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Trainee Showcase 2026: Part 3

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Using Special Collections for Teaching

Amy, Christ Church Library

Written by Rebecca 

Engaging with special collections material often requires specialist skills, and the best way to acquire these is practical experience. Hands-on teaching is therefore central to undergraduates’ learning experience, building their confidence and preparing them for independent research. To pre-empt requests from tutors, Amy spent her traineeship planning displays carefully tailored to Prelims and Final Honours Scheme (FHS) syllabi. 

 

The title page of 'The Starry Messenger', a seventeenth-century tract written to interpret a recent astronomical phenomenon.
The Starry Messenger, William Lilly, Wellcome Collection, CC PDM 1.0. 

Christ Church Library caters to many disciplines but is particularly well-placed to support humanities subjects. Amy began by identifying modules across four subjects (History, English, Music, and Geography) where special collections formed a component of undergraduate studies. For each selected module, she created a longlist of potentially relevant works, selected ones that were suitable for teaching, and wrote up new captions where needed (88 in total!). In the process, she unearthed various treasures, including The Wonderful Discoverie of the Witchcrafts of Margaret and Phillip and The Starry Messenger (pictured). 

After surveying the selected items, she was able to finalise plans for thirteen displays. Each corresponded to a module, such as ‘The Scientific Movement in the 17th Century’ (BA History FHS Special Subject), ‘The Renaissance Madrigal’ (BA Music FHS), or ‘Historical Geography’ (BA Geography Prelims and FHS). These featured include items on faculty reading lists, works by named authors, and other potentially relevant items. For example, for ‘Gender and Protestant Cultures in England, 1558-1659’, Amy selected a mid-16th century manuscript copy of Katherine Parr’s Prayers or Meditations. This is the first work ever published by an English woman under her own name! 

Amy’s hard work has produced a valuable set of resources that serve as a blueprint for future work (should any future trainees want to pick up where she left off). The displays will hopefully inspire both tutors and undergraduates to explore Christ Church’s overlooked collections. 

Meinen lieben Eltern!: Cataloguing 155 Doctoral Theses (in German, French, Spanish, and Dutch)

Gemma, Law Library

Written by Amy Fry

Gemma’s project involved creating and updating catalogue records for a collection of antique legal theses in the Law Library. There are 14450 foreign theses at the library dating from the 1850s to the 1930s and mostly in French and German, which can currently be browsed by going onto their website and using the ‘Search foreign dissertations’ page. These items are taking up a lot of space, but before they are sent to the Collections Storage Facility (CSF) for off-site housing, they need to be properly catalogued. Gemma identified that there were over 100 records that had insufficient data to allow for CSF processing. 

A photo of a catalogue record for these theses with generic sample text filled in.
A blank example of the Alma record that Gemma was creating.

Thus, her task was to locate all of the missing data, by examining the items herself, and then to add it to the catalogue entry on Alma, our Library Management System. 

However, the task was not without its challenges. These dissertations are not in English, so Gemma had to stretch herself to work in languages in which she was not fluent. Further, she had to assign the theses subject areas, a very important aspect of cataloguing that allows for a better browsing experience, but, as many cataloguers would tell you, a surprisingly tricky one. In total, she catalogued 155, and succeeded in refining the catalogue by eliminating duplicate entries and existing errors in the entry fields.

Gemma showed us some highlights that she had found when assessing the theses. These involved touching dedications to parents and siblings, some of which show their era with marks of respect to those who died in the First World War.

Page saying, in French, "In memory of my dear brother Emile le Corre, law student, Sergeant in the 91st Infantry regiment, killed in action on 20th October 1917, awarded the Croix de Guerre with palm, mentioned in dispatches by the Sixth Army in the following terms: “On 7th October 1916, he bravely captured a German machine gun battery, turned it around and used it to our advantage. He left the lines carrying this machine gun under fire and brought it back to the rear.” 
In memory of my dear brother Emile le Corre, law student, Sergeant in the 91st Infantry regiment, killed in action on 20th October 1917, awarded the Croix de Guerre with palm, mentioned in dispatches by the Sixth Army in the following terms: “On 7th October 1916, he bravely captured a German machine gun battery, turned it around and used it to our advantage. He left the lines carrying this machine gun under fire and brought it back to the rear.” 
Photograph of the title: MEINEN LIEBEN ELTERN! Translated to English To my dear parents.
To my dear parents 

Another fascinating discovery was seeing evidence of students who had travelled far to make their studies possible: students from Greece to Germany, from Japan to France.

Photograph of the title "Dr Georg-August-Universität zu Göttingen vorgelegt von Agis P. Tambacopoulos aus Athen." Translated to English: Submitted to the Georg August University of Göttingen by Agis P. Tambacopoulos from Athens.
Submitted to the Georg August University of Göttingen by Agis P. Tambacopoulos from Athens

Looking to the future, there is scope to develop what this project started, by cataloguing the non-dissertations and creating more records, before the move to the CSF.  

Gemma’s project was really interesting for a variety of reasons. Firstly, from a nerdier library perspective, it demonstrated the importance of proper cataloguing in order to make items both searchable, and to enable them to be more effectively housed offsite. However, it also reminded us of the human side of libraries and the items that they hold, with the moving familial dedications and the evidence of life behind academia. 

The Many Books of the Bennigsen Donation and How to Process Them 

Summer, Social Science Library 

Written by Summer Mainstone-Cotton

I had the dubious honour of being the only trainee this year who didn’t present at the showcase, the consequence of leaving the trainee programme at the end of May for permanent employment with the Bodleian. As such, I thought I’d take the opportunity to detail my trainee project here instead: 

Back in the spring of 2025, a donor got in touch with the Bodleian regarding his late wife’s book collection. His wife, Marie Bennigsen-Broxup, was an expert on the Caucasus and Central Asia, particularly on Muslim resistance within the former Soviet Union. Her collection consequently contained a wealth of rare and potentially invaluable material for the Bodleian’s collections. There was, however, one small problem: the collection contained more than 70 shelves of books and journals, with plenty of material that was not relevant to the Bodleian. Rather than transporting around 1,700 books to the Social Science Library (SSL) and sorting through them there, the subject librarian for Slavonic and East European Studies travelled to the donor’s house and photographed the shelves. This meant that the collection could be assessed digitally before deciding which books were worth bringing back to the library. However, the process of sorting through hundreds of images of books (264 photos were taken) and transcribing all legible bibliographic data is a long and arduous task, and so the images were left to collect digital dust until someone had too much time on their hands.

Jump forward to November 2025, where I was firmly settled into my trainee role at the SSL and needed a project, the perfect opportunity for this project to land on my desk. Luckily, I only had to work on the texts that were written in Latin script, as my Cyrillic is non-existent. Over the course of about three months (minus time for Christmas), I carefully trawled through the photographs, noting down any information on the title, author, publisher, place of publication, date of publication, ISBN, and any notable physical descriptions of the texts. While this task was mostly straightforward, it did involve some investigative elements – quite a few of the spines were only partially legible due to lighting, wear and tear. For example, I may have had only the author’s surname and a publisher to go on when trying to identify a text. Once I had enough information to determine the text, I would then check to see if it was listed on SOLO and already part of the Bodleian’s collections.

A shelf full of potential donations which needed sorting.
An example of the photos I was working from

While I know little about this subject area, some of the texts chosen seem obviously relevant just from their titles, such as Muslim Eurasia: Conflicting Legacies and The Soviet Empire: A Study in Discrimination. Notably, we did not take Delia’s Complete Cookery Course or Slow Cooker Favourites from the offered collection, but don’t worry, I have checked and both of these titles are already in the Bodleian Libraries’ collection. 

…and with that, we’re done!

Unfortunately this is our last post as trainees before we scatter to new roles, within Oxford and beyond. Thank you to everyone who’s supported us as we found our feet within libraries, and especially thank you to anyone still reading; it’s nice to think we’re not posting into the void! Huge congratulations to the new trainees who’ll be starting soon – we hope this won’t be the last you see of us, but in case it is, good luck and we hope you have a fantastic year.

