Hello potential graduate trainees of 2026! With applications now open for the 2026/27 cohort of graduate trainees, we thought we’d give you a snapshot of life at the Bodleian.
(If you’re reading these to prepare you for your application or interview – fear not, we did the same. Have a look at this post on application tips and the interview process if you want more advice.)
Summer Mainstone-Cotton, Social Science Library trainee
08:10ish
Get the bus to work. Small sprint to the bus stop with my housemates, 2 other library trainees. Most years, there’s at least one trainee house in Oxford – it makes for a lot of library talk in the kitchen!
08:45
Open up! Once a week, I open up the library with another colleague – I love walking around the library when no one else is there – it’s quite dark and eerie in winter with the lights low and the bookstacks plunged into darkness. Opening up consists of turning on self-issue machines, printers, making sure the monitors haven’t gone walkabouts in the library, checking the phone for voicemail, and bringing in the overnight returns trolley.
09:00
As I’m not at the desk until 11, I start my day with a leisurely cup of tea and checking emails. The SSL trainee is responsible for managing the SSL queries inbox. As term hasn’t started yet, we’re not getting many emails from readers – this morning there’s an offer of a book donation from Hong Kong and a couple of chapter requests from readers wanting to use the Scan and Deliver service.
09:15-10:00
After a relaxed start, I decide to crack on with my trainee project – transcribing and compiling data on a large book donation to the SSL. A single donor has offered approximately 70 shelves of books and journals to the SSL, mainly texts on the USSR and Chechnya. A few months ago, the subject librarian for Slavonic and East European Studies photographed all the books for us to digitally sort through and decide which ones we wanted. It’s my job to go through hundreds of photos and compile a list of every text with a Latin script, noting down as much bibliographic data from the spine as I can find, and then identifying if the item has a record on SOLO and which of the Bodleian libraries have a copy. Whilst most books do seem relevant to us, somehow, I doubt the SSL needs a copy of Delia’s Complete Cookery Course!
10:00-10:40
I write up a blog post my latest book display: Reading Resolutions. One of the great parts of working at the SSL is the opportunity to regularly write posts for the library blog and contribute to its social media. This month, along with new year’s resolutions, we’re also promoting Veganuary as part of our Green Initiative – so I’ve been liaising with the green team on vegan/plant-based recipe books to include in my display.
10:40
Snack Time! I take my 20-minute break on the sofas in the staff break area and happily eat a mince pie from the communal snack table – plenty of treats left from Christmas still!
11:00-12:00
I generally spend about 1.5-2 hours a day on the desk helping readers with their questions, loaning books and equipment, and handing out requested texts from the CFS. This hour is quiet as there aren’t many readers around at the moment.
12:00-13:00
So much book processing! With the start of term approaching, the acquisitions team at the SSL have been ordering lots of books for our subject reading lists. Practically, this means the book processing shelf is constantly refilling– each time I remove a handful of texts for physical processing, another pile soon replaces them. In book processing, I check that all the material is catalogued properly, add reading list codes and then physically process the material by adding Bodleian and Social Science Library stamps, a tattle tape sensor, SSL library slip, and finally add shelf mark stickers and add library use only/short-loan labels as required.
13:00-14:00
Lunch time – as it’s not raining, I take my lunch and go for a walk in University Park. The SSL is very conveniently located right by University Park, making it an excellent lunchtime spot. In the spring, I’m planning on going a bit further afield and visiting the Botanical Gardens during my lunch break.
14:00 – 14:30
An email has come in from ARACU (Accessible Resources Unit) requesting an SSL book for them to scan for a student. I go searching for the book on our shelves, scan it out to ARACU on Alma, and then pop it in a parcel to send in the internal mail.
14:30-15:00
CSF delivery. I unpack the blue totes delivered from the CSF (Collections Storage Facility). Readers request a mix of loanable and library-use-only texts from the CSF, and both are kept behind the inquiry desk. It’s always a mystery each day which niche materials have been ordered up – my favourite so far has been 5 massive books containing volumes of the Bell Ringers magazine from the 1880s!
15:00-16:00
Scan & Deliver Triage – unlike some of the other trainees, I don’t need to do any of the scanning for scan and deliver, I just triage the requests. I start my shift by checking how many scan requests there are (8) and if there are any scans to be sent from yesterday’s shift (no). Triaging means making sure the requests fit within copyright rules – readers are only allowed 1 chapter or 5%, and ensuring requested texts aren’t available online. I also check to see if any of the requested chapters have been scanned previously by the SSL, track down those scans and send them to the readers. Overall, 3 chapters have been scanned already, and I added 5 books to the fetching list to be scanned by our evening library assistants.
16:00-16:20
Second break – at this point in the day, I’m lagging a bit, so I eat a flapjack to boost my energy and read my current book: Babel – very appropriate to read while working for the Bodleian!
16:30-17:00
I have a meeting to discuss the donation project with my line manager and the subject librarian in charge of the donation – I’m nearly 50% of the way through inputting the donation material into a spreadsheet, and reassuringly, I haven’t made any terrible mistakes so far!
17:00-17:15
Final stretch of my day, where I tidy up my desk and check the inbox for any final emails that have come through. When it gets to 5:15, I say hello/goodbye to the evening staff coming in and head home.
A highlight of being a trainee is the access to… well, training! Every Wednesday we have a different session, on topics such as cataloguing, supporting disabled readers, or using the Bodleian databases and software. This week, we were shown around the Conservation and Special Collections areas in the Weston Library, a.k.a where all the rare books magic happens!
The Weston Library holds the majority of all the special collections items within the Bodleian libraries, although much is also held at the Swindon Offsite Storage Facility (CSF). After dropping off our belongings in the lockers (no liquid or even pens allowed in the areas with rare books), we made our way to the conservation area for our introduction to conservation and collection care.
The workspace the conservation team use was bright and peaceful, with long desks lit by many big windows that overlook the city. Each workspace was full of mysterious implements: bone folders, brushes, Japanese paper, display shelves of crushed pigments. Dozens of grey archival boxes were stacked in piles, full of rare books and oddities.
An Introduction to Preventive Conservation
Our first talk was with Catherine, who works in Preventive Conservation, focusing on environmental pest control. There are many things in the environment that can damage a book, whether that is damp, mould, or as we saw – insects! For example, silverfish are very destructive and can do quite drastic damage to paper. They chew through natural fibres, leaving a distinctive lacy pattern behind.
Furniture beetles (otherwise known as carpet beetles or book worms) are also a problem, as they chew straight through furniture like bookcases… and any books that are on them. Not a pleasant guest to have in your library! They bore through bookcases so thoroughly that you can line up the damage to determine which books were placed next to each other on a historical bookshelf. Luckily, this critter needs over 65% relative humidity to thrive, so it won’t visit our modern humidity-controlled collections.
Some calling cards of Silverfish……and Furniture beetles
Fun fact: If you look at the ‘frass’ left behind by a Furniture beetle under a microscope, it looks a bit like rice crispies!
A Genizah Conservation Project
We were then introduced to two conservators working on a long-term rebinding project. This three-year conservation project is focused on preserving items from a Genizah in Cairo for future study. A Genizah is a place in a Jewish synagogue where documents are stored before being ritually buried, as it is forbidden to throw away writing containing the name of God. Typically, items are only stored for 7 years, but the Cairo Genizah contains additions from over 1000 years! There is a huge collection of religious and secular works in around 10 languages (mostly Hebrew and Arabic).
A guardbook being worked on
Many of these valuable paper fragments were bound together into volumes called ‘guardbooks’. The interesting thing is, guardbooks can house texts next to each other which have no intellectual connection, or shared language. The same text could continue in different places within the same guardbook, or across several different guardbooks entirely. These might even be held in different institution’s collections. The University of Cambridge, for example, currently has the largest single unified collection – around 200,000 items from the same Genizah our conservators are working on.
A fascicule containing material from the Genizah
As part of this project, the conservators are working on rehousing these items – disbanding them and putting them into more permanent guardbooks. Some are also put into ‘fascicules’, which are like large A1 pamphlets, where the historic paper is mounted and then attached to the pages flexibly. This means that the pages can be opened flat and examined without damage, whereas the previous bindings could only be opened carefully to a V.
But if the conservators are rebinding the fragments anyway, why don’t they reunite the parts of a text that have been bound in separate guardbooks? Surprisingly, it’s not simply because the papers are fragile. The conservators explained that they need to preserve the historic arrangement of texts in each guardbook, and the shelfmark they were originally classified under. This is so that all the previous research which references those shelfmarks will still make sense. Helpfully, many of the guardbooks have historic marginalia notes which mention where to look to find the rest of the text.
This is a huge project: there are around 12,500 leaves in this collection, and around 217 physical bindings to rehouse. The collection is heavily used and historically important. Many of the items are digitised, but readers and researchers still need to be able to access the originals. It was very interesting to learn more about this long-term conservation project!
Book Conservation – When to Repair?
We also were also shown three examples of individual books being conserved by the Assistant Book Conservator, Alice Evans. One of these examples was Tolkien’s copy of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Tolkien thoroughly annotated it and repaired it with tape – something we hope no reader will do to our books! In this case, despite the tape degrading over time and staining the book, the tape will not be removed or replaced with acid-free archive-safe tape. That’s because the value of this object for researchers comes from Tolkien’s interaction with it and the signs of use – including all the tape fragments. Who knows, someone might end up doing a PhD on his use of tape someday!
When repairing an object, one of the most useful tools is Japanese paper. This paper is harvested in a way that keeps the fibres long, and it is activated using only water. It’s non-intrusive and removable, making it perfect for conservation. Conservators want to preserve the signs of use, and the vulnerability of the object itself, repairing as minimally as possible in places with vulnerable edges or tears. You can see some of the long fibres from a torn edge of Japanese paper in this photo.
As Alice told us, everything is degrading anyway. Conservators and curators weigh up what we want and need here and now, what is useful to us today. Those are the items they prioritise and conserve.
