This ‘A Day in the Life’ post shares what a typical working day might look like for Heythrop Library’s Assistant Librarian. Although no two days are the same, the following timetable offers a glimpse into how I organise my work, in addition to handling reader enquiries (in person, emails, phone calls) throughout the day.
9:30-10:00
Opening procedures: switch on lights, turn on computers, open windows, check the shared calendar, tackle emails including new membership applications, refine to-do list for the day.
10:00-11:00
New books: collect a box of newly purchased books from reception, mark the new books as arrived in our records, help with preparing the invoice, get started with cataloguing and classmarking them.
11:00-11:15
Tea break.
11:15-12:00
Books: more cataloguing and discussing any tricky classmark decisions with Clemens. We often get carried away during these meetings (!), debating the subtleties between two numbers. Rest assured, we always disagree agreeably.
12:00-13:00
Journals: checking-in newly received issues, adding the titles to the draft monthly journal log, chasing claims of not received issues. Chasing publishers and our subscription agent about claims is not my favourite task (as Clemens will confirm), but it’s all worth it when the missing issues arrive to fill the gaps in our collection. These are the little joys librarians thrive on!
Screenshot of the check-in card for The Way journal.
13:00-14:00
Lunch in the Mount Street gardens, in my usual spot near the palm tree (best view for people-watching).
14:00-14:30
Offsite storage requests: running a report of offsite storage requests for Heythrop and Senate House Library users, ordering requested items from the offsite store(s), which could involve using two separate suppliers’ web portals (and crossing my fingers that all requested items are available!) If an item is missing, contact storage site to investigate and update the library reader on the situation.
14:30-14:45
Emails: monitoring the Heythrop Library email inbox.
14:45-15:45
Collection development: I’m working on a project to increase the number of women theologians in the library collection. I research the work of a particular theologian, find titles appropriate for our collection, and order them if we do not already hold copies.
I wrote more about this women theologians project in a previous blog post.
Photo of a shelf of Feminist Theology books in the reading room.
15:45-16:00
Tea break and check for post.
16:00-17:30
Improving journal records: I’m usually working on a background project to improve our journal records. Currently, I’m checking and updating the vendor codes for all the journals we subscribe to (around 200 titles), and tracking my progress in a spreadsheet. Although it sounds like a straightforward enough task, it can sometimes be difficult working out how and why we receive a journal title, for example if we pay for it, receive it as a gift or as part of a discontinued exchange relationship. Improving any journal record is often like opening Pandora’s box (!) and noticing many other issues to fix, such as title changes, improving the quality of bibliographic records, claiming late issues, sending old issues to offsite storage, or closing records for inactive journals.
17:30-18:15
Various tasks: during term-time at the London Jesuit Centre, the Library remains open until 6:30pm on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. In the last hour, I’ll often catch up on admin and tasks that are less demanding on my brain than, say, cataloguing. This might include book repairs, labelling, shelving, shelf-checking, scheduling the daily #NewAcquisitions posts on X (formerly Twitter), preparing books and journals to be sent to offsite storage and packing them up for collection.
18:15-18:30
Closing procedures: time to remind any members using the Library that we close in 15 minutes and last call for any books to be borrowed or returned and then tidying the reading room.
Time to head off!
NH
What are your thoughts about the above?