Somewhere the library has every book ever written, that will ever be written, and, notably, every book that it is possible to write. These are not on the public shelves lest untrained browsing cause the collapse of everything that is possible to imagine.

Terry Pratchett, Going Postal
The 2025/26 trainees, in the Divinity School.
Goodbye!

Trainee Showcase 2026: Part 2

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Working With Livres d’Artiste: a Tale of Creative Outreach and Organising

Jules, Taylor Institution Library

Written by Heidi Cruft

Jules presents to a group of poets and artists, at the Weston Library. Special collection items from the Strachan Collection and the Weston's collections are laid out on the table.
Jules introducing local poets and artists to special collections on the ‘Myths, Beasts, Artist’s Books’ creative outreach day

Jules’ project involved organising a creative workshop and exhibition for the Strachan Collection, a selection of livres d’artiste currently housed in the Art, Archaeology and Ancient World Library. Throughout their presentation, Jules’ enthusiasm for both creative outreach and special collections really shone through, and I will try my best to do their attitude justice here! 

Although Jules organised several events related to the collection, including a staff taster session and a show-and-tell for French and History of Art students, the centre of their project for me was the workshop: Myths, Beasts, Artist’s Books. Bringing local poets and artists together with the Strachan Collection, the day was divided between an introduction to the special items and a collaborative creation session. By the end of the day, the group had created five artist’s books inspired by the collection, and some participants went on to attend a letterpress workshop to produce colophons for their finished books. 

three groups of poets and artists work together on their creative pieces. They are all painting, talking, drawing, or writing, on a busy table cluttered with creative detritis.
Poets and artists creating their responses during ‘Myths, Beasts, Artist’s Books’

What impressed me most was just how much behind-the-scenes organisation and collaboration with colleagues from different departments had gone into making the workshop a success. Everything from setting up the space to figuring out how to reach potential attendees had to be arranged beforehand, not to mention the design of an evaluation survey to understand participant experiences. This survey was invaluable for proving the positive impact of the workshop, with 78% of respondents rating the event as “above expectations” and 100% saying that this was their first time attending an event like this. 

A photo of half of one of the display cases used for the exhibition in the Voltaire Room. It shows a zine bestiary, half unfolded. Below, are photos of the making process, an image of a livre d'artiste that inspired them, and the group's letterpress colophon.
Part of the display in the Voltaire Room

To showcase participant efforts, the project did not end with the workshop. Instead, the five collaborative artist’s books were first displayed at the Bodleian Bibliographical Press during Oxfordshire Artweeks, before being exhibited alongside selected items from the Strachan Collection for two weeks in the Voltaire Room of the Taylorian. Displaying the collection required extensive planning, including preventative conservation measures to ensure that the light-sensitive materials could be displayed safely. 

Alongside the public-facing aspects, the project also had a positive impact on how the Strachan Collection is organised and housed. Jules’ review of the collection, which included reuniting missing parts of 37 items, gathering information to catalogue 60 previously-uncatalogued items, and improving the labelling and retrieval process, has helped make these artist’s books more accessible for future researchers and outreach projects alike. 

Overall, I really enjoyed hearing about Jules’ project. It demonstrated their ability to organise complicated events and bring people together around a shared interest, which are skills that will serve them well as they move beyond the traineeship. I also believe the project highlights the potential of creative outreach within the Oxford community and has enormous potential to inspire similar projects in the future. Already there are plans to hold another show-and-tell session next year, and potentially another creative outreach event, making me excited to see the project continue to grow! 

An artist making a sketch from some of the livres d'artiste on display
three artists working together on their creative response, in the Bibliographical Press

“Pieces of Wisdom” in the Pierre Wack Memorial Library

Heidi, Sainsbury Library

Written by Leah Duffin

Heidi’s project centred around cataloguing the fascinating collection of the Pierre Wack Memorial Library. The collection consists of the professional archive of the Shell executive and scenario planning pioneer Pierre Wack (1922–1997). Heidi opened her presentation with a brief overview of how the collection came to Oxford, detailing its journey from the Global Business Network offices in The Hague to its donation to Green Templeton College in 2005. Today it forms part of the Oxford Futures Library and is held at the CSF.  

This project was well planned and meticulous executed. Along with her colleagues at the Sainsbury Library, Heidi has spent the last few months sifting through this vast collection, discovering intriguing documents, and cataloguing the items for ease of navigation. Heidi outlined her task of standardising and expanding the existing catalogue as well as identifying missing items and those in need of conservation intervention—a vital part of collection management.  

In her presentation, Heidi explained the scope of the 2,000 item collection through an accessible chart, revealing that the portion of catalogued items was made up of reports (27%), journals (19%), magazines (11%), and correspondence (6%), with the rest of the collection given over to conference notes, presentations, graphs, newsletters, drafts, and books.

Heidi spoke about the Pierre Wack Memorial Library with such enthusiasm and took us on a journey of the collection highlights. These included an article from The Financial Times detailing the establishment of the business schools in Oxford and Cambridge.

In addition, the newspaper and magazine holdings revealed advertisements that defined 20th century consumer culture, including graphics centred around domestic family ideals and a rather humorous diamond advert. Such materials are essential to understanding how diamond companies like De Beers have developed their advertising strategies over time, embracing stereotypes as well as challenging them. 

Heidi was inspired by Pierre Wack’s commitment to his work and variety of the collection. This is reflected in her choice of title: ‘Pieces of Wisdom’. Wack’s handwritten notes detail the finer points of scenario planning, cognition, and business strategy as well as some motivational quotes . . .  Heidi’s diligence over the year has been invaluable, with the cataloguing project about 70% complete—a great result for both Heidi and the team at the Sainsbury library.

The materials in the Pierre Wack Memorial Library will become increasingly more accessible for students and researchers interested in scenario planning, economic and social history, and the legacy of the remarkable Pierre Wack. 

Suggested Further Reading: 

Kleiner, Art, “The Man Who Saw The Future.” Strategy Business, February 12, 2003, https://www.strategy-business.com/article/8220 

Oxford Futures Library. “Pierre Wack Memorial Library.” Accessed July 29, 2026. https://oxfordfutures.sbs.ox.ac.uk/ 

Haverfield Hijinks: Auditing an Overflowing Collection 

Olly, Art, Archaeology and Ancient World Library 

Written by Gemma Hammond

Olly’s presentation focused on his attempts to solve the various problems posed by the Haverfield Room in the Art Library. The Haverfield Room, located just off the main Ground Floor reading room and named after Francis Haverfield (Camden Professor of Ancient History at Oxford in the early 20th century), contains an open shelf collection that includes books on numismatics (the study of coins), coin catalogues, museum bulletins, auction catalogues, and periodicals from most of the library’s subject areas.

However, there’s also other books stored in the room which have not been looked at for a while and a lot of overflow, with periodicals or bulletins now continuing their sequence on trolleys or stacked on top of each other on the shelves – and the room itself is not getting any bigger! The library has done its best to keep everything organised but it’s been a (growing) problem for a number of years. 

Olly’s plan was to get a better grasp of the situation by identifying what the problems were and the scale of them, and then to look at potential solutions. He undertook an audit of some little-used folios at the very back of the room, where he found that 103 of them belonged to the Art Library but 142 actually belonged to the Oxfordshire Architectural and Historical Society which had stored them there some time ago. Olly said he’d been fascinated by the variety of topics covered by these folios, particularly the coins, but also ceremonial coats of arms, maps, and architectural drawings.  

The overflowing journals posed the biggest problem because many runs had not been fully itemised and before they could go to the Bodleian Offsite Storage Facility to create some much-needed space they would need to be barcoded and have an item record on the system.

Olly used a lot of spreadsheets to narrow down which journal runs should be prioritised for this treatment and as a next step he created instructions and a spreadsheet for library staff to physically check the shelves and collect data on which journal runs are currently taking up the most space. He then made use of an itemisation entry form designed for staff to input data about a journal item. The data can then be fed into OLIS to create a record on the system, hugely simplifying the process of itemising. However, Olly also pointed out problems that might come up during this process, such as journals changing their names or having previously been recorded in the system under different names.

