We asked Caroline to share with us a placement report. She was with us for 2 weeks in April 2025. Being on placement is part of UCL students degree.
As part of my MA in Library and Information Studies at UCL, I completed a two-week work placement at the Heythrop Library.
During this placement, I learnt how the librarians manage orders for books from storage, and return them after they have been returned to the library. I learnt how the librarians at Heythrop deal with membership requests, and issue member cards. I also learnt the system for class-marking books used at Heythrop, which was interesting since it was a unique classification system. While the library followed the Library of Congress Classification system for the most part, for certain texts they used the Lynn-Peterson system for Catholic books.
I helped check the shelves in the reading room to make sure books had been put back in the correct place, and to check that books that should have gone back into storage were not shelved in the reading room instead. I also helped catalogue books, and felt that this practical experience would be very useful for any library job.
I also helped with collection development. Since the librarians wanted to order more books by women theologians, I looked up a list of women theologians, noting how many books by or about them were already in the collection, and writing down a list of those they did not have.
Overall, I really enjoyed the placement and felt that I got a good idea of what it would be like to work in an academic, research-focused library, as well as a good sense of tasks specific to the Heythrop.
Caroline, work experience student (April 2025)
What are your thoughts about the above?