Hi, I’m Hannah, and I’m the Graduate Trainee at the Sainsbury Library, part of the Saïd Business School. With its distinctive green ziggurat tower, the Business School is an interesting contemporary addition to Oxford’s classic skyline. The library provides study space and resources to support the School’s various programmes, including the MBA, MSc in Finance & Economics, MSc in Law & Finance, BA in Economics & Management and Executive Education courses.

The start of my traineeship was relatively quiet, as the lower reading room was closed to readers whilst refurbishment took place. During the replacement of the carpets, venturing out of the office was like entering a maze, as furniture kept shifting to different positions and you never knew where it was safe to walk! As well as a new carpet, reading room now has a new layout, power cubes on all the group tables and some smart red dividers to screen off group work areas from individual study desks.

Since then, the library has reopened and welcomed in a new cohort of students. I have now started working on the helpdesk, which has become increasingly busy, but this means that I am learning a lot about how the library works and getting to put it into practice straight away. My Sainsbury Library colleagues have been incredibly supportive in answering all my questions and helping me to settle in! Alongside desk shifts, I’ve been involved in library induction events (also known as the iChallenge – read a report I co-wrote about this here), processing new books, assembling welcome packs for faculty members, creating new signage, carrying out book repairs and updating the online research repository. All this alongside a range of full- and half-day training sessions with the other trainees, I can’t believe how much has fitted into just eight weeks!

Before moving to Oxford to start the traineeship, I worked for several years as a teaching assistant in a busy primary school and nursery, following a combined honours degree in Social Sciences at Durham University. As a TA, I had the privilege of helping children take their very first steps on their journey as readers, learning the basic skills that, once acquired, we often take for granted, but which open the door to a vast wealth of information about the world. This also involved the daily administration and care of the reading scheme, which I got to know extremely well (some texts off by heart!), and selecting the right books to meet individuals’ needs. My final project before I left was a grand tidy-up and reclassification of the entire reading book collection – a daunting but somewhat satisfying assignment! I think it was these combined experiences of working with books and helping readers which led me to apply for the trainee scheme. Now I just have to get used to readers who are a little taller, books which are a little weightier, and shelfmarks that say HD59.2 OXF 2012 instead of Purple Ladybird or Blue Star…

One quality that four-year-old school beginners and university students seem to have in common (at least, on a good day…) is a readiness to learn new things through all the channels available to them. This year I will endeavour to imitate this myself, and absorb as much knowledge as I can as the year progresses. I’m excited to see where it will take me!

Hello everyone! I’m Alan and I’m the new Graduate Library Trainee at the Sainsbury Library within the Saïd Business School.

So, a little bit more about me and how I ended up on this traineeship. I’m from Yorkshire (East that is, naturally the best) and studied at the University of Hull gaining both my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Historical Research, focusing on maritime history, in particularly nineteenth century US piracy and privateering- after all, who doesn’t love swashbuckling adventurers! I deemed piracy too dangerous of a profession to pursue myself, so instead opted to work within the maritime academic sphere Hull had to offer, becoming a volunteer at Blaydes House Maritime Historical Studies Centre (which I highly recommend any visitors to Hull go check out!). I found myself in the attic of this eighteenth century house sorting and cataloguing a large donation consisting of technical drawings of ships, early sea-charts, as well as miscellaneous research materials – some of which even appropriately still smelt of the sea (a.k.a. fish)! It was my love of working with these materials that lead to me applying to get a place on the traineeship, and six months later here I am, working in one of the world’s leading academic libraries.

So far it’s been a fairly busy start in the library. We’re currently renovating the old stack room into a quiet study area. This has meant moving large quantities of books from the stacks to another floor; it’s been a bit arduous, but should hopefully be complete by October ready for the new students’ use. My other day-to-day duties include: processing new book and journal acquisitions, reclassifying old literature, and creating the welcome packs for new members of staff. I was also tasked with redesigning and updating a large collection of database guides for the new students who have just started, as well as general housekeeping to make sure the library is in ship-shape for the start of term. I’ve also started working on the enquiry desk on my own. Luckily for me I’ve mainly been dealing with returning students who have been patient and lovely as I’ve try to help them; fortunately, help has never been far away. In terms of visitors, though, it’s been relatively quiet, but I’m foreseeing that this peace won’t last long!