Screenshot of Olly's itemisation entry form used to enter journal details, including library, location, title, volume, issue, date, range, language, and notes fields.

The plan is that library staff will continue with the tasks of measuring shelf space and then itemising the journals, meaning that a lot of material can then be sent offsite but still be easily findable, while the Haverfield Room will be a lot more user-friendly.

I really enjoyed Olly’s presentation and admire him for getting stuck into such a huge task and making progress on taming the chaos of the Haverfield Room! The journal itemising in particular clearly took a lot of work and it’s impressive that he’s come up with detailed and methodical long-term solutions that will hopefully be continued and built on in the future.

Trainee Showcase 2026: Part 1

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If you’ve read previous blog posts, you might have seen us mentioning our trainee projects at various points. As an Oxford trainee you have the chance to take on a personal project outside your regular duties to help you explore different parts of library work and leave your mark on the Bodleian. This all leads to the Graduate Trainee Showcase at the end of the year, where you get to present your work and explain what you’ve been doing to a captive audience of librarians and colleagues.

The showcase this year was held at Christ Church College and organised by fellow trainees Heidi, Rebecca, Jules, and Amy – huge thanks to them for their planning and effort (and for some last minute tech fixes). Over the next month we’ll be posting short summaries of our projects and presentations for anyone who couldn’t make it. Writing about our own work is too easy though, so we’ve each picked someone else’s project to talk about. Now to get us started, here’s some Royal Regalia, medical paraphernalia, and a whole lot of library data. Enjoy!

Promoting Special Collections at New College Library & Archives

Leah, New College Library

Written by Catherine Birch

Leah’s project involved designing an exhibition to promote New College Library’s incredible special collections. Having had the chance to see her exhibition in-person, I thought it looked incredible, but I’d had no idea just how much work had gone into it over the year! 

Leah started by giving us some background on New College’s special collections, which house an astounding 384 historic manuscripts and over 30,000 rare books. Having specialised in medieval royalty and diplomacy during her MA, she wanted to highlight the wealth of royal history in the collection and work to improve public engagement with them. Identifying materials for display involved endless SOLO searching, trawling through various handlists, and consulting various colleagues, as well as every librarian’s secret weapon… a huge spreadsheet. Deciding which items to use in an exhibition is a very involved process, as Leah explained – you have to consider display space, transport logistics, and item condition before you even get into issues like audience interest and the exhibition theme. Having narrowed down which items she could practically include and which were most relevant to the topic, she picked her final items based on one key rule: are they fabulous?  

From there she wrote item captions and labels, proofread them, proofread them again (those pesky oxford commas…), and got to work producing promotional material. Some of this material included posters, banners, booklets, and postcards, which looked great and were very nice to keep as souvenirs. Leah also promoted the exhibition through social media, university mailing lists, local news pages, and word of mouth, trying to reach library staff, students, and the public in equal measure. Her hard work definitely paid off, as they had over 150 visitors, making it the most successful exhibition of the year! Leah herself was on hand to answer any questions and talk to visitors, which was a nice touch that really improved engagement and interest (as did the free refreshments next door).  

Even though the exhibition has finished, Leah is far from done getting people interested in New College Library’s special collections. She’s already planned an article about representations of King David in medieval manuscripts for an upcoming issue of New College Notes (the college’s scholarly journal), and she’s supporting a Curator’s Choice video highlighting a book published in 1687 to mark the coronation of James II. It was really interesting getting to see the full process of putting together an exhibition, and her display shone a spotlight on the sort of books and manuscripts that most librarians relish working with. 

A poster for the exhibition 'Royal Regalia: Signatures, Statecraft, and Sovereignty' at New College. The background has been made to look like a manuscript covered in cursive middle english. The foreground contains the date and location of the exhibition along with some images of items from the collection.

HML Grey Literature: Part II

Catherine, Bodleian Library (History Faculty Library)

Written by Olly Marshall

Catherine’s project revolved around a collection of grey literature from the History of Medicine Library, picking up the baton and expanding on the work done by previous HFL trainee Xanthe.  

Catherine first explained to us the complicated past of the HML, occupying a site on Banbury Road but being under the stewardship of the Radcliffe Camera, with most of the material having now moved to the Humanities Library at the Schwarzman Centre and some of it being stored in our offsite storage facility. This is fairly standard for a lot of collections in the Bodleian- everything has been moved between many libraries and has had many different names.  

The “grey literature” in question is far more interesting than the name suggest- it’s a mix of material produced by various medical institutions, but not controlled by a traditional commercial publisher like a book or journal article is. The HML collection includes a lot of organisational reports, speeches, statistics, training guides, public health pamphlets and other miscellaneous material important to understanding the history of healthcare and the work of significant institutions and professionals in the field.  

The bulk of Catherine’s project involved going through 41 boxes of the material and creating handlists for them- a list describing each item in a box – to make the contents identifiable and discoverable to researchers.  

The grey literature Catherine has been working with is now housed offsite and involved many requests for it all to be called up, looking through the contents and picking out important information such as institutions, authors, date ranges, topics, formats and other useful information for locating the right resource. This was frequently made difficult by material being in foreign languages, being in odd formats, using antiquated language or being catalogued poorly. By doing thorough research into the items, using templates for how to describe the items, and like any seasoned librarian – expecting and accepting a certain amount of chaos – Catherine developed a good system for listing the boxes consistently. All together there were approximately 450 items to describe and list, which is an amazing amount to achieve over the year!  

The contents of the boxes will ultimately be published in a LibGuide that Catherine has been making to promote their use, make the collection navigable and link to boxes on SOLO for people to call them up from CSF. I was really impressed by the skills Catherine got to develop during her project and her methodical approach, and I thought that the collection sounds fascinating. Work like this is really important for ensuring library collections are accessible and available to use, and the efforts Catherine went through will benefit readers and library staff alike. 

Managing & Adapting to Change

Rebecca, Bodleian Library (Reader Services)

Written by Jules McGee-Russell

Rebecca’s presentation focused on her research into different changes happening in the Old Bod and wider changes across the library service. This included the new Extended Lending rules at the Bodleian, the digital shift towards eBooks and AI usage, and how these things connect to the Climate Emergency. 

Rebecca demonstrated her points using journalistic headlines over time, data from Freedom of Information Requests, and statistical forecasting she did herself using Python. The messages I took away were that there is a year-on-year decline in borrowing requests from readers in the Bodleian. Even though the lending rules have changed to allow some items to be loanable from the Old Bod, the number of annual requests to borrow physical books is decreasing. In contrast, the demand for eBooks is huge and ever-growing, as are the profits publishers are making from eBooks sales. 1/3 of students surveyed are, concerningly, reaching for AI over primary sources.  

A map generated by ChatGPT, colour coded according to which countries it believes are smarter. The general trend is that Europe, North America, East Asia, and Australasia are considered smartest, while Africa, South America, and the Middle East are considered the least smart. This is designed to highlight ChatGPT's racial bias and inherent inequality.
‘GPT Opinion Map‘. 1

ChatGPT has been shown to amplify global inequalities by making assumptions about geographical locations that are not supported by data. AI “makes mistakes and tells people what they want to hear” according to research at the Oxford Internet Institute, influencing search strategies and resource discovery. Using these search strategies can reduce the “serendipity” of discovery, and can also dramatically change how users are interacting with libraries. 

Rebecca questioned the transparency of publishers’ connections with fossil fuel companies, and how skyrocketing profits from eBook sales could be funding carbon emissions. There have been walkouts from journal editors protesting unethical fees for these eResources, and there is growing concern regarding the use of AI within publishing. Purchased goods and services made up 42% of Gardens, Libraries, and Museums (GLAM) emissions in 24/25, which may not even fully capture the scope of emissions related to library purchasing of eBooks and eResources. The effectiveness and integrity of climate pledges across publishing are also questionable – who is holding them to account, and who is measuring their success? 

