While our blog has been all quiet on the Weston Front for some time now, we, the trainees of 2023-24, would like to bid a heartfelt goodbye to all our readers; we’re confident that there must be at least one of you! (hi mum).
As we prepare to leave, we are all feeling emotional: proud of what we’ve achieved, sad that our traineeship has come to an end, and yet excited to move onto the next stage of our lives. Many of us are staying with the Bodleian and University Colleges, some of us are going back to university, and others have already moved on to new roles!
We owe a massive thank you to the organisers, speakers, caterers, trainers, supervisors, former trainees, etc. without whom our traineeship would not have happened. I am sure that, for some of us, this farewell does not signify the end of our involvement in the traineeship, just a switch of perspective.
As we leave, a fresh batch of shiny new trainees are stepping into their new roles – well done all of you, you should be immensely proud of yourselves!
We wish them all the best of luck and every success.
After a very delicious selection of sandwiches, it was time to hear from the last few trainees yet to present. We heard from Xanthe, whose project was all about cataloguing grey literature; Fran, who in a similar vein was tidying up a collection of anthropological material; Clara, who was helping people navigate their way round the labyrinth that is the Taylor Institution Library; and Anna, who did a deep dive into the Sainsbury Library’s collections, and how to make them more accessible to readers. More on these projects below!
After these interesting presentations, we heard from Ant Brewerton, Associate Director for Academic Library Services, and Keeper of Collections. He gave a great speech congratulating us on our work!
Well done to all the trainees and especially to Clara, Anna, and Connie, for organising the day, which was a massive success.
Xanthe Malcolm- HML Grey Literature : Recording an uncatalogued collection at the History of Medicine Library for ingest into the CSF
The ‘Cupboard of Doom’ at the HML- AKA, the manuscript room
By Elena Trowsdale
In anticipation of many humanities collections moving to the Schwartzman centre, Xanthe’s project focused on the ‘History of Medicine Library’ and its ‘grey literature’. Grey literature is a term which encompasses material produced outside traditional commercial or academic publishing. The manuscript room at the HML library is full of these tricky items, most of which are undiscoverable as they have not been catalogued. Xanthe’s goal was: to move unique items from the Manuscript Room to the CSF; make these items discoverable on SOLO so they can be used by readers; and describe the collection on the HML LibGuide.
The starting point was that half the room had been roughly listed, and half only had ‘unique items’ detailed in a spreadsheet. Xanthe consulted wit
h the CR&D team and was given an optimised spreadsheet to record all the information of the uncatalogued material without the need for cataloguing training. This was an excellent, efficient idea which I believe was successful in its aim.
To obtain accurate data, Xanthe spent one afternoon a week at the HML barcoding, measuring items and taking lots of pictures. She was very well prepared and speedy at this task because of her excellent planning and efficiency. Many items were in boxes, which she listed at box level and with individual item information.
She achieved a lot of progress and has made sure the work can continue. Her current progress at time of presenting included: recording 161 monograph titles and 39 serial titles; ensuring the vast majority of the pre-marked “unique” items were ready to send to CSF; creating a handlist of everything currently recorded; creating the initial draft of the LibGuide; and arranging the right-hand shelves by area. She is currently continuing the work she has planned and is ready to hand over [two words when not used as a noun].
I was extremely impressed with Xanthe’s work and her presentation, as were (in my opinion) the captive audience of librarians. I am sure they could all relate to her organisational aims, and the immense complexity of the material she was dealing with.
Fran Allen- Tidying up the Tylor
By Anna Roberts
Fran’s project work had two parts: the first being very technical, record and catalogue focussed; the second involving her creative and graphic design skills!
Firstly, Fran joined in with the ongoing journey (some may say saga!) of tidying up the Tylor library. She explained that the Tylor collection houses materials for social and cultural anthropology. It used to be the Anthropology departmental library housed at the institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, set up by Sir Edward Burnett Tylor.
The Tylor collection was moved two years ago to the Social Sciences Library but with 20135 item records this turned out be a messy task!
To describe the journey using numbers, Fran designed a lovely
flowchart. In total the Tylor had 20135 item records, of these many were sent to the CSF or SSL, some were dummy/ expected serials for cancelled subscriptions, but still approximately 1000 item records were unaccounted for.
This is where Fran entered the world of the Tylor items. Fran did a fantastic job investigating these unaccounted records. She had to use her SOLO searching techniques and ALMA skills to find items and go through records. Often, these items were in a grey archive box and not missing. Wahey! Fran could delete the individual item records and tick as sorted. She also deleted 500 item records as miscellaneous. This was clearly a time-consuming process, but Fran managed to account for 89% of the unaccounted items which was very impressive!
One of Fran’s book displays, this one focussing on ‘Winter Wellbeing’
The second part of Fran’s presentation focussed on all the many book displays that she curated throughout the year. These had themes marking different months like Disability History and Women’s History Month, as well as seasonal ones like Winter Wellbeing and Spring Books (for which she handcrafted cute paper daffodils). A particularly fun theme was Ghoulish Reads, featuring Slime: A natural history, The Economic Horror, and Zombie Economics. Of course, being the SLL library trainee meant she highlighted the General Election with a book display, cunningly avoiding party affiliations by using a “neutral” teal colour.
Fran enhanced these displays by designing lovely posters and, perhaps most importantly for avid readers, bookmarks to match the theme! This included a designing ghoul bookmarks for her ghoulish reads… I wonder if she has any spare.
Clara Oxley- Wayfinding at the Taylor Institution Library
By Erin Minogue
In the final section of the day, Clara described her project which centered around improving wayfinding at the Taylor Institution Library (also referred to as the Taylorian).
To explain how the project came about, Clara began by providing some details about the design of the Taylor Institution Library. Evolving over the 19th and 20th centuries, the library incorporates two buildings designed at different times (the first part built in the 1840s, and the second part in the 1930s). This history has led to several design quirks, notably the uneven floors in different sections of the building, leading to a confusing enumeration of levels of the building.
