Tales of a Librarian

I have been paying attention to some of the entries on the LIS-CILIP-REG mailing list (as usual of course!) of late, which have been discussing the value of visits to other libraries, how many should be made, which sectors etc. and it got me thinking that it would perhaps be something of great use to my development if i were to arrange something similar. So, having thought about it, i realised that beyond a couple of contacts that I have already, i didn’t really know where to start with regards to contacting someone to arrange a visit. I have previously visited a languages library at Glasgow University for the day, which was very insightful, in fact, that was my first introduction to the LIS-CILIP mailing list.

So, I made a post asking people for ideas about how to go about it, and to hear how others’ had arranged such visits. What a response i got! I never cease to be amazed by how quickly, and how many people take the time out to reply to the queries i post on that mailing list. I got a whole range of answers, all of which were helpful, and which I will summarise at some point both for this blog and for the list. I even had two people offer to help arrange something (one through Glasgow City Council and one through the Career Development Group) with me, which was really nice. I will definitely have to speak to my manager and see what she thinks about it - i’m not sure how the whole time off would work for something like this, so I will need to discuss it with her before arranging anything else. But I do think that it would be a really great way to assess my library’s position within the wider scheme of things, to see how other libraries operate and what their client base is, and what kind of systems they use for organising things and measuring performance and so forth. I guess that I could then do some kind of comparative/evaluative essay/report on the whole experience, including discussion of all the different libraries i had visited, as this would probably be more relevant than a simple description of each of the libraries and what i did there… I’ll keep you updated.

A colleague of mine pointed out this article in the Herald online yesterday which may be of some interest. It is about the reinvention of the Gorbals Library and how it has embraced technology to enhance its services. I have to admit, I have a friend who recently moved to the gorbals so i have seen the library and it does look impressive, very modern with lots of clean cut lines and shiny glass!

This was another thing that I spotted on the CILIP Daily news email which I felt was quite interesting… it doesn’t give any more details than that below, but i remember seeing a picture of a library in which all the books had been classified by the colour of their spine… so all the black books were together, and the blue, red and so forth… I’m sure this one is a bit more systematic though

“Jason Healey, a design student at the Arts Institute at Bournemouth has developed a classification system using colours and symbols to make it easier for people with disabilities to find their way around the library. Julia Waite, CILIP Member and Librarian at the Institute said she was interested in the idea ‘to get people to the right part of the library without using numbers’. Jason Healey’s system was given a Best New Blood Award from educational charity D&AD.”
THES, pp54-55, 25 May

Just a quick one to point to an article by author Lionel Shriver on the Guardian website today (via cilip daily news bulletin), in which she explains just how much she loves libraries and how they have been of benefit to her as an author. I had never really thought of libraries providing much benefit for authors (who indeed should perhaps rather that readers bought their books rather than borrowed them) but it was quite nice to read that they are still appreciated.

Hi again… I was catching up with my feeds in newsgator and i came across a really interesting one which pointed out a development in Hennepin County Library Catalogue. I thought this was really timely given my previous delight at my own new library catalogue, which allows me to do various things like create a booklist and request/renew items free of charge online.

But this one is so much better… It allows users of the catalogue to post their own comments about each book/item held in stock, and also somehow it can bring up comments from amazon.com for the user to view too, but in the same window, and without leaving the comments page of the item. Wow, this is really great. I have yet to try it out to see whether anyone can leave comments or whether it is restricted to people with a library card from that area. Have a look for yourself, and see what people are saying about your favourite book. Here is the page for the book that I am currently reading - Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman (tis excellent by the way - as usual). Note that there is also a related book list (which is a bit dubious), an outline of the main characters in the book, and also a ‘other books about…’ list which is also a bit dubious, i think it must be some attempt at classification, but it doesn’t really work in this instance.

If these functions could be improved then it would really help the library catalogue compete with the likes of amazon etc. and be a place where users would choose to look to find out information about their favourite/intended books, rather than simply a list of locations and status.

Technorati Tags: catalogues, opacs, public libraries, books, reviews, comments

Hey there. Yesterday evening after work I attending a meeting/focus group which was attempting to analyse the changes which have occurred and that are continuing to occur in e-information job roles. It was being held by another part of my company, but the other participants that were there seemed to come from quite a diverse set of occupational backgrounds, yet all working within what could be termed e-information roles. There were people from media, various public sector organisations, education, business, academia…

We were first given a brief presentation about the research that had been conducted into this subject by the researchers so far, and that which had already been gathered from the literature. It was quite interesting to actually sit and think about the variety of occupations where e-information work is becoming increasingly important as well as increasingly common. Areas such as e-government and e-learning seemed to be particularly prominent, but in addition to this there is a whole variety of areas involved in this which I had never really thought much about, particularly enginneering and construction and such, sectors which to be honest, i really don’t know very much about. There was also an increased awareness of e-information in business, not simply as e-commerce, but where the information is itself the product, for a variety of different uses and purposes.

