(Miniature book, pictured above: Galileo a madama Cristina di Lorena (1615))
Student Reps, Syd and Farradeh interview our department librarian at the Whipple Library
Hi Jack! Could you tell us a little bit about the Whipple?
So, the Whipple Library is the departmental library covering the history and philosophy of science and medicine, broadly construed, and part of the Cambridge library network. We are attached to the department and exist to serve the teaching and research needs of the department with more of a focus on the postgraduate and researcher levels.
The Library was a gift from our founder, Robert Stewart Whipple, the last director of the Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company. He collected rare books and scientific instruments, and donated these to the University after his retirement. The instruments can be found in the museum, and the books are in the library. We’ve been growing our collection since then.
The library is for everyone. We have such a broad definition of what constitutes History and Philosophy of Science, and we want this place to feel like home for all MPhil students, but particularly for Health, Medicine and Society. We stock everything on your reading lists, even when it doesn’t necessarily fall within our usual collection, and are always happy to help. I think because you are spread across so many different departments, it’s good to have one home base. We would like for you to think of Whipple as that.
We certainly feel at home at the Whipple, and hope others do, too! How was it you found yourself in the Whipple?
I did my undergraduate English Literature degree in Scotland and then spent some time living in London in 2008. I didn’t feel at home in the big city, so I moved to Cambridge and eventually began to focus on libraries.
I got a job fetching stuff around the University Library. The scale of that place is absolutely mindblowing! I did a few temporary contracts there, then worked at Corpus Christi for a year until the Whipple job came up. I surprised myself getting an interview, and was even more surprised getting the job. So I’ve been here since 2018!
Wow, what a journey. We heard recently that the storage facility is over 100 km of shelving, the height of 2 adult giraffes and the width of nearly 20 Olympic swimming pools?? We are certainly lucky to have access to so many resources!
Yeah, there are people whose job is purely just shelving and reshelving books. It’s like a Terry Gilliam film, you can’t imagine it. And the number of precious things in there is something else.
So what is unique about the Whipple? What does your collection focus on?
We like to think of ourselves as the premier History and Philosophy of Science library. It’s such a narrow field that there probably isn’t another library that’s directly comparable to us in the UK.
We make sure to stock stuff on reading lists, of course, but we also rely on you and other researchers to tell us what you need. We’re in a very fortunate position that we’re able to say yes to purchase requests far more often than we say no. We stock a variety of rare books, which are really exciting for students looking to do original research on primary sources.
We also have access to the University’s other resources, such as LibGuides. There are about 1700 databases which is very good for Digital Humanities. Box of Broadcasts is one audio-visual resource that I highly recommend. It has the entire BBC, ITV and Channel 4 archive — stuff goes up about after 3 hours of it being aired and stays there. So it’s super helpful for work… (or not work!)
The most important thing when you’re starting your MPhil is to not look at paywalls. If we can’t pay for it, we might be able to find another way. We as librarians are here to make your time as researchers as easy as possible.
We’re going to ask you the impossible question… What is your favourite material or rare book in the collection?
We would never pick favourites! It’s all super fascinating. For example, we have a copy of Theory of Sets of Points by Grace Chisholm Young, which is a fantastic artefact. Chisholm Young was the first woman to get a first-class degree in the mathematical tripos at Cambridge, then repeated the feat better at Oxford, and became the first woman to get a PhD in Germany. Her book is packed with annotations, letters from friends, postcards and some other personal items that give it a real slice of life.
But we’re always finding new stuff, and it’s not a collection to sit in a cupboard. It’s for you to use. We’ve got about 10,000 Victorian-era medical pamphlets, anatomy textbooks, and more that might be useful to HMS specifically. And if people haven’t had experience with rare books, we can train you! We love it when people get involved with our collections.
(Anatomy Illustration from Medical anatomy / by Francis Sibson. Fasc. 5)
We really hope our cohort gets involved with this very exciting collection. What is one thing you wish all HPS students knew?
Can I have two…?
One is to download Lean Library, a browser extension that will direct you to online versions of resources you find. So let’s say you find a book on Amazon; if the university has an electronic version, it’ll pop up, and you can click through to it.
Another is that none of you are here by accident. You’ve all been extremely carefully chosen and selected in a very competitive process. So nobody should feel like this place is not for them or that they shouldn’t have access to the resources we provide. It’s here for you.
Thank you, Jack! One final question - what are three words you’d use to describe the HPS department?
Small but mighty!