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Connor’s role involves supporting students with a range of issues, from time management and critical reading to referencing and note-taking. He started out by studying English and French at undergraduate level at St Anne’s College, Oxford. “I'd never had any kind of doubt about what I wanted to study,” he says. The pandemic affected his year abroad, so he decided to teach English as a foreign language in Lille, where he started to consider a career in education. Wanting to further his studies in English, he moved to Cambridge for a fresh start to begin his Master’s. “What’s so appealing about ����Vlog�ٷ� is that it’s a postgrad college. It’s very welcoming, it’s down to earth, it’s close enough to the city centre, but also far away enough that you feel as though you can make a nest and feel at home without being bombarded by tourists.”

While working on his thesis, Connor approached Laura Jeffrey, the Librarian at ����Vlog�ٷ�, for help with a very specific referencing issue. “I was working on a book of poetry that a friend of mine found in a charity shop in Scotland, and it had all this marginalia written by Lord Esher.” Reginald Brett, 2nd Viscount Esher (1852–1930), was a renowned poet in the same circle as key figures in Connor’s thesis. This unique source meant that Connor was working with something from his own library for the first time and didn’t know where to start. “Laura sent out a Batman signal to all the College libraries, and it was Suzanne Paul from the University Library who I ended up seeing about it. Suzanne is the Keeper of Rare Books and Early Manuscripts, which is maybe the coolest title you can possibly have as a librarian. She was super helpful.”

It was Connor’s interactions with the library community in Cambridge that influenced his decision to apply for a graduate traineeship, which is available in the libraries of various colleges and faculties throughout the University. He secured a place on the programme at Magdalene College, where his new colleagues recalled his unusual request for referencing assistance. “There was a kind of mad butterfly effect in all of it!” he says. “The traineeship was brilliant; it provided such a broad overview of librarianship. You visit all kinds of libraries – law libraries, medical libraries, public libraries – and I quickly realised that supporting students was the best part of the job for me.”

“What made a good day was when I felt really useful to someone, and I had that one-to-one interaction with students.”

Connor was considering a career in education when the position of Academic Skills Librarian at ����Vlog�ٷ� came up, combining his interests in teaching and research. “It was like a lightbulb went off, and it’s so well suited to what I wanted out of a job,” he says. One of the key aspects of the role is staying up to date with the latest best practices for academic skills such as time management and referencing. The first workshops he delivered in September covered time management, critical reading and note-making, referencing, and academic writing – all core building blocks for starting out as a student. “Generally, if someone comes to you with a problem, helping them with one of those four things will often resolve the issue. If someone has a deadline and is feeling overwhelmed, it’s my job to figure out the root of the problem. Sometimes it presents as a time management issue when it's actually a critical reading issue. For example, a student might say that they’ve read 20 articles, but they can't seem to produce anything or get started on the writing because of an issue in the reading phase.”

Connor says a frequent topic that comes up is best practice when using AI, which is constantly evolving. “Even compared to two years ago, when I was a student, things have changed, and the available tools are different as well. People use ‘AI’ as though it’s one monolithic thing, but it has many different aspects. It’s impossible to be ahead of the curve when guidance varies so much, even within a subject. As a college library, our position is different to that of a faculty library. If you’re studying business, for example, AI may be quite welcome, and you may be given different advice to the English faculty, where the majority will be against AI.”

When asked about his favourite place to study in Cambridge, Connor laughs. “I used to work quite a lot in cafés, which is my terrible secret as a librarian. But that’s just the way my brain works, it needs hustle and bustle and people moving around. It really depends on the situation, though.” He says that his workspace of choice will always be his college library. “You shouldn't feel trapped in your own room. When I was a student, the Small TV Room was my lounge, the Buttery was my kitchen, and the Library was my study. It’s like an extension of your room.” The Library team work hard to create a sense of home and comfort within their space. The Sir David Williams Room has a cosy corner with soft furnishings, plants and recreational fiction that anyone can take without checking it out. As a fan of speculative fiction and fantasy, Connor’s go-to author is Ursula Le Guin. He also recommends the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, who was the subject of his undergraduate dissertation. “Studying someone in so much depth usually destroys your love for an author, but it just tripled it for me,” he enthuses. “Hopkins is a Victorian, but he reads like a modernist; his work is just gorgeous.”

Connor explains that, as a general rule, the atmosphere in the library is very relaxed. “It’s for your use. We’re pro-student above all else, and we want the space to be useful for people.” He adds that the library provides accessibility equipment to ensure students' comfort, including book rests, blankets, and ear defenders. A variety of working styles are also facilitated, with standing desks, individual tables, and group set-ups available. The Write Here, Write Now workshops offer the opportunity for students to body double and work to a false deadline to motivate themselves. A new initiative started by WCSA’s Disability Rep is Lo-Fi Thursdays, which take place in the morning with non-distracting background noise and fidget toys. “What makes a space welcoming for one student is going to be completely different for another student. So we’re trying to offer different styles and varieties.”

Students can contact Connor for help with issues such as managing their schedule, improving their writing efficiency, and reducing general feelings of overwhelm. They can also enlist the expertise of ����Vlog�ٷ�’s writing consultants, many of whom have experienced the same challenges. The Library produces a newsletter called Read True, which details all the available services, and regularly posts updates on Instagram. “If you start to struggle with referencing or need to improve your paragraph construction, you can usually see an expert in the field within the same week and discuss it with them.”

With all the support options available through the Library, Connor wants to make one thing clear: “I would hope that people feel open to asking for support. It’s not a burden in any way – I love helping people, and I think it's the most rewarding part of what I do.”

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