Madeleine Ahern – Taylor Institution Library

Hi everybody I’m Madeleine, one of two trainees based this year primarily at the Taylor Institution Library with shifts at the Sackler and Oriental Institute as well. I just graduated this spring with my BA Honours degree in History and Art History from Queen’s University in Canada, and after working in archives and museums previously I am now keen to pursue a career in academic librarianship.Being a trainee at the Taylorian has been wonderful so far in part because of the extensive collections it encompasses. The Western and Eastern European languages, Linguistics, Film Studies, and Women’s Studies collections make for not only a fascinating range of library resources here but also some neat research going on at any minute. Most people gravitate towards our beautiful reading room adjacent to the main research collection stacks it seems! 

I am primarily based at the issue desk so far, fielding reader inquiries, doing some book processing, shelving, and most recently preparing for inductions week. A favourite moment of my traineeship so far was when I got to work with Dalí, Matisse, and Picasso prints from the Strachan Artist Book collection all in one afternoon. I am really looking forward to all that is to come this year, in part because of an exciting new Navigation and Wayfinding Project that I am undertaking with my fellow trainee Chloe and a team of librarians across the Taylorian and Sackler to improve reader experience.

A book from our special collections
The Main Reading Room

 

Chloe Bolsover- Taylor Institution

Hello!

I’m Chloe, and I am currently working as one of the two trainees at the Taylor Institution Library, this year. In the past two weeks, I have been mainly working on the enquiries desk, helping readers find their away around the labyrinth that is the Taylor! Other duties include processing books coming from and returning to the Book Storage Facility in Swindon, shelving, and responding to readers over email and telephone. I am also involved in one of the Navigation and Wayfinding projects taking place this year, where as a team I will be helping to improve reader experience of navigating the Taylor and Sackler Libraries. A challenge, I am sure you will agree, if you have ever been to the Taylor or the Sackler! Alongside Evie, I will be helping to manage the trainee blog, so am welcoming any suggestions and volunteers for blog posts from current trainees.

Myself and the Taylorian

Before the Taylor…

I have had a bit of a career change, as I was working as an archaeologist before. I worked on numerous sites, many rural and a few urban in Oxfordshire and Lincolnshire. I would say my best find was a fully articulated horse skeleton, which had a human skeleton right next to it! I got very excited, believing it to be a horse and rider burial. As I investigated, though, I realised that the burials were actually separate events, with the horse having been buried before. Such is the life of an archaeologist, as coin hoards and treasure troves are very rare finds, not what Time Team would have you believe!

You may have to really look to see it, but the human skeleton is just below the horse and the small stripey bar.

Before that, I was doing an MA in Classics and Ancient History, as well as volunteering for Exeter Cathedral. There, I assisted with rooftop tours and stewarding. I enjoyed doing extensive research on the cathedral, as it was so useful when dealing with public enquiries about the history of the building. My BA was in Archaeology and Ancient History, and at the end of my degree, I worked full time as a laboratory assistant for my local archaeological unit. I cleaned archaeological finds from a huge Roman site and prepared them for museum storage. The best part of that role was cleaning and preserving Roman painted wall plaster, as uncovering the colours and pigments of the plaster was amazing!

Finally,

I am very happy to be back in Oxford, as it truly is a great city to live in. I do have a lifetime love of libraries, so cannot believe my luck that I get to work in a beautiful, 19th century library for a year! I am excited to learn new skills, improve my employability in more fields, and just to see where this year will take me.

 

Katie Day, Taylor Institution Library


Me in the Enquiries Room

Hi everyone! I’m Katie, and I’m the new Graduate Library Trainee based at the Taylorian this year. I’ve only recently finished my Bachelor’s at the University of Chicago, where I’d been living for five years. I had some experience with the library work at UChicago, but confined to the Google Books Project rather than direct reader interactions, so my experience of work in the day-to-day ebb and flow of a library was pretty limited.

