View from the Hill

CILIP Merger: From CoFHE and UC&R to ARLG

Last week I was at the first joint London event run by ARLG, CILIP’s newly-formed Academic & Research Libraries Group. The group has been created by a merger between CoFHE and UC&R (respectively Colleges of Further & Higher Education, and University, College and Research).

The evening was kicked off by Anne Rowlands, co-Chair of the national ARLG committee and Annie Mauger, Chief Executive of CILIP, who introduced the background to the merger. Anne outlined the increasing overlap between the two groups, particularly now that Colleges are being given the opportunity to offer foundation degrees. She also sketched out the ongoing merger process and the next steps in consolidating the committee and regional groups.

Annie covered the wider CILIP context. Observing that the ARLG is now the largest group in CILIP and represents the largest membership cohort, she praised both CoFHE and UC&R for recognising their productive synergies, and being the pilot for future mergers and consolidation.

The remainder of the evening consisted of two lightning talks highlighting examples of success stories from both the FE and HE sector. The intention of combining cross-sectoral talks is to introduce the audience to diverse issues with common areas of interest.

Genevieve Clarke from the Reading Agency and Stephen Wickens from Westminster Kingsway College jointly showcased the success of The Reading Agency’s Six Book Challenge with a group of the College’s ESOL students. Ella Mitchell from the University of East London (UEL) closed the evening with her presentation on the award-winning UEL Info Skills website which supports undergraduates through identifying, finding, evaluating and referencing information.

As a pilot or launch event, attendance could have been a little higher. However I sense the newly-merged ARLG is still finding its feet. If only from the evidence of the evening’s speakers, and similar UC&R events over the last couple of years, the HE/FE sectors are leading the way in innovation and creativity in the information profession, and their activities should be followed closely by their colleagues in other sectors. I look forward to seeing the ARLG programme of events over the rest of the year. 

- Donald

The Future is Bright, the Future is...

I was back at the Royal Society of Chemistry in Burlington House yesterday to take part in the Chemical Information And Computer Application Group's (CICAG) event about the future of the chemical information profession. In the beautiful Science Room, the delegates sat at round tables which allowed for lots of interesting discussion after each session.

Dr Sandra Ward started the day in style giving us her Long View of the chemical (& wider) information world. The two best things I'll take from listening to Sandra are her framework for valuing a service and the wonderful phrase "optimistic curiosity" - in Sandra's words, a key skill of the information professional. She also got us thinking about what opportunities there are in your organisation. On our table we looked at the small opportunities that we could facilitate for our own development.

Next up was me. I was invited by Stephanie North to give the recruiter's view of the market. My theme was Maximising Your Impact. I'm very grateful to everyone attending for throwing themselves whole-heartedly into all the group exercises. It's a good thing for a facilitator to have trouble breaking through meaningful discussions!

After a delicious lunch and a thwarted attempt to get some fresh air (the air was a little too moist for my liking), we heard from Pam Toplis who spoke about setting up as an independent information specialist.

Our last speaker was Joanne Thomson (@chemicalscience) who talked us through the RSC's publishing pipeline, from acquisition to delivery. Not only was I impressed by the breadth & depth of their output, but it was fascinating to hear Joanne describe their processes and the expertise of the team. One stat that stood out for me was that ChemComm journal rejects 60-70% of their manuscript submissions. It feeds into Joanne's point that good usage stats on their products = better sales = more content submission = good usage... you see how this works! I really liked one of her closing slides which asked "what makes our people succeed?" The answer is "a shared vision". She's right - having a diverse team with differing experiences is wonderful but you need to work for the same goal.

Stephanie North chaired the meeting and asked us to finish up by completing the ... in the title of the event. The theme of discussion on our table during the day had been personal development - we comprised a PhD student, a first professional post subject librarian & a many-years-in-the-job subject librarian and also someone about to set up their own business. How did we finish it? Well, what is an info pro if not curious? And I am determinedly optimistic, so...

The future is bright, the future is ours to shape.

- Suzanne (@suzyredrec)

Internships - an open request

A few years ago we had the pleasure of hosting a couple of international library science students for a summer work placement – one of these students, Hanna Rehm, is now studying for a Masters degree and is back in the market for internships along with one of her fellow students. As this week’s guest blog we are publishing their open request for an internship in the hopes that you, our glamorous readers, might know of some projects in need of intelligent, able and hard-working interns!

