REGIONAL- The University of Oxford in England, an affiliation of 39 autonomous colleges and five religious-oriented learning halls, is renowned worldwide as a mecca of higher education and cultural history, with buildings and manuscripts dating back to the 13th century.
And the city of Oxford, known as “The City of Dreaming Spires” in reference to the stunning architecture of the university’s buildings, recently became the place where the dreams of two local librarians to study at the hallowed university finally came true.
During the first week of July, Mollie Stanford, a regional librarian with the Arrowhead Library System who lives in Tower, and Crystal Whitney, library director of the Cook Public Library, traveled to England to participate in a seminar called “The Library and the Academy” hosted at Worcester College, founded in 1714 after serving for more than 400 years as the home of Gloucester College.
The dream for the two took root in 2019 when Stanford saw a flyer advertising the seminar.
“I thought, ‘Oh, my gosh, this looks really, really exciting,’” Stanford said. “It was an exciting opportunity to not only see library spaces, but to meet other librarians across the country and other librarians worldwide. So, I approached Crystal and suggested we should just try it out.”
They applied and were accepted for the 2020 seminar, but it was canceled due to the COVID pandemic.
“We had bought our plane tickets and everything, and then everything shut down,” Whitney said.
But they kept their enrollment spots and were ready to take full advantage of the opportunity when it was offered again this summer.
When they set foot on campus, Whitney didn’t even have to walk inside to their accommodations at Worcester College before being overwhelmed.
“The second you walk into Worcester College there’s this quad, and I can’t even describe what the color of green was. I didn’t even know it existed. And to put it in between these really old, old ancient buildings, that was my first step into that whole world, and I felt like it was out of a book.”
Stanford had an equally stunning experience.
“When arriving, you see the medieval wall surrounding Worcester College, which is where we stayed and it just sort of takes your breath away,” she said. “It’s an experience I’ve never had before.”
At Worcester, Stanford and Whitney became part of an intimate group of nine librarians who had signed up for the seminar.
“It was a great group. Everyone was from the U.S.,” Stanford said. “The majority of the group was school librarians. There were two people from Knoxville, Tenn., there was a school librarian from Oakland, Calif. and another one from the San Francisco Bay area. It was really interesting to hear from other folks and what their experiences are, especially thinking about book challenges and other advocacy efforts going on surrounding challenges. It really made an impact, especially in my job where I work directly with school libraries.”
The seminar was led by Steven Archer, a librarian at Trinity College in Cambridge. Archer’s background made this seminar different from several others that were going on simultaneously, Whitney said.
“We were talking to some of the other students, and they’re like, ‘Well, do you have homework? Do you have a reading list?’ And he said no. He’s a librarian. We would get together for two hours in the morning and go through whatever the topic was. We talked about manuscripts, we talked about the printing press, we talked about books, architecture and how libraries have changed over time. And then we’d have tea, and then we would walk to a library and be there for an hour or so. It was a great experience, because we got that classroom part of it, but our teacher was a librarian, and so he understands what we understand.”
Certainly, a highlight of the experience was visiting some of the university’s 60-some libraries and getting into centuries-old books and manuscripts. A unique feature at Oxford is that each library for each separate college is self-contained and the materials in them do not circulate outside of their own college.
“That was interesting to us because we live in a state where interlibrary loan is so important to us,” Whitney said. “To learn that they don’t share was very interesting, but I think it’s based on their collections. Some of this is very old. I have a whole new appreciation for old manuscripts. You realize that someone literally hand wrote all of it, and it’s perfect.”
Stanford was impressed by the extent to which students were actively engaged with library materials, noting that such work is essential given the unique style of instruction practiced at the university.
“The study courses are a little bit different,” she said. “They have tutorials in which they work directly with a mentor, specifically focused on a topic, and every six days they have to complete an essay and an oral review. It’s very intensive, and the library is heavily used because the students are looking at the texts to support their paper and oral arguments they’re making to their tutor. There’s a 2,000-word essay due every week on a different topic. It’s very different from what we have here.”
