Chartership is looming - an update

Well it’s been an interesting (and busy to say the least) few months and I haven’t posted on here since April so there’s a lot to catch up on. I have literally been swept away in a flurry of CPD activities. Now that summer is approaching and I’ve had my six month appraisal (with a meeting to plan chartership scheduled within the next few weeks), the time has come to start reflecting on what I’ve learnt. Good job I went to a reflecting workshop organised by the CILIP CDG group and run by Margaret Chapman last month then eh? But before I get onto that, a bit more about what I’ve else been up too...



kate hair envy

 
I am now fully in the swing of things here at work and there is always something to get stuck into. This week is probably my quietest week I've had since I last wrote. There were certainly a few weeks before and after Easter (with a royally deserved -haha geddit?- break inbetween) where I really did need to put my newly acquired time management skill(z) into action. I think (hope) I’m getting better at it! People, there’s a system going on. And it’s colour-coded and everything. Nevermind that passing library assistants have made comments in jest about said system (i.e. I think they think I’m a complete control freak/saddo who takes pleasure in organising things *cough*) but whatever works right?



So for a very quick round up…in the past month or so I have done the following; attended CILIP training events on running teaching sessions and the aforementioned reflective writing, visited my first big conference (LILAC) for the day, went to a talk with Annie Mauger, attended a CPD25 course on managing student behaviour in the 21st century, shadowed our customer services team and was also in charge of organising this staff shadowing scheme. Phew! I’ve also been to several internal work courses and events – a course on cultural awareness, our Vice Chancellor’s conference away day etc etc. I have joined my local CILIP committee branch as a member and co-editor of our journal and been to a couple of meetings to do with that. What else? All the regulars such as training sessions (including my first one to one appointment with a staff member), enquiry desk work, online chat and I’ve also been getting to grips with our annual stock review – a helpful task giving me new collection management experience.

Summer is just as busy but in a different way. There are lots of projects going on over here at work atm, including helping to organise the staff conference. There are prezi’s and sessions to be designed and reading lists to be checked in preparation for September, faculty liaison opportunities to be grabbed and much, much more. I’ll also be getting a new boss within the next few months so that will be another interesting transition.

In other news, my bookshelves are even heavier with ‘to-reads’ (I’m considering buying a kindle but can’t bring myself to commit) and shoe space in wardrobe has diminished (purse is lighter).

Hope to write more soon. Ttfn!

(lib)Teachmeet 2

On Tuesday 29th March, the big day arrived and lots of lovely library and info pro people met for (lib)Teach Meet 2. Having attended the first (lib)TeachMeet, I was really looking forward to this event and I think I can safely say it was a success and everyone enjoyed themselves. I was fortunate enough to be included on the organising committee this time around and learnt a lot, so thanks for the encouragement and letting me get involved (in the small way that I did), lib(TeachMeet) committee!

So what happens at a TeachMeet?

TeachMeet is an informal, fun event.  There’s the chance to meet new people and to hear about and discuss new ideas in a relaxed setting, all over a drink and a bite to eat.  Everyone is welcome: whether you’re a librarian, an information ninja, a shambrarian, or something else; whether you’re the head of your organisation or a junior assistant; whether you work in a university, a school, a business, or elsewhere.



This is what I really liked about the first TeachMeet and this one to, it really is an event for anyone and everyone to get involved in. There also seemed to be more of a mix of those working in different library and information environments this time which was great as I'm always curious to hear about how other libraries (and librarians) work.

Speakers included Liz Osman, with some fantastic ideas about how to engage students with striking library posters (I love keep calm-o-matic), Suzanne Paul talking about the time saving Teux Deux (mentioned in my previous post), and Sarah Pavey, Nicky Adkins and John Iona all provided interesting insights into the inner workings of school librarianship. I could go on! You can find links to all of the presentations here and look at the photos from the night here. 

