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Decided to merge my last three days of Day in the Life together, as I did too much miscellaneous stuff, and not enough sitting down and writing. Consider this edited highlights!

Wednesday morning I spent looking for some new DVDs providing training in team building, meetings, and other workplace communication skills. Unfortunately the only materials I could source which seemed good enough to keep student attention were the ones we already owned (but on DVD rather than video). Too expensive to justify buying twice, so I'm still looking, if anyone has any ideas!

After that, an induction session. It was arranged as part of an induction programme for a small course, but only the library session was on Wednesday. Isolate library sessions never seem to encourage students to attend. Terrible turnout: a few arrived on time and a few late, making eight out of an expected twenty. I wasn't presenting, but did lead the tour, and felt a bit better about making the effort to organise the session when the students who did come were interested and asked lots of questions.

Most of the rest of the day week involved wrapping up activities, as this was my penultimate full-time week in the post. Wednesday concluded with my late night in which I created (by request from the head of my section) a list of keywords for induction demonstrations (such as databases) for the different departments I cover. There's some general subject-specific keywords, some comparative ones to show the difference keyword choices make, and a classic article to use in citation searches for each of the four departments. Sourcing and trialling these took me most of my late night shift, bar ten minutes which I spent editing margins so the crib sheet fitted onto a single handy sheet of paper!

Thursday and Friday morning (I work only the morning on Fridays to compensate for the late night) involved summary activities which more or less ran into each other. There were a couple of highlights. On Thursday afternoon we had an interesting session on the government's new Customer Service Excellence standard, which we're working towards, identifying measures we could use to demonstrate our excellence.

The best part of the week for me, though, was the announcement that I've made the Project Board for the Big Conversation: a discussion that CILIP (the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in the UK) is running to determine its future. I'm really pleased and got lots of nice comments on Twitter from people who were happy to have a New Professional on the board. I've got project experience from my PhD and other academic activities, plus a billion opinions on research methods, so I'm hoping to be valuable in choosing a strategy for the project. The first meeting kicks off in February. Definitely a memorable week for me!

Picture: Sign at the new Nottingham Contemporary art gallery. I caught the end of the David Hockney exhibition on my week off this month.

Labels: academic libraries, CILIP, librarydayinthelife, professional development

Tuesday, and I started the morning by working on my module spreadsheet: my somewhat haphazard knowledge management project. I don't have access to any centralised information about the modules I support, so every time I get a little bit of information - module details, leaders, student numbers etc. - I squirrel it away in my spreadsheet. I'd gathered from a departmental meeting that a lot of the module codes for Human Resource Management were changing this year, so I asked for a list of the changes from the HRM module admin to update my info. I'm hoping to compare this information to our reading list stock before I leave to get some idea of which need updating and which we can drop off the system.

After that, I started updating the library 'How To' sheets on Internet searching. It's something I've been asked to look at before I go. At the moment my major dilemma is how much to expand them. It's tempting to put in lots of information, but I actually think their current simplicity is a strength, so I'm mainly concentrating on updating them for currency.

As well as the work I plan to do, there's always a little bit of work which travels over to my desk when I'm not there, in the form of notes or mysterious items. I went for a hot chocolate after being thoroughly chilled by some unnecessary air conditioning, and returned to discover a textbook and a copy of the Radio Times TV listing magazine on my desk. While I was deciding whether or not to withdraw and / or replace the first textbook (missing some index pages) by looking at usage and considering its currency, a second textbook arrived. Luckily the second book was hardly used, badly damaged and had a second copy, making at least one easy decision. Once the books were sentenced I read through the Radio Times, sadly finding no business-related TV for the week to record, and headed up to the Information Desk for my shift.