As well as several staircases, the Taylorian also boasts rooms that are only accessible by winding through a series of rooms and descending a specific staircase, and similarly named reading rooms in opposite parts of the building. The user experience, for a reader unfamiliar with the building, is disorientating to say the least. But, luckily for Taylorian readers, Clara was on hand to design a project which aimed to: utilise user experience to gain an idea of what students need to navigate the library, identify issues, and then feed these findings back into changes that could tackle these issues.
Clara aimed to investigate different SOLO record location descriptions and how navigational aids help or hinder student journeys around the library.
Trail signs designed by Clara
To achieve this, Clara designed a series of trail signs which would point to different locations around the library, decided on standardized names for different locations and then tested these changes by running ‘treasure hunts’ around the library with student participants .
I particularly enjoyed hearing about Clara’s ‘Russian Doll’ inspired method to improving SOLO location descriptions. Clara’s method aimed to help readers locate an item by providing location details on a macro level and then providing more specific details – the specific floor, the specific room and then lastly, shelfmark information. This, however, was not as simple as it sounded; the third floor of the Teaching Collection on the St Giles’ side of the building doesn’t, of course, line up with the third floor of the Beaumont Street side of the building – why would it? However, with improved trail signs and more detailed location information on SOLO records, Clara began her ‘treasure hunts’ with student participants. Students were tasked with finding items in different areas of the library while Clara noted anything that helped or hindered them with navigating the library. The findings were particularly interesting – even comments such as “[n]ow I’m confused” helped to give a greater insight into how readers interact with the Taylorian.
The findings of Clara’s project pointed to the utility of trail signs around the library, suggesting the need for these and the desire to perhaps increase them. Most readers agreed it would be helpful to differentiate the staircases with different names and that the name 3rd Floor rather than ‘upper’ stack was helpful. Ultimately Clara’s project placed user experience at the heart of her considerations in making the Taylorian more navigable and has produced excellent findings which can be built on in the future.
Anna Roberts- A Spotlight on the Sainsbury Library Collections and Faculty Books
By Jess Hodgkinson
Focussing on the Sainsbury Library’s collections, Anna’s trainee project took a three-pronged approach to enhancing the library’s provision for readers.
Anna’s pie-chart showing the global diversity of books in the library
The first aspect of the project entailed creating a plan for weeding the Sainsbury Library’s annexe, which houses its general-purpose business collection. Using the library management software’s (ALMA) analytics function, Anna generated inventory item reports which she exported to a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Anna filtered the spreadsheet by publication date and number of loans to identify little-used and outdated books which could be removed from circulation, thus freeing up space for new acquisitions.
The second, and main, focus of Anna’s project assessed the global diversity of the Sainsbury Library’s collection housed at the Saïd Business School’s Egrove Park site. Inspired by the Building Global Collections workshop she attended, Anna set out to investigate what proportion of these books were on the topic of international business, or focussed on business practices outside of the UK and USA. Using key terms derived from the London Business School’s categorisation scheme and Library of Congress subject headings, Anna searched the collection for relevant titles. Anna identified that only 11% of the collection has an international topic and that, among these books, cross-cultural management studies were the most common. Based on these findings, Anna proposed in her presentation that future acquisitions should include more books about geographical areas currently under-represented within the collection, including, for example, North Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Anna also highlighted the importance of purchasing books written from perspectives other than those of British and American authors, especially regarding topics such as globalisation and social responsibility.
The third, and final, aspect of Anna’s trainee project saw her create an inventory of monograph books and chapters in edited collections authored by academics from the University’s Business & Management school. Responding to a reader’s request for such a list, Anna used code designed by a colleague to match a register of faculty members with inventory item reports from ALMA, creating a list of faculty publications. Given the scale of the task, Anna chose to focus on two research areas—international business and major programme management.
Anna intends to expand and update the list of faculty publications, and continue to contribute to weeding, auditing, and enhancing the Sainsbury Library’s collections as she transitions into her exciting new role as the Collections & Instructional Materials Assistant. She will undoubtedly continue to be an asset to the library team!
The second part of the 2023/24 Trainee Showcase comprised of presentations by Leah Brown (English Faculty Library), Sorrel Fenelon (St John’s College Library), and Erin Minogue (Bodleian Art, Archaeology and Ancient World Library). The projects ranged from a deep-dive into the offprints owned by a renowned professor, work to widen access to special collections, and an investigation into how social media and digital outreach can work to highlight collections and engage audiences.
Leah Brown: A Sérprent Saga: Professor Turville-Petre and his Literary Network
By Clara Oxley
Offprints from Turville-Petre’s collection in archive folders.
Leah’s trainee project was a fascinating deep dive into the offprints of Professor Turville-Petre, a prominent Oxford scholar in Old Norse-Icelandic Studies who, as a student at Christ Church, was tutored by none other than J. R. R. Tolkien himself. When Turville-Petre died in 1978, he donated his entire library to the English Faculty Library. This, along with the rest of the EFL, will be moved to the Schwartzman Building in 2025 (a fact which motivated this project to begin with).
For anyone unsure of what an offprint was, Leah began by helpfully describing it as a ‘printing of a single piece of work that is part of a larger body,’ such as an article from a periodical. On top of exploring his offprints, another aim of the project was to create a handlist of them and store the items carefully to ensure that they were protected and conserved. This was because the off-prints were originally stored in magazine files, something which might have sent any conservationist into a frenzy.
To reduce damage to the items and make the collection more accessible, Leah created a spreadsheet detailing each Turville-Petre offprint. These details included, but were not limited to, author details, publication information, as well as language. Leah also paid close attention to the contents and notes that he made in the margins of the off-prints, which gave a unique insight into the way his relationships with colleagues changed over the years; something Leah went on to explore in more depth. Once the helpful handlist was completed, Leah moved the offprints to conservation boxes, and a quiet sigh of relief was heard from the conservation community across the country.
