A view from the margin: cataloguing antiquarian books freelance

摘要

Who doesn’t love the smell old books? You know, that slightly musty and rich smell of leather bindings, the faint whiff of sweetness rising from handmade paper ... In the age of e-books, e-journals and digitisation projects, it is sometimes easy to forget that primal feeling of opening an old book that perhaps was last opened decades, if not centuries before, and inhaling that special ‘old book’ smell (having checked for mould first obviously). There are many reasons why I decided on a career change from struggling academic to being a librarian, but one certainly was that I loved the idea of being surrounded by books. Another deciding factor was that as an academic, I enjoyed the pursuit of knowledge and the challenge of solving riddles. What I found less appealing was the pressure to produce research outcomes, the relentless admin, and what felt like exploitation of early career scholars. And yes, I wasn’t very keen on teaching either.