Student internship forges links with Signet Library
PhD candidate Sarah Moxey will be with the Signet Library until October as part of an Employ.ed internship.
One of the best-know, and beautiful, buildings in Edinburgh will be home to part-time PhD candidate Sarah Moxey for the next few months in a project which aims to evaluate potential undergraduate teaching links between the School of History, Classics and Archaeology and the Signet Library. Sarah will be scoping the non-legal collections of the Library and considering the physical building, both its history and how it might be used in learning and teaching. At the end of the project she will present a report on her findings to both institutions on where collaborations are possible.
“At the moment I am familiarising myself with the variety of collections and their location in the library,” said Sarah. “I have created a database which is assisting me to keep a log of items I believe will be useful teaching resources. It has involved me physically handling and assessing the items which is great fun and I have already learned a lot from my initial findings!”
Having worked in the Special Collections department at National Library of Scotland, Sarah is no stranger to collections and archives, but she is now learning how a private library operates and discovering the vast collection of rare Scottish history materials kept by the Society.
She commented, “I am delighted I was chosen for this very important role which will lay the foundations for a long-term partnership between both institutions and will hopefully highlight the vast undiscovered potential of the Signet Library's collections.”
The Society of Writers to HM Signet (the WS Society) – an incorporated body of Scottish lawyers for over 400 years – supports lawyers and legal business with research, comment, learning, networking and culture. It occupies the Signet Library building on Parliament Square, begun in 1810 and originally shared with the Faculty of Advocates library. In 1826 the Upper Library was sold to the Society by the Faculty for £12, 000, and a grand entrance hall and stair constructed in 1833 to link the Upper and Lower Libraries for the first time.