I was incredibly impressed with Rebecca’s research, and so were several others in the room. She was asked to share her slides with senior members of staff, and will be repeating the presentation to wider university staff groups. A great success, and it really shows how interesting and relevant her work was. These are concerns and developments that affect us all, and I truly admired the effort she put into excavating and illustrating them. 

The presentation closed by recommending the university’s internal Carbon Literacy training module, which anyone can attend. There are certainly more steps to be taken both as individuals and as an institution to investigate and mitigate these impacts. This presentation is one that really stuck with me, and increased my awareness about how all these issues connect.  

1 Kerche, F. W., Zook, M., & Graham, M. (2026).The Silicon gaze: A typology of biases and inequality in LLMs through the lens of place. Platforms & Society, 3. https://doi.org/10.1177/29768624251408919 (Original work published 2026)

Further reading for anyone who wants to learn more:

‘Our British Aesculapius’: John Radcliffe and Oxford

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by Catherine Birch

Hello again! Sorry that the blog has gone a bit quiet in recent months – training took a pause while we supported all our busy readers through their exams and the end-of-year rush. We’ve all been working hard on the final stages of our projects, and we’ll soon have a couple of posts about our trainee showcase to share with you all! In the meantime, here’s a little local history lesson from the drafts to tide you over.

Since I moved to Oxford last year, it feels like I haven’t been able to escape the name Radcliffe. I work in the Radcliffe Camera, I get the bus to the John Radcliffe Hospital, I transfer books to the Radcliffe Science Library, and I walk past the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter on my lunch break strolls. It certainly seems like Radcliffe made the single greatest impact on Oxford since the city sprang up – but most people I ask just don’t know much about him. So, in true library fashion, I decided to start researching. Who exactly was Dr John Radcliffe, and why is half of Oxford dedicated to him?  

John Radcliffe was born c. 1650 in Wakefield, West Yorkshire. His origins weren’t humble: his father was an attorney, his mother’s family possessed “a considerable fortune”, and he had the benefit of being distantly related to the Earls of Derwentwater. However, it was Radcliffe’s brain that set him apart as a child. Local scholars, gentry, and clergy took note of his intelligence from a young age, advising his father to formally educate him rather than employing him in a trade or having him manage the estate. Radcliffe matriculated into University College in 1665, likely as a scholarship student, and immediately began making a name for himself.1 Records of his age vary, but it’s possible he started at Oxford when he was only 12!

Surrounded by other future scholars, reformers, and intellectual giants (think John Locke, Robert Boyle, and Christopher Wren), and with something to prove, he was all set to take Oxford by storm. He gained a series of degrees: a BA in 1669, an MA in 1672, an MB in 1675, and finally his MD in 1682. He was senior scholar at University College while attending and became a fellow at Lincoln College in 1670, lecturing in logic before he received license to practise medicine in 1675.   

The entrance to the Radcliffe Quad at University College, with a mounted statue of John Radcliffe above the doorway. The surrounding buildings are roughly 3-4 floors high, and are built out of light brown stone in an typical simple eighteenth-century style.
‘Radcliffe Quadrangle’ at University College, Oxford. A statue of Radcliffe overlooks the square.2

Despite lending his name to two current Oxford libraries, Radcliffe himself was not well-read. Preferring to learn through practical medicine and anatomisation, he rejected classical ideas he considered outdated and had little patience for theory. This reached the point that his peers accused him of illiteracy, and his tutors were genuinely surprised by how little he read. When Dr Bathurst (an academic at Trinity College) visited Radcliffe’s chambers, he reportedly stood in shock and had to ask Radcliffe where his study actually was. Never one to be outdone, Radcliffe pointed to a skeleton, a herbal, and some vials, and said “Sir, this is Radcliffe’s library”. Thankfully he changed his stance on books later in life, and our current Radcliffe libraries are a little better stocked.  

The Infirmary is wide and U-shaped, built out of light brown Oxford stone, and has quite a plain front, roughly 4 floors high with several large windows. In front of the infirmary is a large curved driveway containing an ornamental fountain of a kneeling man.
The former Radcliffe Infirmary, in the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter.3

Radcliffe gained much of his early notoriety in Oxford through his revolutionary approach to convalescence and healing. He shunned conventional practices like purging and resisted the use of invasive medicine where possible, encouraging patients to heal on their own. In 1675 Oxford was experiencing a devastating smallpox epidemic, and Radcliffe is credited with saving the lives of several patients who were viewed as beyond help. His unconventional methods also helped him attain his first patron, Lady Spencer of Yarnton, who was a well-connected society woman suffering from chronic pain. Several doctors had tried and failed to treat her, and she was losing any hope of recovery before her son-in-law recommended that she consult Radcliffe. Within weeks her treatment proved a resounding success – Spencer had not been able to walk in years, but with Radcliffe’s aid she was able to stand and move again. She was incredibly grateful for his help and repaid him by recommending him to anyone she could, starting him on the road to fame.  

After Radcliffe was denied further leave from his studies to practice medicine, he left Oxford for London and began attending to the rich and famous of the capital. Some of his more illustrious patients included Samuel Pepys, Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, and Isaac Newton! His reputation as a physician preceded him, although it was not an entirely positive one. Radcliffe was recognised as a talented doctor and an intelligent conversationalist, but equally as a plain-spoken and opinionated man whose bedside manner left something to be desired. One account claims that a bootmaker’s wife visited Radcliffe with a vial of her husband’s urine, hoping that the doctor could diagnose an illness from it (as was commonly done at the time). Radcliffe responded by emptying the container, filling it with his own urine, and demanding that the patient make him a pair of boots based on that.  

 In further evidence of both his genius and tactlessness, Radcliffe was appointed physician-in-Ordinary to King William III and to Princess Anne of Denmark but managed (on two separate occasions) to insult both royals so badly they forever rejected his help. When treating the king for gout, Radcliffe assessed the situation by declaring “I would not have your majesty’s two legs for your three kingdoms”, and he dismissed Queen Anne as hysterical because he didn’t want to leave the pub to attend to her. It’s testament to his skill as a doctor that even after these incidents the royals’ attendants and friends continued to consult him on their behalf, and he was privately involved with the family up until the queen’s death in 1714. Radcliffe himself would die only a few months later.  

The Radcliffe camera is a round building made out of light brown oxford stone, two floors high with a high domed roof. It is surrounded by a small lawn and railings.
The Radcliffe Camera, built using Radcliffe’s donations to the university.3

With his death came Radcliffe’s true impact on Oxford, as his estate made provision for a great deal of investment in the university. His gifts included: 

  • £40,000 for the establishment of a library in his name (unsurprisingly, the Radcliffe Camera), and a further £150 a year for the librarian’s salary. 
  • £5000 to University College, for “the completion of college buildings”.
  • £600 a year to provide improved care and diets for the Radcliffe Infirmary
  • And a further £600 a year to fund two travelling fellowships for medical students at the university.  

Today, Radcliffe’s legacy stands firm in Oxford, with his marks visible across the city. Some people remember his life and work, but most simply know his name and not much more. Memory has certainly smoothed over some of his flaws – he isn’t best remembered for his royal blunders, after all – but it has also removed some of his best qualities.  

While Radcliffe himself may not have made much use of Oxford’s libraries in his day, I think the RadCam and the RSL are fitting tributes to the man. Radcliffe believed in research, practical knowledge, and independent learning – which is exactly what the Bodleian Libraries facilitate. More than a vanity project, his donations have enabled countless students to access information on their terms, direct their own studies, and learn in the ways which work for them. In a constantly changing world, a library is a powerful resource to have at your disposal – whether it’s full of books and journals or potions and skeletons.  

So next time you walk through the Observatory Quarter, or pay a visit to University College, or need a book from the History Faculty Library, think about John Radcliffe (and maybe be grateful he’s not in charge of treating you). 

