Graduate intern update: Elisabeth

Graduate intern Elisabeth Prestgard updates us on what she’s been up to in the last month or so…

Hello everyone! Happy 2022! Since the last time I spoke to you, I’ve got big news to share. In November I started a new position as a part-time Customer Service Assistant. It is a permanent position which I am doing along with my internship.

Now my hours are split between the two jobs. I do interlibrary loans for 14 hours and the customer services position for 21 hours per week. My workweek is from Sunday to Thursday. This is divided into three evenings and two mornings in customer service. My interlibrary job is done before and after my customer service shifts. Evening shifts have been interesting as I get to work with different staff members that I haven’t had the opportunity to work with before. My tasks in customer services remain the same as they were before, except I no longer provide online customer service via LibAnswers. With the new position, I have also gotten a new line manager. Together we have been going through a checklist to see which tasks I know and what I need training in.

With the pandemic we have reverted back to the booking system. For two weeks students could only come into the library if they booked a place via Spacebookings. During that time, I even more familiar myself with the system. The necessity to book a library space is coming to an end with the easing of COVID restrictions.

In the Interlibrary Loans Team, we have been testing the RapidILL system to see how fast requests that we have created would take to arrive. This is done to make the system even more efficient.

Over the Christmas holiday, I finally had the opportunity to go and visit my family in France. Due to the COVID restrictions in both the UK and France, I have not had a chance to go and visit my family in over a year and a half. Although I enjoyed myself, I was looking forward both coming back to work and to be back in Durham. Thank you very much for keeping up with my journey to becoming a librarian. I wish everyone a great new year. Looking forward to seeing you all at the Bill Bryson Library 😊