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.
Friday, 25 June 2010
Friday, 18 June 2010
CILIP Professional Futures and Newsnight
It's rubbish being so busy because I keep drafting blog posts and not finishing them and by the time I get back to them the 'latest debate' is a bit stale! Anyway, here's a few things that have been on my mind the last few weeks...
Last week I finally completed the CILIP Defining Our Professional Future Survey. I was a bit late doing it because I've been busy out and about defining my personal professional future (more of that soon).
What will the knowledge and information sector look like in 2020?I agree with most of what has already been blogged on the subject, specifically from Joeyanne and Bethan. I agree with Bethan's thoughts on increased convergence. As information professionals we are already converged, for example the convergence between subject specific knowledge and information skills. In my sector I am seeing more job descriptions that require not only a library qualification but also a teaching qualification, and ideally a careers guidance qualification. In terms of my professional development I look both at library organisations and education organisations (such as Institute for Learning), my professional reading reflects both of these things as does where I look at job vacancies.
On the whole I don't feel too convinced with CILIP's advocacy and representation of the profession and that really was my conclusion to the Big Conversation. The Newsnight business was concerning, especially when I read on Ned Potter's blog that CILIP were unable to send someone on to Newsnight at short notice. For me a big part of The Big Conversation, my chartership and my professional future is focussed around developing teaching and presentation skills, something that is daunting but I know that I must be able to get up and speak to a group of people. Going up against Paxman is nothing compared to putting yourself in front of a classful of disinterested 17 year olds! Anyway, I've come to the debate late so I won't say anymore but I hope that lessons have been learnt from it.
My own experiences of CILIP have been very positive. I loved Umbrella and feel quite passionate about being part of a professional body. That said, my colleague who is currently at library school is very negative about joining, as are much of her cohort. Maybe CILIP is getting a bit complacent about attracting members who are joining the profession especially as job descriptions get wider and they face steeper competition from other organisations (IFL, SLA, BCS etc).
Last week I finally completed the CILIP Defining Our Professional Future Survey. I was a bit late doing it because I've been busy out and about defining my personal professional future (more of that soon).
What will the knowledge and information sector look like in 2020?I agree with most of what has already been blogged on the subject, specifically from Joeyanne and Bethan. I agree with Bethan's thoughts on increased convergence. As information professionals we are already converged, for example the convergence between subject specific knowledge and information skills. In my sector I am seeing more job descriptions that require not only a library qualification but also a teaching qualification, and ideally a careers guidance qualification. In terms of my professional development I look both at library organisations and education organisations (such as Institute for Learning), my professional reading reflects both of these things as does where I look at job vacancies.
On the whole I don't feel too convinced with CILIP's advocacy and representation of the profession and that really was my conclusion to the Big Conversation. The Newsnight business was concerning, especially when I read on Ned Potter's blog that CILIP were unable to send someone on to Newsnight at short notice. For me a big part of The Big Conversation, my chartership and my professional future is focussed around developing teaching and presentation skills, something that is daunting but I know that I must be able to get up and speak to a group of people. Going up against Paxman is nothing compared to putting yourself in front of a classful of disinterested 17 year olds! Anyway, I've come to the debate late so I won't say anymore but I hope that lessons have been learnt from it.
My own experiences of CILIP have been very positive. I loved Umbrella and feel quite passionate about being part of a professional body. That said, my colleague who is currently at library school is very negative about joining, as are much of her cohort. Maybe CILIP is getting a bit complacent about attracting members who are joining the profession especially as job descriptions get wider and they face steeper competition from other organisations (IFL, SLA, BCS etc).
Wednesday, 2 June 2010
A rather reticent reflection on my current job situation
I have been encouraged by both my Chartership mentor and my manager to reflect and blog about my current job title/description situation. I am somewhat reluctant about doing this.
I completed my MSc in September 2009 and began looking for qualified jobs a few months before completing the course. The job market was pretty flat at the time. I interviewed for a Library Manager role but didn't get it as I didn't have enough experience. However, they offered me an LRC Assistant role which I accepted.