Introduction to Special Collections
The last part of the afternoon was a tour and talk with Chris Fletcher, Keeper of Special Collections. The tour included the Centre for Digital Scholarship, the Mackerras Reading Room, the rooftop patio, and a chat with one of the archivists, Frankie. Continuing our accidental Tolkien theme of the day, Frankie was working on cataloguing and digitising the Tolkien papers. There were tables full of rare items and historical objects, and yet more archive boxes of mysterious sizes. We saw Tolkien’s leather suitcases, and a box full of a surprisingly large collection of pipes!
Then we were shown to a reading room where Chris had pulled out a selection of interesting Special Collections books. These included an 18th Century book of animal and plant illustrations (which had the pictured vaguely horrifying rodent with green toenails), a series of 3D pop up Artist Books by Tamba Auerbach, and a copy of John Clare’s The Village Minstrel that contained a unique handwritten poem.
After that, the items got a little unusual. What makes a book a book? Bibliographic detail, a cover, publication date, author, contents, edition? If that’s what a book is, then Ted Hughes’ ‘Laureate’s Choice’ sherry bottle also fits the bill:
As is traditional for a Poet Laureate, Hughes got his own barrel of sherry. This bottle has one of Hughes’ drawings reproduced on the label.
Then, there was my favourite item – the cheese book! Created by Ben Denzer, 20 Slices is a book where the pages are packaged American style cheese slices, bound with a cover. Denzer’s speciality is poking fun at, and interrogating, ideas of value. What better way do to this than to make the cheapest kind of cheese into a valuable art object and book?
The book was bought by Bodleian for £200 – £10 per slice of cheese. The copy we have is one of ten copies that exist, including the artist’s own copy. Denzer has refused to allow the Bodleian to replace the cheese with a replica cheese. When the time comes, the cheese pages will need to be replaced with more Kraft singles! Although that might not be for some time – when we saw the book, the cheese was 10 years old and still looked normal, with only a bit of white crumbling at the corners. American cheese is something else!
That rounds up our afternoon of rare books adventures! The day was a great introduction to what Archivists and Conservators do, and we saw many weird and wonderful items. The Bodleian’s collections are vast, and there is always something new to discover.
The 2026/27 trainee scheme is now open for applications, so we hope that our blogs will give you some insight into the work you might be doing. Good luck to anyone who will be applying!
The evenings are getting quieter, the libraries are getting chillier, and the returns trolleys are piled high with books… it must be the end of Michaelmas term! It’s been an eventful eight weeks across the libraries: we’ve marked Black History Month and Disability History Month, contributed to Green Libraries Week, put on exhibitions about great academics and gothic artists, and even found a little extra time to do some library tours. The work doesn’t stop just because the students have gone home, and we’ve got plenty to do over the holidays, but the end of term is a chance to breathe out and get ready for the new year. In the meantime, here’s a quick blog update looking back at our first few months on the job.
Some very crafty book displays made by Summer!(Social Science Library)
This term has gone as quickly as the daylight hours, but it’s been great to watch the business school get steadily more festive – especially after the fairy lights were strung up outside the library window! I’ve had so many enjoyable moments over the past eight weeks: learning the curious (and sometimes frustrating) world of Leganto with Anna (our Collections & Instructional Materials Assistant), getting involved with the Oxford Futures Library archives, and even running a crochet workshop with Cui (our Circulation & Customer Service Librarian) – she’s already made some beautiful bookmarks despite only taking up crochet this term! I’ve also greatly appreciated the variety of work I’ve been able to do with the Rare Books team at the Weston Library during my time there this month. All in all, this term has encouraged me to approach the rest of the traineeship with confidence, and I’m excited to keep developing my skills and shaping my trainee project as we head into the new year.
Heidi Cruft, Sainsbury Library
A lot has happened in the Art library this term- I’ve scanned a lot of book chapters, issued and returned a lot of material, packaged a lot of interlibrary loans, filled and emptied a lot of crates, helped (at least I hope) a lot of readers- and endured a few broken lifts, exploding radiators and technical issues along the way. It’s been really satisfying to slowly get the hang of more things and better understand the scale of things going on to keep a library running- it’s not just stamping books! I’ve really enjoyed the training sessions this term- especially the visit to the special collections at the Weston- and loved spending a full week at the Taylor Institution. Next term I plan to get stuck into my trainee project in sorting out the chaotic Haverfield room, and helping the subject librarians with some collections management.
Olly Marshall, Art, Archaeology and Ancient World Library
Term passed in the blink of an eye, but it’s been a lot of fun. The HFL is a really interesting place to work because there’s always something going on: from VIP events to student inductions to spontaneous explosions (not a joke!), this job definitely keeps you on your toes. I’ve reviewed reading lists, done inventory checks, sent damaged items off for repair, hunted for missing books, and kept track of the infinite spreadsheets required for all those tasks. I’m really enjoying getting to work behind the scenes and keep things operating smoothly for readers, and I appreciate the amount of work that goes into running an academic library even more now. While it’s hard to pick out just one thing, a highlight of my term has been getting started on my very collections-focused trainee project, and I’m looking forward to delving deeper into archives and special collections next term. For now, though, I need a few calm weeks to take advantage of the millions of books just waiting to be read (the real perk of the job). Catherine Birch, History Faculty Library
Isaac Newton is feeling festive (Old Bodleian)
Voltaire wanted to dress up too! (Taylor Institution)
Michaelmas has gone by so quickly! This term has been a lot of desk time, displays, photography, and using the mysterious trainee power to arrange meetings with interesting people within the Bodleian. I’ve made themed displays (I especially loved my Halloween one), started photographing all the rooms in the Taylorian for a social media bank, and helped readers find many a book. The most interesting training for me this term has been the visits to the Weston to see the rare books and conservation work, and to CSF (the Bodleian Offsite Storage facility). I’ve made a lot of headway on my project, which involves designing a creative public outreach event for the Strachan collection of Livres d’Artiste / Artist’s Books. I’ve sent a lot of emails to all sorts of people, who have been more than happy to help me with my idea. My favourite days are the ones I can sit in the archives room and go through the collection while listening to music. In Hilary term, I’m looking forward to the training with the Centre for the Study of the Book, where we’ll learn about printing methods, and get to use a hand-operated printing press! Jules McGee-Russell (they/them), Taylor Institution Library
It’s been a busy Michaelmas term here at the SSL. Going from the whirlwind of over 100 library tours for new students in 0/1st week to emptying out after 8th week, the library almost feels eerily quiet without the readers. But just because most students have gone, does not mean the workroom has got any quieter – from an influx of new reading lists to review and books to process, to hunting for missing books and working on my two projects – there’s been plenty to keep me busy! The SSL has received 2 donations that make up the bulk of my project work – 40 boxes of working papers from the University of Bradford and 70 shelves of books from a single donor. I now have endless hours of work transcribing book spines and embellishing Alma catalogue records to keep me busy when the rest of the library gets too quiet! Along with enjoying getting stuck into my project work, one of my highlights this term has been working on the new book displays – from Black History and Disability History months to Bonfire Night and Winter Wellbeing, it’s been great fun researching interesting and unusual books in the CSF that I can add to my displays. I’m looking forward to the training sessions of next term, particularly the one around student wellbeing initiatives in the libraries, and I’m sure Hilary term will go by as quickly as Michaelmas did!
by Catherine Birch, Jules McGee-Russell, and Summer Mainstone-Cotton
On 24th September, the Weston Library hosted a screening of The Librarians, a new documentary about banned books, censorship, and free speech in libraries across the USA. The documentary premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, but this was only its second screening in the UK, and the audience was packed with librarians, readers, and film buffs alike. Naturally, a few trainees decided that an entire day spent working in a library wasn’t enough, so we decided to go along that evening too.
The Weston was steadily filling up with people as we arrived, and there was a lively atmosphere full of conversation and laughter throughout the building. We mingled, chatted, networked, and partook in the drinks and nibbles on offer. However, we didn’t have long to mill around, as seats were being taken fast, and it was time for the event to begin.
The welcome reception in Blackwell Hall@cyrusoxford
Before the film screening, there was a small ceremony held by the Royal Society of Literature to celebrate the Bodleian’s own Richard Ovenden. Richard was recently awarded the RSL’s Benson Medal for outstanding services to literature – in this case, his significant career as a librarian, and his roles leading organisations like the Digital Preservation Coalition and the university’s Gardens, Libraries, and Museums group. On top of this, he also recently wrote a book on the history of book burnings – Burning the Books: A History of Knowledge Under Attack – which makes a brief cameo in The Librarians! The award was certainly well-deserved, and the audience were enthusiastic with cheers and applause. After a short speech and some votes of thanks, he handed over to the director, Kim A. Synder, for a short introduction to the film. From there, all that was left to do was dim the lights, set the stage, and start the screening.
Richard Ovenden accepting the Benson Medal& his acceptance speech @cyrusoxford
The film itself was a compelling look at the recent wave of protests against school libraries in the United States. For those unaware: in 2021, public school superintendents across Texas were sent a list of 850 books challenged for potentially causing “discomfort, guilt, anguish, or…psychological distress” to schoolchildren.1 The list was compiled by state representative Matt Krause and predominantly included books which featured sex education, black history, and LGBTQ+ characters; many were also simply written by LGBTQ+ or non-white authors.2 School districts in other parts of the country began similar investigations, and soon libraries throughout the US were facing book bans. Parents began calling for the removal of material that they deemed sexually explicit or inappropriate for children, schools pulled up to hundreds of books from their shelves out of caution, and librarians who protested this were silenced.3The Librarians follows the people who pushed back against these investigations, exploring their stories and their struggles.
The film began in Texas but didn’t stop there, travelling to Florida, New Jersey, and other states impacted by book bans. It exposed how school librarians were subjected to bullying, victimisation, and even unemployment for questioning these book bans, and how those who protested more vocally received targeted online harassment and threats of physical violence. The film featured interviews with these librarians, as well as the students and school board members directly impacted by these bans. It also examined the role of politicians, pressure groups, and parents in this ongoing struggle, combining original documentary footage with social media content and relevant news stories for a more complete view of the situation. Interspersed throughout were clips from The Twilight Zone, Fahrenheit 451 (1966), and Storm Centre (1956), as well as archival footage of Nazi book burnings and Joseph McCarthy speeches. Time and again the film returned to these examples of historical censorship to emphasise the necessity of information, the dangers of book bans, and the inalienable right to freedom of expression. It was a moving watch, balancing humour and emotion with a poignant lasting message about the importance of libraries and literature to society.