A white stone statue of John Radcliffe in an awning above the entrance to the Upper Camera reading room. He is wearing a suit and a robe, carrying a scroll. A plaque above him reads 'Johannes Radcliffe MD, Huius Bibliotheca Fundator' (translation: John Radcliffe MD, Founder of this Library).
A statue of John Radcliffe overlooking the Upper Camera.3
A black-and-white drawing of John Radcliffe. He is seated at a desk but facing away from it, looking at the viewer. He wears a decorated suit-coat, a cravat, and a long curly wig, and appears to be middle-aged.
An engraving of Radcliffe in the National Portrait Gallery.4
  1. Note: While there isn’t concrete proof he was a scholarship student, his comparatively limited financial means and his dedication to funding fellowships make it highly plausible. ↩︎
  2. Wikipedia user ‘Camboxer’, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. See more details. ↩︎
  3. Photographed by the post author. ↩︎
  4. John Radcliffe by George Vertue, after Sir Godfrey Kneller, Bt. Line engraving, published 1757 (1710).
    NPG D31226 © National Portrait Gallery, London, CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 ↩︎

Discussing Dissertations: Trainees at the History Thesis Fair 2026

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Now that Trinity term has begun, library use has picked up and the reading rooms are packed with students preparing for exams. Despite the warm weather, there’s no time to relax in the sun just yet! As if endless studying and constant coursework wasn’t enough, second-year History students are already having to decide on their dissertation topics ahead of a long summer of research. To help them get started, the Bodleian recently put on its annual undergraduate History Thesis Fair – naturally, a few trainees ended up helping out.  

For those unaware, a thesis fair is an opportunity for students to discover what resources they have access to, get guidance on research, and determine their subject of interest. Attendees have the opportunity to speak with a wide variety of academics, librarians, and other subject specialists about all the different topics or areas they might be curious about. It’s not a taught session or a mandatory process: attendance is fully voluntary and the stalls are designed to be interactive and informal so that students can explore at their own pace. It’s also a space to develop information skills, with stalls dedicated to research methods and practical advice. Ultimately, a thesis fair is designed to help students understand what help is available to them so they can get started on their work more confidently.  

Setting up and running reception

Catherine & Rebecca (Bodleian Library) 

The fair was organised and managed by the history subject librarians Isabel Holowaty and Rachel D’Arcy-Brown – as the trainees based in the Old Bodleian and HFL, we’ve both worked alongside Rachel and Isabel a lot, so we were invited to come along and help them run the event! Armed with a suitcase full of signage and several packs of pushpins, we made the (thankfully short) trip from our libraries down to the exam schools and began setting up. With only an hour to put everything together we were concerned about running out of time, but when we arrived the staff had already transformed the North Writing School from exam conditions into an exhibition hall in record time. All that was left for us to do was put up our masses of signs and posters, make sure everyone had enough extension cables, and direct staff (and later students) to the right place once they arrived.  

Once the fair had actually started, working reception was a relatively simple task which mostly just involved handing out paper and giving directions. We had a good few chats with students about their various areas of interest, and it was great getting to hear the range of ideas people were considering. Once we knew what they were looking for we provided attendees with a map of the fair and a guide to further resources for afterwards, then pointed them towards some stalls which might be useful to start with.  

Getting to look around those stalls during quiet moments was also fun. Some interesting sections this year included English Literature, Visual Culture, and a brand-new Environmental History stall which drew a lot of attention. We also had ambassadors from Gale Primary Sources, AM Digital, and Oxford Brookes Archives come in to help students use their collections, and some current third-year students who had recently finished their own dissertations ran a very popular booth offering first-hand guidance and advice. With loads of subject librarians and faculty on hand to help, we had the last 2000 years broadly covered, but one thing to love about History is the sheer scale of it: from medieval burials to wartime fashion to eighteenth-century dentistry, there’s no end to your options. 

A stall map of the Thesis fair. The different subject tables are laid out as a diagram, with arrows pointing to the entrances and exits.

Running a subject stall

Olly (Art, Archaeology and Ancient World Library)

A small team of us from the Art library all came along at about 2:30 to set up our stall for Visual Culture. Here we were representing two subject areas, Art & Architecture and Film Studies. We had to do a bit of shuffling around with tables, borrow some pushpins to display our signs and quickly charge the laptop, but then we were ready for the students!  

For the next two hours we had students queuing up to run their dissertation ideas by us in more detail and find out what kind of resources we could point them to. I was worried that I wouldn’t know enough about the visual culture resources we have, but it turns out I knew more than I realised, and I was able to direct people to some things that should really help them. Tasks like helping review LibGuides or checking the reading lists that faculty give to librarians were really helpful in showing me what’s out there in terms of books, journals and databases for art history.  

We heard about an amazing variety of subjects people were interested in – witchcraft in Ireland, Turkish election campaigns, British new wave film, trans art collectives, and slingshot weaponry, to name just a few. Some of these questions I was way more prepared to answer than others (if you want me to talk at you excitedly for several minutes, please ask me about British new wave film), but I think that even if we didn’t know anything at all about the subject someone was interested in, we were hopefully able to give them some tips on searching for resources. 

Winding down and next steps 

The poster for the thesis fair. It provides the time/date information, a link to the LibGuide and a QR code for it, and some basic bullet points on what to expect. There is also a photo of a previous thesis fair showing a crowd of people gathered around various tables in the exam schools.

After two hours, the crowds thinned out and it was time for us to pack up and leave. Shutting down was even quicker than setting up, although we did have a few very interested students hang on right until the end! In the end, we had 185 people turn up – definitely not a bad turnout for a gorgeous sunny day. Most students seemed like they’d found what they were looking for, and it was nice to be able to help them get started and make the whole thing less daunting. 

Getting involved in the fair was a unique way to spend an afternoon, and it’s a good example of how varied work at the Bodleian can be. Opportunities for teaching and student support aren’t a direct part of our traineeship, but if they’re something you’re interested in then speaking to subject librarians and attending events like this are great ways to get involved. If you want more information on how the thesis fair runs and what sort of resources are available for research support in the libraries, have a look at this page of the History LibGuide, or check out this blog post about a previous fair. The Bodleian also regularly runs information skills sessions on introductions to sources, research guidance, and referencing tips – have a look at the iSkills programme for Trinity term to see what’s on offer. To those preparing for their dissertation, good luck, and to anyone else, we hope to see you at the next fair! 

LGBT+ History Month 2026

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A photograph of the towers of Exeter College and Lincoln College. Both colleges are flying the progress pride flag from their flagpoles.

Exeter and Lincoln College, taken on Turl Street. 

A photograph of the entrance to Hertford College where the classic rainbow pride flag is being flown from the flagpole.

Hertford College, taken from Upper Reading Room. 

February was LGBT+ History Month in the UK, and across the Bodleian we marked the occasion in style. This year’s theme was Science & Innovation, looking at the lives and contributions of past queer pioneers, as well as how science has impacted the LGBT+ community both positively and negatively throughout history. In this post we’ve gone through our libraries’ collections to pull out some key resources on queer history from the shelves.  

LGBT+ History Month is a great opportunity to learn more about queer history and culture, but the learning doesn’t have to stop after four weeks. Visit your local library and check out some of the books we’ve highlighted, or do your own deep dive into the LGBT innovators of the past – after all, who doesn’t love going down a research rabbit hole? You can also visit the official Schools OUT website where they’ve prepared some resources, useful links, and an events calendar to get you started. Finally, we’ve signposted some Oxford events and resources at the end of the post, so keep reading! 

History Faculty Library – Catherine

The trainees in the Old Bod & Rad Cam aren’t responsible for putting together our themed book displays, but our libraries still marked LGBT+ history month with a host of interesting books and e-resources. 

The HFL’s open shelves are well-stocked with books on the history of sexuality and the history of science; finding the overlap between these subjects can be more challenging, but if you look out for them, you’ll find some fascinating stories. This year’s display focused particularly on biographies and studies of LGBT innovators, looking closely at the lesser-known parts of their lives and identities. As well as shining a light on queer historical figures and authors, our display looked at queer communities’ relationships with health and medicine over time. I’ve highlighted a few select works below, but for a full list of books on the display and topical e-books, check out the History Faculty Library blog and pick one out for yourself.  

