Reflections on the first half term

It's been a hectic half term. We've done about 60 inductions. We tailor our inductions by level and subject, in terms of introducing specific online resources and the way that we communicate. For example, for an Access to HE or Foundation degree group (who are typically mature students) we wouldn't labour the LRC rules (no eating, phones, two warnings then you have to leave and all that good stuff), we'd ask them to let us know if other students were distracting them by misbehaving. Our inductions are very hands on, with students searching and using the online resources and e-books. This engages the students and helps them learn how to find the resources at a later date. I believe the hands on use of e-books at induction embedded the use of e-books and led to us being #7 in the UK for use of the JISC e-books for FE package (in the stats that came out up to March 2011, weighted by size of college). On the feedback from the inductions 97% of students found them to be very or quite useful. So now the plan is to work on the other 3%!

We've also done Information Skills sessions for the first time this year. Session 1 covers effective web searching and evaluating web sources, Session 2 covers referencing, plagiarism adn bibliographies. These were delivered mostly through Xerte e-tutorials with LRC Support Tutors introducing the session and supporting students throughout. For next year I will modify this: the Second session was too advanced for Level 2 learners while some groups felt that they had nothing to learn on web searching. They do, but the question is how do you show students that they do? In the LRC survey in June I asked students about their level of confidence around study and information skills then asked staff about student ability in these areas. The results show that student confidence grossly outstripped the staff evaluation of their ability. This is a challenge to overcome for all FE and HE institutions - how do you make someone learn something that they believe they already know?

We've had quite a few procedural changes that began in September; we installed the MyPC computer booking system, started overdue charges and stopped teachers bringing classes in without booking. This has led to a few quarrels with those who haven't understood the new system (despite thorough communication and advertising) but it appears as if people are getting the hang of it now.

Previously we sent overdue reminder letters but there was no real sanction for not returning books on time, which meant that items were taken out at the start of the year and never seen again. This was very frustrating for other people who wanted to use the items. Now we charge 5- per day per item, and the MyPC system blocks students with overdue books from logging on to computers, unless they are in a booked class. This has led to much greater circulation of resources and less complaints about unfulfilled reservations.

Noise levels are a lot better which means less staff time managing behaviour. This means happier staff and more achieved in terms of stock promotion and tightening up things on the admin side of things. Things feel a lot more managed and contained which I thank MyPC for.

Child Protection workshop

I recently went to a child protection and safeguarding workshop. I work in a sixth form so up to the age of 18 students are covered by child protection legislation, we also have a large number of disabled students who when they turn 18 would be classified as vulnerable adults. We discussed a variety of issues relating to what to do if a student approaches us to disclose something or if we overhear something which concerns us.

Part of the training covered protecting ourselves as professionals. Most of it is common sense but it doesn't hurt to hear it again, especially as budget cuts increase the potential for lone working. It is important to avoid being alone with a student, and if you have to be then to keep the door open or sit in a part of the room where you are visible.

The workshop covered recommending websites to students. There was an example given of a teacher who recommended a site to a student, the student viewed it at home without the web restrictions on school computers and clicked through an advert, another click, another click and hit porn. The teacher was suspended, then reinstated but the parent went to the local paper. The teacher left the profession. I spoke to the workshop leader afterwards and explained that as librarians we recommend websites and e-resources, and we can't be help accountable for the fact that any web user is always only a few clicks from something inappropriate! She suggested that we cover ourselves by recommending websites through leaflets or letters with the college logo on them and include a disclaimer along the lines of 'The content of external sites is not the responsibility of the college. Please report any bad links to LRC staff.' We do this already, so that was reassuring. Personally I'm planning on taking the extra precaution of checking all websites at home before recommending them to students.

We also discussed the need for caution in communicating with students, avoiding ever calling, texting students or emailing them personally as messages could be misconstrued. This is pertinent for those coming from other sectors, where for example calling a user to say their reservation had arrived would be seen as fantastic customer service.

First Professional Role and A Good Week

I have good news to share. After three job interviews over the last two months since returning from Australia, I have now accepted my first professional role as LRC manager at an FE college in Cambridgeshire! I will be starting in early August. I'm not sure how this will impact my Chartership as my proposed hand in date is now looking a bit ambitious, especially as I'll have a bit of a commute until we are able to move house.
The college I'm moving to is going through a major library refurb this summer, in order to put in a lot more computers. From September there will be classes in the library at all times which will be supervised and motivated by LRC staff. This will be great in terms of promoting Information Skills by stealth! The pay off is that they've decided to put all of their books into rolling stacks to make space for these computers. I'm a little concerned that this may marginalise the use of the books, so I'm going to have to work hard and get creative to promote them. They have a very well developed VLE and e-book collection which is part of the reason they are doing this.
I'm really going to miss my current workplace. I really like the students and couldn't be happier with my manager. She's been a real mentor to me and I'll definitely be keeping in touch. But unfortunately the downside of working in a small school is that there are less opportunities for progression which is why I'm moving on.

