The close of my master's year

With my dissertation now submitted and my university library card now out of date, my year of study at City, University of London is behind me. It seems a good point to look back at the experience and recall points along the way.

It was when I was visiting potential universities for my elder daughter a few years ago that it hit me again what inspiring places they are. I admit I felt a pang of envy seeing students and lecturers going about their business. I had done an undergraduate degree in a small art school in my twenties, so the atmosphere wasn't entirely new to me, but it hadn't felt like a time of academic rigour. When this chance came for me to go to City, I knew it was one I must grab.

Starting my master's in library science coincided with the election of Donald Trump in the US. Truth seemed to have become merely something that you could persuade somebody was true. Libraries, on the other hand, continue to stand as places of research, study and truth; they are broadminded, welcoming and even radical, and more vital than ever.

Northampton Square Library at City, University of London

We were a wonderfully diverse cohort – and it was great to go through this year with them. Lots of them have travelled back to their homes and jobs around the world now. I am accustomed to working with deadlines and word counts, but I was less sure about writing in an academic way, which I'd never done. This went better than I had expected. I particularly enjoyed the extracurricular events, the talks at the British Library, the visits to the National Archives, the symposiums. If you are doing the same course, I'd encourage you to get involved with them. But the lectures each week were totally engaging, too.

Many on the course came from roles within libraries and other information environments: as someone changing tack in my working career, it was for me a new realm with a new vocabulary. My background in fine art still fitted well with it, but I was reading (and reading and reading) about subjects that were new, challenging and sometimes exciting. I am very happy to be volunteering now at Iniva's Stuart Hall Library, a fine art library with a focus on contemporary art from Africa, Asia and Latin America, and the work of British artists from diverse cultural backgrounds.

My dissertation, about how sketchbooks are collected and accessed, was the subject I knew I had to write about. My thanks go to my interview subjects and all those institutions that found time to complete the survey. But I had not envisaged having to ask for an extension following the death of my mother-in-law at the end of the summer. This put things into perspective. I'm grateful to the university and my supervisor, Lyn Robinson, for allowing me the extension on the submission date.

As I write, I am sending out my CV to potential employers and planning the next stage. It is a year that has led me to think in a more critical way, and feel differently about my abilities and my future career. My daughter is still a student at a university in the north of England, now in her second year of doing mathematics, and the odd thing is, I'm still envious of what she's doing. And that's because this year has been such a good one for me.