Sarah Arkle, English Faculty Library

My name is Sarah and I’m the new trainee at the English Faculty Library. After  spending many days and nights in my university library whilst studying for a BA in English Literature, I decided I liked libraries so much I might fancy working in one. I did some work experience in public libraries whilst in my final year, graduated in 2013, then spent the last academic year working at a library in an FE college here in Oxford before taking up the post in the EFL. My experience has been quite varied and I’m looking forward to seeing how an HE library works behind the scenes.

One of the most exciting things so far is the fact that I have my own desk for the first time! Most of my duties so far have involved processing books and periodicals so I’ve spent a lot of time in the office. We’re very quiet at the moment so I haven’t had much chance to interact with readers but I hear it gets very busy during term time, which should liven things up a bit!

Desk
My very first desk. The blue folder on the left is my massive, super comprehensive trainee manual which has been invaluable over the last week.

I’ve only been at the EFL for a week but so far I am really enjoying myself. The team here have been incredibly welcoming and I anticipate that the next year will be a lot of fun. I’m looking forward to getting to know the library a bit better and exploring some of our more interesting collections. I find that the biggest problem with processing new books is that I keep seeing things I want to read! One of my responsibilities will be to organise displays and I’ve got one or two ideas in mind that I look forward to developing. Until then, I’ve got a trolley full of reclassified books to re-label…

 

 

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