Next, Leah’s deep-dive into the contents and contexts of the offprints proved to be effective in bringing Turville-Petre to life, letting us catch a glimpse of his personality and work style. By exploring the historical context, as well as his academic engagements, correspondences and notes, Leah painted an image of a man who was clearly very academically driven, yet also dedicated to and supportive of his colleagues. These colleagues included the first woman to be Professor of Old Norse at the University of Oslo, Professor Anne Holtsmark, with whom he remained in correspondence for over 30 years. Furthermore, Leah’s inclusion of items in which he conveyed personality beyond the academic rigour of his work really helped humanise this great scholar. We particularly liked his artistic endeavours, such as the doodle of a Viking in his lecture notes. It’s always reassuring to learn that even the brightest can lose focus from time to time!
From Leah’s presentation, we learnt about a truly fascinating man who dedicated his life to Norse studies. So much so, that the Prime Minister of Iceland award him with the Grand Knight’s Cross of the Order of the Falcon.
A touching addition to the presentation was the inclusion of correspondences Leah had had with those who remembered Turville-Petre with fondness and respect. This included a former pupil of his, who recalled how, ‘Gabriel was, in his own way, as much of a teacher as a scholar and researcher, and a devoted teacher at that.’
Before completing her traineeship, Leah informed us that she will be creating box level records for the new offprint boxes, making the items accessible for all and ensuring that Turville-Petre and his legacy is kept alive for future scholarly endeavours.
Sorrel Fenelon: Widening Access to Special Collections at St John’s College
By Connie Hubbard
You might think that St John’s College, who have a special collection of manuscripts, would be overly protective of their collection. Sorrel, however, made increasing access and interest in early manuscripts her goal. Not an easy task.
To prepare, Sorrel shadowed school tours run by the Public Engagement team at the Weston Library, learning and magpieing tour-guiding techniques. She then began planning a tour for sixth form students visiting St John’s College as part of the Inspire programme. This initiative is a free, two year course for pupils from non-selective state schools, which includes a research presentation day onsite at St John’s. As part of this day, Sorrel planned a special collections visit, complete with a tour of the old library, and a session getting up close to an array of rare works. Sorrel had a brainwave while planning the event and, before the students arrived, she asked each what interested them and created the exhibition based on their answers. Talk about customer service!
On the big day, eighteen eager pupils got to see and interact with six items, including: a letter written by Jane Austen; Peter Apianus’ Astronomicum Caesareum* illustrated with a beautiful dragon, and an 18th-century autograph book which also housed a tapeworm – gross, but when entertaining teenagers, disgust is usually a safe bet. The chosen items highlighted the breadth of St John’s Special Collections with works from a range of time periods and in a range of languages, with different quirks.
Sorrel presenting her trainee project on Widening Access to Special Collections at St John’s College.
As with any ambitious project, Sorrel experienced complications. The most notable being that a condition check of the items revealed the Astronicum Caesureum would have been too fragile to move across college to the room booked for the event. Luckily Sorrel had been unreasonably organised and had a backup; a stunningly illustrated atlas. Crisis averted!
During Sorrel’s showcase presentation, she shared with us, not only her positive feedback from the College Access team and the students themselves, but suggested improvements, for example: to include more STEM subject manuscripts (though she noted the Astronomicum, gone AWOL, would have remedied this somewhat).
If that weren’t enough, Sorrel has also been working on a database of the John Rose letters, picking up where a previous trainee left off.
*an instrument for predicting the occurrence of solar and lunar eclipses.
Erin Minogue: Developing a social media presence for the Art, Archaeology and Ancient World Library
By Xanthe Malcolm
Wrapping up the morning session, Erin told us all about the process of establishing an X (formerly known as Twitter) account for the Art, Archaeology and Ancient World Library.
Erin began her presentation with a discussion of how she had chosen her project – which translated neatly into some tips for those trainees from next year’s cohort who were in the audience. For example, she knew from the start that she wanted something with a tangible outcome, which would be useful to the library, and have potential for continuity in the future. Marrying all that with her personal interest in outreach and increasing access to the library’s collections led her to the decision to develop a social media account.
Walking us through the timeline of her project, Erin started with her research into existing library social media accounts. This helped her to develop her initial thoughts on the aims of creating this account: who the target audience would be; what sort of content would meet the needs of the diverse groups within that target audience – from current readers to prospective students, and the local community to a broader audience who might have an interest in the library’s collections; and which platform to choose.
A screenshot of the Bodleian Art Library’s new X profile.
Having established the purpose of the account, Erin then made formal proposals to her own library and the central Communications team for the Bodleian. She also began work on branding for the account. We heard about how she had decided on a colour scheme that would be cohesive with the central Bodleian X account and her library’s blog, as well as the importance of finding high resolution images and the difficulties of fitting the words “Art, Archaeology and Ancient World Library” into a profile picture!
All Erin’s hard work paid off on launch day. With some carefully crafted initial posts and a takeover of the central Bodleian X account to harness the power of their huge pool of followers, she was able to surpass her target of 100 followers by the end of the first day.
Since then, the account has gone from strength to strength. Erin gave examples of how she ensures she continues to meet the account’s aims of highlighting the collections, providing reader service updates, improving the accessibility of the building and engaging with readers and visitors (for example, by linking posts to exhibitions at the Ashmolean). She also talked us through how she has planned to ensure the continuity of the account after the end of the year.
Erin rounded off her presentation by talking us through some of her personal highlights from the year – a fantastic reminder of the wide range of opportunities open to trainees who are keen to get involved.
And if you haven’t done so yet, go and follow @BodArtLib on X!
I’m out the door and on my bike. I’m lucky enough to have a genuinely enjoyable ten-minute cycle to work in the mornings, which is a great way to start the day.
08:40
I arrive at the Rad Cam. After putting my things away, I start the opening routine for the Lower Camera – this involves opening windows, turning on computers and PCAS machines, shelving, and making sure work spaces are tidy for readers. This morning I find a sports bra on one of the radiators, which I put in lost property!
