Librarians' Christian Fellowship

Kirsty Robinson reports...

This year was a first for LCF: 15 members and friends of LCF took up an offer from Chris Leftley, the librarian at Wycliffe Hall to give us guided tour of the library on the moring of our annual lecture.

Wycliffe is not a full part of the University - it is one of seven ‘Permanent Private Halls’ funded and run by Christian denominations - but benefits from the central services of the University. The college was founded by evangelical Anglicans in 1877 to prepare people to be parish priests. Today there are about 120 full-time students, the majority of whom are ordinands, with a further 80 on the part-time ‘Diploma in Biblical and Theological Studies’ and a number of international exchange students.

Like all libraries, Wycliffe suffers from a lack of space. However, the whole Hall makes intelligent use of even the smallest area and this has been followed through in the library. We were able to gather round a large study table in the reference area, while students used their wireless laptops in partially separate rooms to either side, where the main stock and journals were shelved. Across the corridor was a resource room with 5 computers for student use and shelves for videos and audio tapes and ‘the rest of recorded knowledge’ as Chris describes the wall containing the small proportion of stock in the Dewey 300s to 900s.

Computers and online information play an important part in Wycliffe Hall library. A month before we visited, at the start of the academic year, an automated issue system was introduced for the first time. The Heritage issue system is proving popular with students, although Chris is not sure they will be as pleased with the automated overdue letters where he would previously follow up items individually.

One of the major benefits of the Hall’s link with Oxford University is that the library and the students have access to the stock of the University Library and also to the Oxford Library Information Platform (OxLIP), a web-based gateway to thousands of electronic resources, including many theology works, which the college could not afford to subscribe to.

Many of the students have not studied for a long time, so the induction sessions which Chris runs are vital in helping them get the most out of the library and the online resources. He also finds that student volunteers are frequently amazed by the range of the stock once they are asked to shelve, tidy or move an area of books!

The hour we had in the library passed all too quickly but was followed by an interesting glimpse into the rest of the Hall, including a beautiful chapel built in 1913 and recently renovated. It is the only place I have ever seen where the pew Bibles are supplemented by the New Testament in Greek. We then rounded off our visit with a delicious lunch in the dining room.

A more detailed report of this visit appears in the Winter 2006 edition of Christian Librarian.