Heythrop Library

1. What do you enjoy most about your role at Heythrop Library? 

Whilst my paternal grandparents (both accountants!) would probably want me to write that I enjoy mostly dealing with invoices, and financial stuff, I don’t think that’s why I became a librarian. I honestly have to write that what I really love most about my role is the variety of tasks. On any given day, I might been cataloguing, giving a tour, dealing with enquiries, labelling books, ordering books, interacting with members or potential members of the Library, preparing statistics for, or writing a proposal for the Library Committee,… However, finding solutions is the overarching thing which I enjoy: there are always constraints, or things limiting one’s options, and then still finding something which works, and is helpful either for the team, or our members – that’s such a great feeling; doesn’t always end in a great solution though. And: some times a compromise feels a bit lame.

2. Where did you work prior to Heythrop Library? 

I worked for most of my professional life at the University of Cambridge, in four libraries, the most recent one was the Faculty of Divinity Library, Cambridge. Before that I enjoyed most of my work at the British Library. My first job was at the University of Surrey Library, followed by working as an Issue Desk supervisor at the Guildhall of Music & Drama Library.

3. Why does Heythrop Library’s collection interest you? 

I have been working here for over 3 years, and I never cease to be amazed what the collection holds. I better not share what my soft spots for collection development are, but one which I can share publicly, and can get away with, is: Jesuitica. There are three things in particular I enjoy here: First, the Heythrop Library is the Library of the Jesuits in Britain, so we cannot only justify buying and having books on all things Jesuit, but devoting a noticeable part of our reading room shelf space is also fine. Second, as the breadth of Jesuits’ work is so mind blowing, one could just keep on learning and learning. Even when only cataloguing and curating books, I learn so much: books about the Jesuits’ missionary work, Ignatian Spirituality, their educational theories and application of these theories. Or to pick from some of their many intellectual explorations of knowledge: from astronomy to botany and zoology, or engaging with atheism, philosophy or theology. How could one be bored by this? Third, the Library has probably the best collection of Jesuitica in the country, and very-likely the broadest, open-shelf collection of Jesuitica in London.

4. Are there challenges of working at Heythrop Library? 

I fully agree with what Naomi wrote in her blog post in this series: ‘one of the biggest challenges we face is managing the large collection as a small team, with one reading room.’ We are slowly overcoming some of the challenges, improving our catalogue records (one reason we have Amelia working with us!), others will continue to be trickier: we cannot quickly fix all historic journal records! Sometimes Naomi and I have to go the extra mile, and employ a bit of detective skills to find what a library user is looking for.

5. Favourite book inside and outside the collection? 

I will be controversial here. The favourite book in the collection is a book I have not yet (!) read myself, but a book which a number of students on the Ignatian Spirituality Course have given me great feedback for, year after year: Stretched for greater glory: what to expect from the Spiritual exercises by George A. Aschenbrenner (see https://hey.koha.openfifth.net/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=92536 for a full catalogue record). Seeing how a book has made a difference to a library user, how it has inspired them, is such a good feeling.

Outside the collection, I’m afraid to write, I’m mostly reading crime or detective fiction. I frequently hear myself justifying this by saying that I’m primarily interested in the psychology of these books, but am I kidding myself? If you pressed me hard for a book which impressed me a lot in the last couple of years, I’d nominate The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger; oh, and yes Henry (the Time Traveler) is a librarian.

CG