Lapsed books in their boxes ready to head back to the CSF
08:55
Using Alma, the library management system software, I create today’s lapse list: a spreadsheet with details of self-collect books which are due to be returned to the CSF. By the time doors open to readers at 9am, I’m starting to collect these lapsed books onto a trolley. Once I’ve finished, I return them all on Alma and then box them up to be taken back to the CSF this afternoon on the delivery van.
09:30
There weren’t too many books on the lapse list today, so I have time for a background task. I find a few books whose shelf mark
labels are beginning to fade, and print and attach new labels.
10:15
Break time – a cup of tea and a couple of biscuits in the reader common room, while listening to a podcast.
Relabelling books – before and after!
10:35
I’m on fetching duty now. This means I’m collecting books from around the Rad Cam and Old Bod which have been requested for scanning by readers. Today this takes me into the Duke Humphrey’s Library, the very oldest part of the library, which is always exciting! Then, I identify the sections that need scanning and put in bookmarks ready for my colleague who will be scanning them this afternoon.
11:30
I decide to do some shelving. Maybe not the most exciting part of working in a library, but always satisfying!
12:00
Today I have the early (12pm) lunch slot. It’s lovely weather so I head along to the Botanic Gardens (free entry is a great perk of the job) to eat my packed lunch. I take a book and enjoy sitting and reading in the sunshine.
13:00
I’m back at the Rad Cam, and have an hour slot on the reception desk. It’s an extremely quiet shift – I issue books to one reader, give a couple of tourists directions to the Old Bod, and send a reader who has forgotten her card to Admissions.
Inputting metadata to the spreadsheet
14:00
I get on with some project work. My project covers a collection of uncatalogued materials at the History of Science and Medicine Library – the aim is to identify items that are unique across the Bodleian and record their metadata so that they can be added to the library catalogue and ingested. When I was there this week, I took photos of some of the items, so this afternoon I use these photos to finish entering the details of these items into a spreadsheet created by the Resource Description department.
14:30
Break time – after sitting to work on a computer it’s time to stretch my legs, so I put on a podcast and go for a short walk.
14:50
An email has come in from ARACU (Accessible Resources Unit) requesting a book for them to scan for a student. I fetch the book, issue it on Alma, and box it up to send to ARACU on the delivery van. Then I get on with some more shelving, starting with the Upper Camera and working my way down to the Lower Gladstone Link.
15:30
It’s my final desk shift of the day – this time I’m on the circulation desk in the Rad Cam. I help a couple of readers connect to the internet, and take a student down to the Gladstone Link to locate a book in the tricky Nicholson sequence. I issue and return books, provide directions to the toilets, and answer questions about loan periods and shelf marks. It’s always nice to be able to help readers out – definitely a rewarding part of the job!
17:00
It’s the end of my working day. I’m off to the gym (another perk of the job is discounted membership at Iffley Road Sports Centre) and then home!
8:25 My journey to work begins with a, thankfully, short walk into work. This morning I am rather precariously carrying two cakes which I have made for a work party.
8:50 After making my way into work, my morning begins by unloading the dishwasher. We do this on a rota and this morning is my turn. Alongside the dishwasher, I make the morning’s pot of coffee, which is very much needed. After that’s finished, I head up to my desk, where I sort through my emails and send off a few scans which I didn’t get round to yesterday afternoon.
Shelves for books to be labelled.
9:30 I take a few books that I have now finished with from my desk and head upstairs to reshelve them. Our lift is currently out of order so I am finding that I am climbing many, many more stairs than usual.
Returning to the workroom, I check to see if there any any books on the shelves I have responsibility for. Books for me are any ones which need processed, labelled or sent out to the floor. I collect any for me and bring them to my desk, where I work through them all. After finishing, I drop the books up to Academic Services for shelving, in a series of journeys which take much longer than normal (broken lift + manual handling training = frustratingly slow book moving process).
10:30 Tea party!! I head down to the staff room as we say goodbye to one of our colleagues, whose last day is today. We have some snacks, some cake and hand over a goodbye gift.
11:15 More scanning to do now. Accompanied by a list of all the requests, I gather up the books required and head to the scanning room. Our scanning room is a very small, out of the way room in the library, but it has a fantastic big window which looks out over the New College sports grounds. Unfortunately, today the scans are not as simple as I would like. A reader has requested a set of pages which don’t appear to make much sense, starting on the last page of one chapter and finishing mid subsection of the next chapter. I send a message to the Scan & Deliver triage team, who will confirm with the reader what exactly they want. Another scan is for a book which does not appear on the shelf. Thankfully, it has not travelled far, only to the shelf below. I decide to stay and tidy up these shelves while I’m here, as I’ve found a couple books in the wrong sequence. This is quite a satisfying task, but one that at least I, can only do for so long, before the dust generated from moving all the books makes me start sneezing uncontrollably.
12:45 I send off the completed scans and head downstairs to sort today’s post.
Today’s haul!
We receive a range of items in the post, mostly journals and purchased books, but sometimes mysteriously packaged parcels with donated books, sent by either the author or publisher. We also receive post for Official Papers, which may be Statutory Instruments or Acts published by the UK governments or documents from intergovernmental organisations, such as the United Nations. After collating and stamping any invoices and packing slips, all the post is brought up to the Information Resources Workroom where I sort it onto its respective shelves. Journals and books all have different shelves depending on whether they are purchased, donated or copyright material.
13:15 Lunchtime! I now have an hour for lunch, so I make myself up a bagel and have a cup of tea. I have a number of books on the go currently, as I read different books depending on what mood I’m in, but today I have only a few chapters left of Agatha Christie’s The Secret of Chimneys and I am determined to find out if I have guessed the murderer correctly. Tonight, I’m on the evening shift until 7pm, so I head outside for a short walk to stretch my legs and get some sunshine before heading back to work.
Official Papers post ready to be shelved.
