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A Day In The Life

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. 

Day in the life of an Art, Archaeology and Ancient World Library trainee

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08:30 

Leave for work. I’m lucky to live walking distance from the Art library and don’t have to rely on public transport- the only things that slow me down are my own legs or crowds on Cornmarket Street! 

08:45 

Arrive at work. I pop up to the staff room to put my lunch away, probably get distracted talking to everyone else doing the same, then head to the front desk. At the Art library, desk shifts are usually 3 hours long, either in the morning or afternoon, and two people sit at the desk together. 

An image of the front desks at the Art library. The walls of the room are yellow and are lined with wooden shelves.

Today I’m on desk in the morning, so I turn on the self-issue machine and login to a PC. Our Reader Services Teams chat is named after an animal and changes most days- and today I change it to Pleasing Fungus Beetle. 

08:55

Get started on the lapse list. At the Bodleian Libraries, readers can request books from our offsite storage facility to be sent to libraries. Some of this material is loanable and can be given to readers to take away, but some of it has to stay in the library. This is stored on the Self-Collect shelves, and the lapse list involves taking items off the self-collect shelves that needs to be sent back offsite. I take these books off the shelves, scan them out and put them in crates that get picked up every afternoon.  

09:15 

The Art library opens at 9am, and even outside of term time can get quite busy. By this time we already have a fair few readers, some of which have been queueing to get in! Now I’ll sit at the desk and help readers. Most of the time, readers need pretty straight forward help- loaning or returning books, finding the toilets, locating a printer or PC they can use… but sometimes people ask a tricky one and you have to hit them with a “let’s try and find out together…” 

The Art library can be quite confusing to use as there are a lot of different shelfmark systems on the books, and the library is round so you can end up walking in circles for a while. It took me a while to feel confident helping readers find books, but I’m getting a hang of the collections and can usually direct people to where their book is. I still sometimes walk readers in a loop around an entire floor before I know where to look! 

10:30 

Break time. I head up to the staffroom to make a coffee, browse the biscuit tin and chat to people over the jigsaw. We always have a jigsaw on the go in the staffroom, right now it’s Agatha Christie themed. 

10:50 

Back at the desk, and now it’s a bit quieter I can do some new book and journal processing. We get sent a lot of new material each week that we need to check is catalogued properly, has all the correct stickers on, and then we can scan it into the library. New books are displayed on our ground floor New Books Displays each week. I’ll do processing in between helping readers and responding to emails and Teams messages.  

12:00 

I’m off desk now, so take all the books I’ve processed to our workroom to be put on display next week. While there, I hear that we’re swamped with scan requests so I roll up my sleeves and help out. The Bodleian offer a scan and deliver service for PDFs of journal articles or sections of books. If readers don’t feel like trekking all the way into the library for a single article, they can send us a request and we’ll usually get it back to them by the next day. Among the scans today are a chapter on Tudor portraits, an article about ancient Greek poetry and a chapter on food in Bronze Age Britain.  

1:00 

I go up to the staff room, warm up my lunch, eat it while half-heartedly helping people with the jigsaw, then pop out for a walk. I try and walk every lunch time if the weather’s okay, and today I go to the University Parks and listen to a podcast.  

2:00 

I head back to the Art library and go to the Haverfield room on the ground floor to work on my trainee project. The Haverfield room is a small, slightly chaotic room mainly filled with books about ancient coins. My project is to do my part in making it slightly less chaotic, which for now involves doing an audit of some large folios at the back that haven’t been looked at in a long time. I take each one off the shelf, note down the barcode (if it has one), note the condition of the item and if it’s in poor condition, measure it so it can be boxed in conservation approved boxes. There’s very little information available for some of the items, so I have a look through and try to see if a) it’s relevant to our collections and b) where it came from. It’s easy to get distracted looking at books on early Christian art in catacombs, or the symbology in German coats of arms.  

A page of coats of arms from Numismatisches Wappen-Lexicon des Mittelalters und der Neuzeit : Staaten und Städtewappen
A drawing of a bird in Bildzeichen der Katakomben

3:10 

I go for another break, omitting coffee this time and instead have a tea and chat to people.  

3:30 

I’ve finished the shelf I was working on in the Haverfield room, so now I go down to the Craft Cave (also referred to as the Repairs Dungeon, or more politely, the Basement Office) to do some book repairs.  

At the Art and the Taylor we’re trialling a scheme where reader services staff carry out small repairs on books to extend their lives and get them back on the shelves quickly (the previous Art trainee Emma made a great triaging system and resources for minor repairs that we still use now, you can read about her project here).  

Down here I carefully repair broken covers, loose pages and fraying corners, and nearly forget to look at the clock close to home time!  

5:00 

I say goodbye to the evening staff who are just arriving, and head home. 

