Go behind the scenes at the Library and meet our people and the many ways they work to bring our collection to everyone. This month it’s Graham Jevon, Cataloguer for the Endangered Archives Programme and researcher on the Library’s Agents of Enslavement project. 

Graham Jevon

Tell me about your role 

My normal day job is Cataloguer for the Endangered Archives Programme (EAP), which facilitates the digitisation of endangered archival material across the world. Since 2004 we have funded more than 400 projects in over 90 countries, from Argentinian photographs to Tibetan scroll painting, Arabic manuscripts, parish registers, Bengali cinema booklets, and 2000-year-old Libyan rock inscriptions, to name just a few.

The EAP1320 project team inspecting manuscripts in Kerala, India. 

The EAP1319 project team surveying manuscripts in Vat That Khao temple, Vientiane, Laos.

At the end of each digitisation project we receive a hard drive containing all of the digital images to put online, and we also receive a spreadsheet containing information that describes these images. My role is to process all this data so that we can ensure that the collections are easy to navigate and understand. This means that my time is mainly spent creating, editing, moving, and analysing data. Lots of data. 

Currently, though, I am on research leave four days a week as one of the Library’s two Coleridge Fellows for 2021. My research project uses 18th- and 19th-century newspapers digitised by the Barbados Archives Department to look at the ways in which colonial newspapers facilitated or challenged the practice of slavery. A major part of this project has involved crowdsourcing and we have had amazing support from the public. In less than three weeks after the project launched, more than 3,000 volunteers helped identify over 25,000 adverts relating to slavery. This community is now answering questions about these adverts to help extract key information.  

Meanwhile, using machine learning and other computational methods, I am curating this data in order to create a free-to-access database that will include detailed information about the identities and lives of enslaved people. This database will be freely available to the public and researchers so they can trace ancestors, conduct academic research, or maybe just explore the life stories of people hidden within these newspapers. 

How did you get into this field? 

My career in cultural heritage organisations began with a series of history degrees, culminating in a DPhil from the University of Oxford and the publication of a book relating to the history of the British Empire in the Middle East. This research background led me to join a project to create a digital archive relating to Gulf History at The National Archives (TNA). The digital archiving experience I got at TNA led me to the British Library – and it doesn’t get much better than working for EAP, which must be one of the world’s largest, varied, and most successful digital archives. 

What do you love about the Library? 

The opportunity to collaborate with great people and to learn and try new things. I’m lucky to be closely connected with the Library’s Digital Scholarship team who are always looking to innovate and upskill. A great example of this is the recent computing for cultural heritage programme, which supported staff members to study for a postgraduate degree in data science. I was lucky enough to be part of this cohort where I was able to meet new people from across the Library and learn new digital skills which I am now putting in to practice as part of my research fellowship. 

Any book recommendations for our readers? 

Whenever I read a book I tend to forget what happened very quickly, which means I’m not very good at recommending books. I’m also very indecisive. But three books spring to mind, and I suddenly realise that all three share some similarities (which makes me feel better about recommending more than one). The three books are: 

• Spies by Michael Frayn 
• The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon 
• Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood. 

In all three books there is a strong focus on childhood and growing up. Particularly in Cat’s Eye and Spies, where the adult narrators look back at their childhood and the secrets they contain. Perhaps the key unifying aspect of the three books is that they all merge the past with the present. And given my background as a historian, perhaps it is not surprising that of all the books I have read, it is these three books that stand out to me. 

What’s your favourite object in our collection? 

According to Wikipedia, the British Library is estimated to contain approximately 200 million items. And I’ve already admitted to being indecisive. So this seems like an impossible question to answer. But right now I can’t really look past the collection of digitised newspapers that I am currently using for my research. 

The original copies of these newspapers are located in Barbados where they were digitised. But digital copies sit on the British Library’s server where they are freely available for anyone with an internet connection to view online. These newspapers are not an easy read. They are full of offensive language and contain vivid descriptions of the horrendous treatment received by people forced into chattel slavery. It is the normalisation of this system that is often so jarring. But despite being a tool of enslavement and a mouthpiece for enslavers, these newspapers are now helping to reveal the identities, connections, and acts of resistance of people enslaved in British colonies. And it is for that reason that this collection stands out to me, not necessarily as a favourite. But because of its historical and contemporary significance. 

Find out more about the Agents of Enslavement project by clicking here. 

Over the course of 2021, staff at the British Library engaged in an unprecedented and powerful conversation about race and equality.

The Anti-Racism Project (ARP) involved members of staff drawn from all levels, across all areas of the Library, with the aim of enacting a generational shift so we become a more representative and diverse organisation that is welcoming and empowering for everyone.

Last autumn, the six working sub-groups of the project submitted their recommendations, which form the basis of a Race Equality Action Plan (click to download) which was presented to the Library’s Board and Strategic Leadership Team, for their input and endorsement.

Sponsored by our Chief Librarian, Liz Jolly, and strongly supported by all of our senior leaders, the project is now moving from the planning and analysis phase to an organisation-wide process of implementation.

In his preface to the Race Equality Action Plan, our Chief Executive Roly Keating wrote: “We have listened to many voices that were previously unheard, and have had challenging conversations about the experiences of staff and users that highlight things that urgently need to change.

“We’ve taken time to reflect on how to make these changes permanent, and how we take the whole Library with us as we transform our processes, practices and culture.

