Turns out that there were multiple thefts last night, probably during dinner. I feel a little bad, as mine was the least of the losses (the others were all electronic equipment), but we were all issued gift certificates for the local bookshop as sort of "no hard feelings" gifts -- Very considerate. I'm actually enjoying it a little, as I have been interviewed by the police and, now, they want to do a forensic run in the morning in all of our rooms. Pretty exciting stuff. Also funny, the boarding house gave us all bottles of wine by way of apology, which was good for a chuckle for me until I realized that I was thusly forearmed with a gift to bring for the "soirée" that we had tonight. True serendipity.
This morning, we had a somewhat painful presentation about the catalog system but then I was able to spend several hours with the map librarian and in the map collection at the Bodleian. There is some very interesting and cool stuff therein and I had a great time.
Some of the surprisingly cool things I encountered were some very early mountaineering maps and a collection of recently declassified survey maps of the former Soviet Union; It's amazing how, even now, our (as in the West) map coverage for Eastern Europe and Russia is still decades behind our knowledge of the rest of the world. Funny.
Also funny is the fact that we gained some of our map knowledge during the cold war by covertly excavating Russian army latrines (which, evidently, was something that the Soviets -- if they knew about it -- regarded as being of low threat value). The deal was that the Russian army was very stingy with toilet paper. What they did issue, though, were a lot of highly disposable maps for field use. Well, once the TP ran out, the maps were pressed (and, you know, pressed) into service and thrown down the toilet. As one thing follows another, there were then British spies digging around in the filth to recover the maps. Not exactly James Bond, but I guess it worked.
I could go on and on about the maps, but I'll just say that it was very interesting, very stimulating, and very encouraging for a prospective scholar. Maps, you see, are considered a special collection, so that would give me a specialty within the category of "special." But, then again, there's still rare books. And conservation. And archives. Sigh. What's a guy to do?
In the afternoon, we toured the libraries of two colleges: All Soul's and Christ Church. Both were very nice. The former was, perhaps, a bit more impressive on an aesthetic and technical lever. The latter was cool because lots of Harry Potter was filmed there, including several quiddich and staircase scenes. The dining hall was also the inspiration for the cinematic Hogwart's dining hall, and you can tell. Also, Christ Church was the school at which Lewis Carroll was teaching as he wrote the Alice books, based upon the Dean's daughter.
We also took a break for some tea in the room which once housed the University's first library and, indeed, the first library in Britain. A few other lesser-known folks also hung around in the place, from John Wesley to the chaps who founded OxFam in the '40s. Oh, man, I've also learned some mad information about the post-war food rationing in the UK, but I'll save that for elsewhere.
Finally, we had a dinner party with some faculty and peers. It was a good time, mostly notable for the EXCELLENT food. Cucumber mousse is amazing. I was a little burned out towards the end due to my increasing tiredness and the ever-growing schism of volume and boisterousness between we non-drinkers and those whose casbahs were rockin'. It was all good, though. I am now home and ready, again, for bed.
Some tools of the conservator's trade.
A bad picture of Christ Church dining hall.
Look, I'm wearing a suit!
I'm afraid that I cheated on Humphrey with this British hussy. She was very insistent that I scratch her ears. A lot. In typical fashion, though, she left before I even had a chance to learn her name...
She had places to go, and lawns to oversee.
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