This week I went over to the University Herbarium to chat about doing some volunteering. Suffice to say things went well, and I’m joining an existing project when term starts in a few weeks!
While I was there, I got to have a look at a copy of A Niewe Herball by Henry Lyte, published in 1578, which was very exciting! I’m definitely going to have to go back and have another look at that sometime soon.
While I was on campus I applied to join the University Library as an external member. I was expecting the process to take a couple of weeks to go through the system, but I actually got home to find an email letting me know that it had all been sorted on the same day, so all I need to do now is pop back in with some money and have my photo taken for the card!
As an external user there are restrictions on what I can borrow, so some books I will have to make notes from without taking them away. Given my expert levels of procrastination though, I’m thinking that’s probably an advantage, as it forces me to actually do the reading instead of the laundry or some knitting or any number of other displacement activities that I can come up with.
It was somehow really satisfying to be back on campus in the Autumn, it has to be said. It’s twenty-five years this month since I first moved to Reading to begin my degree (how did that happen?!), and it feels really good to be back, and learning again.