Hi, I’m Hilary and I’m the Graduate Trainee at Corpus Christi College. As a relative late-comer to the Trainee scheme, I started at Corpus in early November right in the toothy centre of Michaelmas term. I am taking the turning of the New Year to introduce my role at Corpus, as 2011 should be quite an exciting year for the college.
I graduated from the University of Aberdeen with a degree in English Literature in 2007 and have since had a series of jobs in administration, in Yorkshire where I grew up, and in Oxford where I moved in 2009. Before coming to Corpus I had no full-time library experience but I enjoyed a stint of volunteering over the last summer vacation at the Bodleian Education Library in tandem with my previous full time job. So, it was a real adventure starting at Corpus Library in the middle of term, but definitely an enjoyable and challenging one!
My daily routine centres around shelving, book processing and spending afternoons (in term-time) manning the issue desk as well as picking up any other miscellaneous tasks that come my way. I really enjoy being part of the small team here (there are only three of us) as the Trainee is an integral member whose work impacts that of the Librarian and Assistant Librarian, and vice-versa. Although chilly in winter, the library is a beautiful place to work and you really do get to know the readers. During my time here in Oxford I intend to poke around as many of the other libraries as I can while I have a hallowed Bod card!
As I mentioned above, 2011 should be an exciting year for the college as it prepares to give a series of special lectures through Hilary Term on the King James Bible, which celebrates 400 years this year and some translation of which took place at Corpus. The college will also work with the Bodleian on an upcoming exhibition and I am looking forward to hopefully being able to assist with preparations. After this year at Corpus I hope to earn my librarian stripes at library school – I’ll soon be making my applications and knuckling down to some serious form-filling.
