May 22, 2003
UW librarian swaps jobs, homes with British counterpart
If you’ve ever had the desire to live someone else’s life for a while, Janice Thomas has a message for you: It can be done. And she should know, because she did it. For a year the UW librarian swapped jobs with Antony Hopkins, a librarian in London — all with the blessing of her boss and his.
The adventure started when Hopkins came to Suzzallo to talk to Director of Libraries Betsy Wilson. He had been visiting friends in Seattle and wanted to know if the library would consider a job exchange.
Wilson said she was intrigued with the idea, having had experience with such exchanges while at another university. “I have found that having an exchange librarian is very invigorating and broadening for the host institution, as well as for the librarians involved,” she said.
So Wilson sent out an e-mail to staff asking if anyone would be interested. The only requirement was knowledge of the Cyrillic (Slavic) alphabet.
Thomas knew the Cyrillic alphabet because she had used Russian bibliographic materials at an earlier job, but she immediately thought, “I can’t do that” and forgot all about it for a couple of months. Then when a library administrator was in her office one day, Thomas asked if anyone had come forward to do the exchange.
“She said no, and asked if she could give my name to Antony,” Thomas recalled. “The next thing I knew I had an e-mail from him saying ‘I understand you’re going to exchange with me.’”
Though she hadn’t made up her mind at the time, in the end Thomas decided to take the plunge and moved into Hopkins’ London apartment (or should we say flat?) while he took over her house here. Her job was at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies Library (SSEES); the school is part of University College London. There, she was the reader services librarian.
“I was responsible for circulation, for the computer rooms, for general reference work, for overseeing the collection, the shelving — anything that impacted the people using the library,” Thomas said.
The library in question is much smaller than the one she’s used to; SSEES has about 300,000 volumes, compared to 1.6 million in Suzzallo’s collection, not counting natural sciences. There are about 13 or 14 employees on the staff there. But in some ways, according to Thomas, working there wasn’t much different than working here. “Helping library users is the same everywhere,” she said.
But there were some different practices. For one thing, the SSEES Library isn’t open to the public, as the UW’s libraries are. Only faculty, students and members can use it. A turnstile is installed at the door and cards with barcodes are issued to eligible users. Furthermore, there is a limit on the number of books that can be checked out at one time — 10 for undergraduate and master’s students, 20 for doctoral students and 40 for faculty. There is no limit at the UW.
“People didn’t seem upset by these limitations,” Thomas said. “It was just accepted as the norm.”
Also accepted was the constant possibility of strikes. British librarians are unionized, so the library was closed one day for a strike and was the only library branch open during another strike. Faculty and students are unionized as well, as are police and firefighters, hospital personnel and transportation workers. Thomas said she was affected by several strikes during her sojourn in England.
Outside of work Thomas faced the mundane difficulties of suddenly being planted in an unfamiliar neighborhood in the heart of a major metropolis. Finding stores that sold everyday necessities, for example, was a challenge. “I ended up going to a mall at the end of the tube line.”
But the difficulties paled compared to the opportunities. Professionally, Thomas got to attend a meeting of the European Information Association held in York — a relevant experience for her as an employee of the Government Publications unit at Suzzallo, which receives European Union materials. The event, she notes, was held in a 12th century building that was wired for the Internet.
And personally, she fit in trips to Belgium, the Isle of Wight and Scotland as well as visits to London museums, galleries and theater. Luckily for Thomas, she and Hopkins retained their salaries from their home institutions, because British librarians are paid less than their American counterparts.
Hopkins, meanwhile, reported in an e-mail that he enjoyed the beautiful scenery and the friendliness of Americans. “I was very impressed by the resources the libraries had to offer and by the enthusiasm of the staff,” he wrote.
Wilson said she would definitely consider another exchange.
“Antony was a joy to have at the UW Libraries and he provided an outsider’s perspective that encouraged us to question some operating assumptions that we had not questioned,” she said. “And Janice had a broadening experience in England, and brought those new experiences and perspectives back to the UW Libraries.”