The crowd applauding Julie Miller and Amanda Jones& a close up on the discussion panel@cyrusoxford
After the screening, a panel sat down to discuss the film and take questions from the audience. As well as the director and producers, it featured Dame Mary Beard, Richard Ovenden, and two of the librarians who featured most prominently within the documentary: Julie Miller and Amanda Jones. Discussion quickly turned to the Bodleian’s own experiences with book bans over the centuries, as Richard explained how the original Bodley’s Librarian specifically collected books denounced by religious authorities, preserving this information against censorship or wilful destruction. However, as Dame Mary then pointed out, it is important not to just rest on this legacy. She advised the librarians present to be conscious of how we treat ideas or books that we don’t personally endorse, reminding us that to fight against censorship we must fight for all speech to be free. As the panel reflected on the position of foreign academic librarians in this struggle, they returned to a central motif of the film – that silence is compliance when faced with systematic suppression.
The panel also discussed how these attacks on librarians have progressed since the film was finished in late 2024: perhaps most notably, in May 2025, the President unceremoniously fired the fourteenth Librarian of Congress.4 Carla Hayden, both the first woman and first African American to hold this post, was removed on the grounds that she had promoted DEI and placed “inappropriate books for children” in the library.5 This directly echoes the sentiments expressed about school librarians within the documentary, emphasising the increasing scope and scale of this crisis. Julie and Amanda took this opportunity to speak about their continued activism within their local communities and beyond, while the producers explained their plans to publicise the film further and gain international support for the librarians affected by these repressive campaigns. Discussion ended shortly after this, but not without a final round of applause for the librarians, politicians, and everyone behind the film continuing to fight to speak freely and be heard.
Some familiar faces deep in conversation@cyrusoxford
After all that talking, it was finally time for… more talking! There was a short drinks reception in Blackwell Hall following the screening, which gave us the opportunity to chat with other library staff and visitors who’d come to the viewing. The room really came alive, and the hall was buzzing with noise as the film gave everyone a lot to talk about. We had some interesting conversations about public services, the accessibility of our libraries, and our responsibilities in this struggle as new professionals. We also got the chance to tell some other attendees about our traineeships, and found time to catch up with some former trainees! All-in-all, a great end to the night.
The Librarians is an ambitious project – creating a film about a rapidly developing political storm and screening it internationally is no easy feat – but it is certainly a worthwhile one. The documentary highlights the cultural role of libraries in the past and present, providing useful insight into the politics of information and the tactics used to undermine it. While many of us had heard about these book bans across the US, we weren’t aware of the scale of the issue or the extent of the harm it was causing to individual librarians, and the film was an eye-opening call to act. As trainees, we are just entering the world of libraries: this film urges us to work to ensure the libraries are still there for us in future. The Librarians was released in the UK on the 26th of September, with more details of showtimes available here. It will also be available on BBC iPlayer for over a year. If you’re at all interested in libraries and literature, it’s definitely worth a watch. And if our review still hasn’t convinced you, here’s the trailer to speak for itself.
With thanks to Cyrus Mower (@cyrusoxford) for taking all of the photos included in this blog post
Who doesn’t love a book display? We’re sure you want to know all about the books we’ve displayed this month, and we are here to provide!
Trainees often end up working on book displays throughout their year, and we’re no different. A few lucky trainees got to start working on their first displays within our initial few weeks. Each library has their own approach to displays, with unique spaces, signage, and book selections.
The theme for Black History Month 2025 is ‘Power and Pride’, where Power represents ‘the influence, leadership, and capacity to effect positive change’ and Pride reflects ‘cultural identity, heritage, and the celebration of Black excellence.’
Here’s our takes on the Black History Month theme this year, with a spotlight on some of our favourite books.
Taylor Institution Library – Jules McGee-Russell
My first reaction when I found out I’d be taking on the displays at the Taylor was, admittedly, panic. I had one week to research suitable books from our collections, which are mostly made up of books in languages I can’t read, with historical contexts I don’t know much about. Luckily, after many hours searching our catalogue on SOLO, chats with Subject Librarians and colleagues, and several trips up and down all our stairs, I had a very nice stack of books from both the Teaching and Research Collections.
I wanted to stick closely to the theme and include as many different languages and cultures as I could. I chose books that focused on Black European visionaries and icons of influence, Black excellence in the arts, the power of Black protest movements, and Black experiences across Europe. I made an effort to include books from as many areas of our library as possible. I ended up with books including Germany, Portugal, Brazil, France, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Wales, Russia, Linguistics, fiction (poetry), and biography. Not bad for a speedy one-week display!
I hope my display showcases the breadth of our collections and will encourage readers to explore this area in their studies.
I was able to put the large display in the Teaching Collection, right next to the Issue desk and the Self-Issue machine, where plenty of people will see it!
Books included:
Aimé Césaire : inventor of souls by Jane Hiddleston.
This biography focuses on one of the most influential Caribbean literary writers, Césaire. Césaire was a Martinican poet, playwright, politician, and co-founder of the movement ‘Négritude’, which sought to restore the cultural identity of Black Africans.
Black Paris : the African writers’ landscape by Bennetta Jules-Rosette ; foreword by Simon Njami.
Black Paris explores three generations of African writers in Paris between 1947 and the mid-1990s. Using archival, ethnographic, and historical research in addition to interviews with writers of the new generation, this book explores their writing and identity.
Blues in schwarz weiss nachtgesang : Gedichteby May Ayim.
This poetry collection is written by established Afro-German writer/activist, May Ayim.
Farbe bekennen : Afro-deutsche Frauen auf den Spuren ihrer Geschichte by May Ayim, Katharina Oguntoye, Dagmar Schultz (Hg.)
A collection of texts by Afro-German women about their experiences.
Mapping Black Europe : monuments, markers, memories by Natasha A. Kelly.
This text highlights unrecognised contributions by Black communities to the cultural landscapes of eight European cities. Black scholars and activists examine monuments, markers, and memorials to excavate these obscured narratives.
This biography centres on Frantz Fanon, an influential Martinican psychoanalyst and social philosopher, known for his notable works Black Skin, White Masks and The Wretched of the Earth, about the effects of colonialism on racial consciousness.
Language in the inner city; studies in the Black English vernacular by William Labov.
Originally published in 1972, “Labov probed the question “Does ‘Black English’ exist?” and emerged with an answer that was well ahead of his time, and that remains essential to our contemporary understanding of the subject.”
Mobilizing Black Germany : Afro-German women and the making of a transnational movement by Tiffany N. Florvil.
“Tiffany N. Florvil examines the role of queer and straight women in shaping the contours of the modern Black German movement as part of the Black internationalist opposition to racial and gender oppression…including Audre Lorde’s role in influencing their activism; the activists who inspired Afro-German women to curate their own identities and histories; and the evolution of the activist groups Initiative of Black Germans (ISD) and Afro-German Women (ADEFRA).”
Signs of dissent : Maryse Condé and postcolonial criticism by Dawn Fulton.
“Maryse Condé is a Guadeloupean writer and critic whose work has challenged the categories of race, language, gender, and geography that inform contemporary literary and critical debates. In Signs of Dissent, the first full-length study in English on Condé, Dawn Fulton situates this award-winning author’s work in the context of current theories of cultural identity in order to foreground Condé’s unique contributions to these discussions.”
The stolen prince : Gannibal, adopted son of Peter the Great, great-grandfather of Alexander Pushkin, and Europe’s first black intellectual by Hugh Barnes.
This book focuses on the historical figure of Gannibal, a kidnapped and enslaved young African who was adopted by tsar Peter the Great, who “soared to dizzying heights as a soldier, diplomat, mathematician and spy” and “founded a dynasty of his own in Russia, where he came to embody the strengths and weaknesses of the country itself.”
Terms of inclusion : Black intellectuals in twentieth-century Brazilby Paulina L. Alberto.
“In this history of black thought and racial activism in twentieth-century Brazil, Paulina Alberto demonstrates that black intellectuals, and not just elite white Brazilians, shaped discourses about race relations and the cultural and political terms of inclusion in their modern nation.”
Tribuna Negra : origens do movimento negro em Portugal (1911-1933)by Cristina Roldão, José Augusto Pereira e Pedro Varela.
This book highlights the little-known Black movement in 1911-1933 Lisbon that “fought racism, demanded rights for populations in colonized territories, and… engag[ed] in dialogue with forms of Black internationalism, such as Pan-Africanism.”
Globalising Welsh studies : decolonising history, heritage, society and culture,edited by Neil Evans and Charlotte Williams.
This text explores “the development of Welsh Studies through the lens of race/ethnicity. Contributors from history, heritage studies, literature, film, policy, social and cultural studies offer case analyses adopting new perspectives, theoretical routes and methodological innovations, with the aim of illustrating aspects of the decolonising of knowledge production.”
Voices of negritude in modernist print : aesthetic subjectivity, diaspora, and the lyric regimeby Carrie Noland.
“Carrie Noland approaches Negritude as an experimental, text-based poetic movement developed by diasporic authors of African descent through the means of modernist print culture. Engaging primarily the works of Aimé Césaire and Léon-Gontran Damas, Noland shows how the demands of print culture alter the personal voice of each author, transforming an empirical subjectivity into a hybrid, textual entity that she names, after Theodor Adorno, an “aesthetic subjectivity.””
Luckily, unlike some of the other trainees, I had plenty of notice to work on my Black History Month display – it’s been in the works since mid-September! With 22 books covering a broad range of social science subjects from our collection, it proved to be quite the research challenge for my first month!
