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Some excellent library bloggers have recently set up a project in which our kind blog both our routes into librarianship, and our roots in librarianship, and this is my contribution. I'll leap straight in, but do check out the other fascinating entries at the Library Routes Wiki. My route into librarianship has been a meandering one, starting with an MSc in Occupational Psychology (the psychology of work and organisations). My roots in librarianship, which we'll come to later, started a long time before that.

I didn't really know what I wanted to do after my undergrad, but after a year of trying the world of work decided I'd return and study an area of my degree I'd particularly enjoyed, Occupational Psychology. My MSc dissertation focused on a centre in Sheffield offering work-related IT courses and I became interested in learning and technology. Looking for work afterwards, I discovered that the University of Nottingham were offering studentships at their new Learning Sciences Research Institute, so I applied. My topic ended up being homework: specifically I focused on how technologies could be embedded in the home, given family's views on privacy, their interactions around homework technologies, and various other criteria. However, as I worked on my PhD I developed an interest in how the theories I was studying applied to my student / research role. How I and those around me used technologies to learn and search for information became a larger and larger interest.

With my PhD it would have been quite easy to move within fields to study this academically, but I was reluctant to continue an academic career path. I don't know when I suddenly realised that librarianship contained people-focused and applied roles which encompassed many of my interests, but I do remember increasingly thinking about librarianship as a career. However, given previous multiple changes in direction, I wanted to try a spell in libraries to decide if they were right for me, so I applied for and got a part-time maternity cover job in the George Green Library at the University of Nottingham while I was writing up my PhD thesis.

The job at George Green gave me a broad experience of libraries, as I worked half of my shift alongside a librarian or library assistant, and got to hear all about their work, and was in sole charge of the service for the second half of the night. I liked the job. I could have applied for library school at this stage, but instead I decided to take the opportunity to get a broader background in librarianship, and applied for a number of graduate trainee posts. It was as I started the traineeship that I looked around for others who had blogged their experiences as trainees, and, unable to find anything, started this blog. The rest of the story is quite well documented here: from my traineeship to my MA and then my current academic librarian job supporting students and researchers at De Montfort, just like I wanted to do as a student and researcher. And my Occupational Psychology degree, the starting point of it all, helped me get a job as a subject librarian in Business.

Nice story, isn't it? However, one of the theories I learnt in my MSc Occupational Psychology is that the 'career' as we understand it, can be seen as just a story, reflecting back on how we got to where we are, and editing out all the awkward bits that don't fit. For those about to start on a librarianship career, I think it's important to mention some of these roots, which weren't part of my route, to show that we're not all perfect, inevitable fits for a librarianship career, that stops and starts are involved.

For example, I did a week's work experience in a public library as a 16 year old and in my National Record of Achievement it says "I am not sure I would like to continue to work in this field when I am older". When I finished my undergraduate degree I was a day too late to apply for a graduate trainee post in the university library. And I also have a traditional 'I was a bookish child' story to tell, but was nearly put off librarianship because I was worried it was more about the quiet anti-social child I had been, than the more extroverted lover of knowledge I've become. It's fascinating to look back on our routes and our roots, but I've learnt not to be too defined by what I've done. Who know where I'll end up next?

Labels: jobs, MA, professional development, traineeship

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

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

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

This blog's been a little bit quiet recently as I've not been feeling too good: for some reason one of my symptoms has been weird vision when looking at screens (I can see them but my eyes are a bit weirded out by long exposure) hence the lack of updates!

Lots has been going on, however. The best news is that I've received a funded place at Mashed Libraries 2009. This is one of those fancy unconference things looking at mash-ups within the library field. I'm really excited about attending. I don't have much experience in any kind of library technologies: the shot on the right shows the nearest I got to library tech in my last job, a new computer to access our old-fashioned LMS. However my enthusiasm for social networking, my love of playing with random software and the bits of my PhD involving representing and supporting homework through lots of different technologies should be pretty relevant.

On top of this I've been recruited to work on an HEA funded synthesis of research alongside members of CILASS, the University of Sheffield's centre for Inquiry Based Learning over the summer. Should be interesting and a way of keeping up my research skills and giving me something other than my dissertation to think about over the next few months.