I was on the Information Desk for an hour. It's always hard to tell when we'll be busy, and so it's not too unusual that the first 15 minutes were deserted, and the next 45 frantic. I pointed one student towards books on dissertation / research project writing and gave some literature searching hints and tips, including explaining peer review. I found a spelling mistake on a reading list which was stopping one student finding a book on the catalogue, and tried to help another find some photographs of insects as a reference for drawing. As so often happens, as soon as I got back to my desk I thought of better places to look, but hopefully I did enough, and at least I'll remember next time! Then lunch.

After lunch I was 'on call' for the Research Training Programme for PhD students we hold in our lecture theatre. There's a morning looking into the process of literature searching, current awareness etc. and then the students get a practical session on Endnote (the reference management software) in the afternoon. This wouldn't always happen, but there's a bit of library flu going round, and so we were short of staff with Endnote knowledge to support the session. However, if I'm around during this bit of the session I do pop down occasionally as I used Endnote to manage my references for my PhD, and so I've got lots of practical hints and tips on use. I went down to answer some general questions, including those of one repeat customer who'd picked up importing references to Endnote at the last session, and now wanted me to demonstrate a bit of Cite While You Write (using Endnote in conjunction with Microsoft Word).

I then went back up to the office (answering one more Endnote query remotely!) and did a little more office work. I finally crossed off one of the 'to-do' items I've had on my list for a while. Since I arrived we've been setting up a new database, and one with relatively unusual requirements and demands. I'd asked for some information from other librarians on a mailing list on how they ran the database, and needed to collate their responses to feed back to the list. I went through their mostly unstructured responses and categorised them, to make it clear which strategies other libraries had used and finished just in time to re-check my emails and go home.

Photo: Note the cunning tie-in via the use of the word 'squirrel' in the first paragraph. The bird seeds at home have been subject to attack by this furry critter.

Labels: academic libraries, librarydayinthelife, professional development

I am participating for the first time in the Library Day in the Life project in which library workers all around the world blog or otherwise record their working days for a week. Check out the Library Day in the Life wiki for further details. For those new to the blog I am currently working as an academic librarian, supporting Business and Accounting, in the UK.

I've been away from the library for six working days with my MA Librarianship graduation and a week's annual leave. I'm approaching the end of my contract as academic liaison librarian for business at De Montfort University so was using up the annual leave I had left. I came back from holiday to have a familiar panic that I was supposed to be on the help desk first thing (I always have Friday afternoons off, and often miss the rota coming round) but didn't have any shifts today. I seem to be getting better at avoiding a last minute dash!

On the train in the morning I was occupied with reading my notes for the presentation I was giving at lunchtime. This was on my MA dissertation project, and consisted of talks I'd given to a visiting group from UCR Wales in the Information Commons at the University of Sheffield (on which my dissertation focused) and at the Society for Research in Higher Education (SRHE) Annual Conference. I'd presented both parts (the findings and theory) separately before, so once at work I just produced my handouts and then started wading through my accrued email from the previous week.

I'd reduced my emails to one page by the time I had to head to the Academic and Professional Development Unit, where I was presenting. The two talks seemed to gel together quite well, and I was pleased to get some practice presenting. I'm going to be giving regular lectures in my new job starting in February (as part-time academic liaison librarian for science at Leicester University). The questions after the talk were really interesting, and we had a great discussion about how students can be encouraged to use learning spaces in new ways. Plus, free sandwiches.

After a quick break for a walk I went to see Nathan (the normal business librarian, who is seconded into another post) deliver a lecture I'd written for him on library resources as part of a module on Professional Skills for Accountants. The talk seemed to go well - I liked the way he fleshed out my slides with lots of live searches as examples - but some students at the back talked all the way through, which was a shame. Last week I went to a staff-student committee in which students complained about other students talking in lectures (I heard some students shh-ing in this lecture too), and it's making me consider whether to address this kind of behaviour more actively: it's nerve-wracking, but I can see the benefits.

