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New Library Staff Feature

Welcome to our newest editions to the Library team, Ed and Flora!

To help you get to know them better, we sat down with Ed and Flora for a quick Q&A session:

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your role in the library

My role at the library is mostly answering e-mails and the phone, talking to people at the enquiry desk. I tend to take on different jobs or small projects as they come, like the occasional poster or helping with processing the new books. Or something boring like going through over 1000 names on KnowledgeShare looking for duplicates and inconsistencies. 

Ed

Hello, my name is Flora, my pronouns are she/her and I am from Dorset. I feel really lucky and supported to be in a role which includes formal study. I enjoy the variety of my job and being part of the library team. I do lots of the library admin and support the librarians with outreach and other tasks.

Flora

What do you like most about your job? 

What I like most about my job is everyone tends to be quiet in a library, which is a nice change of pace from everywhere else in the world. I think more places should have a culture of being respectfully quiet, like public transport. 

Ed

Helping people learn how to use the library and meeting new staff, shelving and tidying the books (very therapeutic!), and learning about librarianship.

Flora

How did you find your first week? 

My first week was quite relaxing. The team here did a good job letting me settle into the learning experience. 

Ed

A lot to take in, loads of acronyms to learn (I’m still learning them…), but everyone was very welcoming and friendly.

Flora

What is the biggest challenge that you’ve faced since joining the library? 

My biggest challenge so far was getting my head around the different procedures on the database. It does not have a lot of leeway for errors, so it required a lot of slow repetition and following instructions before I had it down.

Ed

Getting used to all the different departments and roles in the NHS, and navigating the UHD sites to find out where everything is! 

Flora

What do you enjoy doing outside of work? 

I most enjoy reading novels and watching films outside of work. I just think they’re neat. 

Ed

Vinyasa yoga, hiking, swimming, reading (sci-fi, fantasy, crime, history), travel, cooking, going to the cinema, hanging out with my cute niece and nephew.  

Flora

If you could pick any superpower, what would it be and why? 

If I could pick a superpower, I would probably pick the ability to visit anywhere in the universe in my mind like in Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke. It would be a tough decision though, as being able to turn into animals would probably be more fun. 

Ed

I would be the ultimate polyglot and be able to speak and read all the languages in the world so I could communicate with everyone in their first language! 

Flora