Placement at Supreme Courts Library
I did my
placement at the Supreme Courts Library in Edinburgh. During the one month, I had
the chance to try out various aspects of a librarian’s role, such as books
selection, cataloguing, issuing books, answering legal enquiries, as well as developing
a marketing plan for the library.
The main users
of the library are judges (sounds intimidating, but everyone is really nice!)
and the collections are heavily dependent on loose-leaves, with supplementary
resources such as text books and online databases. The library also developed
an in-house classification scheme for their specific subject collections.
Besides working
in the library, I also had the wonderful opportunity to visit other law
libraries to get a glimpse of the operations in different law sectors. I
visited the Scottish Government library and Shepherd and Wedderburn law firm,
and will soon be visiting the Society of Advocates in Aberdeen Library. I also met up with
a librarian from Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) to learn about
their library’s new discovery system.
On my last week
of placement, I also had a rare chance to witness the installation of the first
female Lord Justice Clerk!
All in all, it was a wonderful experience for
me, with a mixture of fun and learning.
Wendy
Wendy
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| Service Desk |
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| Mezzanine Level |
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| Books Display |
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| Coffee Area |
A very fine library indeed!
ReplyDeleteAlan
This will look great on your CV - it shows your ability to adapt to, and use your skills within, a very specialised sector. Also, I believe that quite a few academic libraries use the Discovery search tool so any knowledge of that will be a bonus too. Congrats on a successful placement...and good luck for the future! Chris.
ReplyDeleteGreat to have the opportunity to visit other law libraries too and to see something of the court system.
ReplyDeleteI visited Wendy, what a great building and Jennie Findlay was one of the best placement hosts. Thank you Jennie! - Dina
ReplyDelete