The Taylor Institution Library, or the Taylorian, as it’s also known, is on St. Giles, at kitty-corner with the Ashmolean, and the Sackler Library the next road over. It was established in 1845, when architect Sir Robert Taylor left a bequest for a centre for the study of modern European languages, which the university then placed in the east wing of the building built to house both the Taylor and the Randolph Galleries (which later became the Ashmolean); the library was officially opened in 1849.


Exterior of the Taylor Library in the early years

In 1938 there was an extension made along St. Giles’ in order to accommodate the increasing collections that had resulted from the official establishment in 1903 of the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, which have been centred around the Taylorian ever since. The latest growth of the library has been in the past five years, with its’ enveloping of the Slavonic and East European collections (previously housed in Wellington Square).

The Main Reading Room from the balcony

Here, amongst over 70,000 books, we now have both the Western and Eastern European languages collections, alongside the Slavonic collections and the collections for Linguistics, Film Studies, and Women’s Studies, all spread between over a dozen different cataloguing systems that have all grown on themselves. My previous library was all Library of Congress (LC), so learning them all has been rather a trial by fire! I’ve yet to get irreparably tangled, but I won’t get cocky just yet.

At the Taylorian, my tasks have been pretty split between the Circulation Desk on the ground floor (come say hello!) and the Enquiries Desk on the first, next to the Main Reading Room. Amongst many other tasks, so far I’ve processed the BSF (Book Storage Facility) deliveries from Swindon, processed incoming periodicals, prepped new DVDs for shelving, designed flyers for the new library tours, and (to my great excitement) gathered materials for an upcoming exhibition in the Voltaire Room on the White Rose group. All this alongside the day-to-day of the library, getting to know my co-workers and fellow trainees, and the group trainee training sessions out at Osney, where Bodleian departments like Staff Development, IT, etcetera, are based. There’s never been one day the same as the next yet, and now term has begun, that looks as though it will only continue. So far I’ve been having a wonderful time; here’s looking forward to a great rest of the year.

Tom Roberts, Taylor Institution Library

Hi, I’m Tom and I’m the trainee at the Taylor Institution Library this year.

Unlike many of the other trainees, immediately prior to taking up my position I was an undergraduate student. I graduated in July with a BA degree in History from the London School of Economics. I don’t have any prior experience of working in a library – my only previous job was as a sales assistant in a busy, grubby garden centre, an environment quite different from the Taylor’s quiet book stacks and grand décor! I feel very lucky to have started my library career in one of the Bodleian Libraries – it is the best possible place to get my first taste of working in an academic library.

The Taylor Institution is a beautiful, labyrinthine library that specialises in European languages, as well as Film Studies. It is split up into two parts – the Research Collection (of most use to those studying beyond undergraduate level) and the Teaching Collection (used primarily by undergraduates). Most of the time I am based at the Issue Desk, which is situated at the entrance to the Teaching Collection.

In my first few weeks here the most fundamental challenge I have been faced with is the difficult task of learning the layout of the library. It is fair to say that the Taylorian isn’t the easiest library to get to grips with, at least at first. However, the maze-like nature of the rooms found within this handsome building means that there is always something new to be discovered lurking amongst the towering stacks. When I haven’t been at training, I have also been gaining my first taste of the basics of library work: loaning and returning books, registering new readers, helping readers to find the material that they need, dealing with deliveries from the book storage facility in Swindon, and processing new books and DVDs (adding barcodes, security tags, etc.). I must admit though that, as the world’s least practical man, I’m not much good at wrapping new books in protective plastic.

Currently the library is not seeing much footfall, as term hasn’t started yet. I am grateful for this period of calm, before the inevitable storm that will no doubt arrive in the form of enthusiastic students come October – it has allowed me to ease myself into familiarity with the everyday tasks that will occupy me much of the time I am here. I am, however, looking forward to the arrival of the students, and I hope that I will be able to help them to access the materials that they need for their courses in the most pain-free way possible.

