Introducing the trainees of 2008 - 2009, describing our various backgrounds, what made us decide to pursue a career in the information sector, and what we hope to do next.
I have always loved using libraries since I was a small child and now as an adult enjoy sharing this experience with my son. This, coupled with my experience of using academic libraries and electronic databases whilst studying for my degree, promoted my interest in librarianship as a career. In addition to this, my last job as a teaching assistant involved assisting small groups of children in returning, finding, choosing and issuing books. I also assisted children with research using both books and online resources. I found facilitating the children's use of the library and ICT services a very rewarding experience.
For me librarianship offers a challenging career as libraries develop in the 21st Century, with the increasing use of electronic resources and the implications this has for libraries as information providers and physical spaces. My position at Christ's offers me a wonderful opportunity to gain further library experience and new knowledge of areas such as cataloguing about which I know very little, before going on to study a for a masters in library and information services.
After completing my MA in Psychology of Music at Sheffield University in 1999, I decided that although I had enjoyed doing the research I did, an academic career wasn't for me, and I wanted to experience working life outside university.
After a period of temping, I got a post at the Barbican Centre in London, as office manager and education assistant for Barbican Education. I thoroughly enjoyed this job, and in particular the parts of it where I was working with children, and for this reason, I decided to train as a teacher. However, after working for six years on the 'front line' of teaching, I am now ready for a new challenge.
A short stint of work experience at Papworth Hospital Library convinced me that I would enjoy working within a library, as it is an educational context, but is a setting where using and organizing information is the main emphasis. It also involves working with and helping people, which is important to me. The Classical Faculty Library has proven to be an excellent place to work, as I enjoy its 'buzzy' atmosphere, and the opportunities that the traineeship offers. These include being trained in all aspects of library work, such as helping readers with using resources, classifying items, cataloguing, processing and website editing. I was therefore very pleased to have the opportunity to continue working here for longer as it will enable me to extend my experience further.
I came to Corpus Christi College from York where I took a Master’s degree in Medieval English Literatures at the University’s Centre for Medieval Studies. It was there that my interdisciplinary interests in Literature and History developed from more general interests in Medieval Historiography and a fascination with the Medieval Imagination into concentrations on Material Culture in the Medieval world, particularly textual materiality and the history of the book, technologies of writing and practices of reading. I became increasingly interested in the twin fields of Special Collection Librarianship and conservation work.
These interests were fostered and focused through involvement with York Minster’s Library and Conservation studio and when the opportunity arose to work not only in Corpus Christi’s elegant new Taylor Library but also in the college’s magnificent Parker Library whose name and collections are well-known to all Medievalists and library-fanatics, I applied eagerly, enticed further by the possibility of participation in the practical work carried out at the college’s famous Elephant Pen conservation studio.
Corpus has offered me fantastic opportunities in delightful settings to learn a huge amount about different kinds of libraries and how they operate. Between working in The Taylor and The Parker I get different perspectives on the functions and priorities of two different Library systems; the life of a busy Undergraduate lending library in the Taylor, and the controlled conditions governing the Parker’s auspicious reference collections. However, my ‘Library Education’ has not solely been based in college. Very soon after arriving at Corpus I was made aware of the multitude of lectures, courses and library-placements available to Graduate Trainees in Cambridge and London, offering the Trainee diverse avenues and resources to cultivate interests in all areas of Librarianship and to gain the necessary skills to progress quickly and effectively to the Library Master’s degree. Furthermore, Corpus’ unique and world-famous conservation studio offers a trainee rare and delicious hands-on experience of the mechanisms of Medieval and Early Modern manuscript production and print technologies.
I have found it especially satisfying to come to The Taylor Library from the work that I recently completed for The Dean & Chapter of York on the initial stages of the York Minster Revealed project, whose restoration and conservation work will revitalise the ways people use and visit the Minster, promoting access to and awareness of that historic building. I have been most fortunate to come from the first stages of a long project full of promise and possibilities, to Corpus’ new Taylor Library, a revitalising new building in an ancient college, whose construction has but recently been completed but whose life is just beginning.
Having studied History at Royal Holloway College, London, I felt unsure about what career path to follow. I knew from my work at the university Library and subsequently Archives, that I wanted to remain in this environment. Having missed the opportunity of applying for graduate trainee courses, I decided to pursue the alternative route – that of a library assistant. I was fortunate to be offered the position of library assistant at Emmanuel College, and started in September 2008. The college librarian has been very helpful in offering her services and getting me involved with the other graduate trainees at Cambridge University. I intend to apply to the library schools this year, and hope to be successful, relying upon the year’s library experience I have gained. If unsuccessful I will apply for a graduate traineeship next year and ensure I apply in time! So far my work at Emma has been varied and very enjoyable – dealing with general enquiries, giving library tours to the freshers, and preparing new books, gift books and serials for the shelves. I am also fully involved with the current stock review as part of the plan for a very exciting extension to the library, with work due to start next year.