All of the presenters were fantastic (and I got lots of ideas from all of them) and the timing of the presentations themselves (nice and short) kept the pace of the night fresh and lively. There was also a chance to network in the breaktime. Oh, and did I mention there were mini eggs? I know I'm harping on about it, but I did enjoy myself (there wasn't any inevitable snoozesome moments you can sometimes get at events). It was a fun evening where I got to meet others in the profession and gather some useful tips at the same time. 

Customer Service Excellence workshop

On the 31^st of March I attended an internal, compulsory one day workshop on Customer Service Excellence.

Throughout the day we discussed issues surrounding why people may behave as they do (the need for mutual respect/esteem, cross cultural/cross generational issues), how people interact (non-verbal skills, territory, body language, tone of voice) and best practice tips in handling different customer service scenarios.

I found the day useful as a whole and it was definitely a good opportunity to reflect on why sometimes our students behave in the way that they do. On reflection, the day also made me more consider more deeply the type of university I’m now working for and the students who come here. As an ex polytechnic, we have lots of part time students and those who make the commute from home. Another large majority of our students are international. Whilst freshers and induction weeks/timetabling may initially give them some structure to set them off, how disorientating must it be for them when they first arrive? Quite often, these students may find it more difficult to settle into university and form a support network. They can also form territorial groups - something you see in this library on a day to day basis. Cultural differences can be easily misinterpreted when dealing with student issues and we had a thought provoking conversation  about the ‘double life’ culture that some students might lead. It was helpful to recognise some of these differences in the knowledge that often students look to services such as the library for that extra bit of support.

I noted that a lot of the tips discussed we are already implementing here. Simple things like making sure there is appropriate seating at the enquiry desks, so students can sit down and be on 'level' when speaking to us. I'll be interested to take part in the mystery shopping exercise we also conduct staff side every year (going out into shops in the town centre to look at best practice Mary Queen of Shops style. Hmm, MP seems to be cropping up in my blog a lot..) Just recently, mystery shopping has also been carried out on us, which will provide another valuable perspective when we get those results.

I was interested that the rise of students use of secretly recording conversations on mobile phones was flagged. Reputation can certainly be ruined within seconds by comments/videos made my disgruntled students and obviously putting potential students off from attending the university is not something those up above want to make a habit of. So all in all, the workshop provided me with some good tips (especially concerning body language and setting up rooms to get the most out a meeting). We were encouraged to talk about our experiences and this was also valuable, it was good to hear perspectives of those working in different parts of the university.

Appraisals, inductions, customer service excellence and dreaming about work...

As I mentioned in my previous post, I've been one busy girlmeetslibrary the past few weeks. It's just been the way it's worked out that I've had a bit of a whirlwind of courses, events and meetings to attend. 'What's the matter with that?!' I hear you cry. 'Nothing!' I cry back. It's been a really challenging and fun few weeks at work. But what I didn't bargain for was the amount of emails I'd have waiting in my inbox at the end of it all. My new job of course brings new responsibilities and with it lots of emails, lots of work to do from them and lots of important documents to read through and comment back on. I'm not complaining about this at all, but I don't think I've personally encountered 'email overload' on this scale since my graduate trainee days. The opening paragraph of this article  (which I found via @woodsiegirl on twitter) pretty much sums it up:-

Does this happen to you?

You're sitting at your desk, minding your own business/doing research/planning your lunch, when an e-mail notification of some sort pops up. (I prefer the little envelope in the lower corner of my screen and a gentle  tone.) There's a flutter of excitement, a feeling of dread. Who's it from? What are they asking for? Will it evoke a chuckle? (I hope it's not spam.) Can I help this person? Then, you stop what you're doing and open the message.

Oh yes, that happens to me! But does it really make me efficient? In my case, reflecting on the past two weeks, the answer is a big fat no. In my rush to scan through the emails, I found I neglected to read some of them thoroughly, which just resulted in a brain ache and having to read them all over again. On a few occasions it also resulted in me checking my emails when I got home and also dreaming about work, twitter and then work again, especially about tasks that were 'hanging over.' I know that this is going to be inevitable sometimes but it's not a pattern I want to completely make a habit of. I officially love my job but I also want to make sure I'm not constantly thinking about work stuff when I get home (as I do have a tendency to be a bit of a worrier sometimes).

