125 Years in the St Hilda’s Library

Did you know that we used to have a library plant named Baldric? Or that the library was once closed to students during school hours for weeks due to the huge number of books going missing? Our library has a rich (and sometimes hilarious) history and I encourage you to pop in during the celebrations this weekend to check out some of the old library reports from The Chronicle.

In 1925 The “Reference Library” report included a list of new books such as Gods of Modern Grub Street and The Queen’s Doll House, which described a doll house made for Queen Mary that included books and paintings crafted by Rudyard Kipling, Arthur Conan Doyle, and A.C. Milne. I wish we still had this one!

1935 saw the library described as “a pleasant and comfortable room, its walls being adorned with many beautiful pictures illustrating the works of famous sculptors.” They subscribed to periodicals such as La France, the National Geographic, and Church Envoy.

In 1940 the library committee was tasked with the “huge undertaking” of card-indexing the library. They were held up for lack of the funds needed to purchase the cards, but raised the £8 needed through a lecture on a staff member’s travels abroad. At the time of the report they had started the cards (each book would need at least three cards for title, author, and subject so it was a big job) but had yet to raise the funds for a container to hold them!

In 1955 a new library was opened and the tradition of Library Week had begun, with a special assembly featuring a talk on the History of Libraries and a book review contest. Books presented to the library included Down With Skool! and the library housed a total of 2,360 volumes by the end of the year.

1960 found the school librarian lamenting that the “long list of overdues never seems to diminish.” New books were displayed on a “debutante shelf” and there was a large section of French titles in the collection. The report in 1965 was short and sharp, with the author pointing out that the library was “no longer the sunny haven of peace that it used to be” due to a new building going up next-door and obscuring the sun. She adds that it is “a constant reminder that we shall be getting a beautiful new library in the not too distant future” so perhaps she was trying to hurry the builders!

In 1970 the issue of missing books was too much for the librarian, and the library was closed during school hours for a time, only allowing people in for quick trips at morning break and lunchtime. The library subscribed to Paris Match and Vogue, with the author of the library report noting that the latter was popular with “the more fashion-conscious girls (or less diligent?),” so we can assume she wasn’t a big fan of fashion herself! Fines were charged for overdue books and in 1971 it was noted that fine money had contributed to the library fund, “but some librarians have made life enemies in the process.”

1975 saw the fines abolished and “many girls who previously never frequented the library are now coming regularly.” Plans were being made for the development of a new library and resource center which would supply materials in “newer physical forms” such as records, slides, and cassette tapes. In 1980 a fish tank had been added to the library, and the school council had established a tradition of donating two plants and a subscription to Vogue each year on Library Day.

In 1996 there was excitement when two CD Rom computers were given to the library! That was the first mention I saw of computers being used in the space. By the year 2000 the library had a collection of 13,158 books and a “mite infested plant” called Baldric, who “has added colour and oxygen to the library.” The addition of Baldric was “secondary only to the advent of the internet,” which “proved invaluable for research” and started a new age and way of working in our library that continues to this day.