A copy of 'The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke' by Jeffrey C. Stewart. The cover features a portrait of Alain Locke against a white background - he is an African American man with short cropped hair dressed in a white suit.
A copy of 'Leonardo: the artist and the man' by Serge Bramly. The cover is a sepia-toned drawing of da Vinci's face in profile.
A copy of 'Before AIDS: gay health politics in the 1970s' by Katie Batza. The cover is a pink-and-purple toned photograph of drag queen Nurse Wanda Lust, with an inset of the performer Stephen Jones.

The New Negro: the life of Alain Locke by Jeffrey C. Stewart 

Alain Locke (1885-1954) was a philosopher, author, and academic, best known for being the first African American Rhodes Scholar and for publishing an anthology on race, culture, and politics titled ‘The New Negro’. Locke was an intellectual activist and a strong proponent of racial equality but was not outspoken about his homosexuality in the same manner during his life, viewing it as a point of unique vulnerability. In this biography, Jeffrey C. Stewart provides a full overview of Locke’s experiences as a gay black man at the forefront of an intellectual movement, exploring his personal relationships and his long search for a life partner.  

Leonardo: the artist and the man by Serge Bramly 

Originally published in 1988, this translated biography attempts to reconstruct the mysterious life of one of the most famous innovators of all time. Everyone has heard of Leonardo da Vinci: the original Renaissance Man was a painter, an engineer, an inventor, an anatomist, a theorist, and more. However, a lot of knowledge about his personal life is speculative, second-hand, and subjective, including theories about his sexuality and his alleged trial for sodomy. This book explores Leonardo as an artist, looking at his astonishing scientific career, and as a man, musing on his relationships and his identity.  

Before AIDS: gay health politics in the 1970s by Katie Batza 

Many LGBT studies into the history of medicine focus on HIV/AIDS, and for good reason, but this book looks past that to find another significant story. It explores the well-established ‘self-sufficient gay medical systems’ which existed across America long before AIDS emerged. Born from fears of being outed or having their sexuality pathologised in mainstream institutions, gay health centres provided advocacy, advice, and treatment for queer men. Katie Batza follows these clinics from their foundation to the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, revealing how they helped shape the politics of health and sexuality in modern America.  

Bodleian Old Library – Rebecca

While we didn’t have a dedicated display in the Old Library, there are plenty of hidden gems on our shelves. In-keeping with the theme for the 22nd UK LGBT+ History Month, I’ve picked out some titles from and about LGBT+ scientists and innovators. 

A copy of 'Berlin's Third Sex' by Magnus Hirschfield. The cover features two similar-looking people dressed in conventionally masculine and feminine outfits respectively.

A recent addition to the History New Books Display in the Upper Reading Room is a 2025 re-issue of Magnus Hirschfeld’s ‘Berlin’s Third Sex’. Hirschfeld established the Scientific Humanitarian Committee, the first gay rights organisation and advocacy group, as well as the Institute for Sexual Science. As a doctor, he employed scientific principles in the fight against homophobia and transphobia, even advocating for gender-affirming care. 

Just to the right of the display, in the history of science section, you’ll find ‘The Very Idea of Modern Science: Francis Bacon and Robert Boyle’. Natural philosophers Bacon and Boyle were both instrumental in the development of the scientific method. There’s also evidence to suggest both men were gay, with the latter being one of LGBT+ History Month 2026’s featured historical figures.  

A copy of 'Uncle Tungsten: memories of a chemical boyhood' by Oliver Sacks. The cover features a black and white photo of a middle-aged man and a young boy (presumably Sacks himself).

Oliver Sacks’ (first) autobiography, ‘Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood’, can also be found here. It wasn’t until he published his second autobiography, towards the end of his life, that he spoke openly about being gay. Sacks was a Queen’s College alumnus and neurologist by trade. While perhaps best known for his polarising writings, he nonetheless led a successful medical career and co-founded the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function at the Beth Abraham Hospital. 

Just downstairs, in the Philosophy Room, there are several titles relating to the renowned Judith Butler, author of ‘Gender Trouble’. Their work is certainly innovative, with their impact extending beyond feminist and queer theory into several branches of social science. Most notably, they founded the International Consortium of Critical Theory Programs. Butler is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns. 

A copy of 'The Sociology of the NHS' by Margaret Stacey. The cover features a pair of surgical tongs holding a length of thread.

And finally, tucked away in the Lower Gladstone Link, you’ll find a 1974 issue of The Sociological Review’s Monograph Series edited by Margaret Stacey. Stacey was a sociologist, lecturer, and researcher. She was particularly active in the field of medical sociology, helping to re-conceptualise it as ‘a sociology of health and illness’. Aged sixty, she and fellow academic Jennifer Lorch became partners. 

Taylor Institution Library – Jules

The Taylor Institution Library (otherwise known as the Taylorian), is the university’s Modern European languages and literatures library. As such, a ‘Science and Innovation’ theme is not particularly in the wheelhouse of our collections! Nevertheless, I did my best to highlight the LGBTQ+ History that is present on our shelves. 

Here are the books I chose: 

  • Strangers : homosexual love in the 19th century 
  • Sophia Parnok : the life and work of Russia’s Sappho / Diana Lewis Burgin 
  • Gendering the Portuguese-speaking world : from the Middle Ages to the present 
  • A little gay history of Wales / Daryl Leeworthy. 
  • Becoming lesbian : a queer history of modern France. 
  • In a queer time and place : transgender bodies, subcultural lives / Judith Halberstam. 
  • Queer roots for the diaspora : ghosts in the family tree / Jarrod Hayes. 
  • Time binds : queer temporalities, queer histories / Elizabeth Freeman. 
  • Polari, the lost language of gay men / Paul Baker. 
  • Courtly and queer : deconstruction, desire, and medieval French literature / Charlie Samuelson. 
The LGBT+ History Month book display at the Taylorian. The shelves are filled with books and surrounded by miniature progress pride flags.

Social Science Library – Summer

Unlike the Taylorian, this year’s theme of ‘Science and Innovation’ paired perfectly with our collections at the Social Science Library. The SSL is well stocked on books around LGBT+ political activism, anthropological and sociological perspectives, and the history of sexuality. For this book display, I drew upon books in the SSL and CSF which highlight the contributions made by LGBT+ scientists, inventors, and innovators across the social science subjects. I also selected material in the collection that reflects how science has sometimes been used to medicalise and pathologise LGBT+ identities, reminding us how we need to continue addressing these issues today. 

The LGBT History Month display at the SSL.

I have included a selection of titles from the SSL book display here, but for a full list check out the Social Science Library blog post on the subject.

Sainsbury Library – Heidi

I really concentrated on the “innovation” part of the title when compiling my display, as it aligns well with the business school’s focus. I aimed to highlight technological developments, innovative ways of thinking, and innovators in their fields, all in relation to LGBTQ+ history. 

The library’s LGBTQ+ Business Resources LibGuide proved an invaluable starting point for exploring the relationship between LGBTQ+ history and the business world. My subsequent research inspired me to divide my display into four groups – Businesses, Memoirs, Technology, and Economics – based on the broad themes I saw within the Sainsbury Library’s collections. 

A full description of the display can be found on my Sainsbury Library Blog post! 

The LGBT+ History Month display at the Sainsbury Library. This is the 'businesses' section, featuring books on organisations and corporations.
The LGBT+ History Month display at the Sainsbury Library. This is the 'memoirs' section, featuring books on innovators and individuals.

Signposting

Every LGBT+ History Month the University of Oxford hosts a flagship lecture, panel, or speaker event. This year’s event, ‘What about queer?’ was a panel discussion on the evolving use of the word ‘queer’ and its significance in academic, political, and cultural contexts. Keep a look out for a summary or recording, which will likely go up sometime in March. In the meantime, have a look at this recording of the 2025 lecture, ‘Losing and Finding Oneself Through Queer Poetry’. 