My first few weeks have been somewhat hectic and I still have a way to go towards memorising everything I need to and putting it all into practice, but I’m very much looking forward to the coming year in Oxford and everything that it brings.

Image courtesy of Taylor Institution Library

A day in the life of a Graduate Trainee: Taylor Institution Library

As we are now approaching the final months of the Graduate Trainee year, I thought I’d write a quick post detailing what I’ve been up to throughout the last twelve months! Although my work has changed throughout the year, in this post I have tried to describe a “typical” day in my library; detailing both the routine activities I do virtually every day and giving a snapshot of the individual projects that have changed throughout the year.

Here it is:

9.00 – Arrive at work and prepare the library for opening at 9.30. This involves switching on the Desk and SOLO quick search computers, setting out the cash boxes ready for collecting fines, and opening some windows in the main reading room and computer room to let some air circulate. I will also normally do a spot check of the library; tidying up anything left from the previous evening and shelving any books left on tables.

9.10-9.30 – Once the library is ready to open, I then start Aleph (the University’s Library Management System) on both desk computers, and open my email inbox. Afterwards, I download the daily “Lapse List”, which contains a list of both the Bodleian and PTFL books that need to be returned to the Book Storage Facility in Swindon every day. I then find these books on their shelves by the main desk, process them, and place them in the box to be collected by the delivery van at lunch time. If my colleague has not already done so, I will also check the Book Returns Box to check whether any books have been returned to the library outside of opening hours, and then return them to the shelves.

9.30-11.00 – Now that the library is open, readers start to enter and I therefore start my everyday desk duties. As it is now close to exam time, several readers are entering the library returning or borrowing books, but there are also regular questions from readers both in person and on the telephone, and I advise them on a case-by-case basis. This week, for example, I have answered questions about the payment of fines, the use of the Bodleian wide printing system (PCAS), the location of resources both in the PTFL and in the wider Bodleian libraries, and had to chase up books for readers that had not been returned on time.

When readers are not at the desk, I also start to reply to any emails that come through either to my own inbox or to the generic library inbox. These can be from readers asking questions about resources, or from colleagues asking me to complete specific tasks. Additionally, I help to process any fines payments coming through from the online store and reserve places on information skills sessions run by the library.

11.00 – Tea Break!

11.10 – 13.00 – In addition to my regular desk duties and answering email enquiries, as the day goes on, I normally take the opportunity to work on one of my individual trainee projects when the desk is quiet. These have been varied throughout the year and have changed depending on the individual needs of the library. So far, I have written a blog post advertising the library’s collections to a wider audience, created a new PowerPoint presentation for the Library Information Screen, and taken part in a project to reclassify the remaining Theology classification to Library of Congress (more details to follow in my presentation for the Trainee showcase!).

13.00 – 14.00 – Lunch!

14.00 – 15.00 – Shortly after 2pm, the Bodleian delivery van usually comes to collect the outgoing Closed Stack Books and to drop off any books that have been ordered in the last 24 hours from the Book Storage Facility in Swindon. After they are delivered, I process any new books with colleagues and then place them on the reservation shelf at the Enquiry Desk. When they are processed, a reader gets an email informing them that their request has arrived, and they can then come to the desk to collect it. After processing the stack books, I normally continue on the desk, answering any further enquiries and shelving any returned books once I have any spare time.

15.00 – Tea Break!

15.10 – 16.45 – For the past few months, in the afternoons I have often been in the back library office as we are currently completing a weeding project. As we are trying to make space in the library for new acquisitions, I have been selecting low use books from the open shelves and processing them ready for ingest into the Book Storage Facility. I therefore need to replace the barcode on these books and update their catalogue record to reflect their new location. Once they have been processed, these books are placed in a special ingest box and collected by the Bodleian delivery van the following day.

