Life

The last week or so has been a cold one, and experiencing Cambridge in the snow has been beautiful! The temperatures in the library have been a little chillier than one can cope with, and the aim has been to see how many layers I can wear and still move...

As time gets further through my traineeship I have begun to think about more pressing matters, such as what will I be doing come August. Gaining a place on a LIS Masters course has been achieved however there is the subject of how I will fund this, and my living costs, throughout the two year period. Jobs are not so easy to come by from my research, so it could be a case of thinking outside the box! I've been immensely lucky this year, I have learnt so much so far and I'm only a little over half way through. I hope the skills I've picked up on the way will be useful in the coming months as I begin the tedious process of applications again.

Joe Brearley

January has been quite a busy month so far in the library; there has been a lot of biographical work to be getting on with. Recently I have been working through a book about Joe Brearley, ‘the man who taught Harold Pinter’, who was a Johnian and beforehand had a very tiny entry in the ‘Register of Twentieth Century Johnians’. Thanks to the book, ‘Fortune’s Fool’ I have managed to bulk out his record significantly, with his whole career history and details of his travels. He was a fascinating person, and his life around the time of the Second World War was riveting to read about. Although the book is fairly hefty it was relatively easy to browse, and I spent a few hours earlier this week reading the letters to friends and family and the various bits he wrote before he died. I felt very happy as I updated the Register with my newfound information, and I hope more people will be interested to read of him and his life.

This week Rebecca (Butler Project Associate) and I had great fun attending a Zumba class. One of the craziest things I’ve done in a while, I did feel it was a great workout! Looking forward to going next week, though along with step it does leave me feeling a little exhausted by mid week! I’m looking forward to my day off tomorrow, which will hopefully involve a small lie in. The rest of this weekend involves going to Evensong in the College, along with my grandparents and cousin which I am quite excited about as I hear the music is amazing. I am also expecting to enjoy some tasty food at the Galleria restaurant by the river; they have excellent reviews so I am hoping for something enjoyable!

A New Year

Hello All

After such a long time of no blogging I've decided to start a fresh. This week has seen me writing various pieces for the CATALOG website and it's got me in the mood for thinking and typing.

It's been a busy one, in fact the last three weeks since I arrived back in Cambridge have all been productive, despite there being various days spent outside of the library. Together I worked with the other trainees to produce a poster for the libraries@cambridge conference last week, spending a day of my leave before Christmas putting everything together. I've also spent three days up at the Innovation Centre in Cambridge helping Allen, the Lower Library Cataloguer, work through many boxes of books donated to the library. I found this fascinating and would love to get involved with it more, which I have been promised! I've also been working on a project with Fiona in the Biographical Office locating all the past Overseas Visiting Scholars of the College. It's only these last few days I've managed to get on with the general work load and it's quite pleasing to see my 'To do' list shrink a little!

Other than that it's been back to normal, meeting up with friends (and family) for lunches and coffe, going to step aerobics (yay!) and generally trying to get all those bits and pieces done around the house that you just leave until you really have to do them. I've also had the excitement of receiving offers from both Northumbria and Aberystwyth to study with them by distance learning. Now just to see where the rest of this year takes me and what I'll end up doing from August... a little scary thought.

How quickly time flies...

It feels like such a long time since I arrived here in Cambridge and so much has happened. So far all the graduates have spent many hours getting to grips with Voyager to catalogue and to issue/return/pay fines etc. I feel the courses we all took part in the UL have been incredibly useful, and it has reduced the amount of time it takes me to deal with an item from about half an hour to under ten minutes! The tour of the UL was very enlightening, and made me realise that I was probably very lucky as an undergraduate in Durham! The idea of entering that building as a nervous 18 year old is terrifying, it all seems a lot more complicated here... although it is alot bigger of course. Durham also had more space for study and I think this is something the UL lacks for the younger students, although here the college libraries more than make up for it.

Last week we went to Pembroke College for a talk about applying for Library and Information Sciences postgrad degrees, and a tour of the college library. The talk was incredibly informative, but did little to ease my worries about what next year will bring. I love working but I did enjoy studying and I hope I can combine the two. I think the learning style would be very different to my previous Masters, I work best with numbers not words! However, if it could lead me into an interesting career and help me learn new skills I feel it would definitely be worth it. I guess we'll just have to see how it goes, I still have most of this year left to enjoy.

For the first time in my life I am now wearing glasses (shamefully not at this moment) for the perfect librarian look. The process of choosing them was long and I'm still to get used to them, in some ways only needing them for the computer is making it harder. The number of times I have to jump up to help a student at the desk I am worried as to how long my glasses will last! I am thinking a glasses string is needed however I have been informed that I would then become...

'like an old woman'   Janet

... so for the moment I am resorting to taking them on and off (it's very hard to see the person if I keep them on!).

 This Week: Introduction to HTML

What is a blog?

I'm rather new to the concept of a blog, and the idea of writing anything other than a differential equation so this could be interesting... But I'm keen to give things a go so here I am. Probably not the typical librarian blogger, I come from a rather scientific background but I don't see why this can't be a hugely beneficial thing in a predominantly arts-based environment. I am forever a logical person and could be quite useful when it comes around to handling that wonderful cataloguing client, Voyager (the interface forever emblazed (note to self - is this a word?) in my mind after the many hours in the UL with my fellow graduate trainees in Cambridge).

Anyway after much prodding here is my attempt at a blog... wish me luck. My imagination is not my most defining feature so bare with me, it is possible I will simply list facts! But maybe I'll show what it's like being a Physicist turned Librarian and go some way to explaining what lead to this huge change in career (if indeed I can call it that).

Thank you for reading this far!