Hello and welcome to the first of a series of Congregational Library monthly updates, and there’s a lot of big news to kick off with. The biggest is that the library is moving to Westminster College, Cambridge, following a partnership between the College and the Congregational Memorial Hall Trust. It’s going to be a long process, so please bear with us as we get books on shelves … but excitingly, books are going on shelves, and material that has been boxed up for five years is finally seeing the light of day again.
Even as the library moves on to pastures new, we are sadly saying goodbye to David Powell, who is retiring after having been Senior Cataloguer and Archivist for the collection for over forty years. David has given so much to the library he is practically inseparable from it, and we wish him all the best for a happy and well-deserved retirement. Our goodbye will not, however, be an adieu, as David will remain a member of the Trust’s library sub-committee, allowing us to continue calling on his expertise and his encyclopedic knowledge of the library’s collections.
At the beginning of January, Jacqueline Reiter joined the library as the new Congregational Librarian. She will be taking over David’s duties and will act as primary contact for readers wishing to use the library. Jacqueline works Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays 8:30 to 12:30, and Thursdays 8:30 to 17:00. She hopes she will get to know many of you very well in future and is very much enjoying getting to grips with her new role.
The library is also taking its first steps on social media: follow us on Twitter if you’d like blow-by-blow updates about our move to Westminster College, posts about special items in the collection, and more. More social media platforms will come in time, so watch this space.
Finally, we wish to thank Mrs Wendy Spearing, widow of Nigel Spearing, for a generous donation of manuscript materials relating to her husband’s time as Member of Parliament. These will be catalogued and added to the archive as soon as an archivist has been appointed.