My plan so far? I've been setting aside certain times during the day to check my emails and have been trying not to stray and open them when they pop up on the right hand side of the screen. Most importantly, I've been consciously focusing on the one thing that I'm doing. Simples right? It's more than manageable. Many of you may be thinking 'well, d'uh' but as a newbie to the problem, I haven't really had to solve this obstacle before.

I've also taken to only checking social networking sites once a day. On reflection, I think having an iPhone has only made me worse at consistently checking emails and sites like Twitter. I was on the bus the other day and I noticed that every single person (bar one or two) had their head down and was looking at their phone, for near enough the whole journey. Now I'm so guilty of this. I was one of those people. Heck, I was even one of those reallllly annoying people who would be texting or checking updates whilst walking along the pavement (you know those people that make you just want to shout 'LOOK WHERE YOU'RE GOING' at). It got me thinking, is this constant check-check-checking really necessary? In terms of things like Twitter, I know this now makes me not exactly on the ball, but I'll still pool what I need professionally and I think it's what's going to keep me sane.

So this is my plan and it seems to be working, alongside the ever favourite 'to do' list.

Speaking of lists, those of you who attended TeachMeet2 in Cambridge last week will already have heard about Teux Deux, the super whizzy 'to do' list app for on the go. Personally, I'm more of a 'write it in capital letters on a post it note so its staring me right in the face when I arrive at work at 8.30am' kinda gal, but I'd really recommend checking Teux Deux out if you haven't already.

Has anyone else got any time management tips they'd like to share with me? All will be gratefully received!

Personalised Library Services in HE

Phew! I can safely say I have just come to the end of the busiest 2 weeks in my new job so far. I have a lot of blog posts to write, but I'll start with one about the ‘Personalised library services in Higher Education’ symposium I attended last week (22/03/11) - at the very very last minute. The symposium explored the ‘boutique library model’.

There were a variety of presentations and lots of workshops throughout the day, looking at how the boutique model could help libraries to deliver highly personalised services and in turn how this could be used to our advantage to defend our service from potential threats (e.g. cuts). As somebody on the day said, a bit like what Mary Portas does to shops, but applied to the library world…

Examples of libraries that already apply a ‘boutique’ service are Library@orchard in Singapore and Parklands Library in Christchurch, NZ. And just for fun, here’s the Dewey Decimal Boutique Library Hotel based in New York.

Below are some of the points I found of interest from the day.

Jane Secker – Personalised research support

• One size doesn’t fit all – researchers needs all differ greatly.
• A survey sent out to researchers will only go so far. Jane felt that the greatest advantage to her role was that she became a researcher herself. She got to know their mind set. If there is no scope for this, she suggested going to courses that researchers attend (something I've done here in my new role, but will now look for more opportunities to do so).
• Created tailored subject guides so they were specifically aimed at researchers.
• Hosted all resources on one blog (to centralise info).
• Training was embedded into curriculum.

Jane also felt that libraries and research offices need to work together and that library sessions were a great opportunity for researchers to actually get together and network. Quite often they can feel isolated.

Nicola Wright/Cheryl Blake – Case Study

Spoke about creating bespoke PhD postcards which have proved popular and led to many student consultations. Once the student fills out the postcard, the Liaison Lib gets back to them with details about resources that could help them out (giving them enough but not overwhelming them). This led to positive and further conversations with many of the students. 

Tim Wales – Can personalised be upscaled?

Tim spoke about how technology can help every library become a ‘boutique’ service.

• DDA – Fits the boutique model well. Trend setting/highly tailored/unqiue. Downsides include what if students pick useless stuff? What if it ends up too personalised?
• Discovery systems –  Personalistion of VuFind good, Summon not as customisable? Benchmark Amazon as it contains a lot of information but still provides an individual experience (e.g. personal recommendations aspect). Got to admit, this part of the talk went slightly over my head at the time..but definately helped when attending a Digital Services Forum later on in the week at work.