My aim for the display was to represent as many areas of the social science subjects as possible, while showcasing broader aspects of Black British history. During my research, I was particularly interested to discover several titles in the Bodleian’s collection that focus on Black activism within the University of Oxford. Two that stood out were Malcolm X at Oxford Union: Racial Politics in a Global Era by Saladin M. Ambar and Rhodes Must Fall: The Struggle for Justice at the Heart of Empire ed. by Brian Kwoba, Roseanne Chantiluke, and Athinangamso Nkopo.
This made it all the more disappointing when some books arrived from Swindon in plain black hardback covers, with their vibrant dust jackets removed for preservation. As a result, there are a few titles I would have loved to include in the SSL’s book display that, unfortunately, didn’t make the final cut. Overall, though, I’m happy with the selection of titles in the book display and the balance between academic texts, Women political leaders in Africa by Rosemari Skaine, alongside poetry and fiction texts: Saluting our sisters ed. by Cherron Inko-Tariah, and Girl, woman, other by Bernardine Evaristo.
Art, Archaeology and Ancient World Library – Olly Marshall
With our collections split into a few distinct subject areas, it can be difficult when making displays for all of them to be properly represented. We have loads of fantastic resources on black artists in our upper floor collections, but I was particularly keen on displaying resources on black voices in archaeology which are often overlooked both within the wider field of archaeology and within our own collections. Some of the highlights included:
The first Black archaeologist: a life of John Wesley Gilbert by John W.I. Lee.
This biography looks at the life of John Wesley Gilbert, from his education in segregated Georgia in the late 19th century, his research trip to Greece with the American School of Classical Studies at Athens in 1890-1891, returning to become Paine College’s first black faculty hire and his missionary work later in his life.
Black Feminist Archaeology by Whitney Battle-Baptiste.
This book is the first of its kind in outlining how black feminist thought and philosophy can be applied to archaeological theory and practise. Battle-Baptiste calls for a more sensitive look at race and gender within the archaeological field, and offers Black Feminist Archaeology as a method by which to look at the plantation home of Andrew Jackson, the W. E. B. DuBois homesite and the Lucy Foster homestead- the first archaeological excavation of an African American home.
African Connections: Archaeological Perspectives on Africa and the Wider World by Peter Mitchell.
Peter Mitchell offers an analysis of Africa’s identity within the wider world- looking at what archaeology can illuminate about trade routes, the spread of farming systems and the experiences of the African diaspora. Though the book looks at early expansion out of Africa in the Pleistocene the story is mainly that of Africa in the Holocene, a sorely neglected subject in the field. Mitchell confronts this neglect by emphasising early on that “Africa’s inhabitants interacted with those of other landmasses, not merely as consumers or dependents, but as equal partners in exchange and active donors of goods, ideas and people.”
Documenting activism, creating change: archaeology and the legacy of #MeToo edited by Hannah Cobb and Kayt Hawkins.
Multiple authors contributed to this volume sharing their experiences as women in working in archaeology and how women within the sector navigate social media in the face of online harassment based on gender and race. Several chapters look at the state of sexism and online activist circles in specific countries. Chapter 19, “In Pursuit of Systemic Equality: The UK’s First Network For Ethnically Diverse Staff In Development-Led Archaeology” reflects on the state of diversity in archaeology in the UK, the groups, committees and alliances that work to improve it and how this aim for diversity can affect the practise of archaeology itself. This book also has a chapter on mentorship for women in archaeology and could be an enlightening resource for anyone working in the sector.
A full list of the books and a more in-depth look at some of our art collections can be seen on the art library blog.
Bodleian Library – Catherine Birch and Rebecca Cartwright
While trainees in the Old Bodleian aren’t in charge of curating our library’s displays, we thought we should let everyone know what the Bodleian has been doing to mark Black History Month.
Our physical book display in the Gladstone Link is focused on themes of activism, resistance, and liberation in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, taking material from the History lending shelves. We’ve also signposted a few ebooks from our collection, looking at black identities and intersectionality in Britain. There’s a broad range of texts spanning different historical disciplines, time periods, and places, reflecting the richness of Black history in the United Kingdom. If you’re unsure where to start, try checking out these texts:
There Ain’t No Black in the Union Jack by Paul Gilroy.
Originally published in 1987, this book examines racial politics and race relations in the UK and argues that the (then contemporary) sociological model of race and culture is inherently flawed. Predominantly researched and written during a period of significant racial tension in Britain, the book caused controversy after Gilroy accused left- AND right-wing intellectuals and leaders of failing to properly consider race in their politics. Almost 40 years later, it has held up as a foundational study of the relationship between race, class, and nationality. This edition also contains an edited introduction, where Gilroy reflects on the change he had seen since the book was first published.
Rhodes Must Fall: The Struggle to Decolonise the Racist Heart of Empire by the Rhodes Must Fall Movement (Oxford).
This collection of writings on the Rhodes Must Fall movement has close links to the university. It was compiled and edited by members of Rhodes Must Fall Oxford, a group founded in 2016 in solidarity with anticolonial student protests at the University of Cape Town. The Oxford chapter’s aim was to decolonise the university’s curriculum and remove a statue of Cecil Rhodes from Oriel College. The book sets out their arguments as to why Rhodes shouldn’t be honoured, exploring the modern legacy of colonialism and the enduring impact of racism and empire on all aspects of Western life. While much has changed in the 7 years since this book was published, it reflects a pivotal moment in the university’s history, and it remains a thought-provoking read.
We Were There by Lanre Bakare.
On this “road trip around Black Britain… this time, London is in the back seat, and Bradford’s our driver. Liverpool’s choosing the music. Edinburgh’s navigating.”[1] Often, black history in Britain is confined to the urban southeast. Areas like Cardiff, Manchester, or Bradford (where Bakare was born) are a footnote, and rural black lives are overlooked entirely. This book seeks to move beyond this conception and illuminate aspects of British history we’re yet to fully explore. It’s a recent publication which looks to the future as well as the past, emphasising that blackness and black culture is not universal, modular, or static. Filled with humour and introspection, it questions what it actually means to be a Black Briton, not just a Londoner.
We’ve also picked out some books from our wellbeing display in the Old Bodleian which embody this year’s theme. When you next need a study break, take a look at these:
Celebrations: Rituals of Peace and Prayer by Maya Angelou.
Maya Angelou is widely recognised as one of the most significant poets of the twentieth century, and this anthology brings together some of her most famous works. Angelou was not just a great writer and artist – she was closely involved with the civil rights movement in the USA, and was a fierce activist throughout her life. Her life and her writings truly embody the theme of “Standing Firm in Power and Pride”, and her legacy is one felt here as well as in the United States. ‘Celebrations’ contains 12 poems about peace, love, and hope, and is a great book to dip into whenever you need some joy.
Self-Care for Black Men: 100 Ways to Heal and Liberate by Jor-El Caraballo, LMHC.
‘Self-Care for Black Men’ does what it says on the tin: the book is a guide to coping with racism, prejudice, and intergenerational trauma as a modern Black man. Carabello is writing for men who feel like they don’t have access to the support that they need, offering guidance on how to take care of yourself and your wellbeing in a constructive manner. The book is full of Black pride and empowerment, with 100 meditations on identity, respect, and personal dignity. For those feeling insecure or emotionally drained, it could be a very useful read.
If these have interested you, or you want to learn more, check out our HFL blog post for a full list of the books on display in the Upper Link. Our Wellbeing display is available year-round and is located at the top of the North Stairs in the Old Bodleian.
Signpost – Events
If you liked our displays and want to see more of what the university have to offer, come along to the Weston Library on Wednesday 29th October for a chance to see some unique items from the university’s Special Collections. There’ll be a show-and-tell of archival material focused on black lives in history, with the opportunity to learn about racial activism and black culture in Britain from the nineteenth century onwards. The event is free to attend – to learn more and register attendance, visit the Oxford SU website.
The Ashmolean has also recently unveiled a new display: ‘Shedding Light’. An evolution of the earlier installation ‘A Nice Cup of Tea?’, this room was carefully crafted to tell a story about the interconnected histories of slavery, colonialism, sugar production, and ceramics. It takes the form of a 1950s-60s Caribbean living room filled with books, records, ceramic, and life – viewers are encouraged to literally read the room. It’s an interesting lens into British Caribbean heritage and intergenerational experiences, with a particular focus on the sugar trade and how this shaped black lives and culture. It’s located in the European Ceramics Gallery on the second floor and is intended to be a permanent fixture in the museum.
Hello again, loyal readers, and welcome to part two of our introduction to the 2025/26 Graduate Trainees. This time, the spotlight is on the Business, Law, and Social Sciences libraries, as well as this year’s College trainees.
Noughth week was busy! We’ve been running induction tours, putting up Black History Month displays, visiting the newly opened Schwarzman Humanities Centre, and somehow keeping our libraries running smoothly. The city is covered in falling leaves (romantic, autumnal, stunning) and the beginnings of the expected wet weather (slippery cobblestones, my nemesis). Regardless, we’re all set to give warm welcomes to our incoming freshers.
Now, let’s meet some more trainees!
Trainee Introductions: Business, Law and Social Sciences
Heidi Cruft – Sainsbury Library, Saïd Business School
Hi everyone! I’m Heidi, the Graduate Trainee at the Sainsbury Library in the Saïd Business School.
Although my BA wasn’t in Business – I studied English at the University of Cambridge – I got a taste of what business students might be looking for while working with them during a summer scheme at my college. That experience gave me some insight into their research habits and made me appreciate how unique the Sainsbury Library is among the Bodleian Libraries: we primarily serve postgraduates, with a strong focus on journals and databases.
I knew quite early on in my undergraduate degree that I wanted to pursue a career in libraries and was lucky to gain experience by volunteering at two of Cambridge’s college libraries. That proved invaluable – not only did I get to work with some fascinating special collections, but I learnt a lot about the day-to-day tasks common across most libraries, including processing new books, shelving, and answering enquiries.
I’m really enjoying my role at the Sainsbury Library so far, and it’s been lovely to get to know the (quite large!) team here. I’ve particularly enjoyed learning how varied everyone’s roles are – it’s shown me how much collaboration goes on behind the scenes in library work.
Hello! I’m Gemma, the graduate trainee at the Bodleian Law Library.
