91ֱ��

She would prefer it without the spiders. Mandy Berry is a Library Cleaner at Gonville & 91ֱ��, with a special responsibility for the College’s ancient texts in the Lower Library.

Mandy this week celebrates 20 years working at 91ֱ��, the first five years in the Upper Library used by the College students. In 2008, she moved downstairs in the Cockerell Building to the Lower Library, home to 20,000 items, including 900 manuscripts and 101 incunabula (printed books dating from 1500 and before).

“I love doing it. I love old books,” she says.

“One thing I don’t like is the spiders. You can see where someone has slammed the book shut and the spider has stayed there for hundreds of years.”

In her 15 years, as well as regular cleaning duties, Mandy has cleaned three quarters of the books in full; she hopes to clean the remainder before retiring.

She adds: “All books have to be done once a year, but it’s hard to get through them all. Off the shelves, shelves dusted, top of the books dusted.

“But some of the books are really dirty and haven’t been touched since the College got them.”

The earliest item in the Lower Library is a manuscript fragment from an eighth century Gallican Bible. The College continues to add to stock, with the most recent acquisition dated 2023. The College has about 10,000 items printed between 1473 and 1800, 1800 being the cut-off date for what is termed as an ‘early-printed book’.

For the more forensic cleaning, Mandy takes great care, using smoke sponges and brushes, plus dusters.

She adds: “Sometimes damage is inevitable. You open the book and the spine cracks, for example. Sometimes pages are really thin, so you have to work out if it’s worth cleaning them when you risk tearing the page.”

Mandy, who has lived in Cottenham, north of Cambridge for over 40 years, is fascinated by the books and particularly likes the Natural History illustrations. With many written in Greek or Latin, the text is not always accessible, but she often finds scraps of paper or music programmes from the 1700s are often used as bookmarks. One scrap of paper lists groceries for shopping including ‘flower (sic)’.

“When I applied for this job in 2003, they kept showing me upstairs to the students’ library,” she adds.

“They offered me the job, but wondered why I kept asking about the Lower Library. I took the job anyway and had five years up there and then came down when the previous lady retired.

“I like the peace and quiet, no telephones. I know it’s repetitive, but it’s lovely to finish a book and think it’s done, and that no-one else touched that book for 400 years.”