‘I love this quote from Andrew Carnegie: “A library outranks any other one thing a community can do to benefit its people.  It is a never failing spring in the desert.”’

In this month’s celebration of librarians we’re back in Glasgow, this time with Susan Taylor, librarian in the Special Collections department of The Mitchell Library.

Susan Taylor

Tell us about your role

I manage collections of rare books and manuscripts, and our local and family history services, including handling enquiries and organising events.

The Mitchell Library, Glasgow

Where was your local library growing up?

When I was very young, I lived in the highest village in Scotland, Wanlockhead in Dumfries and Galloway, where I learned about ‘The Society for Purchasing Books in Wanlockhead’, also known as Wanlockhead Miners’ Library.  It was established in 1756 and was the second-oldest subscription library in the country, with the original aim of the mine companies and owners being to encourage self-improvement and temperance in the local population. 

I did most of my growing up in Tain, Ross-shire, where I visited the Carnegie Library with my mother, my main concern being to insist that we got the maximum allocation of books every time!  I loved its shadowy, soothing atmosphere, and was fascinated by the brown index card system.  I remember that my 11-year-old brother was in love with the librarian.

Do you have a favourite item in your library’s collection?

My favourite collection is our full set of the Kelmscott Press by William Morris. It’s the care that’s gone into the look and feel of the books that attracts me. I am also a great fan of William Morris fabric designs.

A note by William Morris on his aims in founding the Kelmscott Press, William Morris (1898) Hammersmith: Kelmscott Press. Accession Number: 690467.
©CSG CIC Glasgow Museums and Libraries Collection: The Mitchell Library, Special Collections.

My favourite individual item is any manuscript because of the (usually) personal nature of it, and the naughty/nosy feeling I get from looking at someone else’s correspondence or early draft of a work of literature. I enjoy the tactile experience of holding them (when allowed). It’s the closest thing to time-travel. And handwriting is so expressive of emotions.

Detail from holograph draft of Ye banks and braes o’ bonnie Doon. Robert Burns (c. 1792). Accession Number: 1000833
©CSG CIC Glasgow Museums and Libraries Collection: The Mitchell Library, Special Collections.

What is your favourite, or the most unusual, query that you have helped someone with?

My favourite (both unusual and unexpected) queries relate to the many experiences of suffragettes and suffragists within the building – for example, Alice Paul, who spent the night on the roof of the building in August 1909; and Emmeline Pankhurst and her bodyguards practising ju-jitsu on the police in the so-called ‘Battle of Glasgow’ of March 1914.

The most niche item requested from the collection is probably the records of the Clydesdale Horse Society. (By the way, this was made up of humans.) Our oddest holding is perhaps the plaster cast model of the top of Robert Burns’ skull from our Robert Burns Collection. For those who might not be fond of his poetry, it conveys the humanity of the poet in a direct way. It is loved by children, particularly – far from being frightened, they are completely fascinated. 

Other than your own, where's your favourite library, or one you would most like to visit?  

The new Birmingham (England) Library, and the ‘other’ Mitchell Library in the State Library of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. 

The State Library of New South Wales. J Bar at the English-language Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

If you weren’t a librarian, what would you be?

A genealogist, a detective or a forensic psychologist – someone who seeks and often finds connections between things and occasionally solves mysteries...

What one thing do you wish people knew about libraries which you suspect they don’t?

Being a librarian is not just about stamping – or even reading – books.  It’s about trying to connect a person to the right resources for them (whether within or without your own library) and introducing them to items of potential interest.

Favourite fictional librarian?

Mr Ambrose in Bob’s Burgers! Followed by Mr Hutchings in The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett (in which the Queen becomes a voracious reader), which is about reading, writing and finding your voice. 

Book recommendation?

The novel I would recommend is The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg, first published anonymously in 1824. I like the strangeness of it, with its double narrative and shifting time frames. It was also an inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson.

I would also recommend Heaven Knows Who (1960) by Christianna Brand. This is somewhere between fiction and non-fiction. She tells the story of an infamous Glasgow murder case and skilfully manages to include all the relevant trial facts whilst making a very easy-to-read, flowing narrative.  She was usually a children’s author (Nurse Matilda, which became Nanny McPhee) and she was the cousin of my favourite illustrator, Edward Ardizzone.

Both of these books I want to read again and again. I find different things in them each time.

Interview by Ellen Morgan.

We’re interviewing people who have professional registration status as a librarian via the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals or who have an academic qualification such as a first degree, a postgraduate diploma or a Master’s degree in library and information studies or librarianship. 

Is this you? If you’d like to feature in Library Lives, get in touch with [email protected] 

Would you like this to be you? Find out more about becoming a librarian on the CILIP website. 

Back in February, we updated on progress to develop a groundbreaking new digital platform for public libraries.

Since then we’ve been working with creative agency, FCB Inferno, to develop a name and identity for the platform. This work started in January with discussions with colleagues from across the sector, from the National Library of Scotland and Manchester Libraries to the Reading Agency and Libraries Connected.