14:15 It is now time to process the pile of Official Papers post which has been slowly building over the past couple of weeks. All the post has to be stamped with the correct date and type of stamp (C for copyright, P for purchased and D for donated), before being counted, noted down and shelved. It is a long process, but the upside is that there are some very interesting documents to read through. Today, I process 77 pamphlets and 8 Acts and Explanatory Notes.
16:00 I head downstairs for a break, grabbing a cup of coffee and the final one of my sister’s hot cross buns, which she had sent back with me when I visited home last weekend.
16:15 By now, the VBD books have arrived. The VBD stands for Virtual Book Display, and every week the Information Resources Librarian sends me over a spreadsheet with the picks for the Law Library. This week there are not too many, so only two runs up and down the stairs. Once at my desk, I have to check the books off on my spreadsheet, process them and send them to the copyright shelves for cataloguing. I also take this time to track down any missing VBD books from previous weeks, looking to see where they have got to.
16:45 I head down to Official Papers to grab some boxes of material to be barcoded and then head up to the desk for my 5pm evening shift. While on the desk, I answer queries from readers and give (hopefully useful and easy-to-follow) directions.
Home Office Research study from 1975 on homicide statistics.
When my attention is not required by readers, I work through barcoding the OP material. Currently I am working through series from the Home Office, which includes some very interesting reads, such as Absconding from Open Prisons and Homicide in Britain, 1967 – 1971.
17:30 Time for the count. I grab the clipboard and head round the library to count the number of readers inside.
17:45 Mental maths done, I return to barcoding. When finished, I begin work on this blog post!
18:40 I ring the first bell to alert readers we will be closing soon. The bell is very loud and always makes unsuspecting readers jump (readers – I’m sorry!!).
18:50 Second bell.
19:00 The bell is rung for the final time to signify the library is closed. We switch the lights off and I drop my work to my desk before heading to the staffroom. Both cakes are finished and someone has kindly washed my plates, so I pack up them into my bag and head off to enjoy the rest of the sunshine!
Whilst sipping tea from my KeepCup on the bus, and glaring at the traffic ahead, I email my supervisor because I think I may be a little late!
09:03
I arrive in the library. My opening shift is made a lot quicker and easier because my supervisor starts work a bit earlier than everybody else. This means she usually does most of the opening up. However, if she is not starting early then these are some of the tasks that we do: folding up blankets on our blanket shelf, returning books on the library system that were in our library return box, walk around the library floors turning the lights on and tidying up the desks and chairs (students and staff at the school can use the library outside of staffed hours), check and replenish paper levels in the printer, and check our IT equipment loan folder. The library is embedded within the Saïd Business School which means the building is already set up before staff come in and business students can still use our library after we go home too!
09:10
We had a mystery wire on our enquiry desk this morning which may have been lost property, but it does look like some of the HDMI cables that are connected to our docking stations. So, I went to investigate whether there were any missing cables.
The PC area cables and wires in our lower reading room were a complete mess like vines all curled up together. So, I decided to tidy the area up a bit.
09:20
Part of desk duty is to monitor our library email inbox. So, I checked the enquiries that we had. Usually, they will involve a mixture of readers asking for business-related research help, some asking for help accessing library resources both online and offline, and others will be requesting access to databases. Some of our databases require staff to create accounts for students, others have a limited number of IDs that we issue to students for a set number of days. Due to high demand, there is often a waiting list for these IDs.
We also welcome and grant access to library visitors, usually non-Saïd Business School students, occasionally others, into the library. Reception rings us to say that a visitor is here and wants to use the library. Often the visitor is already racing up the stairs so you must get an access card ready and hopefully meet them at the door before anyone else enters and leaves-otherwise the visitor will be trapped in the library!
09:30
As the library was quiet, armed with blue tack, a pen and sticky notes I went around our PCs checking if they had the ‘how to log in’ labels on the monitors. I re-tacked some of them and recorded the number that didn’t have any and the docking stations that require their docking labels too. I plan to update those without another day.
09:50
My colleague, who also works at the library’s Egrove site, gave me a book which had been requested for scanning. Egrove Park is the location for the business school’s Executive Education services, which includes some residential courses. We have a small collection of roughly 955 books which can be borrowed by users at Egrove and by members of the university.
I check ALMA for any other requests to triage and fulfill. I then wrote a post-it note for the part to be scanned and placed the book on my desk in the office.
I also checked the SBS intranet to keep up to date with news within the school. I read an article giving the Dean’s message about International Women’s Day (IWD) the next day. Internal communications were also requesting staff to send along a picture and a couple of words for IWD. I created a book display for IWD and a window display for the Oxford Africa Business Forum. As I was planning to write a blog post about my book display, I decided that I would also send a picture and some words along for this. You can read the blog post ‘Celebrating in True Library Fashion’ and see a list of the books on our Sainsbury Library News page.
A picture of part of the bakery display that the catering put on for Valentine’s Day
11:00
My colleague who was covering my 20-minute morning break came along to cover. I went to the school’s café/common room to help myself to a free tea in my KeepCup. Staff at the school get subsidized food at the common room and dining hall which means a 50% – 60% discount on cakes, pastries, cheesecakes, and whatever other delights the café and catering team rustles up! I go to the tea stand where there are free teabags and an urn of hot water. I listened to some music and relaxed for a bit.
11:20
Back on desk duty after my break.
My colleague asked someone on site to check Harvard Business Review on SOLO as it appeared to have disappeared. I took a look and indeed it was an empty page. Whilst I was testing a different browser, I also assisted some readers with in-person enquiries and welcomed visitors in.
As part of my SOLO investigation, I tried searching in Journal Search and Harvard Business Review and came up with no results. I then tried searching for other journals, same result. I then tried searching with filters and nothing was appearing! Something was wrong! I then compiled an email for OLIS help with screenshots to report the problem. It is always useful to include precise information about the browser and what you are doing when asking for assistance. The team sent out an email to the library mailing list to inform all the libraries and staff that SOLO was experiencing problems, and they thanked our team for reporting it.
