The other Oxford

I work at St Hilda’s College library and a lot of what I do involves making sure that the library runs efficiently. That’s not just putting books on shelves and stamping them out. It’s also co-ordinating all the things that make it possible for the library to function, for example buying and ordering books, deciding library policy and trying to respond to people’s ideas, from carpeting and better lighting to buying books for subject areas. There is also a lot of administrative work. Our college has just built a new extension, and our staff have been involved in the planning and design right from the beginning. Apart from that, I’m also a fellow of the college, which means that I’m involved with a lot of College activities, including sitting in on Governing Body, while being dean of degrees means I go to the Sheldonian and present people for their degrees.I enjoy the library aspect most of all because it supports people in their academic work. I very much like to see people coming up for their three years. They change a lot over that time and it’s quite interesting to see how their styles and fashions change. You also see people in the libraries weeping over essays and revision, then you see them at the other end when you’re taking them up to get their degrees. It’s a slightly more personal relationship than perhaps with some of the University libraries, and when alumni come back they nearly always say they have fond memories of our library, which I find gratifying.I’ve always worked in Oxford. I started off at the Taylorian, and that was my first taste of how pleasant working in a library could be. But the fun thing about being a college librarian is that you’re very hands-on and get to meet the students. I don’t think I would like to be in a job where I was just an administrator behind the scenes and never saw anybody. You also have more autonomy than you probably would in the larger organisations, and you feel very much involved in what’s going on. I also enjoy being the dean of degrees, because it’s such a happy family occasion. You meet people’s parents, which is always interesting, and you can see why some people are the way they are. The most common question we get asked, besides "Where is this book?" is actually "Can you come and un-jam the photocopier or the printer for me?" I’ve seen many unusual things, but I think I’ll draw a veil over those! Someone started a fire in a wastepaper basket once, which was an exciting moment, but usually people leave all their interesting possessions outside. I think we see a very different side to the students, mostly the quiet side: people who fall asleep at their desks is as riotous as it gets.I think librarians often just fall into the career. Personally, I’m not a natural librarian: I spend half my life looking for things and I’m not calm. What I really enjoy is reading, and that’s something that you don’t have time for when you’re working. You see so many books that you would like to read because of your work, and yet you just don’t have the time to do that. everybody always says, "Oh you’re a librarian, you must read a lot of books," and it makes me furious. If only that were true! There are some terrible stereotypes of librarians going around, and I hope we don’t conform to them too much here. For a librarian, I’m an incredibly noisy person; I don’t think I’ve ever said "Shush" to anyone in my life!work at St Hilda’s College library and a lot of what I do involves making sure that the library runs efficiently. That’s not just putting books on shelves and stamping them out. It’s also co-ordinating all the things that make it possible for the library to function, for example buying and ordering books, deciding library policy and trying to respond to people’s ideas, from carpeting and better lighting to buying books for subject areas. There is also a lot of administrative work. Our college has just built a new extension, and our staff have been involved in the planning and design right from the beginning. Apart from that, I’m also a fellow of the college, which means that I’m involved with a lot of College activities, including sitting in on Governing Body, while being dean of degrees means I go to the Sheldonian and present people for their degrees.ARCHIVE: 5th week MT 2005