The Senate House Library, University of London

This was where I began my career as a librarian

This building is the Senate House in the Bloomsbury area of London (just over the road from the rear of the British Museum). It is where I started my first job as a librarian, more than 40 years ago.

This is the central administrative building of the University of London and it houses a library that is open to students and staff who belong to any of the University’s many colleges. The library occupies most of the building in the picture, beginning at the second row of small windows and going all the way up to the top of the tower. When I was there it contained around one million books — what its capacity is today I simply don’t know.

On finishing my degree course (at Bangor, North Wales) in 1974 I was unsure what I wanted to do as a career. I thought that librarianship was a possibility, so I applied to join a scheme that offered one-year placements for graduates at university libraries, at the grade of “student assistant librarian”. This was like an internship, but a proper salary was part of the deal.

So in September 1974 I started work. I found a place in a hostel in Muswell Hill (north London) and commuted into central London by bus and tube.