I had never considered a career in librarianship until I began a research degree in Political Ethics at the University of Edinburgh. Being elected onto the Library Committee at New College, University of Edinburgh, coupled with my realisation that I was not suited to life as an academic, motivated me to research academic librarianship as a possible career. Once I had started reading up on librarianship, I couldn’t imagine why I hadn’t thought of it before! The diversity of roles within the sector appeals to me, as does the way that technological advances are updating how libraries function without distorting the traditional intentions of librarianship.
In March this year, I began to apply for Graduate Trainee positions in academic libraries. The post at New Hall, soon to be Murray Edwards College, caught my eye because it offered the opportunity to be part of a small team and consequently to be exposed to many elements of librarianship without being confined to a small set of duties. I have learned so much in the time that I have been here, and am confident that this experience will be invaluable in securing a place at Library school in the coming years.
My interest in libraries developed during the first two years of my undergraduate degree at the University of Sussex. Reading History and American Studies required a great deal of research, and the more time I spent in the University library the more I liked it. I wanted to stay in an academic environment but didn't fancy being a professor or academic. To me, libraries seemed the perfect choice.
The opportunity to explore librarianship as a career came during my year abroad at Occidental College, Los Angeles. While studying I applied for and was awarded a Mellon internship at the college library. The position introduced me to a wide range of library roles, including cataloguing, website design, collection analysis and assisting at the reference desk. Utilising the special collections holdings, I also researched and developed a display on the college founder and his family’s influence throughout Occidental's history. I enjoyed every part of the experience, and when I returned to the UK I decided to learn more about librarianship. Conversations with my careers advisor steered me towards the CILIP website, and I began to apply to graduate trainee positions straight away.
With its mix of old and new, the library at Newnham College particularly appealed. I liked the atmosphere immediately and thought working with a small team of professionals would provide the variety and responsibility I was after. I have not been disappointed. Although my plans are far from set in stone, I am looking forward to finding out more about the library profession and seeing where the training can take me in the future.
Despite being obsessed with books from an early age, I had never considered a career as a librarian. However, this all changed when I left university in 2006 with a degree in history and no idea what to do next. After spending three months teaching English in Russia delaying the inevitable, I started browsing the internet looking for the perfect job. The CILIP website soon came up, which led me to discover the various traineeships on offer, and reading about them convinced me that librarianship was in fact the right career for me. I spent the next year working for my local council while simultaneously volunteering at a local public library on Saturdays - an enjoyable (if sometimes stressful!) experience. I also completed a two-week placement in the library of a nearby museum, and applied for lots of traineeships - I was lucky enough to get the job at St John’s.
In the short time I have been here I have already been introduced to the issue desk, learnt the principles of cataloguing and classifying and discovered the history of the Old Library and some of the many treasures it contains. I’m sure I’m going to have a really interesting and varied year and I certainly don’t regret my decision to become a librarian.
I was at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge as an undergraduate (BA History) between October 2003 and June 2006. I had my first experience with manuscripts and incunabula at the Parker Library, and took a course on the Book in Medieval Society - though opportunities to study manuscripts in detail as part of the degree were limited. After graduation, I took a year off from study. I was employed as an academic adviser for the publishers Dorling Kindersley - an interesting line of work, but not that one I wanted to follow in the long term.
I returned to Cambridge in September 2007, to study for an MPhil in Medieval History. This provided me with the necessary skills to do research into medieval manuscripts, with classes in bibliography, codicology, palaeography, and medieval Latin. My dissertation examined three manuscript copies of the Ranulph Higden's fourteenth-century 'Polychronicon' kept at the Parker Library: how the readership of the text expanded beyond the monastic cloister to include secular, royal, and lay readers; how these different readers used the 'Polychronicon'; how that affected the presentation of the text in manuscript form; and an assessment of the work's historiographical significance in terms of genre, language, and its effect on subsequent late-medieval historical writings.
During my MPhil, I took a Saturday job at the University Library as a book fetcher. I had had some previous experience of library work, as a volunteer librarian at Corpus. Besides re-shelving and finding books, one of my routine responsibilities at the UL was manning the Periodicals Desk, handling reader enquiries and offering information about the availability of requested journals. The experience was very satisfying, and I found myself preferring library work to research work! Unsure about applying for a PhD, and conscious of the minimal availability of funding, I discussed my options with a member of staff at the UL, who recommended the Graduate Traineeships in Cambridge. I applied to Trinity: the job offers responsibility for administering journals and helping readers, plus wider experience of library administration. I am also able to maintain my academic interest in manuscripts. I hope this will provide a good grounding for later employment in rare book and manuscript librarianship.
