Tuija Ainonen is Sub-Librarian and Special Collections Librarian in the Parker Library. She came to Corpus in early 2023, bringing a wealth of experience from her time at the national library of her homeland of Finland and at the British Library in London.

Tell us about your job at Corpus

It is quite varied, fun and I really enjoy it! I look after the Parker Library and its special collections, keeping it safe and unharmed, while making it available and accessible as widely as possible to researchers, teachers, students, and general visitors to the Library. The access is restricted for a variety of reasons, most unexpectedly, perhaps, by environmental restrictions such as light and temperature conditions, and my availability - there is only one of me! 

I am also responsible for our online catalogue Parker Library On the Web, assisting with exhibitions, creating social media content and work on College outreach activities, showcasing the treasures of the Library to potential future students.

On an average day I will answer queries on the collections, requests for the use of digital images of the collection, and then in the afternoon I may give a tour of the historic library or supervise teaching in the modern reading room. If I am hosting a researcher in the library, I must carry out security checks before I agree to their request to visit, and when they are here, I cannot leave them alone with the collection, at any point. I am basically part security guard (See image above).

What do you enjoy most about your role?

My job is fun and challenging, and no two days are the same. It is repetitive enough to manage but there is a really good balance of new and consistent work. During the summer I host a lot of global academics who are carrying out research. While they may ask me questions about the collection, I also get to learn from them. I enjoy learning about their research as I learn more about the collection which I am the guardian of.

What is your favourite thing about Corpus?

Manuscript 66! Of all the things I have come across in my role, this is my favourite. It is very multifaceted content wise. It has several wonderful full-page images, it contains what I believe to be the earliest world map in a book form, and it has a complicated history that shows that medieval manuscripts have multiple lives through which they end up in current collections.

Has anything surprised you about Corpus?

I joined the College in February 2023, and I honestly did not expect to get used to the beauty and the history of the site so quickly. I still remember my first day, walking through the large oak door to the Library, it felt like coming home. I felt so comfortable.

What did you do before joining the team at Corpus?

Having grown up in Finland, I travelled to Canada to start my PhD studies at the Centre for Medieval Studies at University of Toronto, where I spent six years. My research focused on how medieval manuscript producers were refining the ways in which information within manuscripts can be organised. I also met my husband at this time and got side-tracked by starting a family and moving to Finland. But I would say my journey to Corpus began when I got my first library role at the National Library of Finland, cataloguing for a digitisation project of c. 9,000 medieval fragments. At the time I still thought I would follow an academic route, and I was teaching Latin at the University of Helsinki and conducting my own research. I continued to teach for a few years before the opportunity arose for my family to move to England and we decided to take the leap.

I got the most incredible job as a project manager and manuscript curator for a digitisation project at the British Library. The three-year project was a great opportunity to train behind the scenes of a world-renowned manuscript library. This opened my eyes to the wonderful world of medieval manuscripts from a librarian’s and collection care point of view.

When this project came to an end, I took up a position in the same field at Merton College, Oxford, following which I went to work at the Bodleian Libraries, at the University of Oxford. Before leaving there to take up my role at Corpus, I also worked part-time at Cambridge University Library on their Curious Cures in Cambridge project.

What do you enjoy doing outside of work?

I enjoy gardening and have an allotment where I grow fruit and herbs. I also love to knit. I live in Cambridge during the week and my weekends are spent at home in Leicester with my family or travelling and exploring the UK. I can’t believe how different the areas of the British Isles are, from Cornwall to the Peak District, to the Yorkshire Moors, they are all so unique.

Can you tell us something surprising about yourself?

I grew up north of the 65th parallel in Tornio, Finland (the 66th parallel is classed as the artic circle). Tornio is a border town of Finland and Sweden, where the summers are short and sunny, while the winters are long and snowy. It had an easily crossable open border long before we joined the EU. We had easy access to unspoiled nature in the forests and clean, swimmable water in the sea, rivers and lakes. Northern Finland has some of the freshest air in the world.