000 visits in total in 2011, and over 14,000 enquiries. This is testament both to the excellent reader facilities they now have there, reader development schemes and also a lot of work that has been done on cataloguing the collections to make them accessible (catalogues of the library, as well as archive and museum are available here).

The staff are divided into the Collections team (librarians, library assistants and an archivist) who create documentation, catalogue and conserve the collections, run the reading room and look after acquisitions (their Collection Development Policy is here) and Events staff (a learning co-ordinator and events co-ordinator) who organise study days and children's activities. Volunteers are used to undertake tasks which professional staff don't have time for and are always professionally managed and supervised.

And as for the future? Well, London Metropolitan University announced in March that the Women's Library would need to find a new custodian. Support would be provided until Christmas 2012, after which the service would be cut to one day a week opening. The current situation (July 2012) is that formal bids have been tendered and an announcement will be made by the end of September over where the library will go and what will happen to it. The list of bidders is here. You can keep up to date with the campaign to save the Women's Library on this blog.

I took away a lot of ideas from this talk. It was useful to pick up hints and tips on managing a large cataloguing backlog, as well as promoting your collections, dealing with donations and increasing the number of readers. I was also very pleased to learn that there have been a number of bidders interested in taking on the collections, as it would be awful if such a well-used and vital collection were to be split up or become less accessible.

A nice surprise right at the end was that food is provided at CILIP in London talks too! A good way to chat and network with other professionals. I'll definitely be looking out for more of these events in the future.

Latin & rare books librarians

A while ago I was asked about resources to help with learning Latin, as a rare books librarian. And it got me thinking.

Do you actually need to know Latin to be a rare books librarian? 

My initial reaction was "Yes, but...", because surely it depends on your collection. If you look after a modern special collection, for instance, Latin is going to be much less useful than other skills. But over the course of a career, knowing Latin surely has to be a good thing as most pre-1800 rare-book collections are going to include a proportion of books in Latin?

The CILIP RBSCG has a document on skills for rare books librarians on their Careers page, which mentions the need to have language skills to help you manage and research your collection, and that increasingly users themselves may not know Latin so will need your help.

If your collection doesn't have any books in Latin, or very few of them, other skills are going to be more useful. Some rare books job adverts will make knowing Latin an essential or at least desirable element, but others won't. For instance, my current job had knowledge of Latin or a European language as desirable, but not essential. So, not having Latin won't necessarily stop you getting a job as a rare books librarian, but it might count against you if you're competing against other candidates who have Latin, and it might limit the jobs for which you can apply. And even if you're not looking for a job, it can make a massive difference to your everyday work too.

How does Latin help?

I have an A Level in Latin, and I have found it very useful in my career so far. You can "get by" in cataloguing without knowing Latin, and there are resources that can help, such as the Historic Libraries Forum guide.  Rare Books in Scotland have run workshops in the past on Latin for rare books librarians, and have a guide published here (link goes to pdf), which includes links to other resources, including information about place names and a word list.With many (most) collections, you're going to end up cataloguing a book in a language you don't know at some point, even if you do know Latin.

But, especially if you work with a collection that has many books in Latin and other European languages, knowing Latin is an enormous help. You don't just match a record on COPAC, hoping for the best, you can catalogue the book yourself. You can also interpret the book more easily, which helps with adding subject headings or assisting a reader who doesn't know the language. Even if the book you're looking at is in another European language you don't know, knowing Latin may give you a clue. You'll also miss out on the fun of cataloguing, and getting to know the book if you can't understand the language it's written in.

How do I learn Latin?

I was lucky. I went to a girls' state school which didn't teach Latin, but the boys' school up the road did, so I got to do my GCSE there. I did my A Level on my own, with a few hours support from a private tutor every week. That was really tough, as there is no one else there to bounce ideas and questions off when you're stuck with a particularly knotty bit of translation.

If you're at school now and it teaches Latin, take advantage of the opportunity! Unfortunately most state schools no longer teach it, and if you're reading this, you're most likely way past school-age anyway, so how else can you learn it?

I have heard the view expressed that making Latin a requirement in a job description is discriminatory, as it excludes people who didn't go to a private school. But I don't think this is true.  You don't need to learn Latin in school, for a start.

Learning for fun
If you just want to learn it for fun, or to add to your skills in a job you're already doing, then probably the cheapest way is to go it alone with a book and study guide. I used the Cambridge Latin Course for GCSE. I learnt Ancient Greek on a summer school which used Reading Greek, and there is a companion volume called Reading Latin, which is aimed at a student and adult audience. Learning on your own requires commitment though and it can be hard with no one to answer questions. The Cambridge Latin Course has a scheme for distance learners. You could also ask around or advertise for a tutor to help you (although expect to pay upwards of £15-20 an hour for a tutor). Maybe you could arrange a skills swap with someone who could help you in return for something you can do for them, such as babysitting?