In the afternoon I caught up with a few more tasks. There are some which never seem to end, and two of my old faithful eternal projects (setting up a complex database, and a book I'm ordering through non-standard channels) came back to haunt me. I'm pleased to say that I made a bit of progress with both before hometime... maybe they'll be finished before my contract ends!

Picture taken in Lincoln in October 2009, on the way to a comedy festival. Moving into librarianship seems to have given me an uncontrollable desire to photograph things with the word 'library' on them.

Labels: academic libraries, dissertation, librarydayinthelife, professional development

So, I've been at De Montfort for three weeks now. That means i) I'm getting a better idea of the scope and main tasks of my job and ii) I'm actually having to start doing them. No more sitting around watching Health and Safety videos for me: or at least, not until I do the formal corporate induction in November.

My impression of the job so far is positive. My colleagues have all been friendly and helpful in getting me settled in, and the training programme has mostly consisted of shadowing other people in tasks and being walked through procedures, which suits me quite well. I tend to pick up things quite quickly but also generate and need to ask lots of questions, so prefer this approach to receiving teaching materials without much context.

I'm enjoying making decisions for myself, as well. This week a lecturer emailed me to ask for extra copies of two textbooks. One we already had 14 copies, the other we only had 4. Previous usage stats suggested that 14 copies was sufficient and this was about right for the course size so I decided to email the lecturer back and say I coudn't really justify many more copies of the 14 copy text, but if the 4 copy text was a core text could happily get some more of this. The lecturer emailed back to say this was a good point, and that, as the 4 copy text was a lot more up-to-date, made sense to just increase stock of this one. It wasn't much, but I was pleased that it was the first piece of liaison I'd done where I'd not just said 'okay' and done something, but looked into something and found a better course of action. Liaison success!

Next week all the students start to come back. I'm looking forward to not being the person who knows the least on campus, and have learnt the location of all the library toilets: plus which ones have Dyson Airblade handdryers! That's all I'll get asked for the first week, right?

Note: The photo pictures the still-in-progress new Business and Law Building, where the staff who I support will eventually all be based. I love that the finish is the same as the Information Commons at Sheffield: architectural continuity!

Labels: academic libraries, jobs, liaison

This was my first week at work at De Montfort: it's been enjoyable, but as I'm still finding my feet, I'll wait before blogging it. Instead I'm going to talk about an event I attended during the week. I presented the findings of my dissertation at a couple of events in CILASS, alongside my supervisor, and CILASS director, Professor Philippa Levy: one on Wednesday 9th to a group from UC&R Wales and one on Thursday 10th as part of the SRHE Student Experience Network. I'll talk about the SRHE event as I was able to stay the whole day and see the other sessions.

The day started with a talk from Kath O'Donovan, Associate Director of Library Services at Sheffield. She talked a little bit about the background to the IC project - a lot of which was familiar from my interviews with staff - and gave a good introduction to the IC.

Kath was followed by a presentation by Krishan Mistry about his IC-related video IC Girls. It's worth following the link to see this playful take on the IC. I must admit, I have always found the video / song lacking on the feminist front, but it was interesting to hear about how the idea for the video had developed: Krishan's explained that the lyrics of of the song were intended to mock one womanising friend's tales of the IC, which made me a little more comfortable with it. There's all sorts of interesting discussions about viral marketing and student ownership of university spaces triggered by this video, and it was interesting that Krishan had been accused of developing it in partnership with the University - he assured us that he had been avoiding staff during the filming!

Next, Phil and I presented the findings of my dissertation, and I took everyone on a tour of the building 'through students' eyes': specifically focusing on how individual areas in the IC can be meaningful to individual students. I had 30 minutes, but overcompensated for touring 40 researchers / librarians around the building, and only took 15, so we had time for some interesting discussion afterwards.

After lunch, Matthew Cheeseman, the convenor of the event, talked about his Folklore PhD looking at students in Higher Education. He talked about how the nighttime economy - the economy of bars, clubs and alcohol in which mainstream students participate - fitted with the idea of a 24 hour library. I have enjoyed his work a lot, and would recommend checking out his 2008 paper - The impact of a 24 hour library on the student experience at Sheffield.

