​Reflections on the British Collections and Archives course at Rutgers University

By Rachel Talbert and Lisa Thornton, Master of Information Candidates

International courses are now available to MI students at Rutgers, and in June, 2017, 15 Master of Information (MI) students participated in a summer session hybrid class which included nine days at Wroxton College, in England.  The British Collections and Archives course, co-taught by Rutgers faculty members Kay Cassell and Marie L. Radford, allowed the students to visit numerous libraries and archives throughout the UK and to develop an understanding of their connection to British history and culture.  

At the beginning of the course, Rutgers students received an overview of the history of libraries in the UK from Andrew Rose, librarian at Wroxton College, and explored the library’s archives. Wroxton was once home to Lord North, the Prime Minister who was credited with losing the American Colonies! It is now home to a beautiful college owned by Fairleigh Dickinson University, where the students lived in dorms and also attended lectures taught by British experts in the fields of academic, public and special libraries and archives.

 In London at Kew, the students visited The National Archives (TNA) (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/), where they learned about TNA’s role in increasing access to records for the general public in addition to helping researchers. They also toured the British Library, where the first priority is to collect and preserve published books and to provide leadership to all UK libraries. The British Library also focuses on international material in multiple languages and houses King George’s library, which remains a working collection.  At Oxford, MI students explored the special collections at the Weston Library (a Bodleian Library), and toured the academic library of Harris Manchester College, while learning about the history of Oxford and its University.  In Stratford-upon-Avon, students visited the archives of Library of the Shakespeare Centre and explored its collection of everything Shakespeare, including First Folios.  While at the University of Sheffield, students attended lectures focusing on the state of UK libraries today, including academic, public, prison, and school libraries. Afterwards, they toured Sheffield’s state-of-the-art academy library, The Diamond, which houses integrated engineering teaching spaces and creative media labs.  

The students also spent a day touring Bletchley Park, where the code-breakers worked in WW II, participated in a costumed medieval banquet at Wroxton, attended a performance of Julius Caesar by the Royal Shakespeare Company, and enjoyed a formal dinner reception with the principal of Harris Manchester College, Oxford University.  The library-focused experiences were further put into context by Dr. Nicholas Baldwin, Dean of Wroxton College, who provided an in-depth analysis of the differences in culture and history between the United Kingdom and the United States and how these differences continue to play a role in current events.  

The British Collections and Archives course provided students with unparalleled access to libraries and archives in the UK.  In addition, it was an opportunity to gain a more global perspective of the value of libraries and archives and the differences in how librarianship is approached in different countries.  This summer session abroad opportunity also offered a chance for both online and on-campus students in the MI program to come together for nine days to learn, share experiences, and form professional relationships in a unique way.  For students interested in taking this course in the Summer 2018 session, information will be available soon.

Please contact Rachel Talbert (rachel.talbert@rutgers.edu) or Lisa Thornton (lisa.thornton@rutgers.edu) for more information about our academic experiences in this class, or Dr. Marie Radford (mradford@comminfo.rutgers.edu) or Dr. Kay Cassell (kcassell@comminfo.rutgers.edu), who will be teaching this 3 cr. course again this summer, from 5/27/18 to 6/5/18.