9:00
My work starts by cycling to work. I live in Cowley, a comfortable 10-minutes-long cycle away from All Souls (7 minutes if I am late and pedal hard enough). My first steps in the college lead to the Buttery to fill my water bottle before I enter the library via the magnificent Great Quad.
9:30-10:00
Today is the first day we are open to readers after Christmas. My line-manager, the Librarian-in-Charge is in for the first time after their leave, so we catch up before I start my morning duties. These include turning on the screens and the lightshow that contextualise the presence of the statue of Christopher Codrington in the library. Codrington was a former fellow of the college who donated a large amount of money for the building of the library; perhaps unsurprisingly for Oxford, this wealth derived from Codrington’s ownership of plantations in the West Indies. The college is hoping to address this complex legacy, and these installations are the first steps on the way (you can read more about this program here). Once I get these out of the way, I do the usual bits: I clean up any books left on desks, shelve books, update the ‘borrowing book’ which documents books taken out by Fellows, and check whether readers have put in any requests.
10:00
Time to open the main door for readers! We do not have an Enquiry Desk but since my desk is in the Great Library, I am often the one who takes the reader-focused role. Today, however, our first reader does not arrive until 11am which means that I have time to get on with some spreadsheets.
10:00-12:00
More catching up with my manager about what I did last week when I was in the library on my own, and what is on my to-do-list this week. They assign me a few tasks and then the conversation deviates into other work-related topics. Suddenly it is 11:30 and I realise that I have barely done any actual work, so I print out the reader book requests slips and go fetch them before it is time to pootle over for lunch.
12:00
Lunch! One of the most exciting things in the life of a college trainee. Today, the vegetarian option was a celeriac roulade with potato wedges, green veg, and salad on the side. I take the lemon posset for my tea break later in the day.
12:30-14:30
As there’s a lot to get done this afternoon and I want to head home on time, I finish my break early safe in the knowledge that I’ll get that extra half hour in lieu at a later date. My usual afternoon program includes sorting out the post, as well as processing new acquisitions, shelving, and book moving, most of which I do whilst sitting on the desk in the Great Library. I had done most of these tasks last week when I was in the library on my own, so this afternoon I will be moving outdated law volumes from our law reading room into the cellar.
14:30-15:30
Twenty 12kg-heavy crates later, I am in a dire need of a sit-down for a moment. I reply to e-mails before making a cup of tea and sorting out the incoming post, consisting mainly of new issues of printed law and history journals. I check these in, stamp, shelfmark and shelve them. I like this job a lot for its zen-like, meditative quality (and because I can drink tea whilst doing it).
15:30-16:00
I am currently doing an internship for the FAMOUS project, helping Dr Camillo Formigatti retro-cataloguing Sanskrit manuscripts in TEI. This is an exciting opportunity which allows me to join my academic specialism and develop my librarian skills, including learning cataloguing in XML. I spent half an hour today setting up a meeting with my supervisor and going through the manuscript catalogue to identify the volumes I will be working with from next week onwards.
16:00-16:30
As it is still vacation, the library closes at half past four. I am dreading the return of the term-time hours, 9:30-18:30. For now, however, I happily start my closing routine: I check whether all readers our out, turn off the interactive touchscreens and lightshow, and lock up various doors. By half past, I collect my backpack and coat, wave at my manager, close the main door, and head out to do whatever Oxford throws at me that day.
