Day 8 - Cambridge

To Cambridge we will go! After a slow start, we headed north in our own minibus to Cambridge. This was my second time in Cambridge. The first visit was ten years ago and all I could remember was going punting on the river.

Patriotic ProQuest

Our first stop was to ProQuest which was a particularly important visit for me since just before leaving New York, I learned that I would be the ProQuest Student Trainer at Pratt! Therefore, I’ll be teaching their database including RefWorks and Pratt will gain free access to the Proquest Database until August 2013. It’s a major plus for both myself and the school.  That aside, I think it would be unbiased to admit that everyone appeared to be impressed by their presentation. It was clear that they put quite a bit of detail into their process and it’s thorough and well crafted. It is a part of their Library Advocacy program, which includes the Discover More Corps.

This was the only publishing facility that allowed us to tour their office, which is the busiest outside of the US. It follows an open floor plan where the workers sit in the open and can easily share ideas. It was also nice seeing people carrying trays of tea, especially after hearing at OUP about how having group tea time makes for a more productive office.

ProQuest is in the middle of their Cultural Heritage in Partnership program which digitizes early European books before 1700. They are also working on the film holdings from the British Museum that were turned over to the British Library, damaged by war. The biggest part of the project is the expansion of the Early English Books Online (EEBO) project. It is the partnership with the Royal Library of Danish Royal Library, Copenhagen and the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze in Italy, National Library of the Netherlands and the Wellcome Library in London. More than 12,000 books have been digitized to date with 4 million pages being scanned per year.  The project includes inserts and specialist approach with full metadata. They even have works by Gallileo with his notes written in the margin. The works will be free in the home countries but paid beyond those boundaries.

Group at ProQuest

For the Queen’s Diamond Jubillee, ProQuest launched Queen Victoria’s diaries. They date back to her childhood and include work throughout her life even before she was Queen including handmade drawings.  141 volumes in partnership with the Bodleian and Royal Archives are included.
While ProQuest has a reputation for being strong with technology and historical databases, they are also building the Arts sector by creating full archives for the entertainment industry, featuring Billboard, Variety and Spin magazines.  They will be fully searchable and include the cover and ad space.  They’ll also be fully indexed. Overall, I think everyone was impressed by ProQuest’s presentation. They seemed to have given a great deal of thought into libraries, archives and building their brand.

Punts in Cambridge

After ProQuest, we headed to the Granta riverside pub for lunch with a view. Seeing the punts brought back a lot of memories. Anthony led us to Kings College Chapel which was breathtaking with its stained glass. Since Anthony attended Cambridge, he was well versed on the history of the colleges and able to point out details that we would have missed. He even showed us where he lived while a student.  

Patricia Aske at Pembroke College

We then arrived at Pembroke College Library where we spoke with librarian Patricia Aske. Patricia was very generous in her tour including and even let us touch rare books and showing us gifts to the college. As at Oxford, the colleges are all operated independently. The books can only be circulated to students of the college. Students receive long loan periods while most books loaned to faculty last for 1/2 day and have hefty fines.  She spoke of the challenges of what is often a limited budget. Some of the treasures the Victorian building hold are Lancelot Andrewes' bible and Ted Hughes' poems featuring animals.