We are two students of the Master’s Degree Programme Information Science and Services at Hamburg University of Applied Sciences. The focus of this Master of Arts is to deepen knowledge in the area of library sciences, media and information brokering, information and knowledge management, international communication and media sciences as well as information and media economics. Due to the international orientation of our Master’s Degree Programme, it is of particular importance for us to get to know the information sector in an English-speaking country, especially in Great Britain.

In winter semester 2012, we have to accomplish a research based internship in teams of two which includes the realization of a project. Our task is to plan and arrange the project independently. We are able to choose any research question to be analysed in our project from the complete range of topics of the information area. Nevertheless, we would also happily embrace any suggestions concerning topics which would fulfill the certain needs of your organization. The successful completion of the project includes the analysis of a complex research question, structuring and solution-driven handling of a certain problem and a final documented presentation of the results.

We are available from the beginning of October 2012 until the end of January 2013. The internship should last about 4 months; this is not a strict requirement as the exact period of time is flexible.

If we have caught your attention or your interest, we would happily send you our application documents. We look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely,

Dorothee Böhringer and Hanna Rehm

If you think you might have a suitable project or internship, Hanna can be contacted at Hanna.Rehm@gmx.net

Thank you

- Gemma

Careers and CPD Talks at Liverpool University

I spent a great (and surprisingly sunny) afternoon yesterday, over at Liverpool University.

Margaret Proctor – Academic Lead for Archives and Records Management organised a careers development workshop for this year’s MARM students and I was invited to present a Talk.  I focused on the Archives and Records Management industry, as well as providing advice and guidance to the students about how to market themselves on a CV, as well as at interview stage.

I also had the pleasure of meeting Louise Williams and Kate Jarman.

Louise has an incredibly interesting role and works as the Project Archivist at the Centre for the Study of World Christianity at Edinburgh University.  She is also the Communications Officer for the Archives and Records Association.  Louise’s talk was introducing the students to the Society and highlighting the work of the New Professionals Group.  She also explained that the Group is keen to engage with professionals outside of London and they will be running a Summer Seminar on the 17^th August at the NW Film Archives and John Ryland’s Library in Manchester.

Likewise, Kate (a previous Liverpool graduate) has been involved in the Society since taking on her first professional post at Brent.  Kate was able to provide firsthand experience of the ARA registration and mentoring scheme and also explained the benefits of CPD.

In addition, the need to ‘network’ with industry peers proved to be topical and was emphasised in all three talks.

For many years my grandparents lived in Rodney Street just around the corner from the School of History on Abercromby Square and I always enjoy visiting this part of Liverpool.  There was also a great turnout of twenty students, who enjoyed the talks and got themselves involved and asking lots of questions about the industry and current job prospects, so a mutually beneficial and enjoyable meeting.

Books? Why bother? Anne Welsh at LIKE35

Anne Welsh’s presentation at LIKE35 last night was an author’s view of book publishing. Her opening gambit was why bother to try writing a book in the digital age, when so many other possibilities are available for making your ideas public. As a professional cataloguer, her next question was why write a niche book on a niche professional area particularly when, as a friend of hers pointed out, the entire career structure of the stereotypical cataloguer is based on being completely ignored by everyone.  Anne succeeded in answering all these questions in a highly entertaining and absorbing manner, and against all my instincts I found myself quite disappointed not to have won a copy of her new book Practical Cataloguing: AACR, RDA and MARC21 (Facet Publishing, March 2012) in the raffle at the end.

Practical Cataloguing co-authored with Sue Batley has been written at a time of transition in international cataloguing.  It aims to provide cataloguers and students with a background in general cataloguing principles, the current code (AACR2) and format (MARC 21) and the new Resource Description and Access standard (RDA). It also aims to provide library managers with an up-to-date overview of the development of RDA in order to equip them to make the transition. 

As an academic (she teaches cataloguing and historical bibliography at UCL Department of Information Studies) Anne has a vested interest in getting her work formally published – both her career progression and the future of her department depend upon an accredited publication stream. Moreover, as those involved in Information Literacy teaching will know, anyone approaching academic/professional research must be aware of the hierarchies and cycles of publishing: books and peer-reviewed articles, with their extended publishing gestation periods have the intellectual authority that more ephemeral media lack. 

Anne has nonetheless written the book with a strategic eye on her audience and her professional community – and this is one of the lessons she had for aspiring authors. She is quite clear that she intends this to become the standard UK textbook in this field, picking up where John Bowman’s Practical Cataloguing left off, and advance orders indicate that it will be taken up widely in teaching and professional practice.