Finally, IC Manager Alex Hunt wrapped up the event with some tips on managing a facility like the IC. One of my favourite facts from her is that cleaning a 24 hour library is more like cleaning an international airport than cleaning a library - it's never shut, and you're always having to clean around the people!

It was a good event, and I particularly enjoyed the range of perspectives from the speakers - from Kath's focus on the development of the building, to Krishan's personal student experience, to my relatively study-focused findings on how students used the building, to Matthew's understanding of the IC as a social phenomenon, through to Alex's experiences of running it. The event really emphasised to me the different views of the Information Commons (and libraries in general) we have, and how much we can learn from stopping and thinking about these facilities from the perspectives of other stakeholders and users. A big thanks to Matthew for organising the event!

Note: Photographs are views of the IC from one of the higher floors, and of the CILASS space within the IC.

Labels: academic libraries, dissertation, library visits, presentations

The SRHE (Society for Research into Higher Education) Student Experience Network is running an event at the Information Commons (IC) on September 10th entitled 24/7: The Life of University 24-hour Libraries.

I'm coordinating two sessions at the event. The first is a formal presentation, alongside my dissertation supervisor, Professor Philippa Levy, talking about my dissertation on the IC. The second is a tour of the library "through students' eyes" replicating and commenting on some of the tours students gave me of the IC in my research. This will provide an introduction to the IC for those who haven't seen it before, alongside actual student experiences of the IC: which ties in quite nicely with the focus of the network!

Places are free, although they're limited and I'm not sure what the rate of uptake is so far. You can find out more, and register for a place, by contacting Matthew Cheeseman on m.cheeseman@shef.ac.uk. Matthew is the coordinator of the event, and has produced some fascinating ethnographic work on the IC from his position as a folklorist, which has been really valuable in my own ethnographic approach to learning about students' use of the building.

Note: photo is an old one from my visit to Sheffield as a prospective student. I need to take some more photos of the place now I'm studying it!

Labels: academic libraries, dissertation, presentations

This week I have been conducting interviews with staff at the university, in order to construct a Theory of Change for the Information Commons project. In simple terms, this is a model of the expected outcomes for the project, and the steps that were taken by those involved to achieve those outcomes. The model will be compared with my student data to see which outcomes I have found evidence for, and where inconsistencies lie.

The Information Commons is a beautiful building, if relentlessly modern. I've posted pictures of the outside before, but here's one of the interior, which I used as a probe in the student interviews. I might go round and take some pictures myself soon, as empty out-of-term building means no consent forms. The varying levels of use of the IC have impacted on my project in several ways. I had to conduct my student interviews during my coursework period, as exams were approaching, and getting students to give me a tour of the IC would have been unworkable at its peak use. Still, it put me ahead of the game, which I'm not complaining about that now.

When I first started this project I was more focused on the student part of my project than the staff aspect, but over the last week I've really loved doing the staff interviews and finding out about how the IC was put together. I was astonished to find out that it was in planning back in 1998 when I first came to the university as an undergraduate! My favourite bit is seeing how staff use some of the ideas and interests I've had in the MA in their jobs at senior levels. The opportunity to get involved in projects like the IC is something I'd love, and it's made me even more enthusiastic about a career in academic libraries. I just need to find a job now!

Note: Photo was taken by Flickr user paolomargari and used here under Creative Commons licence.

Labels: academic libraries, dissertation, jobs, MA

I've been on a lot of library visits since I've started the MA, and have managed to fall behind a little on my updates, although I've still continued my recording habits everywhere - I'm sure there's an ethnographic study on 'the blogger in the wild' waiting to happen here, writing notes and getting left behind on tours while photographing furiously. One interesting trip was to a couple of public libraries in Sheffield, but I'm skipping forward for now to the two academic libraries we visited, Sheffield Hallam University's Adsetts Centre, and the Brotherton and the Edward Boyle Libraries at Leeds University.

