Got into work at the usual 8.45 to deal with any problems or queries before heading over to Curriculum Team Meeting at 9am. This is my big weekly meeting with the Vice Principal Curriculum, the Faculty Directors, the Director of Student Services, the Marketing Executive and the Quality Manager.
The meeting ended at 11am, at which point it was straight onto the Issue Desk for two hours where I organised the upcoming week's bay and equipment bookings and staff rota inbetween serving customers and patrolling the LRC. As it is Holocaust Memorial Day we've been playing the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust film on our Information Screen today which has been getting some good responses.
At 1pm I went out for lunch with the Estates Manager which is a real treat as we only manage to do this about every 3 weeks. She has been a great friend to me since I started in post 6 months ago.
When I returned to the LRC I covered the counter for an hour then had a one to one with one of the LRC Support Tutors. I like to do this with each of them each week. Sometimes there isn't anything to say from either side, but I think it's important to make that time for dialogue as we spend a lot of the day rushing around. I also spent some time chasing the Reading Agency for the second time to try to order more Six Book Challenge diaries as we've run out. I left promptly at 4.30, exhausted after doing two late nights already this week as I normally only do one.
Showing posts with label 6 Book Challenge. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 6 Book Challenge. Show all posts
Sunday, 30 January 2011
Monday, 24 January 2011
Day 1 of #libday6
Woke at 5.30am anxious about the week ahead. As always, left the house at 7.10 to get the train. Spent the first half of my train journey catching up on emails, Twitter and Facebook. The Curriculum Manager for Fashion joins the train half way to work and we always have a good chat. The college has a minibus that collects staff and students from the station which is fantastic.
Arrived at work at 8.40, to find the LRC Support Tutors locked out of their workroom which also contains the keys to classrooms that we issue to staff. I left the caretaker breaking into the workroom, and went to have a conversation that I had been dreading which went better than expected! Tweeted and got a nice reply from @SmilyLibrarian. As my workplace's only qualified librarian and the head of the service I often feel out on a limb and isolated, so such kindnesses from the LIS community Twitterati is much appreciated!
Came back to find that staff had access to the workroom, but that the lock would need repairing. At least we can get to the kettle now. Made some tea.
Spent the morning making amendments to the week's rota, replying to emails, chasing up a few odds and ends from last week (registers, Finance, HR, filling in staff development forms for upcoming events etc), checked through last month's finance report and caught up with one of my staff who works part time that I haven't seen since Wednesday. I was on desk and patrol duty from 10-11. We have to combine these two things as we are tight on staffing. It was a busy morning lots of students; in Independent Learning Sessions, in classes that have come in with teachers and drop in students. We've had lots more students sign up for the Six Book Challenge and staff are asking me to buy another set of diaries. It's the first time that the college has run it so I'm pleased that we've had such great buy in from ESOL and Functional Skills staff. Almost all the students that have signed up are usually not LRC users which is also great as reaching out to non-users was one of my challenges for the year.
I had lunch at noon. My new year resolution was to eat at lunchtime and I've been really good at sticking to it. I went up to the canteen (which I love!) and got ratatouille quiche, chips and beans.
At 1pm I went back on the counter, dealing with the unchtime rush: helping students find books, moving along students who aren't working, resetting passwords, triage on the laptops (we can reestablish the wifi connection to save taking them up to IT). One of the Faculty Directors called in and we had a chat about problems with the timetable which puts pressure on resources and rooms. The Networks Manager called over to fix something on my computer. Apologised for smell of chips and vinegar in my office but he said he likes it. At 2pm we had the combination of a large class of Public Services students and a large class of Motor Vehicle students - two of our livelier cohorts! - so spent some time on behaviour management. Our students aren't cheeky or malicious, they are just high spirited and can get noisy. Returned to my office at about half two and phoned the British Library about some Inter Library loans. Gave a new teacher an e-books tutorial over the telephone. Ordered the new Quick Reads that are coming out for World Book Day in March. Dealt with some emails: mainly laptop and room bookings.
At 5pm the LRC Support Tutors went home and I stayed on for evening duty. I put out the reservation notices in the bays for tomorrow, and prepared for the Additional Learning Support (ALS) department moving in to three rooms that have historically been part of the library. The front of the college is being remodelled so ALS are being relocated, possibly temporarily, possibly permanently. In order to make space for this we have closed down our AV and off air recording service and lost the breakout room that was created for us in the summer 2010 refurb. To make tomorrow's move (hopefully) smooth and safe I have shut off the back of the LRC so that they can bring things in through the fire doors. To do this we will lose 8 PCs for the day, and as Tuesdays are our busiest day I suspect that we'll spend half the day stopping the student going in the 'out of bounds' area. I'm anticipating a visit from an ESOL class at 7pm who are signing up for the 6 Book Challenge, and will be out of here at 7.30pm which will get me home just after 9. Mondays are long days!
Arrived at work at 8.40, to find the LRC Support Tutors locked out of their workroom which also contains the keys to classrooms that we issue to staff. I left the caretaker breaking into the workroom, and went to have a conversation that I had been dreading which went better than expected! Tweeted and got a nice reply from @SmilyLibrarian. As my workplace's only qualified librarian and the head of the service I often feel out on a limb and isolated, so such kindnesses from the LIS community Twitterati is much appreciated!
Came back to find that staff had access to the workroom, but that the lock would need repairing. At least we can get to the kettle now. Made some tea.