I have a BA in History and an MPhil in Ancient History, both from Oxford. I’ve always been interested in working in libraries in some capacity, so after my Master’s I looked for volunteering opportunities and found a position in the library of a small theological college. This was a really useful experience because as well as getting a lot of shelving practice(!) I got to do all sorts of other background tasks (cataloguing, checking reading lists, working with the archive). I went on to work part-time as an evening and weekends library assistant in the Old Bodleian and the Art Library, which was much more focused on front-line reader services: issuing and returning books and generally helping readers and problem-solving.
What I enjoy about working in libraries is that it’s relatively structured but also involves a variety of tasks, and you never quite know what will come up so it doesn’t get boring! I decided to apply for the graduate trainee role because I wanted to learn more about working in libraries in general, and technical services in particular, and to hopefully work out whether to commit to a further Master’s.
I’ve really enjoyed my first month at the Law Library. Everyone has been welcoming and very helpful, and I feel like I’m beginning to settle in and become part of the team. I’ve obviously had a lot of experience using the Bodleian libraries as a student as well as working in them for the past year or so, but before now I hadn’t ever been in the Law Library. I don’t know much about law as a subject at all, so I’ve been learning a lot! I’ve also been getting used to the library itself, since of course although they’re all under the Bodleian Libraries umbrella, each library has its own idiosyncrasies. The Law Library is reference only, so no one can take the books out, which is a change from the libraries I’d worked in previously. As well as legal texts, the library houses the Official Papers collection, some of which date from the 16th century.
So far, I’ve mainly been processing new books (putting tattle-tape in them and stamping them) and labelling them (there’s two different types of labels, reflecting the two classification systems that the library uses). I’ve also got to grips with using the Bookeye scanner, which is actually a lot easier than it looks! There’s not been too much shelving to do but the library has been getting busier as the beginning of term gets closer, so I’m sure I’ll soon have the opportunity to properly test myself on the library layout and shelfmarks. I’ve also spent some time at the Enquiry Desk. The (Grade II*-listed) building that the library is in can be a bit of a labyrinth and I’m still working on how best to answer the inevitable questions from readers about how to find the water fountain… For October I’m hoping to get involved in the book displays we have planned and looking forward to the start of a new term!
Summer Mainstone-Cotton – Social Science Library
Hi everyone! I’m Summer, the graduate trainee at the Social Science Library (the SSL).
Whilst a medievalist at heart, having studied an MA in Medieval Studies, I feel that I’m starting to find my feet amongst the Social Sciences (there were plenty of economic and political influences in the medieval world after all!) At the SSL we serve a mix of undergrads and postgrads, with probably our largest undergraduate cohort being the PPE students – I’m always a bit daunted when their big economic textbooks come to me for processing!
I was fairly inexperienced with library work before this traineeship. As a student I spent a lot of time in libraries and became quite good at the detective work of tracking down obscure research books, but the inner workings of libraries remained a mystery. During my MA I did a placement at Cambridge University Library, but that was with special collections rather than reader or technical services – I learnt a lot about childbirth in medieval medical manuscripts, but I’m yet to find a use for that knowledge in the SSL! Far from being a disadvantage though, it’s made everything here feel new and interesting – I still get a lot of satisfaction from stamping books with the Bodleian stamp (even if I haven’t managed to stamp in a straight line yet).
I’ve really enjoyed my first few weeks at the SSL. Everyone in the library has been very friendly and patient with my many questions and triple checking alma holdings editing – I’m still terrified I’ll accidently delete a book from the system!
The traineeship offers a great mix of technical and reader services alongside the Wednesday training sessions, which makes every day new and interesting. I’m looking forward to the upcoming chaos of Michaelmas term and I’m sure this year will fly by!
Trainee Introductions: Colleges
Amy Fry – Christ Church College Library
Hi everyone! I’m Amy, the Graduate Trainee at Christ Church Library for this year. My position is slightly different to the Bodleian Trainees: I’m technically employed by my college, but I still get the same training sessions and experiences. The best of both worlds!
I studied Music at Lincoln College before starting this job, probably the only other Oxford college library whose beauty can compare to Christ Church’s (I still can’t quite work out where my loyalties lie…), however the world of libraries is rather new to me. It was actually the advertisement for the Bodleian Trainee scheme that sparked my interest in librarianship as a career, and after some great advice from Lucy and Marina, the librarians at Lincoln, I decided I would give it a go.
Christ Church Library is a wonderfully impressive place to work. Vertically split into the Working Library downstairs and the Special Collections upstairs, it offers such variety on a daily basis. Downstairs, my responsibilities include much of the day-to-day tasks involved in keeping the library useful for students: processing, shelving, collections management, and fielding questions (if I know the answers that is…). Upstairs, I get to help out with exhibitions, and over the course of the year will also put on various short pop-ups. I’m currently planning one to celebrate the Christ Church 500 Music Festival – a rather cool experience for a music grad! I’m lucky to have joined such a welcoming and knowledgeable team here (9 of us total!) and feel very excited for what the rest of the year will hold, both in Christ Church and across the wider Bodleian Libraries!
Leah Duffin – New College Library
Hello. My name is Leah, and I am the Graduate Trainee at New College Library. As I work in one of the colleges my role is different from the other trainees. I work across a multitude of projects, execute various tasks, and contribute to the successful running of the library. I am fortunate to feel quite settled in this role as I started in July and have had lots of exciting opportunities since then.
I hold a bachelor’s degree in English Literature and History and a masters in Medieval Studies from University College Dublin. I have spent much of my academic career in libraries and upon completing my master’s I found myself drawn to a career in libraries. Due to the nature of my master’s research, I worked closely with special collections, and I knew that I wanted to foster this interest in a more professional capacity. Thus, I decided to move away from Ireland and combine my passion for history and libraries and what better place to do that than Oxford!
Perhaps I show my bias but, in my opinion, New College is one of the finest colleges in Oxford and the library has become a welcoming and wonderful place to work. New College Library is home to a renowned collection of rare books and manuscripts; this includes 384 manuscripts and thousands of rare books and incunables. I was particularly drawn to this role as it allowed me to use the knowledge I gained in my studies through working with a rich repository of special collections whilst also learning more about librarianship and supporting readers. Here at the library, our year is full of opportunities to showcase our special collections, as we often hold exhibitions for the public to come and view our treasures! We also assist academics and readers in viewing our collections. Recently, I aided in curating our current temporary exhibition on the American illustrator Edward Gorey. I was responsible for deciding which items to showcase along with carrying out research, creating labels and designing the promotional material. As term has begun, we are busy holding inductions for new students, purchasing books from readings lists and planning our next exhibition that will take place in November. I am looking forward to what the next few months have in store!
As we enter October and the new academic year begins, we thought it was high time that the new batch of trainees said hello. Our first month in Oxford has flown by in a whirl of training sessions and desk duty, and we’re all braced for the imminent chaos and excitement of noughth week. It’s been strange working at a university with no students, but whilst waiting for them to turn up, we’ve certainly been busy! We’ve learnt our way around the libraries (some of which are more complex than others…), processed books, and reviewed many, many reading lists to prepare for the start of Michaelmas term. Over the next year, we plan to keep you well informed about the adventures and mishaps of graduate trainee life, but thought we’d start by introducing ourselves:
Trainee Introductions: Arts and Humanities
Catherine Birch – Bodleian Library / History Faculty Library
Hello all! I’m Catherine and I’m one of two trainees in the Bodleian Library. As the Collections trainee, I can usually be found in the History Faculty Library, but the role actually involves working across multiple libraries – more on that later.
I started university with no clue what I was going to do with a History degree, and I only fully decided on a career in libraries in my final year. I gravitated towards collections work while volunteering in a few different archives in my spare time, where I realised I really liked transcribing and digitising materials. I got a job working in reader services to test the waters, and after a lot of shelving, researching, and scanning, I felt confident that library work was definitely for me.
Being based in the HFL has been excellent because I’m surrounded by my favourite subject, but even if you aren’t a history buff there’s something for you at the Bodleian. Our holdings include English, Classics, Philosophy, Theology, and more, so there’s no shortage of interesting material. There’s also a study space for every mood, as our site includes the historic Old Bodleian, the underground Gladstone Link, and the iconic Radcliffe Camera. I do already have a favourite, but I’ll never say which…
I’ve only been working in the HFL a short while now, but I’m enjoying it a lot. There’s a real variety of work to do every day, from processing new acquisitions and creating displays to helping readers use the printer or find a misplaced book. The team have been offering me plenty of useful support and advice, and they’ve been very patient when I ask where the light switches are for the hundredth time. I’m looking forward to finding my confidence and developing new skills through the traineeship, and I’m excited to see what this year has in store!
Rebecca – Bodleian Library / Reader Services
Hello! I’m Rebecca, one of the two Bodleian Library trainees. I’m based in Reader Services and therefore spend most of my time in the Old Library, but I also work in the Radcliffe Camera (i.e., the History Faculty Library).
I studied Geography at Lancaster University, during which I completed a placement year. A career in libraries has appealed to me for a long time, but it wasn’t until I graduated that I began to seriously consider it. Up until now, the extent of my experience in libraries is volunteering one hour a week at my sixth form college library, so I was somewhat hesitant to apply to the traineeship.
Over the years, I’ve worked in a variety of administrative and customer-focused roles, and I graduated with a whole host of technical and transferrable skills. I developed a particular interest in data and knowledge management. The only question was how to bring all of that together. Enter: the Bodleian Libraries Graduate Trainee scheme.
While there has been a lot of information to absorb (and a few trials by fire), my first month has flown by. There are some major changes taking place, so it’s an exciting time to be working at the Bodleian. Working on the Main Enquiries Desk three days a week gives me the opportunity to engage with readers and exercise my problem-solving skills. It’s varied work and you never stop learning. Can’t wait to see what chaos awaits in Michaelmas!
Olly Marshall – Art, Archaeology and Ancient World Library
Hello- I’m Olly and I’m the new trainee in the Art, Archaeology and Ancient World Library (better known simply as Art).