Whitney also commented on the studious atmosphere in the libraries.
“Every library that we went to, there were people working or studying or reading, and I just I loved that,” she said. “People weren’t on their phones, and they weren’t playing games, it was like true study and research and I loved it.”
Some of the college libraires the pair visited during the seminar included:
Merton College, established in 1264, home to the world’s oldest continuously functioning library for academics and students.
Lincoln College, established in 1427.
Bodleian Library – one of Europe’s oldest libraries and the second-largest in Great Britain, the Bodleian is the flagship library of the university and part of a larger group of libraries bearing the same name. Harry Potter fans would recognize some of the interior of the Bodleian through movie scenes that were shot there.
Christ Church College, established in 1546.
The Queen’s College, established in 1341.
The Oxford Union, established in 1823.
St. Edmund Hall, established in 1278.
“The spaces alone, some of them were from the 12th and 13th century,” Stanford said. “I’ve never even seen buildings that old before and then having the collections inside being accessible to students and to researchers, it is just overwhelming the amount of history that is located in Oxford.”
The seminar wasn’t without entertaining aspects as well. Participants attended an outdoor performance of Romeo and Juliet at the Oxford Castle and heard the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra perform Shakespeare in Music at the Sheldonian Theater.
Whitney said she also visited the Ashmolean Museum, the Pitt-Rivers Museum, the fabled Blackwell’s Bookshop, went punting on the River Cherwell and climbed the 99 steps of Carfax Tower, one of the tallest structures in Oxford.
Stanford and Whitney also took advantage of their pre- and post-seminar time abroad to do some exploring. In England, activities included a boat cruise on the River Thames, and visits to St. Paul’s Cathedral and Windsor Castle.
“I’m a big fan of the Queen, and it was very important for me to go pay my respects,” Whitney said. “I can’t tell you how much I loved Windsor Castle. I could live there as well, even in a little house outside.”
And then the pair hopped a train, the Eurostar, and whooshed under the English Channel to Amsterdam and the Netherlands.
“We wanted to make sure that once we were over there that we got to see another country and another culture,” Stanford said. “We looked at flights and it was great – Minneapolis has a direct flight to Amsterdam. Neither of us had been to Amsterdam, so we got to see old and new.”
The main branch of the Amsterdam Public Library was within walking distance of their hotel, and it was a stark contrast to the ancient buildings of Oxford.
“It’s super modern, with clean lines and lots of space for laptop use and for discussions,” Stanford said. “It was a really cool thing and I’m glad we got to do that.”
“No matter where we had gone it would have been a culture shock because Oxford was perfect,” Whitney said. “We found we couldn’t get into a lot of places because they were already booked.”
But Whitney did accomplish an Amsterdam “must do” for her – a visit to the Hague to see the famous Johannes Vermeer painting “Girl with a Pearl Earring.”
“She was amazing,” Whitney said. “The museum is small and I was there very early. Literally I could have touched her, but there are armed guards so I didn’t. But I love that I got a moment to just be with the painting.”
Overall, Stanford and Whitney had the time of their lives.
“The whole trip exceeded every expectation I ever had in my head,” Whitney said. “It’s just amazing.”
“It was absolutely overwhelming in a very, very positive way,” Stanford said. “I had no idea what to expect. I just feel like it was the trip of a lifetime.”
And in a fashion, the trip will continue. Stanford and Whitney will be doing a presentation for the Arrowhead Library System board, and they’re looking at ways they can share their experience with other librarians in the area. Stanford said she took extensive notes about the use of space during the trip and will be considering ways she can put that information to use to improve experiences for library patrons here at home.
“I think there are some similar themes that are happening at Oxford that definitely translate to our academic and specialty library institutions.”
And Stanford said she’s made arrangements with the seminar facilitator, Steven Allen, to do some Zoom training for Arrowhead library staff.
“It’s an awesome opportunity for them to hear from another amazing librarian,” she said.