Other than those exciting pieces of news, the most thrilling thing in my life has been the gradual erosion of my coursework deadlines. At the time of writing I've only got two more pieces I need to get done, and hopefully things will keep ticking along. In fact, I've got some editing awaiting as I speak, so off I go!

Labels: jobs, library tech, MA, mashlib09, professional development, Web 2.0

Just a quick post because I haven't seen this anywhere else, to say Jobs.ac.uk is featuring a profile of Katherine Reedy, Learning and Teaching Librarian from the Open University. I think this a really good example of a job where librarianship has changed a lot, with the Open University catering so heavily for distance learners. It sounds like just the kind of job I'd love to do, and I'm pleased she mentioned LILAC - it's given me another positive view on attending.

I was actually quite startled to find out that a lot of the alumni who came to our recent careers' evening had started applying for jobs around this time of year, so I'm checking job sites a bit more thoughtfully at this stage. However, it's important to be realistic about how far I can travel from Nottingham, and while a couple of jobs I'd love are kicking around, there's been nothing in the right region so far.

Labels: jobs, LILAC Conference, media

I contributed to the feature on taking a master's in Librarianship in the Guardian today, talking a little bit about what it's like to be a student in the field. You can find it in the Graduate section. It's trailered on the front page of the section (which is the back page of the Work section) as 'Sssh! Taking a master's in librarianship' but aside from the unfortunate ssh reference I think it represents us quite well. I'm bemused that I'm the only person who mentioned it's not that easy to get a job in the field, but of course, they only took a tiny quote from each interview they did for each section (I'm sure I blathered on far more than that in the phone interview!).

Labels: jobs, MA, media

As part of my involvement in the CILIP Career Development Group Yorkshire and Humberside (and in conjunction with the University of Sheffield Library and Information Professionals Social Society), my colleagues and I are arranging a career event with speakers from course alumni and other local professionals.

Putting together the poster was good fun, and you'll be pleased to hear that the picture is of a real librarian, who blogs as the Librarian by Day. Picture is used courtesy of Creative Commons Licence and the same rights apply to this poster.

I quite like how the poster turned out, and I'm looking forward to the event as well - hopefully there'll be a good turn out, and proceeds are heading to charity, so it'll be good all round if it's a success. I'll probably update more after the event (on 11th February) to reveal how it went.

Otherwise, the coursework is ongoing (due in the day after tomorrow and should be polished by the deadline) and I've got a meeting tomorrow about possible dissertation projects, so everything's running to schedule. I'll be glad for a rest next week before lectures commence nonetheless!

Labels: CILIP, displays, jobs, MA, professional development

Okay, so I'm not actually in the job market at the moment, but I suppose I'm job market curious. As a librarian-to-be I read a lot about emerging careers, and as my workplace was holding interview yesterday for a post that was 'suitable for' a recent library school graduate it's been at the top of my mind.

In this game you hear a lot about the difficulty of entering the job market. Not to undermine the experiences of those who have difficulty in this area, it's not a story that's new to me since I entered the library and information world. It's hard to get a job as an Occupational Psychologist (my previous vocational training at MSc level), it's hard to get funding to do a PhD (something I managed), it's hard to get a post as an academic (something I thankfully never tried) and it's hard to get a graduate trainee post. A graduate trainee post is an interesting one to use as a potential comparison point for future me's job market as in the future I don't imagine I'll be as willing to move around the country as I was for a one-year position. Alright, so I've got a traineeship now, but let's just say that my application to interview ratio was not 100%, and that I was turned down for more traineeships than I was offered at interview, despite my previous library experience.

The question is: is it more difficult to get a job in libraries than in any other sector? The job market is hardly super welcoming at the best of time, and as I recently commented on the CILIP forum, the you-need-experience-to-get-a-job-to-get-experience conundrum is hardly of recent pedigree. Maybe there's a study in here somewhere, unless anyone knows of any readily available statistics for recruitment by sector?

Labels: jobs