Spent the morning making amendments to the week's rota, replying to emails, chasing up a few odds and ends from last week (registers, Finance, HR, filling in staff development forms for upcoming events etc), checked through last month's finance report and caught up with one of my staff who works part time that I haven't seen since Wednesday. I was on desk and patrol duty from 10-11. We have to combine these two things as we are tight on staffing. It was a busy morning lots of students; in Independent Learning Sessions, in classes that have come in with teachers and drop in students. We've had lots more students sign up for the Six Book Challenge and staff are asking me to buy another set of diaries. It's the first time that the college has run it so I'm pleased that we've had such great buy in from ESOL and Functional Skills staff. Almost all the students that have signed up are usually not LRC users which is also great as reaching out to non-users was one of my challenges for the year.
I had lunch at noon. My new year resolution was to eat at lunchtime and I've been really good at sticking to it. I went up to the canteen (which I love!) and got ratatouille quiche, chips and beans.
At 1pm I went back on the counter, dealing with the unchtime rush: helping students find books, moving along students who aren't working, resetting passwords, triage on the laptops (we can reestablish the wifi connection to save taking them up to IT). One of the Faculty Directors called in and we had a chat about problems with the timetable which puts pressure on resources and rooms. The Networks Manager called over to fix something on my computer. Apologised for smell of chips and vinegar in my office but he said he likes it. At 2pm we had the combination of a large class of Public Services students and a large class of Motor Vehicle students - two of our livelier cohorts! - so spent some time on behaviour management. Our students aren't cheeky or malicious, they are just high spirited and can get noisy. Returned to my office at about half two and phoned the British Library about some Inter Library loans. Gave a new teacher an e-books tutorial over the telephone. Ordered the new Quick Reads that are coming out for World Book Day in March. Dealt with some emails: mainly laptop and room bookings.
At 5pm the LRC Support Tutors went home and I stayed on for evening duty. I put out the reservation notices in the bays for tomorrow, and prepared for the Additional Learning Support (ALS) department moving in to three rooms that have historically been part of the library. The front of the college is being remodelled so ALS are being relocated, possibly temporarily, possibly permanently. In order to make space for this we have closed down our AV and off air recording service and lost the breakout room that was created for us in the summer 2010 refurb. To make tomorrow's move (hopefully) smooth and safe I have shut off the back of the LRC so that they can bring things in through the fire doors. To do this we will lose 8 PCs for the day, and as Tuesdays are our busiest day I suspect that we'll spend half the day stopping the student going in the 'out of bounds' area. I'm anticipating a visit from an ESOL class at 7pm who are signing up for the 6 Book Challenge, and will be out of here at 7.30pm which will get me home just after 9. Mondays are long days!
Friday, 4 December 2009
A Week In the Life - Thursday
Opened up at 8.30am. Started with my usual tasks: stats, journals.
Spent the morning on the Circ Desk, inbetween serving users I got some admin jobs done. Contacted The Reading Agency about ordering more diaries, certificates and bookmarks for the Six Book Challenge - we've got 50 places and after 4 days of registration we've got 30 participants already! Looks like my publicity campaign has worked. Sent round my weekly All Students email bulletin about the week's new journals and newspapers.
One of the English teachers sent round an All Staff and Students email about getting more contributors to the college blog. After speaking with my manager I contacted her about the LRC putting up blog entries on new stock, events, promotions and book reviews. I'm quite keen to push some of our 6 Book Challenge participants to write book reviews that we can put up, I'm also going to speak to some of our keen readers that come in - that's something to work on next week.
Today's Student Assistant came in at 1.15, I sent her to strict shelf tidy in the study centre next door. From the library I kept hearing a lot of noise coming from the study centre and popping in to check she's okay - I think she thinks I'm a bit odd! Also spent time on the desk with her shadowing me.
Sorted out next week's Student Assistant rota after checking that other LRC staff don't have any tasks to add to it, and discussed with my manager what jobs to give the assistant who'll be in tomorrow as I won't be in.
Typed up a set of Till Procedures to go in our new staff shared drive. Adapted one of the info skills powerpoints to make it specific to science for a session we are running next week. Started work on procedure/training notes on cataloguing as there is nothing in place already!
In the evening I had a meeting with the other owners at my block of flats as myself and another owner manage the flats. Stressful stuff. In the midst of it received a text from my boss, the Info Skills USB is missing. Hardly slept for worry.
Spent the morning on the Circ Desk, inbetween serving users I got some admin jobs done. Contacted The Reading Agency about ordering more diaries, certificates and bookmarks for the Six Book Challenge - we've got 50 places and after 4 days of registration we've got 30 participants already! Looks like my publicity campaign has worked. Sent round my weekly All Students email bulletin about the week's new journals and newspapers.
One of the English teachers sent round an All Staff and Students email about getting more contributors to the college blog. After speaking with my manager I contacted her about the LRC putting up blog entries on new stock, events, promotions and book reviews. I'm quite keen to push some of our 6 Book Challenge participants to write book reviews that we can put up, I'm also going to speak to some of our keen readers that come in - that's something to work on next week.
Today's Student Assistant came in at 1.15, I sent her to strict shelf tidy in the study centre next door. From the library I kept hearing a lot of noise coming from the study centre and popping in to check she's okay - I think she thinks I'm a bit odd! Also spent time on the desk with her shadowing me.
Sorted out next week's Student Assistant rota after checking that other LRC staff don't have any tasks to add to it, and discussed with my manager what jobs to give the assistant who'll be in tomorrow as I won't be in.
Typed up a set of Till Procedures to go in our new staff shared drive. Adapted one of the info skills powerpoints to make it specific to science for a session we are running next week. Started work on procedure/training notes on cataloguing as there is nothing in place already!
In the evening I had a meeting with the other owners at my block of flats as myself and another owner manage the flats. Stressful stuff. In the midst of it received a text from my boss, the Info Skills USB is missing. Hardly slept for worry.
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.
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.
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