Rare Book Librarianship & Digital Curation

For a number of years now, I've become more and more interested in the world of Rare Book Librarianship. I love finding treasures in old bookshops and I'm a frequent visitor of places like the John Ryland's Library, Manchester's Central Library or The Portico Gallery. A visit to London must always include a stroll around the British Library and their wonderful literary exhibitions. Obvious as it may seem, it never occurred to me that my career in museology could also be geared towards rare books and special collections, and that indeed, you could become a book curator. This is why in Oct 2016 I decided to further my studies with a CDP course in Rare Book Librarianship by the University of Aberystwyth (Post-Graduate Level) and to immerse myself into this world as much as I could. Since then, I have completed a number of related courses such as CILIP's Introduction to Managing Archives, and the University of London's Introduction to Digital Preservation (awarded April 2017). I am also a member of CILIP Rare Book and Special Collections Group, the Museum Association and the Historic Libraries Forum.

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During 2016, I volunteered at Manchester Central Library Special Collections department Archives+, creating new entries and modifying previous records in MARC21, and in September of the same year I was lucky enough to win a bursary to attend the CILIP RBSC group annual conference in Liverpool. Three days of talks, debates and visits in the company of some of the most talented people in this field. Click on the link below to watch a short film I made for my report back to CILIP NW documenting my experience.

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From May 2017 to April 2018 I worked on a fascinating project for the oldest public library in the English speaking world, Chetham's Library, where I digitised their collections of early modern ballads and street literature, and organised a programme of outreach activities that was praised by the Arts Council as a model of creativity. There is a detailed description on the library's website: http://library.chethams.com/blog/inviting-the-world-to-our-table-cooking-a-programme-of-outreach-activities-with-the-ballad-of-chethams-library/ 

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I'm equally fascinated by projects like Europeana or the Public Domain Review where you can explore on-line collections and digitally curated exhibitions from libraries and museums all over the world. I love the challenges this way of curating represents in terms of addressing virtual audiences and the endless possibilities that it offers content-wise. 

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