Goodbye Graduate Librarian

Charlotte Westdijk has been with us a year, working as Graduate Trainee in the library. In that time she's become a part of Pembroke, and we'll be sad to see her go. Here she writes about her experience.

Everyone told me that my year as a Graduate Trainee would fly by, but I had no idea how true that would be. I feel very bittersweet about leaving as, although I will be going on to do something I have wanted to do for a long time, my time at Pembroke will be hard to beat.

Throughout the year, I’ve been given the opportunity to learn how to work efficiently in an academic library, on a traineeship that included going on visits to other libraries to see how they were run, and going on a series of intensive training courses. Within Pembroke, my day-to-day tasks include shelving and processing books, checking reading lists for each course and maintaining a pleasant atmosphere within the library. But two days are never the same here and it’s exciting to help students with their enquiries, as well as members of staff and readers from other areas. I particularly enjoy curating displays - we have such an amazing collection here, which makes my job much easier!

My favourite thing about this job, however, is the small team that I work in. Pat and Natalie have always been welcoming and supportive, and have made the past 14 months not only conducive for my next career step, but also incredibly enjoyable.

The next step for me is to do a Masters in Librarianship at the University of Sheffield, starting in September, and there is no way I would have been prepared for that if it wasn’t for the past year. I have thoroughly appreciated every aspect of working here, and would encourage anyone interested in training to become a Librarian to look into a Graduate Traineeship in Cambridge.

We wish Charlotte all the best with her future endeavours.