Student Stories

• Amelia Haire, MA Library and Information Studies (Full Time)
• Mansi Dhokia, MA Library and Information Studies (Part-Time)

Amelia Haire, MA Library and Information Studies (2024)

Fascinating Specialisms

UCL is known for brilliant teaching, and I wanted to study somewhere that is surrounded by libraries and history, which of course the UCL campus is! I also really liked the look of the modules, and the lecturers all have such fascinating specialisms.

Pleasantly surprised at the value of the course

I don’t think it would be a stretch to say I LOVED the course! Each module was fascinating, and I think the work really prepared for my career in libraries. I’ve been pleasantly surprised with how much of my knowledge from the course I’ve used just in the one year since I graduated.

I really enjoyed Cataloguing and Classification, Information Literacy and Health Librarianship. Cataloguing was brilliant because of how Debbie taught it: the first pre-seminar task was to consider how we organise our wardrobe- I was sold! I hadn’t really thought about Health Librarianship ever before, but then when I heard Will explaining it I knew I wanted to take it! We visited a load of other libraries and considered Health Literacy in a way I hadn’t thought about before. Finally, when I took the Information Literacy module it really resonated with me. My background is in public libraries, and I’d seen the digital literacy divide first hand, alongside how different people take in information and use it. Safe to say, I loved this module so much I did my whole dissertation on Info Lit!

Entry into the library world

I think the use of resources and also the entry into what a lot of people call the “library world” was also very useful. There was a lot of librarians who came to meet us, and that the lecturers got us in contact with. I know this was invaluable to me, and really helpful post-UCL as well. I also enjoyed London! My undergraduate wasn’t at a Campus uni- so I was used to walking around to find my buildings. That being said, they’re all in round about the same area and easy to find. I also found there was always somewhere near to have a coffee and a chat with another person on the course.

Everyone wants to help!

Librarianship is honestly one of the friendliest professions out there, despite the “SHHH” stereotype. Everyone wants to help, and this course really encapsulates that generosity of spirit. Lecturers and fellow students alike really work and check on each other. London may be intimidating, but you’ll have people around you to help you find your way (literally and metaphorically). Finally, you have so many libraries around you that it’s so inspiring- try to visit all of them!

Mansi Dhokia, MA Library and Information Studies, 2024

Practical skills and placements

I had heard good things about the UCL course and knew that I wanted to stay in London. I went to a few LIS open days, but the course content for UCL ended up selling it to me, particularly the focus on practical skills like cataloguing, as well as the opportunity to do a placement.

Stimulating and flexible

I found it stimulating and interesting to look at libraries in an academic rather than strictly work context. I appreciated the flexibility of the course, as I was working part-time whilst studying, so knowing that I only had to be at uni on a set day of the week was a huge help. I enjoyed the variety of the modules - even though I enjoyed some aspects more than others, I do feel it was well rounded in looking at different aspects of library and information work and ultimately equipped me well to get a full-time assistant librarian job off the back of it.

I loved learning more about classification

I especially enjoyed the Cataloguing and Classification module as it was something I hadn't had loads of opportunity to do at work but knew it was a library skill I was really interested in and wanted to develop. In tandem with that, I loved the Knowledge Organisation module, which I hadn't originally planned on taking but found the concepts discussed intriguing - I loved learning more about classification and the way we organise things in libraries and beyond, plus I ended up doing my assessment for that module creating a thesaurus about vampires, which was so fun. I also enjoyed doing courses like Manuscript Studies and auditing the Historical Bibliography module, as I learnt about history within a preservation, curation and library context, which I felt lucky to be able to learn so much about on this course, since it's hard to gain practical experience with these materials usually.

Practical and reflective assessments

The variety not only in the modules but also the assessments surprised me - coming from a humanities background I was used to set exams or essays being the only way to be assessed, but I found that I only wrote a couple of 'traditional' essays on the LIS course and instead did a lot of practical and reflective assessments, from writing a collections management policy to the aforementioned thesaurus I created on vampires. I think doing my dissertation on fanfiction was something I had never considered when I applied, but I had so much fun writing it and doing in depth research on a topic I'm hugely passionate about.

Broadening my network

Beside teaching, it was definitely the connections I made with other people at a similar level of experience to me also working in the same industry that I found useful about the course. It was really valuable to talk to peers working in or with experience in a whole host of different types of libraries, from public to school to university to health. I work in law libraries, but the course and the conversations I had in class and out broadened my scope and network beyond that. I also enjoyed the placement opportunity - I did mine at King's College libraries and really enjoyed this aspect of the course as it took you beyond the classroom and reminded me of the different types of work librarians and information professionals are doing day to day.

Visiting local, interesting libraries

Studying in London inevitably brings about opportunities - for example, we got to visit lots of local, interesting libraries as part of various modules on the LIS course from the Wellcome Collection in Euston, to the Idea Store public library in Whitechapel, to the Aga Khan library in King's Cross. I also think there are lots of great libraries to study in in London, my favourite being Senate House library.

Don’t be afraid of thinking outside the box

My advice for anyone considering the course is to go for it - it seems like a lot of work but the flexibility of being able to do it part time if needed makes it manageable, and it makes you very employable when you finish. I would also say not to worry about your level of experience going into the course - I had done a one-year library traineeship prior to the course, but knew people who had worked in libraries for a few years and some who had only done a bit of volunteering, and we all managed to participate and learn fully. And finally, I would say that doing a LIS course is your opportunity to explore different kinds of libraries and information spaces in your assessments and discussions, and to not be afraid to think outside the box of what LIS can look like. I didn't write about traditional libraries for my dissertation and instead looked at information on the internet and how it's organised, and I don't regret it one bit.