Meet the staff – Zoe Young

What is your name and job title?

I’m Zoe Young, and I’m providing cover for the role of Subject Librarian working with Jonathan Jones to support the School of Healthcare Sciences.

I also continue as Subject Librarian supporting Optometry and Pharmacy.

I am based in the Health Library, Cochrane Building. I will be focussing on supporting postgraduate programmes in particular so please do get in touch (youngz@cardiff.ac.uk / 02922510196) or book a 1-2-1 meeting quickly and easily here: www.bit.ly/bls-121s

What are your qualifications?

BSc (Hons) in Animal Behaviour and Ecology & Conservation, MSc in Information & Library Studies

Where did you live as a child?

Hedge-End and Bursledon, both villages near Southampton.

What do you like best about Cardiff?

I love that although Cardiff is a city you are never far from the countryside, the sea or the mountains.

Where did you work before?

I had various non-library jobs, worked in shops, an engineering factory and worked in a pharmacy before I decided on a library career.

First library post was working as a Library Assistant at King’s College London. Then after my MSc I moved to Cardiff, where I worked for Friends of the Earth (Cymru) and the Welsh Assembly libraries before getting my first professional post at Cardiff University as an Assistant Subject Librarian within the Law Library. I then moved to the Bute Library as the Subject Librarian for Optometry and Pharmacy.

What are your favourite things about being a subject librarian?

The variety within the job, no day is the same and of course the great people you meet and I work with.

If you didn’t work in a library, what would be your dream job?

Studying lemurs in Madagascar. They are amazing creatures and I did my Undergraduate project on them. Not likely to happen now as I don’t think my children would cope well in the jungle.

What was the first library book you remember reading for pleasure?

I was constantly in the public library borrowing books and read a lot as a child. The Mr Men books by Roger Hargreaves were probably the first ones I borrowed.

What do you enjoy reading now?

I still get to read fun children’s books due to the age of my children and we are currently reading Mable Jones and the Doomsday book by Will Mabbitt.
I enjoy reading lots of different genres from crime & mysteries, fantasy and historical fiction to autobiographies and cook books.