Beatrice Pulliam – Space in USA libraries

This one and the workshop that followed by Chris Powis was really interesting, with Beatrice Pulliam from Providence College, Rhode Island, talking generally about how libraries in the States use space.

• Similarly to Sheffield University’s Information Commons, quite often U.S. libraries are called ‘Library Commons’ - information suites embracing all other services (e.g. multimedia, I.T.).
• ‘Info Station’ – our version of the reception desk. Big difference here – run by students in Beatrice’s library.
• ‘Upper Commons’ with ‘InTeler’ Station – our version of the Enquiry Desk. Stands for Interaction/Teaching/Learning. This one’s staffed by library staff.
• ‘Tech Station’ – I.T.
• Found students can be intimidated to come up to a desk. These ‘stations’ have improved student interaction.
• ‘Living rooms’ – soft seated areas.
• Everything is on wheels! Allowing students to create their own personal study space as furniture is flexible and portable.

This led onto a workshop run by Chris Powis (Northampton University) where we discussed the ‘emotional pull’ of a library and how space can be used to cater for all needs. How can be balance the needs of social learners and those who want complete silence? etc.

Meg Westbury - A voice in the wilderness – personalised library services in a virtual environment

Meg used to work as a virtual librarian at a completely online Library within America – meaning she did all her work at home and she could do it in her pyjamas if she wanted!

• A luxury but a big challenge – could be isolating experience.
• Never once met any of her students in person – students could ‘fall off the radar’ for months and then suddenly appear again.
• Integrated herself into the community (discussion forms etc), blogged, created a wiki and developed online tutorials for the students, delivered webinars and was available at any time – Meg even skyped her students.
• Best practice – take time to know your users and the curriculum.

Emma Thompson – “It’s all about you”:

Another interesting one, Emma (from Liverpool Management School) spoke about how best to market services on a limited budget. Found this talk very relevant and timely.

• Introduced a personal approach, emailing staff first with a “I can save you time” email and then went to see staff in their office.
• Academic staff are the gatekeepers to the students – a recommendation to use the library by them is much more highly regarded – we all need library champions like this!
• Banned the term ‘information literacy’ and cut out all library jargon
• Emphasised time saving element of the library all the time and tried to ‘find a hook’ to interest people.

All in all, a really interesting day with some thought-provoking presentations (thank you organisers!). I also felt I got a lot out of the networking aspect of the day, meeting two OU librarians and comparing experiences of using an online enquiry chat service.

Good blog post on the day can be found here

Tweets from the day here

All the presentations and more info can be viewed here

Reflections on my first 'professional' post

In December 2010, I started my first professional post since completing my masters in 2009, in an Assistant Librarian Trainee role in an academic library. I feel fortunate to have got the position and I'm really enjoying the job so far. I thought it might be worth starting my 'blogging journey' with a few observations on my new job...

blogging begins

Team - One of the most immediate differences is I've worked in relatively small teams before (10-20 people) Whilst my immediate team is around the same size in my new role, the overall structure of all of our staff is much larger. We're located across four sites, in three separate divisions (Academic Services -where I fall-, Customer Services and Digital Services) Needless to say, there was quite a lot to get my head around when I first started (so many faces and names, not to mention the many acronyms floating about)  but I feel like I've got to grips with it now.

Enquiry work - I've always loved this aspect of my working day and this hasn't changed since starting in my new role. I've come to this job from an NHS/academic library and prior to that I worked in a government information service. Therefore, the biggest difference work wise has been that I was previously used to (in a very general sense) more subject specific enquiries... As a graduate trainee I'd be running about answering pqs, FOI enquiries, searching Hansard and more. As a library assistant I'd be answering basic enquiries on medical related subjects. Now, whilst I'm working within a specific faculty in the University, I'm based on an enquiry desk where student's from any faculty can come and ask me for help. Before I started the post in December, one of my worries was 'I'm supposed to know where to find the answer to a students question, what if I don't know, or have no idea how to go about finding out?!'

