Putting myself forward

I have already mentioned in previous posts that I am the Student Rep for the MSc, and a few weeks ago I went to the first committee meeting (which was oddly interesting!)

After an interesting session of ‘Research and Practice’ however, I realised that I need to become more actively involved with CILIP (of which I am a member, but very guilty of not really doing anything further than that). There were some visiting speakers, all of whom were ‘new professionals’ within the last five years or so, and if anything I felt enthused after their talk (and not at all gloomy at the prospect of trying to find a job in the future).

One of the speakers (who didn’t actually get to give her talk due to time, but participated in the Q&A session afterwards) is a committee member of the North West branch of CILIP; and she encouraged us to get involved. Furthermore, mentioned that they could do with some MMU student members on the committee.

Well, aware that I need to try to ‘bumpf’ up my CV and experiences as much as possible, I emailed that very night asking to be considered for Student Rep and am toddling along to the NW CILIP committee meeting tomorrow.

I also enquired about joining the NW Career Development Group committee and heard back this weekend; will be getting involved in that too!

I am aware of the need for library advocacy at the moment more than anything, but I know that I can be shy. Thus, I thought putting myself forward for these committees (in which I can learn new skills and develop those I already have) will be a step (albeit small, in the grand scheme of things) in the right direction!

Your Learning Style?

Today’s ‘Designing Online Learning’ looked at learning styles, and we had some homework:

Discover your leaning style!

Well, I took said test and here are my results!

My own learning styles graph

As you can see, learners do not tend to rely on one particular type of learning; although they may lean more towards one than another. From my results you can see that I tend to be a solitary learner, closely followed by verbal and visual (and aural and logical). I am not surprised by this as from previous experiences of learning (and also professional experience) I have come to recognise personal learning strategies I tend to utilise.

The test only takes around five minutes to complete; so why not find out some of your learning styles!

Professional Memberships: CILIP and BIALL

Well, a few weeks ago I re-joined CILIP; and as an extra, joined BIALL.

I have to admit, I did leave CILIP at the beginning of year due to lack of money:- as much as I fully support CILIP and think it is, and can be, a fantastic resource for librarians and for us to show the world at large what library and information management is really about; I just couldn’t afford to stay in in that moment of time. Nevertheless, I am now a member again and have once again joined the ‘health libraries‘ and ‘career development‘ groups. I am particularly pleased about re-joining the career development group again as I felt I benefitted from it so much last time.

I decided to join BIALL as law librarianship is one of my future career options (it would be a brilliant way to put my LL.M to use!) and thought it would be a good idea to keep up on the news and issues in the legal library and information sector by joining such a professional organisation. So far, I am glad I did. I have received the most recent ‘Legal Information Management’, plus back issues for this year; access to journals; and access to forums where I can keep up to date within this particular area of librarianship.

I fully believe in joining such professional organisations, not only to be able to show potential employers you are keeping up with new developments and issues: but it is a great way to network; be able to attend conferences/events for a slightly cheaper rate; and to show support for the profession I am starting out in, and don’t want to be steamrolled into obscurity by the misunderstandings of many of what libraries and information workers can and DO do.

Put a date on it!

I was brought up on the idea of putting a date on ALL of my work; whether that be rough notes or formal correspondence.

It is just one of those things many people do naturally, without even thinking about it.

Frustratingly, I have come across heaps of stuff in the archives which is not dated. At all. And I don’t just mean minor documents such as student newsletters (most of which I have managed to date between 1970-1980); but includes university and college correspondence.

Generally speaking, this is something which would just never happen nowadays. In fact, most correspondence, newsletters, even the most scrap bits of useless paper, usually have a date on them.

Fortunately, the Archivist I work with has been here since the early years of the university, and has a fantastic memory (of people, places, dates; pretty much everything!) and has thus far managed to at least roughly guess whereabouts something should be filed. Luckily.

 

Video: Information R/evolution

In the first ‘Information and Knowledge Management’ lecture we were shown this video which looks at how we can and do use, store and retrieve information; and how that can and is changing.

 

First week as an LIS student

Well, my first week at library school is over; and I feel like a whole load of information has been flung at me! I have started my new modules and so far am interested and keen on all of them; I have met new people from a range of backgrounds; and have already been given some coursework to start looking at!

*****

Starting Library School

Well, induction day was last week, and a part of me just wants get on with it now. My lectures are on a Monday and Wednesday; so the first lessons are tomorrow!

The induction day had a lot of introductory information (re. the university, the courses and the modules) but also information about work placements and the dissertation we need to write next year. I’ve had some ideas for the dissertation topic, but it is still early days and I can have a good think over the next few months.

We also had a session on ‘Moodle’ which is MMU’s virtual learning environment where students can access their email and any course information. It seems fairly straight forward to be honest; and I am usually quick to learn my way around such things.