Anne was also keen to address the issue of printed versus digital media.  There is some evidence that undergraduates may still regard printed books as more authoritative than their Kindled equivalents, although portability is one of many factors steering them towards e-formats. Professional textbooks in particular are nonetheless an obvious choice for digital production, the importance of versioning for practitioners being one of many benefits.

This all makes dry work of what was an extremely engaging talk at the Crown Tavern. I still have slightly alarming memories of Tuesday morning Cat.&Class. seminars at UCL in the early 1990s with the McIlwaines. Anne Welsh blows the cobwebs off the subject and makes us laugh in the process – no mean feat.

- Donald.

Successful networking: A case study

We are delighted to introduce this post by Lena Roland, another of our guest bloggers, who shows us how to make the most of a networking opportunity:

I recently attended a Sue Hill Breakfast Briefing at Roast. Over a breakfast of egg and Marmite soldiers a group of 12 Information Professionals discussed some of the pertinent issues facing our profession such as data security and that old chestnut: adding value.

Above and beyond this lively and relevant discussion I surreptitiously took my seat next to a Research Specialist in the legal sector.

Having swapped business cards I later made contact with Lisa via LinkedIn. I explained that I was keen to apply my information and research expertise in other sectors, particularly the legal sector. I went on to explain that although armed with a recently acquired MSc qualification thus far I have been unable to secure an interview as a legal researcher. A lack of knowledge of the specialist legal databases such as Westlaw was my barrier to entry. Although frustrating, it is also an understandable situation.

Quite simply I asked Lisa for her advice and guidance. Perhaps she might know of any contacts who may be looking for a temp? Much to my surprise (and delight) Lisa kindly suggested I do unpaid work experience in their department for a few days. This was more than I expected and of course I did not hesitate to seize the opportunity that was presented to me. Not only did this experience enable me to gain experience of the key databases, I also developed an understanding of the legal terminology as well as the types of information required by the fee earners. It was also helpful to get a feel for the law firm culture.

In return I was able to advise the team on some major, yet often obscure sources of free business intelligence. In my experience it is often this type of data that can make the difference to winning a new business pitch or not. Delivering unique insight can make a company stand out from its competitors by looking beyond the obvious.

I now feel more confident to apply for work in a law firm. I'm by no means an expert, but I certainly have a good understanding of the databases, and I hope by doing voluntary work I have shown good enthusiasm for the sector.

All in all, it was a mutually beneficial experience. I was genuinely touched by my fellow information professionals' willingness to help me advance my knowledge of another sector, and everyone in the team made me feel very welcome. It just goes to show what can happen from attending these events, by seizing an opportunity, and of course by being fortunate enough to meet generous and open people. I hope one day I will do the same for someone else!

- Lena Roland can be found on Twitter @rolandreckons

Introducing Oliver The Librarian and Lucinda Squid

Something fun for Friday!

I have a confession.  I am a little addicted to the online craft community of Etsy.com

Any craft, cat or squid loving librarians out there will appreciate my recent discoveries on Etsy.

Oliver The Librarian

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Apparently Oliver loves to role play and wear different outfits.  Here he is as a librarian, looking very studious with his books and very stylish 'smarticles', and wait for it ...

Lucinda The Squid

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lucinda Squid loves her books and she also loves pottering around her library shushing noisy patrons.

No cats or squids were harmed in the making of this blog post, and although I do not endorse dressing up your own pet cats or squids, these two did make me smile!    

Taking the plunge: ARLIS at the National Gallery pt.2

Our second guest blogger from the ARLIS Taking the Plunge event on Saturday 3rd March is Jen Smith. Jen is a student on the MSc in Electronic & Digital Library Management at the University of Sheffield.

 

On a drizzly Saturday morning, a group of working and would-be librarians gathered in The National Gallery in Trafalgar Square to test the waters at “Taking the Plunge: Art Librarianship as a Career Option”. We heard from a diverse range of people at all stages of their careers, and while everyone agreed that the job market isn't as vibrant as it could be, there's no shortage of options for (pre)professional development.

Our first speaker was Richard Daniels, Senior Archivist at the University of the Arts, London. Although he summed up his job as “looking after older stuff and getting it out for younger people”, the rest of his presentation proved to be a little more complicated than that.

Next, Natasha Held, Learning Resources Manager and Librarian at Christie's Education London shared with us the challenges and rewards of working as a nearly-solo librarian in a private institution. Held interacts with global stakeholders on a regular basis: Christie’s in both London and New York, the University of Glasgow (their accrediting body), the tutors, and—of course—the students.