Day in the life of a Social Science Library trainee

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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 for 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. 

Reading Resolutions book display. Grey bookcase with 4 shelves of books on new hobbies, recipe books, and self-help. 21 books are on the display and there is a yellow poster advertising the 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 the shelfmarks have been added to ALMA, 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 library use only/short-loan labels as required. 

Display of book processing equipment. Shows a Bodleian Libraries stamp, a Social Science library stamp, an ink pad, a Bodleian Social Science Library insert slip, a long green strip of tattle tape, and the book 'The end of the soviet world' Georges Mink, Iwona Reichardt (eds.)

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 do 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 Day in the Life of an Osney One Trainee

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07:55 – Arrival

Since we’re not beholden to specific opening/closing times at Osney One, we have a little more control over what time we choose to come into work. I usually aim to get in for an 8 o’clock start, but I could theoretically come in at 10 o’clock if I so wanted.

08:00 – Work begins!

Thursdays are special days in English Cataloguing, as they’re when we dismantle our Virtual Book Display (VBD) to send the current week’s Legal Deposit books to their new homes. It can be a bit of a fiddly process to sort out the different categories of books, but since this week’s VBD is quite small it shouldn’t take too long. First up are the Shared Cataloguing Programme books, which need to be given to specific cataloguers. I pick them off the shelf, put them onto their trolley, and wheel them over to their new overlords.

An image displaying eight shelves of books. Each of the books have different coloured pieces of paper sticking out of them.

08:10 – Picking out books

Next up in the process are the books picked by external libraries. As they need to be sent away as soon as possible, I pick them off the shelf, arrange them by library, and change their assigned locations via an immensely helpful spreadsheet. I then take them down to the post room, place them all into the appropriate boxes, and bid them farewell.

08:35 – More picking out books…

After finishing with those books, I pick out the remaining books that have been chosen for reading rooms. A few of them can be sent directly to their new homes, so I hand them to a colleague to alter their location in our records. I place the rest of them on the priorities shelf so that they can be catalogued and sent away as fast as possible.

08:55 – Even more picking out books…

Sometimes we get books that are specialised enough that they need a particular cataloguer to handle them, but as none fall into that category this week, I move on to the X Material. Sadly, this is not an off-brand superhero team, but the name we use for non-academic legal deposit books. After picking them off the shelf, I put them onto a trolley, wheel them over to my desk, and use the previously-mentioned spreadsheet to begin the process of sending them to the Central Storage Facility (CSF).

09:10 – The end of the VBD

At this point, all the rest of the books on the VBD shelves are destined for the CSF. Some can be sent there right away, so I count them, add them to a specific trolley, and wash my hands of them. I put the remaining books onto yet another trolley and wheel them over to my desk, changing their records to reflect the fact that they will remain in our backlog for the foreseeable future. Thus, the VBD is defeated and I can move on with the rest of my day.

9:45 – Cataloguing

Since I’ve finally finished with the VBD, I get on with some good old cataloguing. It’s become easier over time, but every couple of records I’ll find something strange and have to ask my colleagues for some advice. Today’s main issue is an ISBN in a downloaded record that seemingly only exists on Amazon Japan. After taking a moment to marvel at how someone even found it, I cause a bit of debate amongst my colleagues by asking whether or not the ISBN should be coded as being invalid.

13:00 – Lunch

One of the major perks of working out in Osney One is the fact that we sit right in the fork of a river and get to enjoy all the associated flora and fauna. Today, as it’s warm enough that I can sit outside without turning to ice, I grab my sandwiches, wrap up warm, and skedaddle over to our riverside patio to engage in my daily ritual of staring at the water while I eat.

13:30 – Classification

As my colleagues are terrifyingly efficient, many of the books destined for the Art, Archaeology and Ancient World Library are already awaiting classification when I return from my lunch break. As these books need to be classified according to an in-house scheme, I use a folder of shelfmarks to determine which location would best suit each book before assigning them their fate.

14:10 – Back to cataloguing

Since there are no other major tasks that need doing today, I spend the rest of the afternoon doing some more cataloguing. I get extremely distracted looking at an old auction catalogue at one point, but that’s par for the course in this job.

16:00 – Home time!

Like the time I choose to arrive, the time I choose to leave at the end of the day is also quite flexible – so long as I do my contracted hours of work, of course. I could choose to stay a little later to accrue some flexi, but I can feel my new game crying out for attention – and who am I to deny it? I say goodbye to my colleagues, sign out, and begin my journey home.

A Fond Farewell: The 2023-24 Trainees Sign Off

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A photograph of 12 trainees taken from the roof of the Weston Library, looking towards the Radcliffe Camera

While our blog has been all quiet on the Weston Front for some time now, we, the trainees of 2023-24, would like to bid a heartfelt goodbye to all our readers; we’re confident that there must be at least one of you! (hi mum).

