Peaceful, fun and insightful – Hertford College Library & Archives Blog

In July 2026 a Year 10 pupil from a local school spent their work experience week peaking behind the scenes at Hertford College Library and Archives. Our pupil was introduced to the variety of tasks involved in running an academic library and archives in a college setting. The week included photographing and packaging rare books and archives, taking an inventory of the modern library and visits to Pembroke College, All Souls College and the Weston Library.

Here our pupil shares their thoughts on the week:

What’s been a highlight of your time at Hertford or which task did you enjoy most, and why?

A task which I enjoyed most has been in the Archives, where I had to scan fragile documents and other interesting paper details to be uploaded digitally, and then afterwards, I was able to clean the documents carefully so they looked neat and pristine; it was a very satisfying process.

A cream envelope from the Victorian era with a cleaning sponge on a wooden desk

A bundle of archival handwritten letters on a wooden desk, with a cleaning sponge next to them.

What’s something you’ve learned that you didn’t know before?

I’ve learnt that the system to organise and categorise the books into – both online and in person – is quite complicated and that the effort that goes into ensuring the tidiness and arrangement of the books is a lot!

Was there anything that surprised you or made you think differently about working at an Oxford college?

What surprised me most is that you definitely need a good sense of direction since the corridors and staircases seem to lead to nowhere, and then you’ll either find yourself in an office, or a very nice quad.

A three storey history spiral stone staircase with unusual angled windows. At the bottom of the stairs is a navy blue hoarding with white illustrated images of people.

Large historic wooden gate with with a small door opening within it. Surrounded by decorated stone walls.

Entrance doorway surrounded by green leaved climbing plant. Door has windows in and is painted white. Two matching painted windows are shown on either side of the door.

If you had to sum up your time here in three words, what would they be?

Peaceful, fun, and insightful.

View through a window on Hertford bridge. Windows have black metal mullions and through the window is New College Lane, with historic buildings lining a narrow street and trees at the back.

Simpkin, a black cat lies on a cream carpet and stares at the camera. Gentle light enters the room from a window in the top right.

A soft toy pteradactyl with a phone charger cable sits on a wooden desk with book shelves in the background

What’s one thing you’ll take away from this experience?

A better understanding about the effort and difficulties in trying to conserve older materials so they can be used for the future, and how fun it is to organise bookshelves.

All Souls College library with tall dark green wooden shelves filled with books with small wooden desks in front.

All Souls college library with tall dark shelves in the background and a large pal stone statue in the foreground.

A green lawned quad in All Souls, with a stone walkway running around the edge. The copper dome of the Radcliff Camera sits in the background. The sky is blue and sunlight shows in top left hand corner.

A corner of All Souls buildings, showing Oxford stone walls topped decorative pinnacles. In the top left is the copper done of the Radcliffe Camera.

Images above: All Souls College – with thanks for allowing us to visit.

The Library and Archives team would like to thank our pupil for all their hard work over the week. Seeing the library and archives from the point of view of a young person learning about jobs in the field is a great opportunity to reflect on what we do – and always a reminder of how much we enjoy it!

We’d also like to thank the staff at Pembroke and All Souls College Libraries for hosting our visits.