In the next of our series introducing members of the team who you might meet at our sites or across the University, #DULibIntroducing welcomes Tim Buckle, who you may meet at our Help and Information desk in the Bill Bryson Library… but more importantly works busily behind the scenes helping to make sure we can respond to requests for new books and other goodies for the shelves. Do say Hello!
Hello! Please state your name, full job title, and a brief description of what that entails:
Hi! My name is Tim Buckle. My role in the library is Acquisitions Co-ordinator and I supervise the Acquisitions team. Acquisitions is the team that purchase all the books, both print and electronic, for the various library sites. We order over 10,000 books a year so it is a very busy team. As well as buying books I meet with book suppliers, and monitor performance of delivery times from suppliers. Reading lists are a big part of my work and the summer is our busy period where we check hundreds of reading lists to see what we need to order in for the library.
In addition to acquisitions, I am part of the library social media team (Follow us on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram!) and am constantly plotting how I can get LEGO into my everyday work as I am massive LEGO fan (the official term is AFOL).
In addition to my library work and when I am not tweeting , blogging or thinking about LEGO I run the Durham LGBT+ Network (Staff and PostGrads), I am a Bullying and Harassment Support Advisor for the University and I am on the University Athena Swann Self-Assessment Team.
Outside of the library and slowly working on my Library Chartership and recently became a member of CILIP Community, Diversity and Equality Committee.
How long have you worked in the Library?
Answering this makes me feel old. I have worked in the library for 14 years and 4 months.
What would you say is most interesting/enjoyable aspect of your job?
I enjoy the variety. Every year is different and I really like this. I probably shouldn’t say too loud but I also enjoy the reading lists. They are a lot of work but I do find it interesting seeing the different topics and reading suggestions. I love a list and I love books so it is a good combination.
What was the last film you saw, and what would you rate it out of 10?
The last film I saw was ‘1917’. I am not usually a fan of war films but I do like to try to see as many of the Oscar nominated films as I can. I would rate it 8/10.
If you could travel to any part of the world, where would it be and why?
This is a tough question. I would like to go back to Scandinavia as it is beautiful part of the world (I think I an inner Viking). However, the place I most want to go is New York especially at Christmas time as it is one giant movie set.
If you could jump into a book and live there with the characters for a day, which book would it be?
‘The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe’ by C.S.Lewis. I love this book so much and always wanted to escape to Narnia (still do). I think it would be great to explore the woods and the lamppost and the castle Cair Paravel.
The library tannoy system has just been turned into a massive karaoke machine. What would be your song of choice?
This would be my nightmare. I don’t do karaoke after a bad experience on my 21st birthday where I was ‘made’ to sing ‘Stuck in the middle with you’ by Louise (yes the bad version not the classic by Stealers Wheel) and then told by a family member never to do karaoke again.
I suppose I would try to unplug the machine unless you needed people to leave the library very quickly.
What is the best piece of advice you could give to our Library users?
Talk to the library staff. We are here to help everyone. There is no such thing as a stupid question so please come and ask a member of staff if you need our help. We are nice really. But also… MORE Books! If you spot something you think you’re missing, ask us to get a copy!
If we want to know more about acquisitions, where can we look? (Web link?)
You can visit the MORE Books webpage if you need to request a book for purchase at https://www.dur.ac.uk/library/morebooks/ , or there is information for both staff and students about Reading Lists at https://www.dur.ac.uk/library/course_resources/.
Meet other Library Staff in our #DULibIntroducing series of posts!
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