As we prepare to leave, we are all feeling emotional: proud of what we’ve achieved, sad that our traineeship has come to an end, and yet excited to move onto the next stage of our lives. Many of us are staying with the Bodleian and University Colleges, some of us are going back to university, and others have already moved on to new roles!

We owe a massive thank you to the organisers, speakers, caterers, trainers, supervisors, former trainees, etc. without whom our traineeship would not have happened. I am sure that, for some of us, this farewell does not signify the end of our involvement in the traineeship, just a switch of perspective.

As we leave, a fresh batch of shiny new trainees are stepping into their new roles – well done all of you, you should be immensely proud of yourselves!

We wish them all the best of luck and every success.

Day in the life of a History Faculty Library trainee

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08:30

I’m out the door and on my bike. I’m lucky enough to have a genuinely enjoyable ten-minute cycle to work in the mornings, which is a great way to start the day.

08:40  

I arrive at the Rad Cam. After putting my things away, I start the opening routine for the Lower Camera – this involves opening windows, turning on computers and PCAS machines, shelving, and making sure work spaces are tidy for readers. This morning I find a sports bra on one of the radiators, which I put in lost property!

View from above of two stacks of blue plastic boxes. The top box on each stack is open to reveal piles of books inside.
Lapsed books in their boxes ready to head back to the CSF

08:55

Using Alma, the library management system software, I create today’s lapse list: a spreadsheet with details of self-collect books which are due to be returned to the CSF. By the time doors open to readers at 9am, I’m starting to collect these lapsed books onto a trolley. Once I’ve finished, I return them all on Alma and then box them up to be taken back to the CSF this afternoon on the delivery van.

09:30

There weren’t too many books on the lapse list today, so I have time for a background task. I find a few books whose shelf mark

labels are beginning to fade, and print and attach new labels.

10:15

Break time – a cup of tea and a couple of biscuits in the reader common room, while listening to a podcast.

Two images of the same stack of books. In the first, the shelf mark labels are faded. In the second, there are new, clear labels.
Relabelling books – before and after!

10:35

I’m on fetching duty now. This means I’m collecting books from around the Rad Cam and Old Bod which have been requested for scanning by readers. Today this takes me into the Duke Humphrey’s Library, the very oldest part of the library, which is always exciting! Then, I identify the sections that need scanning and put in bookmarks ready for my colleague who will be scanning them this afternoon.

11:30

I decide to do some shelving. Maybe not the most exciting part of working in a library, but always satisfying!

12:00

Today I have the early (12pm) lunch slot. It’s lovely weather so I head along to the Botanic Gardens (free entry is a great perk of the job) to eat my packed lunch. I take a book and enjoy sitting and reading in the sunshine.

13:00

I’m back at the Rad Cam, and have an hour slot on the reception desk. It’s an extremely quiet shift – I issue books to one reader, give a couple of tourists directions to the Old Bod, and send a reader who has forgotten her card to Admissions.

Partially completed data input form from an Excel sheet. There are fields for language of resource, ISBN, title, subtitle, statement of responsibility, edition statement and more.
Inputting metadata to the spreadsheet

14:00

I get on with some project work. My project covers a collection of uncatalogued materials at the History of Science and Medicine Library – the aim is to identify items that are unique across the Bodleian and record their metadata so that they can be added to the library catalogue and ingested. When I was there this week, I took photos of some of the items, so this afternoon I use these photos to finish entering the details of these items into a spreadsheet created by the Resource Description department.

14:30

Break time – after sitting to work on a computer it’s time to stretch my legs, so I put on a podcast and go for a short walk.

14:50

An email has come in from ARACU (Accessible Resources Unit) requesting a book for them to scan for a student. I fetch the book, issue it on Alma, and box it up to send to ARACU on the delivery van. Then I get on with some more shelving, starting with the Upper Camera and working my way down to the Lower Gladstone Link.

15:30

It’s my final desk shift of the day – this time I’m on the circulation desk in the Rad Cam. I help a couple of readers connect to the internet, and take a student down to the Gladstone Link to locate a book in the tricky Nicholson sequence. I issue and return books, provide directions to the toilets, and answer questions about loan periods and shelf marks. It’s always nice to be able to help readers out – definitely a rewarding part of the job!

17:00

It’s the end of my working day. I’m off to the gym (another perk of the job is discounted membership at Iffley Road Sports Centre) and then home!

 

 

A Day in the Life of a Law Library Trainee

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8:25      My journey to work begins with a, thankfully, short walk into work. This morning I am rather precariously carrying two cakes which I have made for a work party.

 

8:50      After making my way into work, my morning begins by unloading the dishwasher. We do this on a rota and this morning is my turn.  Alongside the dishwasher, I make the morning’s pot of coffee, which is very much needed. After that’s finished, I head up to my desk, where I sort through my emails and send off a few scans which I didn’t get round to yesterday afternoon.