I've been extremely lucky in this role because my manager has been a mentor to me. She always looks for ways to expand my role, allows me to develop my own ideas and champions CPD. I'm so grateful for this as it's allowed me to improve my skills and to learn about effective management styles. My day to day work resembles that of an Assistant Librarian/Deputy Manager. In a lot of respects I am very happy in my role. Our students are great, the organisation as a whole is great, my manager is great, I feel appreciated and valued... thus my reticence to blog about this as I certainly don't want to seem ungrateful!
However, the cold hard fact remains that on my CV I am in effectively the same role (LRC Assistant) that I have been in since 2005. Almost a year after qualifying this is not ideal for me.
Regrading me in my current role would be difficult. Firstly the climate of cutbacks at the moment has affected our institute, secondly it would leave a top heavy team structure of Manager - Assistant Manager - LRC Assistant. Also, I'm not sure if regrading would be just to improve my own situation rather than reflect what the organisation needs which is why I'm not keen to ask for it as I don't want to be selfish!
Speaking to other librarians, some have said that it doesn't really matter what you are called rather it is what you do and that this shouldn't affect my chances of getting a professional role in the future. The fact that I am chartering at the moment also supports the fact that I am doing professional work in a para-professional role. Having completed the MSc there is certainly a pressure to find a qualified job to justify the time, sweat and expense of the course. But that said, we all see management jobs that don't require a LIS qualification anyway and wonder if this is the future?
I completed my MSc in September 2009 and began looking for qualified jobs a few months before completing the course. The job market was pretty flat at the time. I interviewed for a Library Manager role but didn't get it as I didn't have enough experience. However, they offered me an LRC Assistant role which I accepted.
I've been extremely lucky in this role because my manager has been a mentor to me. She always looks for ways to expand my role, allows me to develop my own ideas and champions CPD. I'm so grateful for this as it's allowed me to improve my skills and to learn about effective management styles. My day to day work resembles that of an Assistant Librarian/Deputy Manager. In a lot of respects I am very happy in my role. Our students are great, the organisation as a whole is great, my manager is great, I feel appreciated and valued... thus my reticence to blog about this as I certainly don't want to seem ungrateful!
However, the cold hard fact remains that on my CV I am in effectively the same role (LRC Assistant) that I have been in since 2005. Almost a year after qualifying this is not ideal for me.
Regrading me in my current role would be difficult. Firstly the climate of cutbacks at the moment has affected our institute, secondly it would leave a top heavy team structure of Manager - Assistant Manager - LRC Assistant. Also, I'm not sure if regrading would be just to improve my own situation rather than reflect what the organisation needs which is why I'm not keen to ask for it as I don't want to be selfish!
Speaking to other librarians, some have said that it doesn't really matter what you are called rather it is what you do and that this shouldn't affect my chances of getting a professional role in the future. The fact that I am chartering at the moment also supports the fact that I am doing professional work in a para-professional role. Having completed the MSc there is certainly a pressure to find a qualified job to justify the time, sweat and expense of the course. But that said, we all see management jobs that don't require a LIS qualification anyway and wonder if this is the future?
Friday, 14 May 2010
My week
I've been feeling a bit down the last few days. On Wednesday I had a job interview for a School Librarian position that I didn't get.
The interview itself was really interesting as it involved a student panel and running an activity with a group of Year 7 and 8 students. The aim of the activity was to get them talking about books, so I set a task of matching up a paragraph from inside a book with the synopsis on the back of the book, working in groups of 3. This worked well as it got them talking about why we have the back of book text, how representative it is of the book etc. However, I could see at 4 mins into the 15 mins time slot that they were almost finished. I thought on my feet and asked them to then decide on a book in their groups that they have all read and write a 'back of book' for it. We then fed back to the group and discussed whether it sold the book, whether it gave too much info, who else had read the book etc. I'm really pleased that the task went well, as a year ago I wouldn't have had the confidence to do it. I wouldn't describe myself as a natural in front of a class but with practise I'm getting better. On reflection, the interview was definitely a good experience and has given me the confidence to keep applying.