However, I've found my worries to be (mostly) unfounded. Whilst I'm aware my wider knowledge of certain subject areas does need to be improved, I've found I've known more about where to start then I originally thought and the skills that I've built up in all my past experience have been invaluable. As a trainee, I dealt with a lot of enquiries from members of the general public where we could literally be asked anything (and we did have some very random enquiries) so it's been about applying the same techniques I used when answering these. I have to admit, I do love the element of surprise of not knowing what I'm going to be asked and tracking down the answer. It's also helped to have members of the team only a phone call away if needed.

I also experienced a mild feeling of panic the first time I logged onto our online chat service and it went ‘ping' ('o.m.g. need to type really fast and give the student instant information. right.now. quick. quick. quiccckkkk.') It's a service I've never had any experience in before. In practice, it's actually really fun. Online chatting and keeping the balance between being both friendly and professional (at all times, even when the student is chatting to you in the same way that they would to their mates -txt spk etc-) has been a good skill to pick up as well as recognising when queries need to be looked into further and would be better answered face to face. Online chat is not always the best solution.

Teaching - Again, this is something I have only had basic experience in prior to my new role. In recent months, I've been grabbing any chance I can to help out and shadow teaching sessions in various subject areas. It's been great for me to be able to pick up on how the different faculty's work and how the teaching styles of my colleagues differ. I've definitely picked up a few tips. I'll now be gradually taking on the organisation of planning and running teaching sessions for my subjects, teaching study skills workshops and also providing one to one in depth appointments.

Students - There's such a diverse community of students here, all with differing needs/levels of ability. In particular, there are many more international students than at my previous places of work and a large cohort of distance learners (as far as Trinidad!). Helping with future plans to develop our services to meet their needs has sparked a particular interest with me. With the rise in student fees, international student numbers will not only increase but expectations of the services we provide will also rise. I'm looking forward to getting involved in this, particularly international student orientation week.

Collection management - I now have much more responsibility in terms of spending dosh. I was in charge of a budget as a graduate trainee, but haven't done much more since. It was slightly daunting at first then, having to make the call myself about purchasing items, but I'm gradually feeling more confident about it all. Having some guidelines to go by has obviously helped, as has looking back at the set procedure behind it all. So now I spend quite a bit of my time deciding what goes on our shelves for my subjects, how many copies of the items we buy, hunting down eBooks, making sure reading is correct and up to date and getting rid of items and editions we no longer need.

Faculty liaison - Something else new for me is that I'm now much more in contact with academic staff. Aside from just chatting to them on the enquiry desk, I now have to 'officially' liaise. So I'm sitting in on programme subcommittees (a bit of an eye opener), going to a whole host of meetings as well as keeping in regular contact with them via email and the VLE. Which leads me to another major difference I've found...a definite step up in my emails in terms of how many I'm sent a day. Phewww! My time management skills are definitely going up a notch!

tick tick tick

Project work - Another big part of my new role. I'm getting involved in all sorts, including working with our Graduate Trainee to put together our staff shadowing scheme, working on the staff conference committee and looking at improving our information literacy project.

One of the nicest aspects is that as a 'trainee', I feel very well supported by my team and the building up of taking on tasks means I feel as though I'm learning the ropes nice and thoroughly. There's also a big focus on staff development here which is great. I'm going to be attending LILAC this year for the first time and have got lots of events I'm going to be attending lined up (which I'll hopefully be blogging).

So all in all, I'm really enjoying the challenges of my new job. Watch this space!

Hello, I'm Jenni and welcome to my little blog. I'm an information professional officially jumping onto the blogging bandwagon. Here, you can expect me to be blogging lots of reflection and lots of info and library type 'stuff'', recording my thoughts as I work towards CILIP chartership. I'll also be pondering on the wide range of new things I'm learning and getting involved in at the moment in my current (and first 'professional') post, which I started in December 2010.  The views expressed here are my own and do not necessarily represent those of any former or current employer.

My aim is to keep this blog for professional purposes. I'll try not to talk about cake or shoes.

tea and cake

Thanks for reading!