Sarah Maule took us on a whirlwind tour of her career from volunteer cataloguer at Sheffield Hallam University to Library Services Manager at Ravensbourne, a London design college. In addition to a string of library jobs, a SCONUL placement, and an M.A. in LIS, Maule also used social media to keep herself up-to-date and to network. Maule cited Twitter as her most helpful career tool, and she encouraged us all to develop our online presences to make sure that our prospective employers find us interesting when they Google us.

Sarah Currant, Reader Services Librarian at the British Film Institute, also studied in Sheffield, and her path to the BFI had twists and turns of its own. Currant announced the end of the paid membership scheme for the BFI, proudly declaring, “We’re free, which is the dream of all libraries”.

From the other side of the employment table, Donald Lickley brought us a wealth of experience from Sue Hill Recruitment. He reiterated Sarah Maule’s exhortation to use social media to our advantage. Lickley also reviewed the standard rules of CV preparation (identify your skills, list your accomplishments in reverse chronological order, use bullet points, and proofread, proofread, proofread before submission!).

Joseph Ripp, Librarian at the National Portrait Gallery, rounded out the day’s structured sessions with practical advice for applications and interviews. The applicant’s work doesn’t end with securing an interview: it’s essential not only to keep yourself informed about the industry as a whole, but also to research the institution you want to work for so you can make intelligent, enthusiastic responses to their questions and demonstrate that you’re the ideal candidate.

One of the highlights of the day was Elspeth Hector’s tour of the library of the National Gallery. After letting us leaf through treasures such as the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili and the original card catalogue, which was constructed by cutting out pages from the first list of Sir Charles Eastlake, Hector led us to the elegantly designed slide library and told us the sad tale of its impending demise.

Budget cuts and hiring restrictions across the sector can be disheartening, but as Ripp said at the beginning of his presentation, with “a bit of luck and a lot of applications”, we’ll find the right jobs.

  (This article is also being published by ARLIS in a slightly different form.)

 - Jen Smith, University of Sheffield

Upside-down-bottom-bit-of-a-Dalek

As it's the first day of the school holidays, we are delighted to have a blog written by Ben, aged 12, the younger son of our very own Anne Williams. Thanks, Ben! 

Canada Water Library, Southwark’s latest, is situated next to Canada Water and the Underground, Overground and Bus stations. It is also adjacent to Decathlon and opposite Surrey Quays shopping centre.   

We arrived on the Overground and walked out through the conveniently placed exit next to the library. We wandered into the upside-down-bottom-bit-of-a-Dalek-shaped building. On the left was the cafe, and on the right the spiral shaped staircase which led up to the main library. Next, we scanned our audio books using the scanning thing and put them in the bin. After that event, we climbed up into the main library. It is a big room covered in new bookshelves which were, in turn, covered with brand new books. Also, computers were lined up in rows. From the windows you could see through to Surrey Quays. After locating the books we wanted to borrow, we did just that at the counter by the children’s section. We got some audio books which we have listened to.  We then left to go home.

The library has a wide range of new books and audio books which Peckham and Dulwich libraries (where I normally go) don’t have, and that is why I prefer Canada Water.

 - Ben

One man's rubbish

My husband needs a Kindle and just will not entertain the idea of this piece of technology at all.  This is the man who has been collecting rare jazz and soul vinyl records for the past thirty years.  Ironically he does work in our industry and is a Records Manager - in more ways than one! 

Each time we move home we seem to have more boxes of books and records than we do of furniture.

I believe this is an installation from a few years ago but the photo recently caught m

 

y eye whilst trawling the internet.  At last I know how to put some of his books to an alternative use.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Artist Alicia Martin's tornado of books shoot out a window like a burst of water from a giant hose.

The Spain-based artist's sculptural installation was based at Casa de America, Madrid and depicted a cavalcade of books streaming out of the side of a building. The whirlwind of literature defied gravity and drew attention with its grandeur and size. There had been three site-specific installations, of the massive sculptural works in the series known as Biografias, translated as Biographies, that each featured approximately 5,000 books sprawled out around and atop one another.

Martin's giant book structures gave life to the inanimate objects filled with knowledge. By constructing the curving towers with a rather free and disheveled exterior, while maintaining a sturdy core, the books' loose pages are free to blow and rustle in the wind, allowing the piece to be further animated. 

I wonder if she needs any more books for a future display ...    

- Keri