This week we've been short staffed so I'm still working on the Careers Books cataloguing. The Careers Advisor brought me a second crate this week that I wasn't expecting. I've been working on my Chartership PPDP this week as I wanted to submit a draft of it to my mentor by the middle of May.
I also had a big meeting about the Ghana links project with Senior Management and Teachers Without Borders, and I managed to attend our in-house British Sign Language course for the first time in a few months. We learnt countries this week, which I have studied before, so I had a strange moment of doing a Nazi salute in the workplace as we discussed the positive effects of political correctness on BSL!
The interview itself was really interesting as it involved a student panel and running an activity with a group of Year 7 and 8 students. The aim of the activity was to get them talking about books, so I set a task of matching up a paragraph from inside a book with the synopsis on the back of the book, working in groups of 3. This worked well as it got them talking about why we have the back of book text, how representative it is of the book etc. However, I could see at 4 mins into the 15 mins time slot that they were almost finished. I thought on my feet and asked them to then decide on a book in their groups that they have all read and write a 'back of book' for it. We then fed back to the group and discussed whether it sold the book, whether it gave too much info, who else had read the book etc. I'm really pleased that the task went well, as a year ago I wouldn't have had the confidence to do it. I wouldn't describe myself as a natural in front of a class but with practise I'm getting better. On reflection, the interview was definitely a good experience and has given me the confidence to keep applying.
This week we've been short staffed so I'm still working on the Careers Books cataloguing. The Careers Advisor brought me a second crate this week that I wasn't expecting. I've been working on my Chartership PPDP this week as I wanted to submit a draft of it to my mentor by the middle of May.
I also had a big meeting about the Ghana links project with Senior Management and Teachers Without Borders, and I managed to attend our in-house British Sign Language course for the first time in a few months. We learnt countries this week, which I have studied before, so I had a strange moment of doing a Nazi salute in the workplace as we discussed the positive effects of political correctness on BSL!
Saturday, 8 May 2010
Library Tourism Down Under
Last month we went to Australia on holiday. As a good librarian and tourist my first port of call in each location was the major libraries.
In Melbourne we visited the State Library of Victoria reference library on Swanston Street.
The La Trobe reading room
Redmond Barry Reading Room
After Melbourne, and a day on the beach, we arrived in Canberra and visited the National Library of Australia.
The Reading Room
They had a really interesting exhibition about The Dunera Boys.
We then had a bit more beach time before we got to Sydney. Sydney's major library is the State Library of New South Wales. It was undergoing some building work while we were there so wasn't quite as impressive as I'm sure it usually is.
The Mitchell Library Reading Room is being restored at the moment which was a shame, this is the reading room that is open at current.
We were stranded in Sydney for an extra week due to the ash cloud. A few days before we flew we were told we'd be stuck for months so I was planning on seeing if I could do some volunteering at the library. Fortunately it didn't come to that.
Each of these libraries had fantastic shops that made me wish I had a greater baggage allowance. I stocked up on novels while I was there as I'm finding Australian fiction poorly represented on the London Libraries Consortium Catalogue. I like to read about a destination before and after visiting to make the holiday feeling last longer. I particularly like Tim Winton and Helen Garner.
Australia has a real reading culture, in there are book shops and libraries everywhere. For example, in Canberra we went to use a laundrette in a suburb precinct and there were 4 places to buy books out of about 40 retail units. I really miss that about England, or more specifically London. and have particularly felt the lack of bookshops since Borders closed.
In Melbourne we visited the State Library of Victoria reference library on Swanston Street.
The La Trobe reading room
Redmond Barry Reading Room
After Melbourne, and a day on the beach, we arrived in Canberra and visited the National Library of Australia.
The Reading Room
They had a really interesting exhibition about The Dunera Boys.
We then had a bit more beach time before we got to Sydney. Sydney's major library is the State Library of New South Wales. It was undergoing some building work while we were there so wasn't quite as impressive as I'm sure it usually is.
The Mitchell Library Reading Room is being restored at the moment which was a shame, this is the reading room that is open at current.
We were stranded in Sydney for an extra week due to the ash cloud. A few days before we flew we were told we'd be stuck for months so I was planning on seeing if I could do some volunteering at the library. Fortunately it didn't come to that.