16.45 – 17.15 – If it is not term-time, in the last half an hour of the day I help other colleagues to prepare the library for closing at 5pm. This process is basically the reverse of the opening procedure, but we always make sure that we check all areas of the library for any stray readers before we close the building! As it is currently term-time, I normally hand over to the evening staff at this time at the moment, unless I am on an evening shift myself of course. The library then closes at 7pm.

William Shire, Taylor Institution Library

Hello! I’m Will and I’m the second of the two trainees at the Taylorian this year. Before coming to Oxford, I studied German and Spanish at Durham and therefore working at the Taylorian – Europe’s biggest Modern Languages Library – is a really great experience! It means I can use my language skills on a day to day basis and (attempt at least) to learn the basics of new ones, especially as the Slavonic Library has now moved into the Taylorian as well.

As my fellow trainee Jessica mentioned in her post a few weeks ago, the two trainees at the Taylorian are split between the Issue Desk and the Enquiry Desk. For the first half of the year, I will be working on the Enquiry Desk and so I thought I should write a short post about my duties and the first few weeks at work here!

As I am on the Enquiry Desk, my work is completely different every day as we never know what a reader may want! Most days I have to help readers (especially freshers!) find books in our labyrinthine Research Collection, but I also have to answer queries from academics, process new books, and handle some donations.

The Enquiry Desk
The Enquiry Desk

Additionally, I am in charge of the daily delivery from the BSF in Swindon. As the Taylorian has around 500,000 books but only enough space for around 150,000, this means that a lot of readers order items from the Book Storage Facility! We get two deliveries every day (one at 9 and one at 2), and I collect these books, process them, and then put them ready for collection in the Main Reading Room – a beautiful room and easily my favourite in the library!

The Main Reading Room
The Main Reading Room

My first two months at the Taylorian have gone so quickly but I’ve really enjoyed them – I feel very lucky to be here. We’ve have had a lot of training, and then library inductions to give to the new cohort of freshers so I’ve always had a lot to do! I look forward to spending the rest of my year as a trainee here, and hope to post on the blog sometime in the future – especially as I might be helping to organise an exhibition next year!

Jessica Woodward, Taylor Institution Library

The Taylorian ©Ed W/Flickr
The Taylorian ©Ed W/Flickr

Hello! My name is Jessica and I’m one of this year’s Taylorian trainees. For those unfamiliar with Oxford, the Taylorian is a vast maze of a library that specialises in European languages, Women’s Studies and Film Studies. (The languages used to be Western European only, but this summer the Slavonic and Modern Greek Library reintegrated with our collections, so some of the shelves now look very exotic, with Я’s, Λ’s and Σ’s everywhere.)

Each trainee at the Taylorian gets to try two distinct experiences: working at the upstairs Enquiry Desk (used mainly by readers in search of lesser-known or more specialised books) and working at the downstairs Issue Desk (used mainly by undergraduates borrowing the key texts for their course). I’m sure my fellow trainee, Will, will have lots to say about life upstairs, but here is my take on starting work downstairs.

It has been a whirlwind couple of weeks so far, with about half the time spent at training sessions and the rest spent practising new skills at the desk. I have learnt intriguing things such as how to give a book a new barcode (this involves more than putting a sticker on the cover!), how to add a security tag to a book, and how to register an external reader for membership of a Bodleian library. It has also been really fun to meet essential non-human members of the team (Louis the shelving trolley and Xavier the Xerox photocopier!), decorate the Issue Desk whiteboard ready for the start of term, and discover that as staff members Will and I get the same borrowing privileges as academics – meaning we can borrow large numbers of foreign books and DVDs and keep many of them for a long time!

To finish off, a bit about my background and how I came to do the traineeship: I studied French and Spanish at Keble College here in Oxford, then did an MA in Translation at Surrey University, which I loved. During the Master’s, I managed to set up as a freelance translator, and I came out with the idea of continuing with that part-time while finding another, more stable career path to pursue alongside it. As I am an avid reader and enjoy studying and learning, I could imagine being happy working in a library.