In a lovely gesture, a reader whom I had assisted with printing came to the desk especially to say thank you for my help before leaving. This is always very appreciated.
12:30
Journal search is back up! We are lucky to have a fantastic OLIS team who work hard, often in the background, to make sure the Bodleian Library keeps running! A few of my colleagues on site were in a meeting whilst all this happened and didn’t even know that there had been a problem.
Oxfordshire Blue and Mushroom tart, plus salad! -Keeping us healthy
13:00Lunch break
My colleague for the afternoon comes to enquiry desk to changeover. It often seems to be the case that the phone starts ringing, someone wants to borrow IT equipment and something else pops up right when you are transferring. Anyway, I greeted the visitor and then went for lunch, leaving things in my colleague’s hands.
For lunch, I went to the school’s dining room and got an Oxfordshire Blue Cheese and mushroom tart plus the ambient salads that the kitchen provides- very yummy! Staff can get a good quality hot meal or ambient meal for around £2.50 each day- what a bargain! I listened to some music whilst eating and then read my book outside sitting on the school’s amphitheatre steps because it was finally sunny (if a bit chilly though).
14:00
I had a few plans about what I wanted to do like completing the scan and deliver request and completing my blog post. I recently discovered ‘Bodley and the bookworms- Scan and deliver video which I can’t get out of my head when I hear or read‘scan and deliver’. I decided to focus on finishing my blog post as this was more time sensitive. It is often the case as a trainee that you will be juggling a few tasks at a time and that you may be producing blog posts or book displays to mark different events/themes in the year, either local to your library or subject, nationally or internationally. So far, I have done Business of AI, Financial Times ‘Book of the Year’ displays and now IWD and Business in Africa. I will consult with members of the team about future displays.
Blue crates and archive boxes-took me four trips!
15:00
I go to cover my colleague’s afternoon tea break. Just as I arrive on desk a reader who is doing Futures Library research informs us there should be more blue crates here for her. She has gone through most, if not all now, of the Pierre Wack library! So, I popped downstairs to check if the Bod book van had arrived yet. The van had arrived, delivering 10 blue boxes/totes plus an oversized archive box- I think this was a record for our library (or at least for me!) although I know that is a tiny delivery in comparison with some of the other libraries. I ended up taking three trips in the lift to bring everything up. It was quite intriguing see some of what is inside the archive boxes- VHS tapes, cassettes, a briefcase folder. My colleague and I scanned in the archive boxes, including an oversized one with a briefcase in it and then my colleague finally went on his tea break.
15:30
A colleague who assisted with putting the book display up and organising kindly offered to be in a photo for the book display for IWD- I was very grateful that she was willing to be in it too! With the photo taken I then finished the blog post for IWD and the Africa Business Forum display and then edited the IWD part slightly to share it with the Saïd Business Schools Internal Communications Team. They very kindly added a bit of context to the library and created an article on Atrium to share with colleagues at the school.
15:45
I went for my afternoon tea break and once again got a tea from the tea station in the school’s common room. I also browsed the pastries and cakes but decided to skip it- they are always very tempting though!
16:05
I caught up on some emails and my to do list.
16:20
Sainsbury Library is currently running an assessment activity concerning where students are sitting and the noise levels of the reading room. We have a board and stickers for students to pick what they are in the library to do and where on our library map, they would prefer to sit to do that. We were also doing some observations in the afternoons where two of us walk around the library and noting where people were sitting and what they were doing e.g. group study, silent study. That afternoon I was doing the observation. Students sometimes looked at us a bit quizzically as we walked around and stood observing the tables.
16:40
Our circulation and customer services librarian showed me how the library records teaching statistics are recorded (this is sessions where staff members have delivered inductions, consultations, and lectures) and SCONUL counts (the SCONUL homepage has a picture of my old library so had to include a link!). Sconul counts are when we, along with other libraries, count the number of readers in the library at a specific time and date. Our circulation librarian is responsible in our library for recording these statistics this and it was good to see what is recorded, why it is recorded and how it is recorded. I have found that there are often opportunities in my day to observe and learn from other staff members about different tasks they do, even if I am not going to be specifically assisting them.
Books I need to sort out
16:55
I write a note in my notebook about some of the ‘book stuff’ I need to do: process new books, complete a scan, and a a plastic cover to the dust jacket. Here is a visual picture of it:
17:00
I head to the train station to wait for a bus home!
7:45: I hop on the bus to town, and get some reading in on my way. I am currently reading Femina by Janina Ramirez, after hearing her interesting insights on the women who embroidered the Bayeux Tapestry, on the history podcast ‘You’re Dead to Me’ with Greg Jenner. I’m really enjoying it and finding it very accessible, as someone who has never really been drawn to that period of history (cue the scandalised gasps from Oxford medievalists).
8:15: With an uncharacteristic lack of traffic on the way to work, I arrive in town in time to head to Black Sheep and get myself a coffee. I like Black Sheep because the coffee is STRONG.
8:42: I arrive at work. This week I have been rota’ed to open up the Duke Humfrey’s Library, which is always a nice space to begin my day in. I am greeted by the grotesques that decorate the walls, including these cheeky chaps, who are displaying two different degrees of excitement that it’s Friday:
TGIF!This guy has seen some things…
Opening up this reading room includes reshelving, turning on the lights, and opening the blinds.
8:55: With the Duke Humfrey’s Library ready for readers, I head downstairs to the Main Enquiry Desk where I will be spending the morning answering enquiries.
This morning, I am expecting the arrival of some books from the Just Williamseries, for an advance order request for someone who does not yet have their reader card. Because these are early editions, I want to check their condition to confirm that they can be read in the Old Library and don’t need to be flagged up with my colleagues in Rare Books.
The books arrive, and they’re in fine condition, so I give the self-collect slips a temporary ID, change their due date, and notify the reader that they are ready to be viewed.
