Philippa Rose is the Head Librarian at King's.

Tell me a little more about your career before King’s.

I studied Art History at university without really having a plan for a career. While studying, I worked in a well-known coffee shop and ended up training store managers. Once I graduated I was asked to stay in the department but as an Assistant Lecturer. I taught at both undergraduate and Masters levels for a few years, and supervised a peer learning study skills program. Looking back, it seems that a career in education was almost inevitable! I did enjoy lecturing for a while but once the pressures of publishing outweighed the focus on teaching, it wasn’t quite the right fit for me. I picked up some work at UCA library and it just felt meant to be!  Working in academic libraries is such a rewarding career because -in the right role- you get the privilege to support students to build confidence in independent learning skills, while also designing programmes of study around information literacy (and digital literacy), and curating resources on interesting topics. I couldn’t think of a better way to spend my working days.

What do you enjoy most in your role?

I get so much fulfilment helping pupils to learn how to learn, how to critically assess information sources, and how to identify ways to lift up minoritised voices. Recently - as I’m getting older - I’ve seen many changes in how we conceive of knowledge-building, information literacies, and new technologies. It’s such a fascinating time to be in the information sector, particularly having experienced study before public internet search, and I’m really enjoying the new challenges and conversations that are emerging!

What is your favourite part of King’s?

The people. For me it’s always about the people. I spend a great deal of my time at work, with my immediate library team and beyond. The King’s community is my away-from-home family. We face the ups and downs together, we support each other, we celebrate each other, we learn and grow together.

What are your top three books?

One of the most enjoyable and surprisingly expansive books that I’ve read lately was Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Part memoir, part cultural narrative, the book is a beautiful evocation of what our relationship with the earth could be. It speaks of a ‘covenant of reciprocity’, and it offered so many lessons about teaching, and about community, friendship and even parenthood. It’s a book I know I will return to many times. 

I find John M. Hull’s Touching the Rock: An Experience of Blindness fascinating, moving and frequently profound. Touching the Rock is a series of observations and reflections not only on the experience of sight-loss but also of what Professor Hull calls ‘deep blindness’: the inner effects of blindness such as the steady loss of visual memory, imagery, visual concepts, and ‘visual identity’. More than that, it’s a very humbling encounter with someone willing to open their life and their inner thoughts to others who may not experience the world as they now do. I find Professor Hull’s authenticity powerfully engaging. His writing is simple yet poetic and rich in detail. It’s a beautiful and contemplative read.

I love to read the start of Haruki Murakami’s short story The Strange Library aloud to pupils. It’s about a young boy who pops into his local library to borrow some books and finds himself imprisoned in a special ‘reading room’ beneath the library. It’s a beguiling book in so many different ways. The illustrations (mainly from the London Library) are almost as much a part of the unsettling, hypnotic tale as the words themselves. The story seems to reflect Murakami’s own writing process and while many read it as a dream-labyrinth of horror and grief, I find it a compelling tale about literature, about knowledge, authority, and what it takes to gain self-awareness and take agency in one’s life. It’s a story for the ‘outsiders’, and while Murakami is opaque about much of the ending, for me it’s not intended to be a sorrowful one. One of my favourite parts of reading the start of this haunting tale to pupils is following it with a guided tour down our library’s own spooky secret staircase!

What do you do when you’re not at King’s?

I have a toddler so 95% of my time outside of work is spent chasing him round on whatever mode of transport is his current obsession! I’ve also recently turned our little balcony into an edible oasis, my kitchen windowsill into a hydro-herb station, and a little patch of shade outside the flat into a plot for a wormery so I can turn our food waste into compost and convince my toddler that we do indeed have pets!

What is at the top of your bucket list?

I would love to run the Snowdonia marathon. About ten years ago I spent a holiday running around the Peak District, and it was one of my favourite holidays ever. It feels completely unattainable these days. Originally it was the ultra that was on the bucket list, so I’ve scaled my ambitions down a bit, but it’s the one thing that sits quietly at the back of my mind for ‘one day’!

If you are an OKS, parent or member of staff and would like to take part in our community spotlight series, please get in touch! Email: community@kings-school.co.uk