I found a part-time job as a Library Assistant at Corpus Christi College in Oxford and was later given the opportunity to do extra hours at St Peter’s College. I absolutely loved discovering how the library world functions behind-the-scenes and learning to perform all sorts of exciting book-related tasks, so decided to build on my experience by applying for the traineeship – and now here I am! I still translate, but am lucky enough to know I am also part of another very enjoyable profession, and this has taken away the nerve-inducing unpredictability of freelancing. What’s more, I’m working with language books, which can’t do my translation skills any harm!

All in all, the first couple of weeks of the traineeship have been exhausting but very exciting. I can’t wait to see what the rest of the year will bring.

Emilia Henderson – Taylor Institution Library

A view of the front of the grand Taylor Institution Library, with 4 pillars and a large archway.

Greetings from me, Emilia, one half of the dynamic trainee-duo at the Taylorian! The other excellent half, Philippa, will tell you more about her experiences soon, I have no doubt. Though we spend them in the same building, her days probably differ more than you might expect from mine, as should soon become clear.

Exterior of Taylor Institution (Image courtesy of Taylor Institution Library.)

Though I originally hail from Sweden, this June I completed my BA in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic at the University of Cambridge (at the same time as Lee, whom you’ve already met). During the long vacation between my second and my final year at Cambridge I gained my first ‘proper’ library experience (though already an ardent user of various libraries in and around Cambridge) as a Library Assistant for the International Summer Schools programme at Cambridge’s Institute of Continuing Education. But for nearly two months now I have found myself at The Other Place getting my loyalties confused and learning the ropes at the Taylor Institution Library, a.k.a. the Taylorian.

Sir Robert Taylor (Image courtesy of the Taylor Institution Library)

The factors that make the Taylorian special and lend it its charm are, more or less, the same things that make it rather confusing as a newcomer. Taking its name from architect Sir Robert Taylor (1714-1788), the Institution was established in 1845 as a result of his generous bequest, and was from the start meant to occupy one wing of the yellow neo-classical building which is mostly taken up by the Ashmolean museum (though, this does lead some visitors aiming for the museum astray and they occasionally end up in the Taylor instead). In the early twentieth century, the University’s Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages was established and regular teaching and provision for its students still takes place in the Taylor Institution building. At present, there are therefore two main collections: the Research Collection (which has been assembled and added to by numerous donations throughout the Taylorian’s lifetime), for the research of modern languages[1] and literature, and linguistics; and the Teaching Collection, which focuses on providing material for undergraduates and other taught students of the modern languages faculty. As a result of this history, the library (particularly the Research Collection) has amassed numerous shelfmark systems over time with varying levels of idiosyncrasy.

One of two staircases connecting the ground floor with the Enquiry Desk, Main Reading Room and Main Stack of the Research Collection. (Image courtesy of the Taylor Institution Library)
One of two staircases connecting the ground floor with the Enquiry Desk, Main Reading Room and Main Stack of the Research Collection.
(Image courtesy of the Taylor Institution Library)

To add to both the confusion and its particular charm, the building was extended in 1938 making the library consist of two main physical parts as well as two main collections. However, since they do not always line up with each other in a straightforward way, this is a greatly contributing factor to the labyrinthine feeling of the Taylorian. It also makes directing people from one part of the building to the other fraught with potential for confusion. For example, the Teaching Collection starts on the ground floor (of the extension to the original building) whereas you get to the Research Collection via one of two grand staircases. However, the first floor of the Teaching Collection is not on the same floor as the Enquiry Desk and the Lower Stack of the Research Collection, making terms such as ‘downstairs’ and ‘upstairs’ relative concepts… Unsurprisingly, it took me the better part of my first month to learn how to most efficiently navigate the building (not to mention learn where the various shelfmarks are kept!), which I tend to tell new readers to reassure them whenever they are apologetic about feeling confused.