So that’s about it for my time here so far, all I have to do now is enjoy the rest of my year, explore Oxford, and I’ll keep you all posted!

Hi there! I’m the graduate trainee at the Sainsbury Library. A bit on my background – in July I graduated from the London School of Economics with a BA in History. I had no experience of working in a library prior to starting this job, which I was quite worried about! However, I worked in a department store for two and a half years so I have good experience of customer-service and managing stock. I have also done two work experience spells in archives (Westminster City Council and the National Theatre’s) and it will be very interesting to compare these with working in a library.

So far I feel I have settled in well – my colleagues are all very nice (and patient!) and the Sainsbury Library is a very lovely environment to work in. It’s very modern in terms of it’s design (especially compared to other libraries in Oxford!). As well as having a huge range of books, the library also subscribes to many various electronic databases. These are very popular with the students because they provide up-to-date information on markets, companies and industries. As a history student I never got the chance to work with these resources at LSE so I’m very keen to find out more about them here!

It was great meeting all the other trainees at the first session last week – we all come from such different academic backgrounds so it should make for an interesting group! Looking forward to sessions to come, as well as all the tours of the different libraries that we have been encouraged to set up.

Hi everyone! I’m Rosie and I’m the new trainee at the Sainsbury Library in the Said Business School. I’m a bit late posting on here but hopefully I can make up for lost time. I have to admit writing blog posts doesn’t come that easy to me, but here goes…  So far it has been an exciting challenge coping with Freshers’ week and the influx of new students as well as learning the ropes around the library.

Before coming to Oxford I was working in administration for Virgin Media Business for a couple of years after finishing a degree in Politics from the University of Sheffield. This was long enough for me to realise that office life wasn’t for me, and one of the things I’ve enjoyed about being a trainee is the opportunity to try out different things, and to get out from behind a desk. I have always loved reading and books, and I have a house full of them, so to be able to work in a library feels like being paid to do your hobby. So far the library has proved to be a far more interesting environment, and I have particular enjoyed supporting students to access information, and to increase their appreciation for the library! I have been keeping busy with plenty of shelving, book processing and receiving the journals as well as spending lots of time on the helpdesk getting to know our new students. I have also been producing new signs and displays to help students find their way around and advertise the library’s services and careers collection. As this is my first library job I am still on a steep learning curve but the small staff team here have been very friendly and I am looking forward to trying lots of different aspects of librarianship as well as getting to know all the other trainees.

I am particularly interested in information literacy, and really enjoyed watching the new student inductions, and I will talk more about this as the year goes on. At the Business library we also have lots of students who are doing a course as part of their continual professional development, and who have experience of the workplace. This changes the dynamic of the library, and I think this will also be an interested topic to write about throughout the year.

Hey everyone!

I’m Rosie and I’m the trainee at the Sainsbury Library at the Saїd Business School.

I grew up in Coventry, and studied Music at Nottingham University, graduating in 2010. Whilst I was studying in Nottingham, I worked as a student librarian at the Music Library, which I really enjoyed. (The most memorable moment was when a barber shop quartet with nowhere to rehearse, chose the corner of the library in which to practice their set. Alas, I had to ask them to keep it down).

Following my graduation, I embarked on a PGCE, which only lasted 3 weeks before I dropped out. It was quite clear to me that I had made a mistake: choosing what I thought to be a safe career option, when it wasn’t really what I wanted to do. I started talking to graduate trainee librarians, people in special collections, anyone who worked in a library whose ear I could bend. When I was sure this was the career for me, I started applying to traineeships.

During this time, I was living in London, and began volunteering with the Special Collections Relocation project at UCL, where I met some brilliant people, but also confirmed my suspicions that I wasn’t really interested in old/rare books.

I then began working in a West-End theatre, where I had many strange experiences (to be told at another time. Maybe.) and gained invaluable customer service experience. I was thrilled when I was offered a place as a Bodleian Libraries trainee, and I’m particularly pleased it was at a busy library where I will get the opportunity to interact with many different sorts of people.