If you’re looking for more recommended reading, take a look at these nonfiction reading lists prepared by the New York Public Library and Chicago Public Library – or if fiction is more your thing, have a look at these recommendations by Essex County Council and UCL.  

Finally, for more library resources on LGBTQ+ history throughout the year, check out this LibGuide made by a former HFL trainee. There’s information on Oxford researchers working on LGBTQ+ history, guides to databases and archives, and a whole host of material organised by topic, time period, and format. Pick a subject and get reading!

Day in the Life of a Law Library Trainee

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Posted on behalf of Gemma Hammond.

08:30  

The buses on Cowley Road were cooperating this morning so I arrive at work slightly early and make a cup of tea (in my fancy Bodleian-branded KeepCup) in the staff room.  

08:45  

I go up to the Information Resources office and log in at my desk, check my emails, and generally plan out my day. At the Law Library there’s two offices, on different floors: one for the Academic Services team (who do the more reader-based tasks, such as dealing with orders from the Bodleian’s offsite storage and teaching courses on legal research) and the other for Information Resources (where cataloguing and book processing goes on). Since I’m the only grad trainee at the Law Library this year I have a bit of a hybrid role – I’m based in the IR office but do some AS tasks as well.  

Bookeye scanner with an open book on the scanning bed.

09:00  

One of these AS tasks is fulfilling requests from the Bodleian’s Scan and Deliver service, where scans of book chapters or journal articles are sent out to readers by email. This morning there are four requests waiting on the Ready to Scan spreadsheet. I make a note of the books and their shelfmarks and then head into the library to pick them up. Back in the office I scan the requested chapters using the Bookeye scanner, which creates a searchable pdf. One of the scan requests is for a chapter that’s over 100 pages long, so this takes a while! I edit the scans to split the images into two so that each page of the book is a separate page in the document, then do a final check of the scan and send them out. Then I update the main scanning team spreadsheet with details of the request and the file name of the scan, so it can be found in case anyone else asks for the same chapter.  

10:40 

Break time. I go down to the staff room and have a snack and another cup of tea. 

11:00  

It’s time for a 2-hour shift on the front desk. I do a few front desk shifts a week, usually at set times. There’s always two of us on the desk at a time, apart from when one of us goes to do the count at 11:30. Since it’s term time the library is pretty full (73 readers in total today). On the front desk we loan out books from the Reserve collection that we keep behind the desk (the Law Library doesn’t allow books to be taken out of the library itself but these are the high-use books that we want to keep track of) and answer any general questions about how to use the library or where to find things. It’s not too busy so I also read a blogpost from 2012 about the creation of a database of the Law Library’s collection of late 19th century and early 20th century foreign theses (mostly in French and German). I’m working on these for my project so it’s good to get a bit of background about them, even though no one seems sure where they came from or when they turned up in the Bodleian.  

A bookshelf with a row of yellow folders labelled 'JCT Contracts'.

13:00  

Lunchtime. I bring a packed lunch and try to use this time for reading or getting better at cryptic crosswords. I’m looking forward to when the weather gets warmer/less rainy and I can go across the road to Holywell Cemetery for a wander. 

14:00  

After lunch I spend a bit of time making and printing out labels for two folders that contain supplemental pamphlets for a series of construction contracts. Over the last month or so I’ve been editing the records for all of the pamphlets in this series, which has helped me to get some basic cataloguing practice. Now the records for all 82 of them have been updated and once the folders have been labelled I can go and shelve them.  

14:30  

I help Natasha from AS put up a new book display on the theme of law and freedom of speech. We’re currently planning one on law and sovereignty, and a larger one on law and AI. 

A six-by-three book display titled 'Free speech and the law'.

15:00  

There’s a bit more scanning to do, and while I’m replacing the books after I’ve scanned them I notice some shelving that has built up so I do that too. 

A shelving trolley filled with books. The books have lilac slips sticking out the top.
This week’s VBD books.

15:40  

Time for another tea break. 

16:00 

I go downstairs to pick up the VBD (Virtual Book Display) books, which have just arrived. Every week the librarians choose the law-related titles from the list of legal deposit books that have arrived at the Bodleian that week, and they then usually turn up in the library on Thursday afternoon. I tick the books off on the spreadsheet so I can see which haven’t arrived yet, process them (put tattle-tape in them and stamp them with a Bodleian Law Library stamp), count them for our statistics, scan them into Acquisitions, and then put them on the shelf for the cataloguers to pick up. After they’ve been catalogued they’ll come back to me to be labelled and scanned out of Acquisitions, and then they can go onto the open shelves. 

17:00 

It’s the end of the day so I sign out on Teams and head home. It’s not raining! 

Day in the Life of a Bodleian Library Trainee

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7:30am

Bright and early, I brave the drive to Park & Ride and jump on the next bus to the city centre. I use the bus ride as an opportunity to make good on my resolution to read every day (one I’m already failing at). I’m currently reading Elizabeth Kolbert’s ‘Life on a Little-Known Planet’.

8:30(ish)am

I usually arrive around this time, ready to start by 8:42am. I’m on the Main Enquiry Desk three mornings each week and today is one of them.

9:00am

1817 draft manuscript of Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem, 'Ozymandias'.
1817 draft of ‘Ozymandias’ (Percy Bysshe Shelley, via Wikimedia Commons).

Once I’m logged in, I start working through the Reader Services inbox.

Most enquiries are run-of-the-mill: how to navigate SOLO, how to join the library, finding a specific collection or resource, advance orders, donations, basic IT troubleshooting. Others, not so much. Just the other day, someone got in touch to request high-resolution images of the Shelley’s 1817 draft of ‘Ozymandias’ as a tattoo reference!

Then there’s the more technical enquiries, which we tend to refer onto teams who can provide specialist support – copyright, bibliographic maintenance, AI. Recently, I’ve updated the directory document to ensure we have up-to-date contact details and to make these easier to retrieve. Mostly for my own sake, as I inevitably find myself scrambling to find these while on the phone.

11:00am

Two hours sounds like a long time, but it flies by when you’re having fun. That is, when you’re falling down rabbit holes researching a writing desk that supposedly belonged to Charles Dickens, or speculating on the existence of ‘a blue room with a bust of Caesar’ in one of the many Oxford libraries (both actual enquiries). Now is a good time for a quick twenty-minute break before getting back to it.

11:20am

The desk is somewhat quieter than usual, leaving me with some time to work on other tasks and tidy up my personal inbox. Following a recent change to the Bodleian Libraries’ lending policies, University members are now permitted to borrow books published from the year 2000 onwards from offsite storage (with exceptions). As part of my project, I’ve been analysing fulfilment data to understand how this has impacted lending in the Bodleian Library, so I crack on with this.

Balliol College on Broad Street, Oxford. A row of old limestone buildings against a blue sky with a few clouds.
Balliol College on Broad Street back in September.

1:00pm

Just like that, my shift on the MED is done. I find a quiet corner in the Reader Common Room to have some lunch before heading out to stretch my legs. With the days still being short, it’s not often I get to see Oxford in daylight.

2:00pm

This afternoon, I’m on Banksperson & Delivery duty, which involves guiding the van, packing and unpacking totes, processing the delivery, and getting items to their respective reading rooms. The good news is there’s no rain. The not-so-good news it’s a small delivery, so there aren’t many interesting titles to remark on (like ‘Cooking Spinach‘ by Jane Grigson, a favourite from a past delivery).

3:00pm

As there’s nothing on my rota for the rest of the day, I head upstairs to the Upper Reading Room to catch up on odd jobs.

Recently, I attended the first of two half-day sessions of Carbon Literacy training. To obtain my accreditation, I need to submit a form demonstrating what I learned from the sessions, along with two pledges that I can action in the workplace. This is just one example of the many learning and development opportunities that trainees have access to as employees in the Garden, Libraries, & Museums (GLAM) division; there are many ways to tailor your trainee experience to your interests. I’m keen to see how my academic background aligns with ongoing work to decarbonise the GLAM division and broader heritage sector. I also use this time to work on some documentation for my main project and do some research for another side project I’m working on.