 

Shelves for books to be labelled.

9:30      I take a few books that I have now finished with from my desk and head upstairs to reshelve them. Our lift is currently out of order so I am finding that I am climbing many, many more stairs than usual.

Returning to the workroom, I check to see if there any any books on the shelves I have responsibility for. Books for me are any ones which need processed, labelled or sent out to the floor. I collect any for me and bring them to my desk, where I work through them all. After finishing, I drop the books up to Academic Services for shelving, in a series of journeys which take much longer than normal (broken lift + manual handling training = frustratingly slow book moving process).

 

10:30     Tea party!! I head down to the staff room as we say goodbye to one of our colleagues, whose last day is today. We have some snacks, some cake and hand over a goodbye gift.

 

11:15        More scanning to do now. Accompanied by a list of all the requests, I gather up the books required and head to the scanning room. Our scanning room is a very small, out of the way room in the library, but it has a fantastic big window which looks out over the New College sports grounds. Unfortunately, today the scans are not as simple as I would like. A reader has requested a set of pages which don’t appear to make much sense, starting on the last page of one chapter and finishing mid subsection of the next chapter. I send a message to the Scan & Deliver triage team, who will confirm with the reader what exactly they want. Another scan is for a book which does not appear on the shelf. Thankfully, it has not travelled far, only to the shelf below. I decide to stay and tidy up these shelves while I’m here, as I’ve found a couple books in the wrong sequence. This is quite a satisfying task, but one that at least I, can only do for so long, before the dust generated from moving all the books makes me start sneezing uncontrollably.

 

12:45       I send off the completed scans and head downstairs to sort today’s post.

Today’s haul!

We receive a range of items in the post, mostly journals and purchased books, but sometimes mysteriously packaged parcels with donated books, sent by either the author or publisher. We also receive post for Official Papers, which may be Statutory Instruments or Acts published by the UK governments or documents from intergovernmental organisations, such as the United Nations. After collating and stamping any invoices and packing slips, all the post is brought up to the Information Resources Workroom where I sort it onto its respective shelves. Journals and books all have different shelves depending on whether they are purchased, donated or copyright material.

 

13:15         Lunchtime! I now have an hour for lunch, so I make myself up a bagel and have a cup of tea. I have a number of books on the go currently, as I read different books depending on what mood I’m in, but today I have only a few chapters left of Agatha Christie’s The Secret of Chimneys and I am determined to find out if I have guessed the murderer correctly. Tonight, I’m on the evening shift until 7pm, so I head outside for a short walk to stretch my legs and get some sunshine before heading back to work.

 

Official Papers post ready to be shelved.

14:15         It is now time to process the pile of Official Papers post which has been slowly building over the past couple of weeks. All the post has to be stamped with the correct date and type of stamp (C for copyright, P for purchased and D for donated), before being counted, noted down and shelved. It is a long process, but the upside is that there are some very interesting documents to read through. Today, I process 77 pamphlets and 8 Acts and Explanatory Notes.

 

16:00       I head downstairs for a break, grabbing a cup of coffee and the final one of my sister’s hot cross buns, which she had sent back with me when I visited home last weekend.

 

16:15         By now, the VBD books have arrived. The VBD stands for Virtual Book Display, and every week the Information Resources Librarian sends me over a spreadsheet with the picks for the Law Library. This week there are not too many, so only two runs up and down the stairs. Once at my desk, I have to check the books off on my spreadsheet, process them and send them to the copyright shelves for cataloguing. I also take this time to track down any missing VBD books from previous weeks, looking to see where they have got to.

 

16:45        I head down to Official Papers to grab some boxes of material to be barcoded and then head up to the desk for my 5pm evening shift. While on the desk, I answer queries from readers and give (hopefully useful and easy-to-follow) directions.

Home Office Research study from 1975 on homicide statistics.

When my attention is not required by readers, I work through barcoding the OP material. Currently I am working through series from the Home Office, which includes some very interesting reads, such as Absconding from Open Prisons and Homicide in Britain, 1967 – 1971. 

 

17:30        Time for the count. I grab the clipboard and head round the library to count the number of readers inside.

 

17:45         Mental maths done, I return to barcoding. When finished, I begin work on this blog post!

 

18:40         I ring the first bell to alert readers we will be closing soon. The bell is very loud and always makes unsuspecting readers jump (readers – I’m sorry!!).

 

18:50          Second bell.

 

19:00          The bell is rung for the final time to signify the library is closed. We switch the lights off and I drop my work to my desk before heading to the staffroom. Both cakes are finished and someone has kindly washed my plates, so I pack up them into my bag and head off to enjoy the rest of the sunshine!