The Brotherton Library is a beautiful old building, and one I had the opportunity to wander round at the RLUK Conference. I haven't included any images of the Brotherton library, partly as they didn't turn out very well, and there's plenty of images available on the Internet which give a much better impression of this beautiful building. However, it's also partly because I wanted to focus on the other two libraries.

The Adsetts Centre - pictured to the top right - was one of the first of a new line of learning centres, built in 1996. The Edward Boyle - pictured to the left - was built in 1975. The two share a common feature - the library atrium. I'm familiar with this architectural feature from Essex and from the Sheffield Information Commons with its good sides - letting natural light penetrate the darkest library depths - and its bad sides - mainly students dropping things down. Unlike both of these libraries, however, the Adsetts Centre and the Edward Boyle also have open floors, and, as visible in both photographs, it means that it is near impossible to zone different types of study area for groups and individuals.

I've been reading Lorcan Dempsey's Recombinant Library paper for my collection management essay, and it emphasised something I'm quite interested in - the recent emphasis on library social space as a consequence of the increase in electronic resources, the need to balance the social and individual study aspects of the library. Such considerations are obviously affecting both these libraries. The Adsetts, while revolutionary in its day for its technological resources, has recently had to build an extension to allow social study spaces without drowning the library in noise, and the Edward Boyle has had to grab social space where it can, and where the noise is least likely to filter through to quiet areas.

Whenever we build a new library, it is always a gamble, and perhaps the library world just has to face up to the fact that the kinds of space required aren't predictable. The Adsetts was revolutionary in its time, built to overcome the difficulties of space introduced by technologies, but it has still required reworking. The Edward Boyle is now in line for a complete rebuild. Both these visits made me wonder what the space I'd be working in by the end of my career would look like. It's possible that I'll be in a current building like Sheffield's Information Commons or Leicester's rebuilt David Wilson Library desperately trying to reconfigure it to fit new styles of working! I know that new buildings are designed to be as reconfigurable as possible, but these visits made me wonder if that's really a pipe dream.

Labels: academic libraries, library visits

The first library visit of the MA course today, and we went to Chesterfield Public Library, with the slightly broader remit of hearing about Derbyshire Public Libraries in general. If you've been following this blog for a while, you'll have picked up that my career plan isn't really focused on public libraries. I'm not one to turn down a library visit though: I do believe that the different library sectors can learn a lot from each other, and it's also generally interesting to go and see the services other sectors offer. I also have to say that if I was less certain of my career goals I would have been swayed completely!

Derbyshire sounds like a fantastic library service to work for: they seem up to speed with the political agenda, open to new ideas about how to make the library service work for the public, and full of initiatives for drawing new users in. My personal favourite aspect of the library was how much natural light came in: I find so many libraries in every sector lack this. Of course, part of their agenda was to sell their service to us - in a year we'll be potential job applicants - it'll be interesting to see whether that's a theme in future visits too!

One of the things I enjoyed thinking about during the visit was how academic and research libraries could learn from the way things are done in public libraries. The picture in the top right shows the front-facing books displays which seem to be becoming pretty common in public libraries. I was wondering if academic libraries could benefit from similar displays. Universities often concentrate on core texts for undergraduates, but as a postgraduate I certainly would have been tempted by a display of intellectual classics. For example, when I was an undergraduate my lecturer claimed that every educated adult should have read 'The Selfish Gene' by Richard Dawkins, and I know I'm always telling people to pick up 'The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat' by Oliver Sacks. Promoting books as tangible and desirable artefacts isn't really done in academia, but it could lead to wider reading, expand minds and encourage interdisciplinary thought. In fact, reading without a specific learning outcome in mind is something the academic sector could borrow from public libraries in general!

Labels: academic libraries, library visits, public libraries