My background doesn’t lie in art, archaeology OR the ancient world, but in environmental science; I graduated this summer from the University of the West of England with my BSc. In my final year I wrote my dissertation on how coal has been represented in British art and I developed an interest in art history and criticism through that.
Other than briefly volunteering in a public library for my bronze Duke of Edinburgh award (which I did not complete…) my only experience in libraries is as a reader. Last summer I did an internship at Kew Gardens Herbarium re-curating the fern specimen collection, and learnt a lot about classification systems, considering users when managing collections and I made good use of the amazing library in the herbarium! Here someone suggested to me that I consider a career in libraries and I liked the idea a lot.
It’s early days in my traineeship and I’ve already learnt so much! I’ve issued, returned and shelved a lot of books, helped a lot of readers find items in our confusing classification systems, made new book displays, completed some minor book repairs, traversed many flights of stairs and become very distracted by our collections – this happens most in our second-floor art collections and ancient coin materials in the Haverfield Room. I also swap with Jules to work in the Taylor Institute Library a few times a week, because I can’t get enough of confusing collections and stairs.
I’ve really enjoyed getting to know the wonderful team here in the humanities libraries and I’m looking forward to the rest of my year- though nervous for the chaos of the start of Michaelmas!
Jules McGee-Russell – The Taylor Institution Library
Hello world (and future trainees probably reading this blog)! I’m Jules, my pronouns are they/them, and I’m the trainee this year at the Taylor Institution Library.
I graduated from Newcastle University with a Combined Honours degree in English Literature, Spanish and Latin American Studies, and Chinese in 2021 – which feels like forever ago! I graduated thinking I’d go into journalism, publishing, or marketing, and completely wasn’t expecting to fall in love with library work.
I first volunteered in my college library during A-Levels for my silver DofE award, but in 2023 I found myself a casual job in the library I visited weekly as a child. Working in public libraries completely shifted my career goals, and I found a true passion! Two years later, I had worked in six libraries across West Sussex, from a small lone-working library to the second largest in the county. I decided I wanted to become a librarian.
Many google searches later, I came across this blog, and the Graduate Trainee programme here at the Bodleian libraries. I was thrilled to accept the position here at the Taylor, the exact library I had put on my vision board months before.
I’m still finding my feet within the Oxford University system – it has only been a few weeks after all! Things work very differently here to public libraries (what is a Michaelmas and why does it have a week -1?). The Taylor is two beautiful buildings mushed together, with the spiral staircases to match. It also has a plethora of both old classifications and newer Library of Congress classification all in the same places. At the moment, I’m looking forward to shadowing the Assessment Team, and getting my teeth into my own project over the course of the year – if I can get through student inductions that is!
This is the fourth and final post in our series on the 2025 Trainee Showcase. If you missed the previous three posts, you can find them directly below this one!
Jake Banyard – Improving user access: wayfinding and resource signposting at Teddy Hall
Written by Millie Krantz
Jake’s trainee project tackled a problem intimately familiar to many library staff: how can we make libraries as approachable and intuitive as possible for readers?
Teddy Hall has a beautiful but imposing college library – it’s housed in the converted medieval church of St Peter-in-the-East and retains many original features like fifteenth-century stained glass. When libraries are in historic buildings that were built to intimidate and impress, readers can understandably have apprehensions about using the space, which poses a problem when we as library professionals want to welcome students in and encourage them to use our resources. In addition, the fact that it isn’t purpose-built means that it can be a bit of a maze, even to users who are familiar with academic libraries. Since it tends to be difficult to knock down medieval buildings just to make them easier to navigate, Jake has had to settle on improving accessibility by reworking the map, improving signage, and ensuring that accurate and up-to-date information is circulated on the college website.
Jake’s new and improved map and book-finding guide alongside an important member of staff
Jake’s improved maps take a seemingly simplistic approach, but one that is impressively pulled off: stripping out excess information while retaining and adding things that are actually useful. Anyone who has spent hours trying to rework their library’s map in Canva will understand how hard it can be to include as much useful information as possible without everything becoming visually overwhelming, but Jake’s tactic of splitting up and naming the different sections makes navigation much easier. Jake’s use of icons to indicate amenities not only makes it easier for students to look up where their section might be in the library, but also provides a common language of locations so that giving directions becomes easier, and represents the amenities in a visually different way to reduce the amount of clutter on the map. Furthermore, the maps provide an idea of the building’s actual layout and structure in order to help students navigate their way to the books rather than getting stuck at dead-ends. Jake has made sure to display the map at points where students would need it, alongside other useful resources, like a basic guide to using SOLO. On top of this, his map is designed to function in tandem with improved signage that indicates where study and accessibility aids can be found, improving wayfinding in general.
Webpages and social media are also important ways of helping students use our services easily, especially in college libraries that remain open outside of staff hours. Jake’s useful updates to the Teddy Hall websites ensure that students have easy access to information about printing and accessibility aids, and that various different pages are better linked, enabling students to be more independent and confident in their library usage. Jake also made several posts on Teddy Hall Library’s Instagram explaining what the library has to offer; this direct social media outreach provides an invaluable counterpart to the wayfinding and signage improvements inside the library.
All in all, Jake has planned and executed a number of highly useful improvements to Teddy Hall’s reader provisions, ensuring that the library will better serve the needs of students and that they will get more out of everything the library can offer them.
Hannah Richmond – Data, displays and digital support: my year in review
Written by Ash Lammers
Hannah’s presentation took us through her three main projects this year, which are paradigmatic of the various ways in which we as trainees make lasting impacts on our libraries.
Shortly after Michaelmas started, Hannah set out to collect and analyse data from the student induction tours that the Law Library runs for new (and returning) students. She aimed to make these tours more effective for staff and students in three key areas: engagement, satisfaction and workforce. For engagement recommendations, she reviewed keywords that appeared most often in positive feedback about the tours (helpful and informative, if you are wondering!), as well as collecting attendee numbers for each tour or induction session held by the library. By combining this data with the improvements suggested by attendees, she concluded that increasing the awareness of inductions among students would be useful to make sure that all who might benefit from an induction could attend, and to increase satisfaction among those already attending. For workforce recommendations, Hannah collated a spreadsheet which compared the number of staff members involved in giving the induction and tours, and came to the conclusion that a reduction in the number of tours/inductions given would be beneficial for both staff workload and student engagement. Naturally, this data came presented beautifully in highly readable pie charts, spreadsheets and diagrams – what’s not to love?
A second project that accompanied her all throughout the year was the setup of the themed book displays in the Law Library. By curating themed displays for events such as Black History Month and Disability History Month, Hannah was able to highlight the diversity of the law collection and specific intersections of marginalised identities with the law. If you are interested in Hannah’s process, our earlier Disability History Month blog post features some examples from not only the Law Library’s display, but also the Social Science Library and New College Library. While it is widely known that trainees’ hopes of books being taken off the display and read typically remain but a distant dream, Hannah noted significant interest in readers walking past, who would stop to browse.
Her final project involved recording three bitesize videos on Panopto, in which she took students through the basic steps of how to access digital support materials to assist them in their studies while at Oxford. These videos are currently available online, and will hopefully help many more students in the years to come.
Lilly Wilcox – Fresco: managing web archiving in preparation for the move away from Oxford Mosaic
Written by Elena Brearley
Over the course of the year, Lilly has presented on a few occasions about her work as a Digital Archivist, and each time I have been so impressed by her knowledge and passion for the subject. On the day of the showcase, she explained to us that University IT services are currently transitioning from the web publishing platform Mosaic to the new platform, Fresco. Lilly told us how her work as a Graduate Trainee Digital Archivist working with the Bodleian Libraries Web Archive (BLWA) has been impacted by this change.
To begin with, Lilly confronted us with an intriguing question: ‘Why archive the Web?’. She argued that we should archive the web for the same reason we archive any other kind of material: web archives have legal and evidential value as well as cultural, social, and historical importance. They are a significant resource for research, including for use in data sets.
Lilly introduced us to some key tools and programmes that web archivists use to do their work. An important tool for web archiving is a ‘web crawler’, which is an automated bot that ‘crawls’ and browses through the internet, capturing and archiving websites as it goes. Crawlers are used in other contexts too: Google uses them to find and bring together resources relevant to a search, and AI companies use them to scrape information to feed to Large Language Models.
Another key term for those such as myself who are new to learning about web archiving is ‘Seed URL’. Seed URLs function as a starting point for web crawlers to begin their journey working through and collecting data from a website. Web archivists can schedule crawlers to visit seed URLs at different points in time, and each captured version of the site is then saved to a WARC (Web ARChive) file. This means that past iterations of the site can be compared to the live version.
Bodleian Libraries Web Archive, which Lilly works on, was started in 2011 and is primarily focused on archiving University of Oxford websites. Until recently, these websites had been supported by the content management system Mosaic, a system which has posed some challenges to web archivists, including content frequently missing from captures due to being pulled through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).
With the transition from Mosaic to the new content management system Fresco, Lilly’s team had to quickly make some challenging decisions about which websites to document for the Bodleian Libraries Web Archive. With the limited time, resources and budget available to them before the migration took off, they appraised over 1000 sites and decided to begin archiving over 150 additional websites, mostly for lab groups, centres, institutes, and departments. As they were in this process, sites were already being removed, so they had to work quickly and ended up gathering an enormous amount of data.
Fresco is being rolled out to the university community slowly, so the BLWA team is still learning how archive-friendly Oxford Fresco will be. Lilly emphasised the importance of collaboration and communication with web archivists from the outset of projects such as this one and hoped that people might gain more awareness of web archiving when creating websites (including designing them to be crawler friendly).
Lilly closed with a profound message on the importance of digital archiving, especially in times of political change, pointing to the recent change in administration in the US earlier this year and the drastic changes to government websites that have ensued. A question from the audience prompted Lilly to talk further about the implications of AI crawlers and how some sites have banned crawlers altogether. Hopefully in the future site owners and web developers will be open to working with web archivists to allow permission for their crawlers to carry on their work of documenting the World Wide Web.