After we had been given an outline of precisely what constituted an ‘e-information role’ in the context of this research, and an outline of the project that was being conducted, we broke off into groups to discuss things in more detail, drawing from each of our own individual experiences. The questions we were asked to discuss involved numerous different facets of the same theme - which sectors did we believe e-information roles were most prominent in, what skills did we believe were neccessary to do such roles, examples of job titles, particularly ones that had changed to reflect new e-info roles and so forth. It was interesting what others had to say. Personally, i felt a like my youth was a slight disadvantage in this instance, as for as long as i have been interested, things have pretty much all been electronic, and i felt as if i could not really comment on how job roles such as my own had changed (as i have only been in the job since November!) - although i could make some informed guesses. It was also quite difficult to think ‘outside the box’ as it were, beyond my own individual job and sector and into that of others’. It opened my eyes to see how information professionals were viewed and utlised in other areas, such as business, by those that had not neccessarily done the ‘typical’ qualifications, such as the postgrad ILS course or IM degree etc. In fact, among some of the group there was a general belief that such training was unneccessary as a prerequisite for many e-information roles, particularly those that were more management orientated and did not involve any kind of technical knowledge or speciality. I can understand where these people are coming from in a sense, as being older and more experienced they themselves confessed to having entered the profession without such qualifications. Indeed, i presume (although do not know for sure) that such degrees such as the information management etc. are probably fairly new and were not available, say, 20 years ago. Similarly, i can imagine that ILS courses were most likely fairly centred upon librarianship back then too - creating a divide between traditional librarianship and information managers that is gradually growing closer these days.

However, i think that there is still something to be said for the ILS courses etc.! ( although i have to say that) in defining the profession. But it has made me think more widely about how i define my potential career - do i think of myself as a librarian? (I think that, in general, yes, i do - and i am quite happy with this identification). But is this really a true reflection of the roles that many similar people end up doing when they leave such courses? Hmmm…

Other small points of interest: A lecturer from my old course was meant to turn up but didn’t, which was a shame…; someone raised the very interesting (and related) point about where on earth are jobs such as that we were discussing to be found on websites such as monster and s1jobs etc.? - i’m glad someone else seems to have noticed that we fall through almost every classification - although it was also pointed out that s1jobs used to have a category called ‘librarianism’ (a disease?); finally, a researcher whose work i had used during the lit review and research of my dissertation was also there, but alas, i did not have a chance to speak to him. Oh well, maybe another day…

Technorati Tags: e-information, job roles, work, change, librarianship

Hi folks, i’m just in the process of conducting a SWOT analysis of my skills and development so far in my current employment, as part of the my CILIP chartership. Hopefully, this will go someway towards my portfolio, as the plan is to conduct another one in six months time before i submit my application for chartership.

It’s really hard to think objectively about yourself! I found that looking at my original PPDP helped, as I could simply assess each item and place it in the appropriate place on the SWOT analysis. It is really helping me to stand back from my everyday work and assess just how much i have done towards acheiving everything that I set out to on my PPDP, and just what I still have to do. I think that I am doing okay in most areas, although, i could improve more. As always! But i feel that I have come a long way in the six months I have been here - although it just does not feel as long as six months! - particularly in the everyday type skills of the library - such as my abstracting and enquiry work. My subject knowledge also seems to be improving to a certain extent, although i do feel as if i have much to learn in this respect - the topics we cover are so broad and detailed that i guess i can’t expect to know everything in just six months, but i do feel as if it is becoming easier to choose what is relevant for inclusion and what is not, and what subjects things should come under and so forth. Again, i think the best way for learning about this is through reading the material that comes in to stock when selecting items for inclusion, newspaper scanning in the mornings and abstracting. I have also noticed having a more general awareness of relevant things occuring in the news, such as on the bbc website, which also increases my knowledge and understanding.

Areas in which I am lacking seem to be management skills - there just isn’t any requirement for me to ‘manage’ someone in the traditional sense in this role - so i will have to make up for that through readings and training. You would think that a degree in HRM would also help to some extent, but I think that it was so long ago now (or at least, it seems to be!) and so theoretical that it doesn’t really provide me with any really practical guidance. Oh well, better keep an eye out for those courses then!

One thing that is in my favour is that the company have a very good stance towards training etc. and are very supportive of this. So, there shouldn’t be a problem in that area.

