Visit to a very special collection

Yesterday I was invited to St Saviours, a fantastic, if not recently storm damaged building, which houses Robert Lenkiewicz private book collection. The room itself has that wonderful smell of musty books mixed with damp. A smell that always hold a sense of mystery for myself. The books occupy two floors, with the books on beautiful  bespoke bookshelves, reaching to the ceiling, each with a place for books to be rested upon, made by a carpenter friend of Roberts before he died. The room is enticing and there is something in the room, that makes it such a pleasure to be there.

The collection of books were purchased by Robert himself during his lifetime and rightly so they haven't been added to, so there is a wonderful sense of magic in the room, that you can only get from being with loved books. The thought that someone purchased this, because he had an interest in them is something wonderful. This isn't a public library, these were brought and read by someone genuinely interested in the topic. I get that feeling whenever I am with a large collection of books, having the connection to Robert, provides an added layer of interest. From looking at his books, you can tell a lot, knowing the collection is about the human condition, but who he was inspired by, there are shelves and shelves of books by or about Rembrandt. There are thousands of books by individual artists, it genuinely is a uplifting and heart warming collection. 

The reason for me being there was because the trust is trying to work out what is the best course of action for the collection, which is a tough conversation. With the building damaged, parts of the collection had to be sold just after Robert's death 12 years ago. I am meant to provide a possible course of action, having spent time wandering the shelves of the library. Looking at the rarity of the books, how useful this is for the city of Plymouth as a whole, but more importantly, in my mind to the artist community. 

I suppose one of the other parts which makes me love this place, is there are still Robert's artifacts lying around, or boxed up. Such as his palate boards, or his boots and a purple lined coffin which at one point must have been a prop, I didn't ask, I was hoping it was nothing more sinister. 

It was such a special day yesterday and luckily St Saviours is only a short walk away from where I work, so I can easily pop over, and be enticed and inspired by such a wonderful atmosphere. For a librarian, this is a marvelous legacy to leave the city, now Plymouth just needs to work out how it can be sorted and viewed. 

Article, ARLIS and LILAC bursary

Well, yet again, it has been a while since I last managed to write which is a little frustrating. However this week has been exceptional busy, possibly one of the most exciting weeks, where professional some exceptional events have happened.  

 

Firstly I have had a piece of work published in CILIP update. This is the fourth piece of writing I have now published (not including my blog). This piece was a piece that both my mentor and I wrote about our use of Skype in our chartership, from her position of the mentor and mine the mentee. The reason using Skype came about was we were unable to physically meet up. Over the course of 12-18 months we met virtually every other month. Towards the end of my chartership, which I successfully completed and have been awarded MCLIP in November 2013, we started thinking, how unique is this? Using conference call technology to complete something like a chartership, which needs to have two people working together for guidance etc? Which got us to ask the question, how many other people have used this method of working? With everyone having more and more work demands on them, travelling several times a month, year or every week become not only expensive but also impractical. 

 

I am very proud to have been a part of this project and I will continue to be grateful for the support of my mentor. She has already suggested we meet up with a glass of wine on Skype to celebrate, which personally seems very fitting.

 

Secondly I have now a member of the publications committee for ARLIS, which is amazingly exciting. ARLIS is the Art Libraries Society for the UK and Ireland, which promotes excellence within this community. Sadly due to the weather I was unable to travel to London, however Skype was used, with some success. Not to go in too much detail, but I think there is some great potential in an established publication. Alongside being a committee member I will also been asked to help co-edit the newsletter, which is brilliant, whilst someone else is on maternity leave. Editing is something that I have not done previously, however I have done proof reading. Having my husband’s aunt work in editing has always fascinated me. So being given this opportunity is one that I am very enthusiastic about.

 

All of this came about by attending last year’s ARLIS conference, which was in Bristol and I had a great time. I ended up chatting to loads of people, and obviously I must have made a pretty good impression on them. A few weeks after the conference I was asked to join the committee and then asked to become the co-editor. 

 

So it really has been an amazing week. Then I find out that I was successful in getting the bursary for the LILAC conference in April. Which I was really surprised that I had won and completely thrilled. I am hoping to do a write up after the sessions, for publication in CILIP, as well as blog about the days. Information literacy is a massive part of my role and something I have developed within my own role. 

 

It truly has been a remarkable week, were connected have developed in to exciting new projects or hard work has paid off.