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!

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!