I will forward my SWOT on to my manager as it may also be useful to get some objective feedback about it, in case i have misjudged anything or left anything out!

Just a quick note because i forgot to mention that i have also lined up some training/cpd activities for the coming months, which i am looking forward to attending. The first is a meeting/debate about an information project that has been carried out by researchers involved with our organisations, looking at the changing roles of e-information professionals. This is something that i clearly have an interest in (perhaps coming under this title myself) so it should be really interesting to hear what their research has thrown up - and to comment on it if i am in a position to do so. Obviously, being newly qualified and all I can’t really compare my role with many years ago, but even over the course of my education, roles and technologies etc. have changed dramatically.

Without seeming a bit stupid, I often wonder what it must have been like before the days of einformation, databases, computers and the wonders of the internet. For practically all of my adult life these things have been easily used and accessible. In fact, even in high school we used computers (although nothing like what is used today). I can even remember my first computer lesson… using Microsoft Word 6 or something (maybe even 4?). And the teacher told me if i shook the mouse when the little hour glass was showing, it would make the sand fall through faster and make things happen quicker. And I believed him. Hmmm.

But, it really must be so different for people who initially trained many years ago, and it just makes me wonder if such radical changes will occur between now and when I am an older and more experienced information professional.

Sorry, that was a bit of a diversion… back to the main point - so the roles of e-information jobs are changing. I’ll write a bit about what is discussed at the meeting after i have attended. It will also be nice to be involved in some real research again (albeit, only discussing it!)

The other courses that I have signed up for are two in my area, one on records management and one on metadata. Both look quite interesting, and I will have to take plenty notes and do a write up or something that can be included as part of my portfolio. There was also another training event that I was interested in attending about information literacy - but i missed out on that one coz i was too slow (i think that it has been and gone!). One of the presenters was someone whose research i had used a lot in my dissertation, it would have been nice to have met him. He works at a university where i spent some time on placement, but at that time i had not been involved with his work and therefore had not met with him.

So, i’ll have a good few events to look forward to over the coming months, and something to report back on as well. Have a nice weekend!

Technorati Tags: training, courses, cpd, research, meetings

I finally got round to registering with my local library last night, it was the first time that I had been in to it. It’s just a really small community library, with a little bit of everything: fiction, non-fiction, plenty of kids stuff, cds and the possibility of ordering in ps2 games (much to my partner’s delight!). They offer interlibrary loans and a free request service (i’m not entirely sure how the two differ), so that is also really useful as there are many books that I would like to get my hands on that are not on the physical shelves of the library.

It’s really great to have a library so close to where i live - it is literally about a five minute walk away - and it is open til 7pm through the week - so that means that i can visit it no probs after work. There is also a couple of larger libraries in the area, so no doubt i shall be visiting them at some point to find out what they are like too.

The library catalogue for the whole of the area is available to be searched online, and it has some really neat user functions which make it really handy to use. They allow a user to log in and make requests for items (as mentioned before) so that I can have any book in the area sent to my local library for collection. You can also make a book list (kind of like amazon’s wish list) so if you see books that interest you but you don’t have time to take them out just yet or if you just want to keep a note of them then you can do it this way. It also has lists of books that have won awards recently so if you are not sure of what you would like to read you can get some inspiration from these…

I can’t wait to get my PIN number in the post (neccessary to log in) so that I can start using the online service. I also took out some books when i registered last night (well, it would have been rude not too!!) - about gardening!!, so i shall be green fingered by the time that i return them (or at least that is the theory!).

It just got me to thinking about the whole range of ways in which the libraries could incorporate web 2.0 technologies into their websites to bring the library back into the community - people could use discussion forums centred around the library and so forth to discuss the latest books (like online book clubs I guess), or just to comment about certain books, rate them, make recommendations etc. Another good addition to a catalogue like this would be to provide some functions for those who do not know exactly what they would like to borrow - so providing some kind of electronic/online equivelant of browsing shelves by grouping books into categories - these could even be provided by a folksomy, so that users can be inspired about which books they read next. New books could also be given a promotion on the site, or a monthly/weekly collection on certain types of books could also encourage people to read beyond their boundaries - librarians could choose certain related books, with a theme such as ‘crime week’, or ’sci-fi’, or even a specific author, or non-fiction title, such as cookery, a specific country, etc. This might help circulate older, existing stock too.

I haven’t found out yet if there are any book clubs in the area - but again this is something that i think that i would find quite interesting, so long as i felt that the books that they usually tended to read were the kind that i would enjoy… I will have to look into this.

So, overall, I am very impressed so far with the library service in my new locale and can’t wait to give it a thorough testing-out. I’ll keep you updated!

Technorati Tags: public library, catalogues, opac, library service