Each of these libraries had fantastic shops that made me wish I had a greater baggage allowance. I stocked up on novels while I was there as I'm finding Australian fiction poorly represented on the London Libraries Consortium Catalogue. I like to read about a destination before and after visiting to make the holiday feeling last longer. I particularly like Tim Winton and Helen Garner.
Australia has a real reading culture, in there are book shops and libraries everywhere. For example, in Canberra we went to use a laundrette in a suburb precinct and there were 4 places to buy books out of about 40 retail units. I really miss that about England, or more specifically London. and have particularly felt the lack of bookshops since Borders closed.
Thursday, 6 May 2010
Careers books cataloguing
I've got quite a nice project this week: cataloguing a delivery of new books for our Careers Adviser. It's nice to have the opportunity to engage with other departments and is always good to show willing and show the LRC's worth!
In doing this I've been looking at the Connexions Resource Centre Index which our Careers Department use. It is a fairly basic system made up of symbols which are stuck on the spine of the book (we have decided not to use Dewey as the collection is fairly small). The General Information section of the index includes 11 headings such as Travel and Transport, Relationships, Health and Work and Training. The Work and Training section is broken into 23 main job families which each have their own sticker. The way that they have classified jobs into each family is quite interesting. In case you're wondering, us librarians are under 'Languages, Information and Culture'.
In other cross-department collaborations, last week I was invited to see the BTEC Business Studies students market research presentations as some students had done their projects on the LRC. It was really interesting to hear their take on things and one student in particular had some useful points. As she is one of our Student Assistants she may have had inside information but I still told her teacher how impressed I was. On the plus side, the main finding was that we need more computers, which we had already ordered.
P.S. I know it's been a while since my last post. I've not been slacking, I've been stuck in Australia due to the volcanic ash. More about that later..
In doing this I've been looking at the Connexions Resource Centre Index which our Careers Department use. It is a fairly basic system made up of symbols which are stuck on the spine of the book (we have decided not to use Dewey as the collection is fairly small). The General Information section of the index includes 11 headings such as Travel and Transport, Relationships, Health and Work and Training. The Work and Training section is broken into 23 main job families which each have their own sticker. The way that they have classified jobs into each family is quite interesting. In case you're wondering, us librarians are under 'Languages, Information and Culture'.
In other cross-department collaborations, last week I was invited to see the BTEC Business Studies students market research presentations as some students had done their projects on the LRC. It was really interesting to hear their take on things and one student in particular had some useful points. As she is one of our Student Assistants she may have had inside information but I still told her teacher how impressed I was. On the plus side, the main finding was that we need more computers, which we had already ordered.
P.S. I know it's been a while since my last post. I've not been slacking, I've been stuck in Australia due to the volcanic ash. More about that later..
Friday, 26 March 2010
Cataloguing donated Granta magazines
This week we were lucky enough to receive some donated Granta magazines. Due to the value of these items we want to make them issuable like books rather than Reference only magazines.
Classifying these has been interesting as they could fit in several shelf marks. For example Issue 101 could fit under: 828 (English miscellaneous writings) or 320 (Politics) or 070 (Journalism)or at a push under 770 (Photography) as they includes photo essays, or even under Fiction, although I am loathe to put anything with factual content under Fiction.
Considering our collection and user group (and knowledge of where our heaving shelves have space!) I've decided to put most of them under 808 (Rhetoric & collections of literature), although some issues have been put into subject areas (Issue 97 is solely fiction, issue 94 is solely travel writing).
Classifying these has been interesting as they could fit in several shelf marks. For example Issue 101 could fit under: 828 (English miscellaneous writings) or 320 (Politics) or 070 (Journalism)or at a push under 770 (Photography) as they includes photo essays, or even under Fiction, although I am loathe to put anything with factual content under Fiction.
Considering our collection and user group (and knowledge of where our heaving shelves have space!) I've decided to put most of them under 808 (Rhetoric & collections of literature), although some issues have been put into subject areas (Issue 97 is solely fiction, issue 94 is solely travel writing).
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