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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

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

I can't quite believe that the course is over! I completed my dissertation and handed it in at the end of last week. I'm happy with it (although I've spotted a few things I'd change in retrospect: bound to happen) and looking forward to finding out the final results. My work on the Information Commons is complete, but I'm heading back to the IC at least two more times to give a couple of presentations on my study next week, for a CILIP UC&R Wales visit and an SRHE seminar.

On top of that, next week I'm starting my new job! It's a temporary post at De Montfort University, and I'm going to be an assistant librarian, working with the Business School. I have an MSc in Occupational Psychology, which is the study of business from a psychological perspective, which should give me a good start in the topic. I'm looking forward to starting, although a little nervous! This week has been a semi-break between course and job, although I've been tying up some loose ends and preparing for the presentations next week, so it's not all been holiday.

Obtaining my first professional post has made me reflect on this blog a little. I'm really happy I've kept it going throughout my graduate traineeship and my library course to my first job. I started the blog because I couldn't find any which documented that journey, and I hope it proves useful to people about to start librarian training. At the very least it's entertaining to me to look back at what I've been doing for the last two years, and a great record of all the things I've done. I'd recommend the process to anyone else too!

Note: Photograph is a view from the Information Commons, with the infamous comfy seating.

Labels: dissertation, jobs, MA, website

When I first started my dissertation I actually meant to blog about the process more, but it turned out to be quite hard to find an angle to come at this from. I'd imagined blogging findings as they emerged, but particularly with qualitative analysis of data there's not many moments of revelation to be had: the analysis evolves over time.

There were two stages to the research, and three stages to the analysis. In stage one, interviews with staff involved in the Information Commons (IC) development were analysed using the Theory of Change approach to uncover the drivers, resources, activities, desirable outcomes and anticipated impact of the project - these are the five tubs of quotes visible in the photographs. In stage two, a thematic analysis of the student interviews looked at how students used the IC. Stage three, which I'm still finishing, involves looking at the desirable outcomes of the project related to student usage of the IC and the student experience, and asking if i) if there's evidence for them in the student interviews and ii) if they seem to have occurred because of the activities identified by staff.

In stage three everything's starting to come together quite nicely. I think the first two stages of the analysis are quite information-rich, but the process of evaluation draws them together quite well and should help me structure the key findings in the discussion and conclusion quite nicely.

At the moment I'm finishing off the literature review (currently bringing together the literature on information commons in general) and then I'm back into the analysis again. My supervisor is back from holiday on Monday, and we've arranged a meeting, so I hope to have a reasonable draft of the whole thing to show her by then. Compared to my PhD thesis this has all been a bit of a whirlwind: I've been reasonably ambitious with the scope of this project, and there's not much time at all to think and reflect. However, I'm happy so far with what I've produced and hopefully will be able to knock it into shape before submission.

Labels: dissertation, MA

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

The dissertation is well underway! Spent this week putting together an interview schedule for the interviews I'm hoping to arrange with staff at the university. I'm using an approach called the Theory of Change to look at the creation of the Information Commons, so was pleased to get some valuable feedback from my supervisor on how to structure the interviews to get the right data. Unlike the ethnographic interviews, an approach I used during my PhD, Theory of Change is completely new to me, so it's the bit I'm most nervous about doing!

I also got some good feedback on one of my essays: one looking at Virtual Research Environments and the role of the library. I don't know yet what mark I've got for it, but my head of department contacted me to say she'd really like what I'd written, to ask if she could pass it on to some potentially interested people, and to discuss the possibility of writing it up for publication. Will have to see what comes of this, but it's great feedback, and a great opportunity. We've got a meeting next week to discuss publication ideas. It's this kind of attitude I really like at Sheffield, they seem to be very proactive. In addition, this week I've got a job interview on Wednesday. Should be interesting stuff, will wait and see what happens.

Final good news: my vision problems have been inspected by an ophthalmologist, and apparently the visual distortions I've been having are very likely due to my very dry eyes. I'm awaiting a prescription for some better drops, and in the meantime taking the ones I've got whenever I like. I was pleased to hear that the ophthalmologist was related to a librarian so knew all about the importance of text to our profession! My digestive problems are still ongoing: nothing conclusive learnt from my elimination diet so far, watch this space!

Today's picture comes from Nottingham University campus: I live right nearby and went for a walk to get some library-related shots recently. I always liked the fact there's a whole road named after the library. It sounds like all the libraries should be along this one road, but in fact it's only the original Hallward Library.

Labels: dissertation, jobs, MA

Right, coursework is all handed in and there's just the dissertation left to go in my MA. Still having a few health problems: I've managed to get on top of most things, but my vision is still proving a bit problem. I'm back at the computer having turned my brightness settings down low, but paper is proving a bit of a problem, so I'm trying to do what I can when I can (while getting various referrals to try and sort out my vision).

The most manageable task at the moment seems to be transcribing the interviews I've got so far (I'm a touch typist, and I transcribed a lot during my PhD etc. so I'm a fairly dab hand at churning this out). I would have preferred to type these up as I recorded them, so I was fresh from the interview, but was involved in about seven layers of coursework at the time. I typed up my first interview today, and it was quite interesting to go back over it and see the kinds of themes that came up.

Just as a reminder, I'm looking at the use of space in Sheffield University's Information Commons with the student interviews, and the next stage of my research will be to interview staff and find out about their expectations for the IC, and how they compare with actual use. I need to do a bit of reading before the staff interviews, though, so holding on to see if I can sort out my eyes first!

The student data is really interesting, though. There seem to be lots of layers to the decision making processes of students when deciding which space to use: study preferences, aesthetic preferences, habit, social behaviour, territoriality etc. Should be fascinating stuff to unpick these a bit further and see how they interact / combine in different individuals.

Note: Image taken at LILAC 2009. I like the fact that the signs told Welsh speakers to use the door to escape in case of fire, but didn't tell them how to open the thing. Of course, maybe the Welsh are just naturally good at opening doors.

Labels: dissertation, MA