Lilly is an effective and persuasive advocate of Web Archiving. She has certainly given me new insight and perspective onto how impermanent and slippery the internet is, and how necessary it is to document its changes over time. I hope she continues to be a champion for this important work!
Gia Simmons – Working papers and a small ‘archive’
Written by Lilly Wilcox
Last but certainly not least, Gia Simmons gave us a look into some of the work that she has done this year on two unconventional collections at the Social Science Library: a small archive of papers from the former International Development Centre Library and a large donation of working papers from the University of Bradford. For her project, she helped the SSL make steps toward understanding the makeup of these collections, where they belong, and how to make them accessible in future.
The International Development Centre Library was originally based at Queen Elizabeth House, home to the Department of International Development. This collection of papers came into being from a precursor to the IDC called the Agricultural Economics Research Institute and was created between ca. 1900–1980s. The papers were eventually inherited in 2005 when the contents of the International Development Centre Library moved into the SSL. Because of the complicated chain of custody and time that passed between when the papers were created, acquired by the SSL, and when Gia began looking at them, it had become unclear what the collection comprised.
In this larger collection from the International Development Library, Gia discovered a series of papers from the House of Lords for which the SSL had no record of the contents. The four boxes of material comprise miscellaneous papers relating to the creation of the 20th Report of the select committee on the European community’s agriculture and the environment during parliamentary sessions from 1983–1984. These made their way into the archives through a former Oxford Lecturer in Agricultural Economics, Dr Rosemary Fennell, who served as an advisor to the committee and deposited the papers with Queen Elizabeth House. Gia documented the different archival material in the boxes, taking note of their titles, creators, publishers, and dates of creation, as well as the mysterious set of codes with which the documents were labelled. Equipped with a new understanding of what is in the collection, the SSL is now looking for an archive with which to deposit these papers so they can be made accessible for research.
The second collection was a donation of working papers relating to international development donated to the Bodleian by the University of Bradford, which is weeding their collections. To integrate this donated material with existing SSL collections, Gia researched the full institution names and series names behind the working papers (which weren’t always evident from existing records and the material) to determine whether that series and its papers were already held by the SSL. With this information she was able to either match the material up with an existing shelfmark and barcode them for physical processing, or work toward creating shelfmarks and records for materials that were completely new to the SSL collections.
Gia’s presentation was a fascinating look into the sometimes-unconventional ways that our libraries acquire new material and the massive amount of work that is required to understand and make available these acquisitions.
And Finally, Our Farewell
Sadly, with this post, our time as the 2024-2025 graduate trainees has come to an end. We want to thank all of you who supported us, read our blog posts, or simply put up with us as we tried to make sense of the wacky world of the University of Oxford libraries. Hopefully we will see you all again, but if not…
This is the third of a four-part series of presentation summaries for the 2025 Trainee Showcase. If you missed the previous posts, you can find them directly below this one!
Ash Lammers – From reclassification to Hebrew manuscripts: a tour through my trainee year
Written by Hannah Richmond
Choosing to present on three medium-sized projects rather than one larger one, Ash took us through a busy year of reclassifying sections of Jesus College’s collections, enhancing catalogue records for Hebrew manuscripts and rare books, and starting a book club alongside the college EDI Officer.
Having identified the use of dated and often inaccurate terms being used within the library’s collections, Ash began to reclassify these sections in the hopes of providing a more up to date and browsable collection with a reduced use of colonialist terms. They aimed to achieve this through the following steps:
Dividing larger categories into two or three smaller ones (e.g. dividing Philosophy into 20th and 21st Century Philosophy)
Removing English as a default language
Creating separate sections for certain subjects (e.g. History of Gender and Sexuality, Drama).
For the library’s Asian History section, Ash confronted dated Eurocentric language and inconsistencies between this section and others in the collections. They made the decision to divide this section by geographical region rather than by time period due to the geographical scope. This resulted in separate subdivisions for South Asia, South East Asia, Middle East, East and Central Asia, and Oceania.
Similar to the above, Ash also reclassified the African History section in an attempt to address the perpetuation of colonialist impact and to more accurately reflect the true complexity of African history. For this they settled on reclassification by time period, dividing them by colonial and post-colonial events.
To add to their already impressive and impactful efforts, Ash will be spending the summer months reclassifying the approximately 9000 items that form the Celtic library.
An example of the manuscripts Ash was working on
Ash then took us through their second project improving current catalogue records for various Hebrew manuscripts, including copies of the Torah and Haftarah housed at the Weston. Ash is currently adding corrections and additions, hoping to increase the discoverability and knowledge of these items. They also tackled two poorly catalogued Hebrew books, transcribing and translating colophons and title pages in order to extract publishing details.
To round off, Ash brought up their book club, which they created alongside the college’s EDI Officer. The group meets termly to discuss books with significant diversity representation or themes. It has gained positive feedback thus far and Ash is hoping to continue it during the upcoming Michaelmas term.
Lindsey Evans – A dive into archives and digitisation
Written by Harry Whattoff
In her presentation, Lindsey spoke about the process of creating a Taylor Edition using an item from the Fiedler Archive at the Taylor Institution Library. For those who are unfamiliar with Taylor Editions, these are essentially texts or images from the Taylor Library’s collections which have been digitised by the Medieval and Modern Languages Faculty, the wider digital scholarship community here at Oxford, or, as in this case, by library staff such as Lindsey!
To begin her presentation, Lindsey shed some light on the Fiedler Archive and its namesake. Hermann Georg Fiedler (1862-1945) was a renowned German scholar and Chair of Oxford University’s German department from 1907 to 1937. He was also a tutor to the Prince of Wales – later to be King Edward VIII before his eventual abdication – and the two kept in touch for many years. In fact, after Fiedler supervised the extension of the Taylor Library, it was the Prince of Wales who reopened it in 1932. As for the archive, Lindsey noted how its expansive contents are mostly uncatalogued and tend to illustrate Fiedler’s complicated relationship with and feelings towards World Wars I and II.
In terms of choosing a text to be digitised, Lindsey outlined a clear approach: assessing the archive contents, carrying out complementary research, and calculating the potential project scope against the time available to undertake it. For the project to be manageable, the item which Lindsey chose had to be suitable in length and complexity, relevant to the Taylor’s wider collections, and out of copyright. As such, she settled on a copy of The Oxford Cosmopolitan from 1908 which details a lecture Fiedler gave on World Literature on February 25th of that year.
The process of creating the Taylor Edition had six main steps: to scan the source text, transcribe, encode in XML, check quality, fix any issues, and publish. Lindsey mentioned that she had not had much prior experiencing of XML encoding, so it did take a little while to acclimate to it. In terms of fixing any issues, this involved clarifying any ambiguities in the text, changing misspellings of Fielder’s name, and integrating links to external sources for further context. The main outcome of the project is that the Taylor Edition has officially been published and can be seen on the Taylor Editions website. Furthermore, the extensive research and sources which Lindsey compiled over the course of the project is being handed over to the team at the Taylor. This ultimately will help contribute towards future goals to document the Fiedler archive more widely and assist in the potential creation of an online discovery tool for it.
Emma Brand – Trapped in the dungeon: reimagining art’s approach to damaged books
Written by Phoebe Lawson
Emma’s presentation this year was all about the dungeon. Until this year, I didn’t even know that the Art library had a dungeon. Apparently, ‘the dungeon’ refers to the Lower Ground Floor Office where, for many years, damaged books went, never to return.
Books had been pulled from the shelves for repairs and a spreadsheet, the perennial favourite of librarians everywhere, had been created to keep track of them. However, many of the books had ended up languishing in the dungeon for far too long. Enter: Emma. Emma’s project was to try to create better workflows and new resources concerning damaged books, and to try to raise staff and student awareness of book repairs so that the books might one day be released from the dungeon.
She started by organising the dungeon, sorting through the books to make everything flow better so that people could easily see what work needed to be done. Emma also created fancy new triage slips to make it easier to triage damage, new signage for the shelves, a whole new (and colour-coded) spreadsheet for book repairs, and a decision tree for people to identify types of book damage. She even created an ID booklet for recognising damage and, my personal favourite, the most adorable awareness posters.
Honestly, I was blown away by the amount of work Emma put into her project this year. Book damage is something which, as librarians, we come across quite often, but which we sometimes don’t know what to do about. I feel like her project has the potential to really help improve book repairs at Art (and maybe free the poor trapped books from the dungeon once and for all).
Emma: Graphic design is my passion Don’t eat books, kids!
Going forward, Emma is working to finish her ID booklet and other information sources, and continuing to implement her spreadsheet and slips across the Art library (and maybe a few others). At the end of her presentation, she offered to share her resources with anyone else who might want them and, to be honest, I hope people do take her up on that… if only so I can see her cool posters everywhere.
Personally, I really enjoyed Emma’s presentation. I loved the quality of the resources she produced, and I’m amazed by the sheer amount of work and effort that must have gone into her project this year. Also, in a day filled with many different spreadsheets, Emma’s colour-coded book repair spreadsheet remains my favourite. I think she’s done a fantastic job with her project and that it might very well have a major impact on how book repairs are handled at the Art library.
Zac Draysey – Building an LGBTQ+ History LibGuide
Written by Yasmeen Khan
Zac’s trainee project revolved around the creation of an LGBTQ+ History LibGuide – a daunting but necessary task that would help to promote the wealth of under-represented resources on this subject to the wider global research community.
Due to ever-growing academic interest in the topic of gender and sexuality, the staff of the History Faculty Library had been quietly working on the creation of an LGBTQ+ History LibGuide for a while. Zac’s arrival to the library thus came at the perfect time, and he was given the task of taking the project across the finish line.
As a research endeavour like this would be far too much for one person handle in such a short time, the team thought it wise to draw on the knowledge of the wider Oxford community by having Zac host a history hackathon. The aim of this event was for participants to track down reputable, accessible, and free resources on LGBTQ+ history within a limited span of time. Each participant was sent a specification as to what kind of resources were acceptable for inclusion in an Oxford LibGuide and then were left to roam the internet in search of any and all relevant sites. The hackathon was a resounding success, with over 70 participants tracking down nearly 500 resources for further consideration.