Enquiry Desk (Image courtesy of Taylor Institution Librar)y
Enquiry Desk
(Image courtesy of Taylor Institution Library)

So far, I have been mainly stationed at the Enquiry Desk of the Research Collection. It is aptly named since one of my main tasks is answering various reader enquiries. There is also various admin to be done on a daily basis, such as book processing (the daily transfer of items from the Book Storage Facility and back again, new acquisitions, book donations and so forth), monitoring the Taylorian enquiries and renewals-email account together with Philippa, and fetching books for first and second year undergraduates who need to wait until their final year before they can roam freely in the Main Stack of the Research Collection.

The Main Reading Room, favored (Image courtesy of Taylor Institution Library)
The lovely Main Reading Room.
(Image courtesy of Taylor Institution Library)

However, since my biggest passion is for manuscripts and other rare books I am happiest whenever I get a chance to go on an errand to the Rare Books Room. The Taylorian’s collection of rare books and other special items, while humbled by the size of equivalent collections housed in some of the other libraries in Oxford, is impressively varied nonetheless. It includes such disparate items as a tiny(!) fourteenth century copy of the Magna Carta, a wealth of sixteenth century Luther pamphlets, and a neatly framed lock of Goethe’s hair (which I only learned of by accident the other week when it was being returned from a teaching session). For more on the Taylorian’s special collections I highly recommend visiting the Taylor Institution Library blog.

MS.8°.G.26, a lock of Goethe's hair. (Image my own)
MS.8°.G.26, a lock of Goethe’s hair.
(Image my own)

My most impressive personal achievements so far include naming and baptising the only still unnamed member of the fleet of faithful trolleys which help us each day, and designing the layout of the print-out of this year’s milk rota. I am also in the process of taking over a previous trainee’s project, which will (all things being well) help dispel some of the future shelfmark-confusion, in the Teaching Collection at least. The traineeship and my time at the Taylor has been brilliant so far, with constant opportunities to learn more about various aspects of librarianship and the information profession, and I look forward to soaking up as much of the abundance of knowledge around me as I can!

 

 

[1] However, since the 1960s the Slavonic and East European collections have been housed at a different location, currently on Wellington Square.

Sarah Platt, Taylor Institution Library

Hello! I’m Sarah and I am one of the trainees at the Taylor Institution Library, alongside Yannis, who has already posted a wonderful introduction to the Taylor.

I suppose I’ll start with a little bit about myself… I  arrived in Oxford almost exactly four years ago to begin the MSt in Greek and Roman History, and then started the DPhil in 2011 – young, full of hope, and in blissful denial…. (“Well the thesis is only, like, eight times what I’ve just written for the Masters…. and I’ve got 3 to 4 years to finish it! No problem!!”) Anyway, 3 years later I have learned several things: 1) a year goes by very quickly, 2) overly optimistic attitudes to fragmentary and obscure ancient Greek inscriptions get you nowhere – they do not, after all, hold all the unknown secrets of Athenian civilisation, and 3) if you listen to ‘Last Christmas…’ just that little bit too loud on your headphones in the Sackler – you will get funny looks. I could also talk about how the experience has been rewarding and made me grow as a person, but I’m sure no-one wants to read all that so I’ll leave it there. All that really matters is that since story time at my local library at the age of 4,  it has been very difficult for anyone to extract me from a library. Not content with my weekdays studying in the Bodleian Libraries, I also decided to apply for weekend work at the Bodleian and SSL, where I found both interesting tasks and lovely people in abundance. Now here I am at the Taylor, embarking on my trainee year! When I’m not working or writing my thesis, I knit, draw, write other things, and meticulously organise my bookshelves. (I’m kidding about that last one… but only slightly.)