Leading up to the induction day I had been thinking of switching to the MSc (Information Management) instead of studying the MA. In my funding interview, the tutor said with my background (NHS Evidence specialist collections) the MSc might better suit my previous experience and future roles. Furthermore, having enrolled online a few weeks ago we gained access to view the modules on offer this year, and it was the MSc modules which caught my eye; in particular, ‘Information and Knowledge Management’ and ‘Web and Search Applications’. After briefly discussing it with a senior tutor last week, I have switched and am now enrolled on the MSc!

So, the modules I will be studying are:

• Designing Online Learning
• Information and Knowledge Management
• Management
• Research and Practice
• Search and Retrieval
• Web and Search Applications

I am particularly excited about the Designing Online Learning as I think this will become such a prominent part of information management; expanding out into ‘library user learning’.

No doubt I will be posting about the lessons soon enough!

A cold room and a mass of information

On the 1st July 2011 I started a new position of which I had no previous experience: Lancaster University Archives!

I always enjoy seeing or doing new roles in the information sector, as I love the variation it can take. And seeing as this is archives (which on the whole is completely different from librarianship), it has generally given me the chance to see what archivism is about.

I was an undergraduate student at Lancaster University, so reading up about its history and beginnings has been a fantastic experience. Created in 1964, Lancaster is an out-of-town, campus based university; with some world-renowned departments such as the management school and the linguistics department (where I studied as an undergraduate!)

The archives are located in the library; but technically are a part of the Secretariat. There has never been an official Archivist; but the Honorary Archivst who I work under has been involved with the archives for a long time, and is extremely knowledgeable about everything and anything to do with the university. It came about that there was some money for an archives assistant; and lo and behold, I got the job!

So far I have organised the University’s Court (1964 – 2011) and Council (1994 – 2003) Minutes (including correspondence); Degree ceremony booklets (1965 – 2011); Staff handbooks (1967 – 2007); and am currently sorting through a MASS of papers/booklets/pretty much anything for the individual college’s (of which there are nine). I have been writing up a ‘report’ on what I have been working on so the archivist can then add it to the archives catalogue (which I personally do not have access to).

What I love about the position is that the archivist is happy for me to read through things at length and point out anything of interest, and ask questions whether it be about how to do something, or a piece of university history.

Nevertheless, and as I said in a previous post, the position has shown me roughly what archive work can entail; and I am happy with my route into librarianship instead.

Library school, here I come!

Hello; it has been a long time since I posted here, and I have no excuse other than I am not entirely sure where 2011 has gone…

Anyway, I finally got around to changing the blog title (seeing as a) I am no longer a library trainee, and b) I am no longer in Oxford). As such, you can see a theme emerging from my new blog title – this will inevitably change when I finish library school!

As for a quick update on what I have been doing for the past year:

• September 2010 – March 2011: I continued working on the NHS Evidence – women’s health specialist collection, and was very sad for it to end. NHS Evidence had already decided (well before I was even offered the position of library assistant within the collection) to amalgamate all 30-odd collections into three separate “evidence-hubs”. With all the government cuts flying around all over the place, it was inevitable that the NHS (and more specifically here, NICE) would join in; however, many fantastic information specialists who I got to know over the 18 months I worked there lost their jobs due to this re-shuffle. Hopefully, everyone has found a new position and is happy.
• I had a period of not working between April 2011 and June 2011, and am not ashamed to say I enjoyed being able to read as much as I could! Although, with the rate that I buy books, my ‘to-read bookshelf’ (it’s too big to be a ‘to-read pile’) is just the same…. I also went on holiday, and complained about the Jobcentre (but that is a WHOLE other topic which I will not even get into!)
• Starting 1st July 2011, I entered the world of archives when I managed to get a part-time position at Lancaster University. I have already started drafting a post relating to my experiences there however, so I will not go on about it here. Suffice to say, it is a whole other world; and as much as I enjoy it, I know I am on the right path with library and information management!

Lastly, coming back to the title of my post… Library school, here I come!

Or; MMU, here I come, as it were.

In a few weeks I commence my MA in Library and Information Management; and to my extreme pleasure, I was awarded the AHRC funding to be able to do so. I am aware of how rare such funding is becoming, and am determined to try my very best this year and do well.

Now, I just need to choose my core option and elective modules!

*Choices, choices…*

 

Library Trainee in Oxford no more…

Well, and that is that. My graduate library traineeship at Oxford University is finished, and it is back t’North for me!

We (me and my boyfriend) will be moving to Lancaster (due to his doing a PhD!!) which I can’t wait for as Lancaster is where we both did our undergraduate degrees, and it is a beautiful, historic city.

I have been asked to continue on with the collection, in the position of Library Assistant which I am extraordinarily pleased about (albeit, working from home rather than in Oxford!) so will be sticking with the collection until the end of March 2011, which is when NHS Evidence is amalgamating all the collections and as such, NHS Evidence – women’s health will cease to exist.

So for now, this blog will remain being called “Library Trainee in Oxford” – at least, until I can think of a better name!