In July 2024 two pupils from local schools spent a week working with the Hertford Library and Archives team. The team enjoyed welcoming the pupils, introducing them to how libraries and archives work and their enthusiasm for the library’s summer stock check and the special collections digitisation projects! The placements were organised through the College’s links with local schools.
Year 10 Work Experience Week
Getting selected to work at Hertford College Library for my year 10 work experience gave me an insight into how libraries actually run. On the first day, I was given a timetable looking at what I’m doing each day, and why. I was given an induction introducing me to the workplace, along with a tour which led me to the library. Although before I didn’t have much experience of libraries, except for the one that my school has open for all students that I rarely use and go to, Hertford library taught me about things like ‘rare books’, ‘archives’ and ‘oral history’ that I quickly learnt.
Monday: I had a look at the inside of the bridge which is described as one of the most famous buildings in Oxford and attracts most of the tourists. Emilie the HR Manager gave me and the other work experience students from my school the history of the bridge and how it was built. I was shy at first when I was separated from the others, but as I was introduced to the librarians Alice and Katherine, they showed me what I’d be doing with them over the course of the five days I’m here. After having a tour of the main areas, I was introduced to ‘rare books’. I was shown features of rare books, how they were made at the time, and how they’re taken care of, by the rare books cataloguer Sophie.
On Tuesday, since Hertford currently has a temporary library, we went to Regent’s Park College, which gave me another view of college libraries. The main thing I learned was how to stock check books. This included scanning them, organising them alphabetically, cleaning, and putting them back on the shelves. I found it a bit tiring at first but as I gradually did it for longer, I began to get into the flow and enjoyed it a bit.
Wednesday: I went to the Weston, visited an exhibition on an author named Kafka, then visited another one focusing on famous writers editing their work. I saw some of the library from the ground floor, and it looked really nice with how it was showcased with the glass and shelving.
Thursday, I met the College archivist Lucy, I learnt about her job which involves looking at old archives and records from former students and learnt how to scan and digitise them. This included documents, statements, old records and even sound recordings. On Friday, I did more work with Lucy, I listened to a tape recording of someone answering a questionnaire, and wrote notes about it. Then I had a trip to Balliol College which was really fascinating as I saw the variety of books and rooms they had.
I’m now writing to summarise and explain the highlights of my work experience here at Hertford and experience here. The highlights were definitely looking at the archives, stock checking and visiting other colleges, meeting different people who had different jobs and roles and having to get into routine of getting up for work.
Year 12 Work Experience Week
I arrived on Monday and Emilie showed me around the site then took me to see Alice and Katherine (the librarians) in the library where I started doing stock checking which is repetitive but fun. Afterwards I took some pictures of Ortus Sanitatis – it was really old and had interesting annotations I couldn’t read.
On Tuesday I came in and started with stock checking again, then we went to visit Wadham. We went down into their library and saw really old and rare books. One was the huge King James bible (Wadham’s librarians have made a video about this one). Another was an eleventh century book of gospels and not many people have seen it so I feel really lucky.
After this we went back and took more pictures of books for the display. This one was a first edition copy of Newton’s Principia which had another edition’s corrections as annotations.
On Wednesday I stock checked more books and have now done over 700 (1300 done total). I also went to Mansfield College and looked around their grounds. Their library has a lot of intricate decoration and some displays of books. I also made notes on a recorded interview of an alumnus talking about their time as a student in the 1940s, which was interesting. I also talked to the accountant (Judi) and discussed her job and surrounding jobs as I am interested in joining that field of work. She gave me some good advice and thought I would be a good accountant.
On Thursday I met with the archivist Lucy and looked at some of Jackson’s architectural drawings of Hertford College, University of Oxford. We then gave a tour to another work experience student from Mansfield.
On Friday with Lucy we digitalised some old portraits and letters from the 1800s and some alumni questionnaires from the survey in 1985. I then stock checked more books, with 1500 done in total.
I didn’t really know what to expect coming into a library but I learnt that you need to be confident in your hands, you need to be able to carry multiple books easily but also be able to gently handle old and rare books.