Hello, I’m Emily the trainee at the History Faculty Library this year. It’s housed in the beautiful Radcliffe Camera and links to the Old Bodleian Library via the underground, more futuristic looking Gladstone Link. The Bodleian Library Collection lives alongside the History Faculty Library, which took me a while to get my head around, but importantly I’ve now figured out which books can be borrowed!
So far, my days have been really varied — I’ve spent time on the reception and circulation desk answering queries, processing deliveries from the Book Storage Facility, scanning material for readers, checking reading lists and processing books. The team has recently joined with the Old Bodleian Library team, which means that I also get to spend time working across there with Juliet, the Old Bodleian trainee. It adds even more variety although I still have a lot to learn — particularly on how to answer the many questions that come to the Main Enquiry Desk!
The Camera itself is spectacular inside as well as out and while the Gladstone Link might have more of a modern feel, it still has a lot of history too. You can see where the tracks would have run to transport books underground between the buildings and there are still the heavy metal sliding bookcases in the Upper Gladstone Link, which were designed by Gladstone himself!
Compared to my first few days, when readers needed to book limited COVID seating, the library is feeling much busier now the new academic year is approaching. I’m looking forward to the start of term and the year ahead!