Other options include doing an evening class via adult education through your local council, university or WEA. That way you'll meet other interested people and have a tutor to mark your work.
Summer schools are also fun, and offer an intensive way of getting to know the language with support available. I've seen some advertised (this isn't a complete list, do post in the comments if you know of more!).
London Summer School in Classics - this is the Greek course I did over 10 years ago. They also teach Latin, Syriac and Coptic.
Latin in a week at Gladstone's Library (you can also do Greek in a week, or Hebrew in a week!). What could be more fun than a week at a residential library? I spent a few nights here researching a theology essay years ago and it was wonderful.
Joint Association of Classical Teachers - list of summer schools.

Another fun option is to get involved with Minimus mouse Latin teaching. Minimus is aimed at primary school children and some schools run lunchtime or after school clubs to teach it.

Gaining a qualification

If you want to be able to put Latin on a job application, you might want to aim for a qualification to show your commitment and attainment. You may be able to access a GCSE or A Level course through a local college, although this may take place in daytime.
Some of the options I've suggested above, particularly distance learning, offer the opportunity to take a qualification at the end of them.
If you're still at university, you can often take a module or two outside the subject you're studying, so why not investigate taking a module in Latin?
The Open University has a module in Reading Classical Latin, and other languages. The Latin course is based around the Reading Latin book I mentioned above.

Good luck! And please leave me a comment if you have any more ideas of Latin learning resources to share.

After all, you never know when Latin is going to come in useful...

[Photo taken by me at Wallsend station on the Metro in Newcastle. This is the stop for Segedunum Roman fort.
The other pictures were taken by me at Chedworth Roman villa, near Cirencester. Well worth a visit. Look out for the snails.]

Exhibition: Royal Devotion

The other week I went to see the exhibition Royal Devotion: Monarchy and the Book of Common Prayer at Lambeth Palace Library.

I enjoyed my visit and thought I'd share it on here in case anyone else wants to go too - it's open until 14th July. It's a cunning way of combining two of this year's anniversaries, the Queen's Jubilee and the BCP, into one exhibition, which gives it a much broader appeal than if it had just been the BCP, for instance. There's something for everyone to enjoy seeing.

Obviously, there's a 1662 Book of Common Prayer on display, but there is much much more. The exhibition starts pre-Reformation, with some lovely medieval manuscripts, including the Chichele Breviary and Richard III's Book of Hours, as well as some incunabula, including the Beaufort Hours. I liked seeing the mixture of official books for the use of the clergy, as well as the smaller and more personal ones. The display cases are low enough down for the smaller books to be easy to see.

Pre- and post-Reformation liturgies are displayed, including early examples of the Protestant communion service, alongside the first edition (1549) of the BCP. And the turmoil of the years following Henry VIII's death is obvious, with a Latin Mass issued under Mary, and the books in English that appeared under Elizabeth.

Queen Elizabeth's Prayer Book. Christian prayers and meditations in English, French, Italian, Spanish, Greeke, and Latine. London: John Day, 1569. Picture courtesy of Lambeth Palace Library.

The exhibition then moves onto prayer books and the Civil War, with not only books on display, but also a medal commemorating the execution of Archbishop Laud and the gloves worn at the execution of Charles I. The special service to mark the 'martyrdom' of the King was shown, incorporated into the BCP. Further examples of prayer books take us to the publication of the BCP in 1662.

I found one of the most interesting sections was the display on the use of the BCP in other countries. This was illustrated with an array of editions in different languages, including Irish Gaelic (1608), French (1616), Dutch (1645), Indian and Chinese. This went right up to the 20th century, including examples where the English version has been revised, including the switch to "you" from "thou" in public prayer.

The jump to the monarchy aspect of the exhibition was through the use of the prayer book for royal services. Exhibits in this section ranged from the manuscript report of the christening of Charles II, to the order of service used by the Archbishop of Canterbury last year for the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton. The exhibition finishes with the 1662 BCP, but before that there is a case for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, featuring examples of the coronation service dating back to 1685, and books of private devotion written specifically for the use of the monarch for their coronation.

In advance, I had wondered how the combination of the BCP and the Queen's jubilee would work together in an exhibition, but I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the range of material on display. I would highly recommend visiting if you're in the area.

Manuale ad usum insignis ecclesiae Sarisburiensis. Rothomagi: apud Robertum Valentinum, 1554. This page shows the wedding service in Latin and English. Picture courtesy of Lambeth Palace Library.

Welcome

Welcome to my professional blog.

A few months ago I wrote a guest blog post for the Rare Books Dept. at Cambridge University Library  incunabula blog - it was about the masterclass I'd just attended on medical incunabula. You can read the post here.

I realised then that a blog would be a good way of sharing events I've been to, or answers to questions I've been asked, as well as having more space than Twitter (!) to link to resources. So, here I am.