The job interviews I had were really fun actually. I've delivered classes, done presentations and roleplays, and been interviewed by a student council who wanted to know what piece of cutlery I'd be and who I would be in Stars in their Eyes! (A spoon and Edith Piaf, for those curious).
All of the interviews were whole day events, where you spend a lot of time with the other candidates. This was interesting. At best I was meeting other professionals (I ended swapped email addresses with someone I was meant to be competing with!), at worst I saw the lousy side of human nature (another candidate trying to psyche me out with 'gosh aren't you young to be here?' comments).

This week I delivered two Information Skills lessons to AS English Literature classes as part of their progression to A2. It was for the module War and the Individual which was ideal as I read a lot of history and war fiction. It went really well and I'm pretty pleased with myself as my new job will involve a lot more working with classes than my current role. However, it made me realise how much I'm really going to miss some of the teachers and the strong links I've made with departments.

Today is BTEC hand in day, and I've spent quite a bit of time one-on-one with students helping them finish their work. The amount of cut and pasting is worrying. I wish there was more uptake from the departments for Information Skills sessions during the year. I feel like what I'm doing today is just making sure that they don't get done for plagiarism rather than giving them skills.

In other good news, my colleague that I've been tutoring who is doing the same MSc that I did has passed her second semester. I'm really happy for her as I know she was worried, and I hope that my efforts have helped. I'm quite jealous of her at the moment because her dissertation is really interesting.

A Week In the Life - Tuesday

Started work at 9am. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays the other library assistant is doing the course I've just completed so I'm always happy to see her and hear what's happening.

I did my regular tasks first such as doing yesterday's stats. The post is coming really late at the moment but once it'd arrived I inputted and stamped the journals and took them round the study centres.

I spent most of the morning on the circulation desk unpicking some of the cataloguing problems. We have a situation where a lot of people have been cataloguing over the library's 2 year history - most of them unqualified library assistants with no previous experience of cataloguing and no training. Once we get our LMS update in a few weeks I can really get stuck in with some block changes but for now I'm just trying to unpick a few things. At the moment it isn't a massive problem as we have a small collection and no dedicated OPAC so the only people who search the catalogue are LRC staff, but we're hoping to change this with the Info Skills sessions and getting an OPAC PC in the new year.

Had a group of media student taking pictures in the LRC this morning without asking the manager for consent, or asking consent of the individuals they were photographing (myself included) and refused to delete images when requested. As my BA was Photographic Arts I find it really frustrating when students don't appreciate the ethics around these things. That said we have a digital native/immigrant divide between the staff and students and these students' attitude to questions of privacy and representation reflect that. I had a quiet word with the Learning Mentor for Creative Arts who took the problem back to their teacher - seemed like a more political approach that sending a pointed email to All Staff.

I went to speak to an ESOL class about the 6 Book Challenge at 11.15 but found that the class was cancelled as the teacher wasn't in, which was a shame as I'd psyched myself up!

After lunch a Student Assistant came in to do her rotaed hour so I spent some time with her, showing her the tasks that need doing and spending some time with her shadowing me on the counter. Another Student Assistant came in to make up the hour that he missed last week. These kids are so enthusiastic and efficient that they get the work done in no time at all - sometimes I have to be a bit creative finding something purposeful for them to do!
I was expecting to go to help present Info Skills class at 1.45 but that had to be cancelled. Bit disappointing but we've rescheduled for next Tuesday.

We had an informal team catch up before shutting the library early as we had a larger meeting with the learning mentors which went well.

Half term

As it's half term this week we're only open to students on three days - we only had one student in yesterday. I'm the only member of staff in the library because everyone else has leave or is term time only.
It's good to have the chance to get on with projects that are difficult with students in. I'm putting up some information skills displays to tie in with workshops we'll be running after half term. Yesterday's 'Evaluating websites' display looks good, but I'm having a few problems trying to make a display on bibliographies look appealing to 16-19 year olds! And I'm going to paint some shelves this afternoon (don't ask).
We're starting a student volunteer programme after half term which I'm going to be very involved with. I've written some training notes and am working on creating a certificate that they'll receive after completing 10 hours with us. I'm trying to make it seem grown up so that we'll only get serious students. I'm aware that I don't want to give students cause to believe that in a few hours of volunteering that they are able to do our jobs so I'm going to avoid letting them use the LMS. Beyond the fact that it is bad for our professional esteem/profile within the college, it could give someone higher up the idea that perhaps the library could cope with less staff and more volunteers - which is not the case. Hopefully I'll get some time later this week to do some more research and planning on this.
Also, I keep forgetting that I'm still waiting for my final MSc mark, then remembering and feeling a bit queasy! We should get them in a month..