I was fortunate enough to enjoy a 2 week work placement with the Heythrop Library team in April/May this year. Arranged by the UCL Library and Information Studies department, I had asked for a placement which would have lots of variety and that is precisely what I got.
It is a common misconception that librarians get paid to sit around reading their favourite books all day (if only!), but that is a gross misrepresentation of the amount of time and deliberation that goes into ensuring that the Heythrop library users have access to the reading material they need when they need it, including:
- Retrievability through retrospective cataloguing of the off-site collection and regularly checking sections of shelving for misshelved or missing items;
- Accessibility of the collection – arranging next-day delivery of books held in off-site storage;
- Anticipation of which new books will be in demand through collection development;
- Journals management – keeping on top of which issues of the extensive journal collection are due, late or missing;
- Maintenance – carrying out repairs to books;
- Promotion of new acquisitions – processing acquisitions including cataloguing, classmarking, labelling and displaying.
And all of this in amongst processing membership requests, dealing with reader enquiries, processing large donations of books and having a student on work placement watching everything you are doing over your shoulder!
It was wonderful for me to get some practical experience and to be able to apply so much of the surprising amount of theory behind librarianship that I have been engaged in since September. My work placement has really helped me to understand more about the library work that really interests me and the kind of library I would like to work in*, and that there is real satisfaction to be had in completing seemingly monotonous tasks in amongst the more brain-taxing elements of librarianship.
My two weeks with the Heythrop library team gave me a fascinating insight into what is involved in keeping a small library running efficiently and I benefitted from the knowledge and experience of 3 librarians who were so generous with their time, insight and extraordinary patience.
Zoe Saxton, UCL Student
May 2026
* Knowledge organisation, and a small specialist library, in case you were wondering!