Career Path

A Special Collections

Katie Birkwood

@girlinthe

At university I did a BA in music.

I took modules on the choral music of the twelfth and

fifteenth centuries,

including the music sung in medieval Paris at Notre Dame

cathedral.

‘Le point d'orgue, hommage à Bach’, by Alexandre Vialle on Flickr

(It’s the earliest known rhythmically notated polyphony. Two of the main manuscripts of the corpus have been digitised: http://bit.ly/II4CzC and http://bit.ly/Je33fa.)

I was fascinated by the manuscripts in which the music was preserved…

Graduale. England. 1230. University of Iowa Libraries, xfMMs.Gr.3.

…but I didn’t want to go into academia.

So I decided to try my hand at special collections

librarianship.

My first library job was as a book-fetcher at Cambridge

University Library.

‘The UL’ by Howard Chalkley on Flickr.

I was lucky enough to be assigned to the manuscripts

department,

where I fetched a range of amazing manuscripts and

archival material for readers from around the world.

Harald Hardrada lands near York and defeats the Northumbrian army, Life of Edward the Confessor, England, 13th century. Cambridge University Library, MS Ee.3.59, f. 31r.

After a year I got a library assistant job at Cambridge

Theological Federation.

The Federation libraries serve mostly BA and MA students training for the ministry in a number of denominations.

Most of the holdings are modern books, but there are a

few special collections, too.

Amongst other duties, I was asked to help list the letters of evangelical preacher Charles Simeon, held by Ridley Hall.

‘Ridley Hall, Cambridge’ by Dean Ayres on Flickr.

At the same time, I started the part-time MA in Library &

Information Studies at UCL.

‘University College London’ by Steve Cadman on Flickr.

I took the optional modules in Historical Bibliography and

Manuscript Studies.

I spent a lot of time in lovely Senate House Library…

‘Senate House’ by Rain Rabbit on Flickr.

…reading up on manuscripts, palaeography, printing,

typography, bookbinding, and other similar things.

‘Metal Type’ by Lars K on Flickr.

I wrote a dissertation about library history:

‘Our Learned Primate’ and that ‘Rare Treasurie’: James Ussher's Use of Sir Robert Cotton's Manuscript Library,

c. 1603–1655’

(It was published as an article in Library & Information History

26:1 (March 2010), 33-42.)

Six months before I finished the MA I was appointed as

Hoyle Project Associate at St John’s College Cambridge.

‘St John’s College Old Library’ by ben.gallagher on Flickr.

My role was to catalogue the papers of Professor Sir Fred

Hoyle FRS (1915-2001),

Letter from Fred Hoyle to Ben Hoyle. c. 1930 | Hoyle’s walking bootsHoyle working at home in Cambridge, c. 1965 | Hoyle’s childhood telescope, made c. 1930

and to organise and create outreach events and

resources.

http://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/library/library_exhibitions/schoolresources/astrolabe/

After the end of the Hoyle Project, I secured a couple of temporary posts back at the

University Library.

Firstly working in a general role in the Rare Books

Department,

and later working specifically on exhibitions.

In Autumn 2012 I was appointed as Rare Books and Special Collections Librarian at the Royal College of Physicians,

London,

‘royal college of physician’ by Matt Brown on Flickr.

which has a collection of over 20,000 early printed books, and other special

collections of printed material.

‘London 1633, the books of the Royal College of Physicians Library, Regent's Park, London, UK.jpg’ by

Cory Doctorow on Flickr.

I’m responsible for all aspects of collection care,

description, use and promotion,

using all the skills and experience I’ve gained in

earlier jobs, as well as constantly learning

something new.

Some tips for getting on in the special collections world…

1. Just as librarianship in general isn’t about liking to

read books, special collections librarianship is about more than liking old

books,

so explain your interest in the field in detailed, not general

terms.

2. As with all librarianship, it’s key to demonstrate that

you’re interested and experienced in customer

service, for example answering reader enquiries.

3. Highlight your specialist skills, interests or knowledge, be they technical, linguistic,

historical, or something else.

4. Demonstrate that you understand researchers’ and other users’ interests in the collections, so read around

the subject.

5. As with all areas of library and of heritage work, money

matters:

experience writing grant proposals, attracting financial support, and promoting your work to senior management

will be invaluable.

Want to know more?

I’ve compiled more about special

collections careers here.

Icons by Christian F. Burprich on IconFinder

Slideshow by Katie Birkwood

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