BFI Reuben Library team

We can be found in the library during the week, helping researchers in person. We also maintain our huge collection across two sites and answer a wide range of enquiries, including via our digital document delivery service. We host study sessions for schools and universities, provide regular inductions and tours, and run a programme of special events and collection focused displays throughout the year.

Emma Smart is Head Librarian for the BFI . She joined in 2000, first working as a library assistant and then librarian, responsible for the library’s journal collection. The role combined the skills Emma acquired working at an academic library with her long-held passion and understanding of the moving image. During this period she studied part-time for her MA in History of Film and Visual Media at Birkbeck College, graduating in the summer of 2005 with a merit award.

Emma is now responsible for the strategic development of public access to BFI collections, which includes oversight for the BFI Reuben Library, BFI Mediatheque and is part of the team delivering the new archive streaming service, BFI Replay , that is exclusively available in public lending libraries across the UK . She played a key role in the delivery group that oversaw the move of the library from the BFI offices in Stephen Street to its much more open and visual location at the heart of the BFI ’s public offer at BFI Southbank in 2012, and in 2017 led the redevelopment and redesign of the BFI Mediatheque at Southbank.

Emma is also a film programmer and for 14 years co-programmed BFI Flare: London LGBTQ + Film Festival; she enjoys the creativity film programming offers. She has given several illustrated lectures about the history of queer cinema and most recently programmed BFI Southbank’s month-long Judy Garland season ‘A Star is Reborn’. She has been a part of several international film juries, including Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, Oslo Skeive Filmer Film Festival and Outfest.

Sarah Currant is Senior Librarian for the BFI . Awarded an MS c in Information Management in 2002, she joined the BFI as Reading Room Librarian in 2005 after a two-year stint at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office library. She became Reader Services Librarian in 2011, was promoted to Senior Librarian for Reader and Mediatheque Services in 2018, and then Senior Librarian in 2021. Sarah oversees the delivery of high-quality user services to researchers via the BFI Reuben Library’s reading room and also has responsibility for maintaining the smooth delivery of digital research services and archive access via the Mediatheque at BFI Southbank . She also deputises for the Head Librarian, in relation to the day to day running of the library and Mediatheque.

Having worked with the collection for 18 years, Sarah likes nothing more than helping researchers, both new and old, find what they need. She also still contributes to the library’s outreach programme of events, inductions and tours and loves meeting and speaking to new students about the BFI and its work. She has always had a particular passion for music, literature, social history – particularly women’s history – television and film. Her areas of moving image interest include (but are not limited to): documentary, stars of classic Hollywood, musicals, British cinema of the 1940s and 50s, and television period drama.

Following qualification in Library and Information Studies, Anastasia began her BFI career in 1991. Over the decades she has held a number of different positions within the library, working across all library collections and with responsibility for all aspects of collection management.

Anastasia heads the team responsible for the acquisition, cataloguing and indexing of the library’s collections. Current projects include a reassessment of the library’s metadata and cataloguing practices in line with international standards and the library’s evolving needs.

Inspired by the library’s pre-cinema collections and developments in the semantic web her dissertation for the MS c in Information Science at UCL , completed in 2013, focused on linked data and the creation of a domain-specific ontology for the magic lantern. She continues to pursue her interest in these areas, serving as committee member for the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals’ Metadata and Discovery Group for a period of six years and for The Magic Lantern Society since 2012.

Victoria joined the BFI in 2003 as a Library Assistant, after working in a similar post at the University of Greenwich. She worked as the Assistant Librarian for serials and e-resources between 2012 to 2022 and now works as Collection Projects Librarian overseeing stock management and collection care.

Her duties include making sure the collection is housed in the best way, stock rotation, the acquisition of donations, promoting areas of the collection, and addressing a historic backlog of donations and cataloguing. She is currently introducing an ongoing stock rotation and audit plan to address the ever present need for space within the collection, making sure items are present and in order, damaged items are identified, and that the catalogue records are correct.

She holds a BA (Hons) in History of Art and Architecture from the University of Manchester and has a huge passion for photography – pinhole, film and digital. Her specific interest in film and television includes true crime documentaries, and British television comedies.