“The Library’s senior leaders will take forward this work over the next three years, and will be accountable for turning these recommendations into reality,” Roly added. “From the way we recruit and develop our staff, to the material we collect for current and future generations of researchers, to the way we engage with new audiences – we have identified high-level actions that provide a road-map for measurable, concrete and lasting change.”

Taking forward the high-level actions

The working sub-groups generated a wide range of recommendations, from the immediate to the long-term, covering areas including:

• People and HR Policies
• Behaviour, values and experiences
• Audiences
• Data, research and insights
• Collections and content
• Cataloguing and metadata
• Communications

The relevant senior leaders across the Library will now look carefully at these and talk with their teams about how they can implement them over the coming months.

From the start, the Anti-Racism Project has been about the need for real and sustainable change, that reaches every part of the Library – the next phase is when that work goes beyond what the Project has done, and becomes something that’s owned and implemented by senior managers, their teams, and by everyone working at the Library.

Next steps in the coming months

In the months ahead, the senior leaders will refine their top-level objectives and establish metrics for measuring progress in delivering the Race Equality Action Plan, for which the Library will hold itself accountable.

As an initial example, a key focus for our sponsor department, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is diversity within our senior management structure. We aim to address the long-standing lack of representation in senior management at the Library by recommending provisional targets of increasing black and minority ethnic representation in key areas over the coming years, including a proposed headline target of 15% of SB4 staff and above by 2027.

We also want to be able to engage with peer organisations, diverse communities and the media, to talk positively and confidently about why this work is so important, and what progress we expect to make at each stage. We have lots to learn from other organisations, but we also want to become a role model ourselves, and demonstrate how it’s possible to effect meaningful permanent change in our culture and activity.

Roly Keating observes that: “It will take time, energy and leadership, but this is a vital part of fulfilling our wider commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion, ensuring that we become a great national library for everyone.”

We are looking forward to sharing more about the progress we make through future updates on the Living Knowledge blog.

Hugh Brown and T. Rajukumar

Co-Chairs of the Anti-Racism Project at the British Library

 

‘In every library I have worked in there is always a ‘library cardigan’. No one will know who it originally belonged to, but it appears – like the sword of Gryffindor – for those that need it when working late evenings in cold buildings.’ 

In this month’s celebration of librarians, we meet Rosemary O’Hare, Principal Librarian in The Mitchell Library in Glasgow. 

Rosemary O’Hare

Tell us about your role. 
I manage Glasgow Libraries’ eResources (information databases to support study, research and business) as well as the Business & IP Centre (BIPC) Glasgow. The BIPC network is led by the British Library and has centres across the UK but Glasgow is the first BIPC in Scotland. The BIPC model blends the use of library resources and working with partners to offer support and advice for entrepreneurs and small businesses. We help businesses to start up and grow, with emphasis on underrepresented groups. 

The Mitchell Library

Where was your local library growing up? 
Coatbridge Library in North Lanarkshire. At that time, it was a traditional sandstone Carnegie library, which was imposing from the outside but welcoming once inside.  

Why did you want to become a librarian? 
I previously worked in a bookshop and enjoyed researching and sourcing material for customers. I liked the idea of enabling others to do the same so went back to university to do a Library Studies course. 
 
Do you have a favourite item in your library’s collection?  
I’m biased towards the eResources – we provide access to amazing resources that would otherwise be out of reach or prohibitively expensive for most people. 

It’s also handy to know that when you come across a paywall while reading an article online that there’s a good chance you can access the full story via our ProQuest database (newspapers, magazines and journals) with our library card – for free and without creating an account with yet another site. 

What is your favourite query you have helped someone with? 
My favourite queries are the ones where you surpass the user’s expectations. We used to be a reference-only library and sometimes people get in touch thinking everything is still as restricted, for example, when they want to view British Standards (technical standards required on a wide range of products and services). When they are shown that we now have the entire collection available to search through online (around 40,000 current, historic and draft British, European and International standards produced by the British Standards Institution), that staff are available to provide user support and that they are even able to view the standards remotely with a library card, they are amazed. Being able to highlight other relevant resources or refer them on to our Experts in Residence programme is always satisfying. 

What's your favourite thing that you can do in a library? 
Have the freedom to learn, read and think. 

Other than your own, where's your favourite library, or one you would most like to visit?  
Helsinki Central Library Oodi. I visited a number of libraries in Helsinki a few years back and it was just about to be built. I liked the Finnish attitude to libraries, that design was as important to the library experience as the content and services, and that they should be designed in consultation with users. 

Helsinki Central Library Oodi photographed by Seppo Palander (used under Creative Commons licence) 

Sum up being a librarian in three words 
Information literacy champion. 

Tell us something about yourself that has nothing to do with your job 
I love visiting new places when travelling around Britain – anywhere there’s a tea room with local varieties of baked goods!  

What one thing do you wish people knew about libraries which you suspect they don’t? 
That a lot of work goes on behind the scenes in order to provide the public service – like an iceberg you’re only seeing the tip. 

How have things changed in libraries since you qualified? 
The role of the internet has made the greatest change.  It was still a novelty when I chartered [gained the professional librarian qualification] but I now edit websites as part of my job. It has opened up library collections, many of which can now be accessed outside of opening hours, making accurate and curated information more freely available and easily accessible.  
 
Book recommendation? 
Did Ye Hear Mammy Died? By Seamas O'Reilly. It’s a memoir following the tragedy of the title which also manages to be laugh-out-loud funny. 

Find out more about Glasgow’s BIPC Centre by clicking here. It’s one of 19 National Network BIPCs around the UK. The BIPC can help you imagine, start or develop your business. 

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.