Katharine Battley

Title: Librarian
Department: Legal knowledge
Location: London

I studied English at Brunel and Manchester and completed my Librarianship qualification at Manchester Metropolitan University. In 2006 I joined Herbert Smith as an assistant librarian after a stint at Reading University library.

I liked the idea of specialising in law librarianship in an international law firm with a well-resourced library and have since gained promotion to librarian in 2008.

My job involves managing journal subscriptions and cataloguing all books and journals, which I do for the London office and our international offices. I also work on the busy library enquiry desk dealing with research enquiries from different practice areas and offices.
 
Aside from my day-to-day duties, I am also involved in the Sustainability Discussion Group and the Reading Partners scheme. The latter is one of Herbert Smith’s many corporate responsibility initiatives. Every fortnight I go to a primary school in Tower Hamlets in my lunch hour to help children to read. Being involved in this type of community project is very rewarding.

I have welcomed the opportunity to be involved in a wide variety of work and projects and to get to know a range of people from all departments. I have also been impressed with the amount of work people across the firm do on community involvement and volunteering.