Eleanor joined the BFI in 2018 as a Library Assistant. Her current role focuses on managing the collection, curating the Collection Focus display in the reading room and supporting the Collection Projects Librarian. Eleanor is also a speaker at the BFI Members Book Club, which started in 2022.

Antarctica and the Heroic Age of polar travel are areas of keen focus for Eleanor, and for her 2018 MLIS she wrote a paper on the display of written material, using exhibitions of Shackleton and Scott as examples.

Katie joined the BFI Reuben Library in 2021 and is responsible for all elements of outreach and engagement with the BFI Reuben Library collections. Her background is in fashion and visual culture, having graduated from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in 2011 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Fashion History and Theory. Katie went on to spend seven years working at British fashion brand Alexander McQueen as the Archive Specialist, where she managed the extensive 2D and 3D Womenswear and Menswear collections and proudly contributed to the groundbreaking V&A exhibition Savage Beauty.

Katie delivers a year-round programme of in-person events, library tours, inductions and study sessions all with the aim of enabling access to and advocating for the incredible BFI Reuben Library collection. Katie has always had a keen interest in film, television, books and music. Her heroes include – but are not limited to – Isaac Julien, Clio Barnard, François Truffaut, Caroline Aherne, Nicolas Roeg, Céline Sciamma, Bob Mortimer, Steve McQueen, Kathy Burke, Mark E. Smith, Sandy Powell, James Baldwin and Sarah Lancashire.

Ian joined the BFI Reuben Library in 1989 after completing an MA in Film Studies at the Polytechnic of Central London. After a period working in BFI Exhibition and Distribution, Ian returned to the library as an Information Officer in 1994. As Digital Librarian between 2012 and 2013, Ian was involved in the digitisation of the library’s vast press cuttings collection.

Ian now works as Assistant Outreach Librarian in the BFI Reuben Library.

Ian’s key areas of interest in film lie with music documentaries, British 1960s cinema and Hollywood comedy of the silent and early sound era.

Nina is a Library Assistant at the BFI Reuben Library. She started her career in libraries at the Public Health Laboratory in Colindale before moving in 2000 to the BFI , in the role of Library Secretary, becoming a member of the Reader Services team as a Library Assistant in 2011.

Nina obtained six distinctions in Library and Information Studies Level 3 from Open Study College.

Nina enjoys helping library patrons with research enquiries and providing assistance with usage of our microfilm/fiche equipment.  Behind the scenes she is a member of the team dealing with our very busy advance request service as well as usual library duties relating to stock management, processing new journals, adding skeleton book records and requesting festival catalogues from all over the world.

Nina’s key interests are the 1980s Brat Pack era, musicals and TV drama.

Nicky joined the BFI Reuben Library as a Library Assistant in 1998, initially part-time, followed by a brief stint as Filmographic Assistant putting press articles on microfilm, then back to the library team full-time. She previously worked as library assistant at the former Business School in the University of Greenwich.

As a Library Assistant, Nicky helps visitors with their research enquiries in the reading room, prepares and contributes to the delivery of group study visits, as well as undertaking general library duties such as repairing and processing books for the collection and shelf-tidying. She also has the responsibility of dealing with article requests from other libraries via the British Library’s Inter-Library Delivery Service.

Nicky has always had a passion for books, film and TV . Her particular interest and knowledge base is in science fiction and fantasy. Nicky has now acquired an extensive knowledge of the collection from her many years of working in the library.

David has been with the library team since 2021. He contributes to researchers’ endeavours by handling enquiries and facilitating advance requests for materials. David enjoys the mechanics and aesthetics of cinema just as much as the narratives found within, but he has a particular penchant for the puzzles of David Lynch, as well as perennials such as 2001, Once Upon a Time in the West and Blade Runner. He was once accused of cheating by an incredulous quizmaster after single-handedly getting full marks in a Bond-themed pub quiz!

Adrienne joined the BFI Reuben Library in 2012 after several years in academic, college and school libraries. She was a graduate trainee at the Oxford Union during which she took part in the Oxford University Libraries graduate trainee scheme.

Adrienne assists in the everyday running of the library. She helps answer readers’ enquiries, retrieve request material, process new acquisitions and prepare for AS /A Level group study visits. In addition to her Library Assistant duties, she contributes to the library’s documentation, circulation information and displays.