12:00: Lunchtime. I wolf down a very basic sandwich I cobbled together whilst half asleep this morning, wondering what my housemate, who works in Christ Church library and who is provided an amazing dinner by the college, is probably enjoying at that very same time…
13:00: After lunch I’m stationed at the circulation desk in the Radcliffe Camera for an hour. Working on this desk means I issue books, collect returns, help people connect to Wi-Fi or to locate a book. There’s always loads of people to help here so I really enjoy it!
14:00: I head back over to the Old Bod to get some work done for my trainee project. I’m finding books from offsite storage and assessing whether they’d be suitable for a temporary wellbeing collection in the Bodleian. Today I am looking at some Choose Your Own Adventure books. One is outstandingly and straightforwardly titled You Are a Shark. I’m sure this is what Shakespeare had in mind when he wrote that “brevity is the soul of wit”.
15:30: After my afternoon break, I’m sat on the Proscholium (entrance to the Old Library) where I am writing this blog post whilst keeping one beady eye out for readers entering the library. It can get cold in this part of the building, but I have a small and handy heater that is at the very least keeping my knees adequately warm.
17:00: My workday is done, so I say hello and goodbye to the evening staff member who is taking over for me on the Proscholium. This evening, I am heading to the cinema with my housemates. One fantastic thing about Oxford is the number of cinemas there are with various showings, if only to aid me in updating my Letterboxd account.
My working week starts at 09:30 on a Monday morning. This is glorious as my fellow trainees have to start at 09:00 or earlier, mwah ha ha ha.
Coming in early often means I open the library: unlocking, turning on the lights and emptying the dehumidifiers (and, after 6 months, I still haven’t mastered the art of pouring the water from our leaky dehumidifier without spills).
Having opened up, I am often on shift at the reception desk (I have one shift a day). This means that I get to meet lots of lovely people – some members, some not.
There are six staff members in the library: the Librarian-in-Charge, the Deputy Librarian, the Assistant Librarian, me (the Trainee), the Archivist, and Helga (the library printer, who works very hard). The Union has more than just library staff, but the team is still very small and you get to know everyone; the Bar staff even know my lunch order before I say it (despite me definitely not having a coronation chicken sandwich almost every day for the past six months).
Mondays are fantastic; I take minutes at our Library Committee meetings. These are chaired by the Librarian, who is a student. They decide which books will be withdrawn and which will be purchased. Our Library’s collection is thus entirely dictated by the needs and wants of members and booklists are often a little peculiar as a result.
On Tuesdays my cup runneth over; I come in late (for the evening shift, not because I have given up on punctuality by Tuesday), and do research for our displays, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. This also tends to be the day on which I do the most research for my project (which will eventually be posted on the library website).
Wednesdays are usually training days for all Trainee Librarians – here you’ll learn to use ALMA, learn the nitty gritty elements of librarianship and visit other libraries (inside and outside Oxford).
Thursdays at the Union are great; this is ‘Brew and Biscuits’ day, on which all staff, and sometimes student officers (President, Librarian and Treasurer), meet for an hour, first for business, and then a social chat (usually about rugby, at which point anyone who doesn’t watch it is bored rigid). The possession of a brew (tea, coffee, or hot chocolate) and the consumption of at least one biscuit is rigorously enforced (on pain of death). This is also the day when I leave early to go bouldering.
Fridays are more relaxed, there are no minutes to write, no training to do (usually), and no threat of death for not partaking of the cookies. This is a day when reshelving and book processing are the priority and social media posts get scheduled.
The blog post continues into Saturday! Fear not! At most you’ll only do two Saturdays a term, and you have a late start. Shock horror though… there are no free bar lunches. And on that cliff-hanger, I will leave you.
Back in 1988, the Bodleian created a truly ingenious piece of merchandise: The Bodleian Game, an incredibly niche board game for those who feel they just don’t quite spend enough time in the Bodleian Libraries in real life. Sadly, it is no longer available to buy new, but when one of my housemates managed to procure a second-hand copy, we were all very excited. (Getting excited over a library-based board game is very normal, actually.)
You begin the game by picking a research subject – we went for Women in Society – and are given the first book you need to read on that subject. The premise is then that for each book, you need to first visit the Old Bodleian; consult one of three catalogues there in order to determine which library your book is housed in; journey across Oxford to the relevant library; locate the book in that library’s catalogue; “read” the book and use the references to determine what you need to read next; and roll the dice to determine how useful the book was to your research. Highest score at the end of the game wins, so there is an incentive to reread if you don’t score highly.
Different cards you might face before you can read your book…
Sound like a convoluted process? It was! We’ve never been so grateful for SOLO and the fact that it is accessible everywhere. Impressively, the books in the game were all real items held by the Bodleian, which we were of course able to check from the comfort of our kitchen table.
The fun of the game came from seeing how the mechanics had been created to replicate the true Bodleian Libraries experience. For example, chance cards could banish you to the starting spot for getting caught eating in the library, or delay your reading due to your book being already on loan. By the third time one of us drew the card that says you have left your Bodleian card at home and need to go to Admissions, and had to trek back across the board, I was feeling a distinct twinge of guilt for all the readers I have said the same thing to. And if you landed on the same square as another player, you both had to head straight off to the King’s Arms together – I’ll leave our readers to confirm or deny the accuracy of that one.
Two of our score cards by the end of play – I didn’t get as much reading done as my housemate!
Gameplay was not particularly rapid, and was based more on luck than strategy; think Monopoly or Ludo. We ended up setting a time limit to mark the end of the game rather than work our way through all fourteen suggested books, and elided a couple of rules to speed things up a little. But at times, knowledge was rewarded: at one point my housemate deduced (correctly!) that as she was looking for a letter, she could head straight to the John Johnson collection rather than return to the Old Bodleian to consult the catalogue there.
Would I play The Bodleian Game again? If I had time to spare on a relaxed game, then absolutely. Am I glad that in real life the Bodleian Libraries function differently in 2024 than they did in 1988? Very much so.