From there, the task became only slightly less monumental, as Zac would have to research, vet, and categorise each of these resources while helping to create the LibGuide itself. Although this may sound straightforward, two major problems were quickly discovered.
The first of these problems was a matter of scope. Whilst the History Faculty Library had circulated guidance as to what constituted an ideal resource in the hackathon’s specification document, the reality of the resources found resulted in a variety of grey areas for Zac to grapple with. He pointed out, for example, the difficulty of determining what constituted ‘good’ or ‘reputable’ academic research when so much LGBTQ+ history has been passed down in ways that traditional academic practice is not equipped to handle.
The second of these issues surrounded the categories that had been chosen for the hackathon and LibGuide. Although certain topics were inundated with resource suggestions, others received little to no submissions despite the best efforts of the hackathon participants. Zac thus had to reconfigure the categories to create a more equal distribution of resources while not losing the variety that made the original range of categories valuable.
Despite the intimidating size of this task, Zac’s efforts have already resulted in a beta version of the LGBTQ+ History LibGuide being soft-launched on the Bodleian’s LibGuides platform. Just over half of the original resources had made it onto the LibGuide by the day of Zac’s trainee presentation – a testament to the incredible work of Zac, the History Faculty Library staff, and the hackathon participants.
This is the second of a four-part series of presentation summaries for the 2025 Trainee showcase. If you missed the previous post, you can find it directly below this one!
Gareth Smith – Uniomachia: a new Digital Edition in TEI XML
Written by Zac Draysey
The title page of Uniomachia
Gareth’s presentation was an engaging deep-dive into Uniomachia, a forgotten gem of comic classical parody unearthed during his traineeship at the Oxford Union Library. Drawing on his strong background in Classics and Ancient History, Gareth recounted his excitement upon discovering this obscure 1833 satirical poem written in a mix of Ancient Greek, Latin, and English. The poem, penned by Oxford students Thomas Jackson and William Sinclair, parodies Homeric epic to dramatize a real political schism within the Oxford Union, transforming an internal dispute into a mock-epic battle between ‘heroes.’ Gareth walked us through how the text not only imitates Homeric style but also includes absurd scholarly commentary in Latin, designed to mock academic pretensions.
Gareth’s project focused on producing a digital edition which aimed to make this otherwise inaccessible work available to a modern audience. His work involved producing a facsimile, transcription, English translation, and detailed commentary, all encoded for Taylor Editions. He illustrated the complexity of the task through a textual analysis of a passage from the poem that showed how deeply layered the satire is, touching on everything from Classical allusions to real Oxford figures like A.C. Tait, a future Archbishop of Canterbury. The audience got a glimpse of the wit embedded in the text and the scholarly humour behind the pseudo-critical notes. Gareth’s blend of insight and humour made for a fascinating presentation, and he ended with a playful farewell, echoing the spirit of the original text.
Kate Hanson – Adventures in digitization
Notes by Gia Simmons, written by Yasmeen Khan
As the graduate trainee based at Christ Church College, it was almost inevitable that Kate would end up interacting with the legacy of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (better known as Lewis Carroll). It was perhaps a little unexpected, however, when she was handed several hundred of his personal letters and asked to digitise them.
Those who know a little about Carroll will likely know that alongside being an author, mathematician, and photographer, he was also a prolific letter-writer – so prolific, in fact, that his logs show him sending and receiving 98,721 letters in the last 35 years of his life. Christ Church was fortunate enough to get their hands on some of these letters through an incredibly generous donation by Jon A. Lindseth, and they quickly realised that they needed to increase global access to these items whilst reducing the number of people physically handling them. Thus, it was decided that the best course of action would be to digitise as many of them as possible.
Kate’s photography set-up
In an act that mirrored one of Carroll’s own 19th century photography set-ups, Kate was equipped with an ad-hoc digitisation studio and banished to the attics of Christ Church to photograph each and every item in crisp detail. Her patient and detail-oriented work bore fruit, and Kate ended the project having successfully digitised 232 out of the original 235 items; unfortunately, the wear and tear of time meant that the remaining three items were too fragile for digitisation. In total, Kate took over 600 images of the books, photographs, letters, envelopes, slips, and pictures that make up the Jon A. Lindseth Collection. The project rounded out with a 24 GB file size, allowing viewers to examine the items in minute detail – Kate pointed out, for example, that it is possible to make out the grain of the paper in some photographs.
But these impressive results naturally came with a few difficulties. Kate had to quickly get to grips with the subtle art of digitisation while grappling with the reality of the material as she found it. Not only were many of the items completely different sizes (forcing her to deal with the havoc of adjusting the lighting and focus), but many had been attached to or tucked inside other items and had to be recorded as such in the photographic record.
Overall, Kate’s trainee project was a fascinating meeting-point between the 19th century and modern day. Although her prior lack of Carroll knowledge meant that she had to quickly come to terms with both his triumphs and controversies, she found that reading his personal letters humanised him immensely. Kate’s brilliant project will not only allow people to encounter the legendary Lewis Carroll, but to interact with the sometimes-overlooked Charles Dodgson. Her work over the course of this year will not only have a lasting impact on Christ Church, but the greater field of Carroll Studies as a whole.
Millie Krantz – Some men in Oxford: queer life at All Souls
Written by Jake Banyard
Millie’s valuable project explored a history of queer experience at All Souls College and the wider university that has often lacked visibility and attention.
The project culminated in the curation of an exhibition of Millie’s findings, and her presentation began with an examination of the role of exhibitions in a college environment. Exhibitions can provide useful opportunities for college libraries to encourage reader engagement and promote their collections, as well as providing justification for Librarians to carry out interesting research and get to know their collections better. Millie raised the interesting question of who exhibitions should be aimed at: academics, students, readers, or the public? In the context of All Souls, Millie also considered the wide range of library users in the college, from fellows using the significant early printed book collection, to law undergraduates and naval history researchers. Who of these would be interested in the exhibition? For Millie this project also served as a way to begin to answer that question.
Part of Millie’s exhibition
The focal point of the exhibition was the life and papers of John Sparrow. Made a fellow of All Souls in 1929, he remained so until his death in 1992 and served as the College’s Warden from 1952-1977. Sparrow lived through a time of great change in the lives of queer people in the UK and by using his papers (which were left to All Souls in his will) Millie’s exhibition presented an insight into Sparrow’s personal experience of the 20th century, and the experiences of those he knew and corresponded with.
Due to the nature of the materials exhibited, Millie’s project involved a certain amount of ‘crossing the floor’ from the realm of Library collections and delving into the College archive. Archival practice within Oxford colleges has historically often been haphazard and informal, which means that catalogues can be incomplete or that past sensitivity reviews (if they have been carried out at all) have led to overzealous access restrictions or a lack of any access restrictions whatsoever. These were problems Millie soon ran into: one box of the Sparrow material was restricted simply because, despite Sparrow’s sexuality being publicly known, it “concern[ed] homosexuality”. Fortunately, upon consultation with the College’s current archivists, the restrictions were altered, and Millie was able to access the material.
Perhaps therein lies a concrete example of the value of Millie’s work. Instead of remaining uncatalogued or behind restricted access, queer experience and history has been made more visible, and awareness of the existence of these kinds of collections has been promoted. Millie’s ideas for the future of the exhibition involve potentially creating a permanent digital version, a longer-running physical exhibition, or using the material for outreach purposes in the library – so watch this space!
Yasmeen Khan – The Rhodes less taken: approaches to ethical cataloguing in the former Rhodes House Library material
Written by Charlotte Edwards
Based in Resource Description, Yasmeen had the opportunity to navigate a unique and highly sensitive project. Years before her arrival, the department had received a collection of resources from the Rhodes House Library, mostly pertaining to 20th and 21st century African and Commonwealth Studies. As many of these items were completely uncatalogued, Yasmeen took on the task of getting as many of them onto the system through ethical cataloguing practice as she could.
Some of the Rhodes material
Due to the nature, content, and physical location of the material, Yasmeen had many things to consider when starting her project, such as:
A duty of care to readers – there are pictures, language, and references in these resources that can be distressing.
Library ethics – the material is not held in an ideal location at Osney, is not accessible to researchers, and has lots of confusing metadata that makes it difficult to catalogue.
The first step of Yasmeen’s project was learning to catalogue – not an easy feat! She then started experimenting with serials and monographs (both would be needed for the vast array of material she would encounter in this collection) and began researching ethical cataloguing, eventually pulling together a ‘Bodleian Cataloguing Code of Ethics’ based on her research.
Yasmeen’s real-life approach to cataloguing was not priority-based, as she proceeded in the order of what item was next on the pile. The records were full-level, the descriptive fields were left intact, and she altered subject headings if it was both necessary and possible. In a few cases, she also restricted access to items with graphic images – due to their nature, it was felt that these items should only be viewed in private areas in the reading rooms. An attendee asked Yasmeen at the end of her presentation how she herself dealt with the material she was seeing. Indeed, we often consider how a reader would react to the material, but not the staff encountering it. Yasmeen’s approach was to take time to be mentally prepared for what she might see, especially after being taken by surprise at the beginning. It was also beneficial that she would only work on this collection for a couple of hours per week and so could restrict her overall exposure.
There are limitations when cataloguing, especially when cataloguing a collection like this, and Yasmeen touched on her ‘Dream Approaches’ regarding ethical cataloguing. Ideally, rather than relying solely on individual cataloguers, ethical cataloguing would occur on multiple levels, such as having institutional cataloguing policies that are regularly reviewed to ensure alignment with ethical principles.
Due to the collection’s vastness, the comparatively low priority of the collection, and the lack of departmental guidelines on ethical cataloguing, the collection could not be fully catalogued by the end of Yasmeen’s traineeship. To combat this open-endedness, Yasmeen is proceeding to write a report for any future cataloguers who want to continue this well-thought out and important work.
Yasmeen’s presentation was a fascinating insight into the decisions that are made when cataloguing sensitive material, and as an audience member I found her presentation highly enlightening and engaging.
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