In between, I help a few readers with resetting passwords, using the printers, and finding books. Readers are still getting used to there being a circulation desk here in the Upper Reading Room, so it’s not uncommon to get confused people searching for their books.

5:00pm

And that’s my Friday finished – see you next time!

Day in the life of a History Faculty Library trainee

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8:10 

I dash out of the house to get the bus with my housemates, only to find it’s delayed again and there was no need to rush. One thing I’ve learned about Oxford is the buses are always late, except when you need them to be.

8:42  

My workday officially begins! This morning I’m on the reception desk in the RadCam first thing, so I’m responsible for opening the Lower Camera. This mostly involves moving ladders, switching on computers, and making sure any books left over from yesterday are reshelved. Thankfully, everything is still neat and tidy from closing last night, so it’s quite a quick process. 

The Lower Camera, empty and in dim morning lighting. It is a large circular room with bookshelves running along the walls and a central 'island' of bookshelves in the middle.

9:00 

The bells of St Mary’s toll and the library is officially open. Sometimes it takes a while for the library to fill up, but today there’s a line of readers all the way down the path as soon as we open the doors – term is definitely in full swing. 

While on reception you’re responsible for answering enquiries and making sure people can access the library okay. Despite the constant flow of readers, it’s a relatively quiet shift: I help some people having issues with their university cards, direct one reader to Admissions to get a temporary access pass, and help someone looking for their lost property. In between queries, I pick out any lapsed items from the hold shelf and return them on Alma so they can go back to the CSF with the morning delivery. When we started offering offsite loans this year we had to double our holds space, and we’re still running out of room! 

10:30 

My desk shift has ended and it’s time for a little break, so I head to the reader common room to eat my belated breakfast and listen to a podcast. I’ve been enjoying No Such Thing as a Fish recently – I think every librarian needs a mental reserve of fun facts.  

10:50 

Break time is over, so it’s time to head down to the scanning area as I’ve been given fetching duty today. This involves collecting up all the books which are going to be scanned for readers this afternoon. Sometimes the list is quite small, but today it takes me to every reading room in the library! Thankfully, everything is on the shelf where it should be, so I can find it all quickly.  

Having collected everything, I still have a lot of time to spare, so I mark out the requested pages in each book for the person scanning later. This helps me spot that one reader has asked for a chapter which doesn’t exist, so I email them the table of contents to clarify what they’re looking for. Copyright law restricts the amount of any given book we can send to readers, so it’s important to make sure people are getting the sections they actually want.  

12:00 

I’ve opted to take the later lunch slot today, which means I have some free time now. The library has really filled up with readers now and the reshelving trolley is looking quite full, so I decide to do some shelving, which takes me all the way down to the Lower Gladstone Link. Predictably, while I’m there a reader asks for help locating something in the Nicholson sequence (our complicated old shelf system), so I explain how it works and help them find their book.

A row of books on a shelf in the Lower Gladstone Link.
Nicholson books, just waiting to confuse a reader

12:20 

I head upstairs to see if there’s any new books to process, but there’s none waiting for me. I decide to do some relegations instead – my manager has identified some books which can get moved from open shelves to storage, so I edit the item record and package them up to go offsite. The shelves in the HFL are constantly overflowing and we need all the space we can make! 

1:00 

Lunch time! I don’t dare face the tipping rain today, so it’s back to the reader common room with my sandwich and my water bottle. It can get quite packed in there around midday, because it’s the only space in the library where food is allowed, but luckily I’m able to find a seat.  

2:00  

A copy of 'The Love Spell Box' by Gillian Kemp: a colourful red box containing several 'spell cards' and a book of ways to use them.

This afternoon I’m scheduled to help with the book delivery in the Radcliffe Camera. The Old Bodleian and Radcliffe Camera combined get the most offsite requests by far, so we get our daily book deliveries direct from the CSF, and delivery duty involves transferring items from the van to the delivery room to the collection points. I help unload the crates of new books, scan them into Alma, sort them into loanable and self-collect piles, and move them to their appropriate shelves. Then, I collect any items to go back to storage, scan them out, and package them up for when the van comes tomorrow!  The best part about this shift is spotting the different books people have called up – today the highlight is this collection of love spells.  

3:15 

After all that heavy lifting it’s time for another break – the rain has stopped, so I head across the road to Blackwells to have a quick look at what’s new.  

3:35 

To finish off the day I get on with some trainee project work. I’m currently working on improving accessibility for a grey literature collection which was housed in the History of Medicine library before it closed last year. Forty archive boxes of material ended up being sent offsite: my project involves designing a LibGuide to promote the collection, as well as creating a physical handlist for each box. For now, I’m calling up boxes from storage so I can inventory the contents, note any cataloguing errors, and digitise any particularly valuable items. It’s interesting work, especially when the collection throws surprises at you. For instance, the box I’m currently working on is entirely in German… which I can’t read. 

Two small pamphlets written in German. They are a tract on skin diseases and an exhibition catalogue on the history of medicine, respectively.
Some examples of the pamphlets I’m working on at the moment

4:30 

Having finished going through one box quicker than I expected, I put my project away for the time being and start working on this blog post.

5:00 

The evening staff arrive to take over, and it’s time to head home. As usual, I hurry to the bus stop outside the library, and manage to just miss my bus. Like I said, always late except when you need them to be… 

Day in the life of a Sainsbury Library trainee

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8:00-8:40  

On my journey to work, I start to think about how I’m going to organise my day. I usually try to split it into four parts, with a different project or goal for each section. It works well by keeping me busy and my work varied! 

8:40-10:50 

I’m not on the desk this morning, so I settle into the office and get started on my current favourite task: updating our LibGuides! The Business and Management LibGuide has information on databases and journals (which only occasionally changes), but our Hot Topics need more frequent attention.

A Screenshot of the Business of Arts LibGuide, with database and consulting firm links

The one I am currently refreshing is the Business of Arts, Culture, & Entertainment, which involves scouring the internet for books, news sources, and consulting firm insights to ensure MBA students taking this elective have up-to-date information. 

10:50-11:10 

I reach a natural stopping point and, deciding it’s time for a coffee, head downstairs to the café with my latest book in hand. Being able to order virtually any book from Offsite Storage has revived my love of reading after university, and I enjoy squeezing in a few pages whenever I can.

11:10-12:00

Back upstairs, I turn my attention to exploring a new database that the library staff have been given trial access to. The goal is to compare it with some of the databases we already subscribe to, to see whether it offers anything different or complementary. I spend the next hour clicking through its features, keeping it open in one tab while some of our most-used databases sit open in others, and jotting down notes as I go.

Photograph of a plate of food and a muffin

12:00-1:00

Lunchtime! Today I have roast pepper chicken with jollof rice, and a muffin for dessert. Thanks to staff discounts at the Business School, the whole lunch costs under £3 – a definite perk.

1:00-3:30 

I’m on the enquiry desk for the afternoon, one of my three half-day desk shifts each week. I begin by bringing five Oxford Futures Library boxes upstairs and scanning them in on ALMA using our dummy patron ID. Part of my trainee project is working towards producing standardised catalogues for these collections, which means creating a record for every individual item. 

Assortment of archive items including folders and cassette tapes.

I enjoy doing this task on the desk, as it’s easy to pause while helping readers, and there’s much more space to lay materials out than at my office desk. However, some archive boxes contain more than 30 items, so it can be a very time-consuming process.

3:30-3:50

Time for an afternoon break! I grab a green tea and take a short walk, passing the many statues that have recently appeared around the Business School. 

3:50-5:00 

The final part of the day is busy with enquiries, both by email and in person. Most questions we get on the desk relate to setting up accounts for databases and news sites, but there are always a few more unusual – and often very niche – data requests that come in by email. Between enquiries, I also set up our Personal Development library display, designed to support students with research skills, mindfulness, and productivity during Hilary term. Closing up is straightforward, as the library remains open for as long as the building does, so it’s just a case of tidying the desk and office before heading home.