{"id":1583,"date":"2026-07-30T11:39:48","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T10:39:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.hertford.ox.ac.uk\/library-archives\/?p=1583"},"modified":"2026-07-30T14:10:51","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T13:10:51","slug":"fun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.hertford.ox.ac.uk\/library-archives\/fun\/","title":{"rendered":"Peaceful, fun and insightful"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here our pupil shares their thoughts on the week:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s been a highlight of your time at Hertford or which task did you enjoy most, and why?<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"A<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
What\u2019s something you\u2019ve learned that you didn\u2019t know before?<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve learnt that the system to organise and categorise the books into \u2013 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!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Was there anything that surprised you or made you think differently about working at an Oxford college?<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019ll either find yourself in an office, or a very nice quad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/figure><\/div>
\"Large<\/figure><\/div>
\"Entrance<\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
If you had to sum up your time here in three words, what would they be?<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Peaceful, fun, and insightful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"View<\/figure><\/div>
\"Simpkin,<\/figure><\/div>
\"A<\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
What\u2019s one thing you\u2019ll take away from this experience?<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"All<\/figure><\/div>
\"All<\/figure><\/div>
\"A<\/figure><\/div>
\"A<\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Images above: All Souls College – with thanks for allowing us to visit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

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!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’d also like to thank the staff at Pembroke and All Souls College Libraries for hosting our visits.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1600,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[17,32,26],"class_list":["post-1583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rare-books","tag-archives","tag-digitisation","tag-library"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sites.hertford.ox.ac.uk\/library-archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/07\/PXL_20260710_123111674-small-scaled.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.hertford.ox.ac.uk\/library-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.hertford.ox.ac.uk\/library-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.hertford.ox.ac.uk\/library-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.hertford.ox.ac.uk\/library-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.hertford.ox.ac.uk\/library-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1583"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/sites.hertford.ox.ac.uk\/library-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1626,"href":"https:\/\/sites.hertford.ox.ac.uk\/library-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1583\/revisions\/1626"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.hertford.ox.ac.uk\/library-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.hertford.ox.ac.uk\/library-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.hertford.ox.ac.uk\/library-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.hertford.ox.ac.uk\/library-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}