One of the Taylor's many staircases
One of the Taylor’s many staircases (Taylor Library website)

I was particularly happy when I found out I would be located at the Taylor. I had never set foot in the building until my interview, when I first discovered the library’s beautiful architecture, fascinating collections, and a tendency for books to be located in the oddest little nooks and crannies. The Taylor is the Bodleian library for Medieval and Modern Languages, as well as Film Studies and Women’s Studies. As Yannis has already said, the Taylor has an incredibly beautiful reading room, which I am very lucky to spend rather a lot of time in as I work at the Enquiry Desk in the Research Collection. The workload has been really varied and interesting so far… Alongside the day-to-day tasks of collecting the delivery, shelving, and dealing with reader queries, I have tagged and labelled new books, dealt with material for inter-library loans, and searched through volumes from Sir Robert Taylor’s own architecture collection for a particular drawing of an English stately home (it wasn’t there – but the Rare Books Room was a lovely place to spend half an hour). Learning to recognise the variety of classifications here at the Taylor is like learning to speak another language (appropriately), and the stairs, well … the Taylor reminds me a little of M.C. Escher’s ‘Relativity’, with stairs going in all imaginable directions. The day I make it up from my locker in the basement to the break room in the attic without nearly collapsing on my knees as I stumble through the door – I will know what it feels like to conquer Everest.

All in all, I have really enjoyed my first few weeks at the Taylor, and I am very excited for all the opportunities the next year will bring!

Yannis Choupas – Taylor Institution Library

Hi all, I am Yannis and I am one of the two Graduate Trainees at the Taylor Institution Library. You’d think that my desire to become a librarian is linked to my love of reading. However, you are gravely mistaken! My initial inspiration came from Terry Pratchet’s Discworld novels, which (among other things) chronicle an orang-utan librarian at the Unseen University. This librarian-cum-ape was formerly a wizard who decided that he actually quite liked being a primate librarian – with his opposable toes he could deftly climb the shelves to get to the more hard-to-reach books. Plus, readers had to give him a banana if they wanted access to any of the books in his library. (Personally, this seems like a quite a good idea, and something worth considering for the future of library services. Prospective readers, please note that I prefer biscuits or chocolate to bananas.)

librarian-cum-ape
The Unseen University’s Librarian (by P. Kidby – www.paulkidby.net)

When not reading Pratchett, I read all sorts of history books. In fact, I did my BA in History and Archaeology at the University of Crete and came to England for a Master’s in Medieval History at the University of Birmingham. Before withdrawing from Oxford’s DPhil in History, I spent many a procrastinating moment watching librarians in the Sackler go about their business and secretly fantasising about what it must be like to be in their shoes (these fantasies quickly subsided when I realised what you see is what you get). I landed my first library job at the Oxford public libraries (an experience that I value deeply), before I was employed by the Bodleian Libraries. Indeed, I am not a stranger to the Bodleian: I have already spent a year as a part-time employee at the Taylor and the Education Libraries.

TAY_location_image_1
The Taylor on St. Giles

The Taylor is an imposing building next to the Ashmolean, containing an infinite number of staircases (who said that librarianship is for the weak?) and a labyrinthine basement (it would come as no surprise if I was told that people have been forever lost in its dark recesses…). The Taylor also contains one of the prettiest reading rooms in all of Oxford. It is the place to go to if you are studying Western European Languages, Film Studies, or Linguistics. I am based on the ground floor at the Teaching Collection, which is the part of the Taylorian that caters mainly for undergraduates, as opposed to the Research Collection (about which you’ll hear more from my Taylor soulmate, Sarah). At the Teaching Collection, readers can also find a huge DVD Collection of international films and also a comfortable viewing room with a large screen and dim lights (unfortunately no pop-corn allowed). I am very excited about spending another year in this warm and friendly environment. Given my Greek background, I was also thrilled to hear that I am to spend a term gaining experience at the Taylor’s sister library – the Slavonic and Modern Greek Library.

Look forward to seeing you at the Taylorian – don’t forget the biscuits!