As the libraries empty out over the Christmas vacation, the trainees reflect on their first term.
The Disability History Month Display in the Old Bod Lower Reading Room
Christmas at the Old Bod has arrived, and although in the last week there have been fewer visitors, the reading rooms are still peopled with studious readers. I’ve put up some fabulous Christmas decorations (circa 1970), and the tree in the quad has drawn even more tourists in.
The past few months working at the Bodleian have been a lot of fun. One of my favourite activities has been making displays and advertising resources that the Bodleian has to offer, like my recent book display for UK Disability History Month . It means I get to interact with a wider variety of books from our vast collection. What it has fundamentally shown me is that my favourite part of working in a library is the opportunities you are given every day to help people!
Nia Everitt, Bodleian Old Library
My first term at the Sainsbury Library has been busy with tasks varying from processing new books, weeding old journals, and creating and updating signs for the library (which sometimes involves warming up the laminator!). I have three main highlights so far:
Creating a ‘How to Guide’ for readers with Sainsbury’s Circulation and Customer Services Librarian. The guide covers topics like setting up the university VPN, how to use PCAS services, and how to search, find, borrow and request books in our library. It is over 60 pages long and counting…
Creating an AI book display which then led to creating an AI window display at the library entrance and now updating our Business of AI LibGuide to include books from the display and A visitor even came in asking about the display because they saw the post I wrote on our Sainsbury Library News blog.
Both projects have helped me to learn about the variety of support and services that the Bodleian provides. I have explored business databases, SOLO, ORLO, and other University of Oxford resources doing these two projects. I have realised that readers at Oxford have access to a wealth of resources but, through working on the enquiry desk, you come to realise how many readers do not know about it! So, the final highlight is:
Helping a reader discover something they didn’t know before and helping them with problems they have accessing services.
The reader’s gratefulness after helping or even just visiting the library is like extra icing on a cake. The gratefulness is a reminder that helping someone in a way that, as staff we may feel is small or routine, such as scanning a chapter, telling someone about a useful LibGuide or just showing them where the printers are, can be quite significant for our readers.
Anna Roberts, Sainsbury Library
What a learning experience a term can be. ALMA, ORLO lists, law reports, legal databases, citation styles, serials processing, loose leaf binders: they were all quite new to me. Happily, thanks to the great training and brilliant support from library colleagues, they aren’t anymore. But never fear: the readers and the library keep coming up with new and intriguing conundrums (missing books, obscure queries, rare Bodcard colours…). I’ve loved assisting the students, faculty and visitors (there was one reader who was so enthusiastic when I showed them our bookable study spaces that I got the firmest handshake I have ever experienced!), but equally have come to really appreciate the mindful calm that can come from a book moving or filing spell (when not interrupted by an urgent scan request for use in court, or a group of new readers to guide round, or a puzzling mountain of books left somewhere seemingly at random – there’s always something going on!). And of course, our visits to the CSF, conservation studio and special collections were a real highlight. The term has certainly confirmed that I’d love a career in libraries, and I’m looking forward to the next term, when there will be a recurring display to organise, some more to learn about cataloguing, and a Libguide to write! Keeping busy…
Wanne Mendonck, Bodleian Law Library
Christmas tree standing on the mysteriously chimneyless fireplace in the Union Society Old Library.
Working for the Oxford Union Society Library is amazing! This term the Union was visited by Sir Roger Penrose, Nazanin Zaghari Radcliffe, Tom Hanks, etc and I have tried things I have never attempted before, such as creating displays – possibly my favourite task as I get to research everything from Victorian ichthyology to recreational drugs, Oxfordshire geology to gothic poetry, and medieval table manners to historical transgender figures. I had never used Twitter, never posted on Facebook, and had never run a professional Instagram account and this term I began running the Library’s (Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook). Training can be pretty interesting too; so far my favourite day has been the conservation day at the Weston Library where we learnt how books are fixed, what pests to look out for (we were handed round laminated insects e.g. silverfish), and about active and inactive moulds.
Connie Hubbard, Oxford Union Society Library
This term has been a wild ride. Alongside learning an incredible amount from my training process at All Souls, there have been some amazing events in the library such as a play, a visit from a youth orchestra and a formal dinner. We had over 700 new reader applications, over 1000 visitors to our open day and over 200 book requests. All in all, these first few months of my traineeship have been immensely positive. The day to day work has often been chaotic, but this meant I was rarely bored and always learning. I am very excited for the challenges Hilary term may bring, and feel ready to face them.
Elena Trowsdale, All Souls College Library
It’s hard to believe that it’s been three and a half months since my first day at the Rad Cam – the time has flown by! But when I stop and reflect, a lot has happened over this period, and I have learned a lot.
Besides some of the big stand-out moments from the training sessions, such as the tour of the CSF or our afternoon with Special Collections, I think the main highlights for me have been the pleasure of helping out readers and the variety of the work; my days regularly involve fielding enquiries at the circulation desk or reception, fetching and scanning books for Scan and Deliver, donning glamorous high vis and directing delivery vans through the quad, creating blog or social media content, processing new books, and more. I enjoyed getting to take on the responsibility recently of sorting out the HFL books for rebinding, and I’m really looking forward to getting started with my project next term.
Xanthe Malcolm, History Faculty Library
It’s safe to say that as my first full term as a trainee draws to a close, the experience has been jam-packed! From the day-to-day running of the EFL, to our weekly training sessions (not to mention the cheeky post-training pub trips) there’s always something going on, and always something new to learn. Looking back at my introduction post, I can easily say that I’ve enjoyed everything even more than I thought I would. Highlights being (of course) the tour of conservation studios; the opportunity to see incredible literary figures such as Philip Pullman; and learning more about the EFL’s collections through my project! Being a part of the traineeship has really cemented that I want to continue working in libraries and, having seen next terms’ training schedule, I’m even more excited for the new year.
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