We are delighted to welcome Grace Exley as the first Graduate Library Trainee to join Jesus College since 2017.

 

Grace is part of Oxford’s Graduate Trainee Programme, which is specifically designed to provide professional library experience for graduates who are considering doing a Master’s degree in librarianship. Placements last for one year, running from September to August. The programme allows its trainees to get hands-on experience in an academic library whilst also receiving formal training which meets the standards of the SCONUL (Society of College, National, and University Libraries) code of practice. It is the largest library training scheme in the UK.

Grace is a graduate in Fine Art from St Hilda’s and joins us from the Bodleian History Faculty Library. She will be working as a full-time assistant to the College Librarian, Owen McKnight, for the next twelve months. She says, “Jesus College is well known for being a friendly college, and that’s proving to be true. It’s really exciting to see how a library is run, and to learn more about librarianship.”

 Owen says, “Our last graduate library trainee was here in 2017, and ended up staying with us for two years. During the pandemic we were understandably not able to host a trainee, so it’s wonderful to welcome Grace to Jesus and I’m looking forward to supporting her to develop her skills in librarianship. The role is really diverse, and our trainees experience library life from book processing and cataloguing to learning about rare books, all while delivering frontline reader services to the College community. “

A unique feature of the Oxford programme is a series of training sessions specifically created for the traineeship. These sessions are designed to offer an insight into the different aspects of librarianship and potential career paths, from an overview of book conservation to the detailed work of online cataloguing, with visits around Oxford and beyond including the Bodleian’s huge offsite storage facility. Trainees are also encouraged to pursue independent projects on an aspect of librarianship that is of interest to them.

Grace will be producing a blog post about her traineeship for the Bodleian shortly, and we look forward to sharing a link across our social media channels. In the meantime, if you’d like to know more about the Graduate Trainee Programme, click here.