We also conducted a YouGov survey with 2,000 people to develop our understanding of the use and perceptions of local libraries. Building upon all of our earlier research, this work helped FCB Inferno to understand in more depth the need and potential for the project, which will support local libraries in sharing content online and increase awareness of everything they have to offer.

Finding our purpose

This process helped establish a set of core values for what the new brand needs to convey. The many things that people can do at their local library. The creativity and innovation within libraries today. The role of libraries as a lifeline for anyone in need, from providing reading material in person and online to helping tackle loneliness and welcome refugees. And the fact that increasingly libraries are not only places where stories are kept but also spaces where you can create your own.

Everything we learnt we then distilled into one clear purpose: to empower every journey of discovery. Whether that’s tracking down your family history, researching your business idea or just finding a local reading group to join each week.

Developing an identity

In April work began to look at how we could bring this new brand to life, visually and verbally.  This kicked off with a collaborative workshop, with colleagues from both the Library and the Living Knowledge Network, where we explored the power of design language.

The workshop was a great opportunity for us to discuss how names and symbols help to create meaning for brands. We used the session to review some of the best brands delivering similar services to see how they’d developed their identity to capture their own values and purpose. To get an understanding of how and why brands have used different approaches, we studied a full spectrum of sectors from international archives and culture spaces to information platforms and community welfare services and charities.

In particular we took a revealing look at the importance of each element of these brands including colour and typography, and of course the all-important logo itself. Examining a number of relevant and well-known organisations, from Wikipedia to Spotify, we reflected on the decisions made behind everything from names and logos to their use of language and photography. This helped us to understand what brands are doing well, but also not so well, and to learn from their development journeys.

It was an eye-opening session that highlighted the thinking that goes into designing brands and how seemingly small details make a big difference. The key findings from the workshop are now being taken forward to help us develop the overall design direction for the new brand, which we’ll be sharing with colleagues from across the sector in the coming months.

Becca Mytton

Single Digital Presence Project Officer

 

‘A good librarian is a bit of a detective, I think – whether it’s hunting down a mis-shelved book or the answer to a question.’

In this month’s celebration of librarians, we’re back at the British Library to meet Morgan Wadsworth-Boyle.

Morgan Wadsworth-Boyle

Tell us about your role

I’m one of the Loans Co-ordinators at the British Library. Our team organises the loan of Library materials to exhibitions around the world, and makes arrangements for borrowing items for British Library exhibitions. We get to see beautiful books, prints, maps, letters, photographs, from all areas of the library (there is no end to the incredible material the collection holds!) and make sure they are safe and secure to travel to new places to be seen by new people.

Where was your local library growing up?

My childhood library was the Ojai Library in California – it is a gorgeous library with a courtyard shaded by oak trees. Great for reading your new selections outdoors.

Ojai Library (Photo by Ron Solórzano, Regional Librarian, used with permission)

Why did you want to become a librarian?

I studied art history and was always interested in how art and books interacted with and influenced each other, from illuminated manuscripts to contemporary artist’s books. I think often the art of the book gave artists space to be a bit more playful or humorous – everyone loves a weird little dude! Murderous rabbits! Snail cats!

Marginalia from a 14th-century Breviary (Yates Thompson MS 8 f292r)

What is the most unexpected query you have helped someone with?

Working at my university library’s reference desk, I once had a panicked student rush up to ask, ‘Where are the books?!??’

Which library would you would most like to visit?

I’d love to visit the Joanina Library or the Library at the National Palace of Mafra in Portugal – they are both home to colonies of pipistrelle bats who serve as the pest control team.

Library in the Mafra National Palace, Portugal, used under Creative Commons licence

If you weren't doing your current job, what would you be?

I’ve done some exhibition design, and I loved creating an exhibition space that helped to tell the story as much as the items on display – getting to dig in and get hands-on to bring something from imagination to reality is such a great feeling.

Outside of work?

I love gardening – I’ve got a lot of learning to do, but I’m very proud of my massive dahlia! It reached 7 feet 4 inches last year.

How have things changed in libraries since you qualified?

When I was in library school, there was so much talk about virtual libraries and QR codes, which never really seemed very useful or possible to implement – but we’ve seen how far those have come in the last three years!

Favourite fictional librarian?

Irene from The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman – or Evie from The Mummy – I love a librarian-adventurer with dubious collecting and object-handling practices (in fiction, not in reality!).

Can you recommend us a book?

I didn’t like short stories for a long time, but years ago when I was on maternity leave I came to appreciate being able to read something I could actually finish! Lucia Berlin’s A Manual for Cleaning Women is a collection of stories that weren’t always easy to read, but were always powerful.

Interview by Ellen Morgan.

We’re interviewing people who have professional registration status as a librarian via the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals or who have an academic qualification such as a first degree, a postgraduate diploma or a Master’s degree in library and information studies or librarianship.

Is this you? If you’d like to feature in Library Lives, get in touch with [email protected]

Would you like this to be you? Find out more about becoming a librarian on the CILIP website.