View from the Hill

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

Maintaining the value of professional qualifications in the midst of recession: CPD25 Development Day pt.3

Thanks to our third guest blogger, HJ McQuarrie from University of Westminster, for this thoughtful contribution on the CPD25 Development Day.

The Career Development Day for Library and Information Assistants organised by CPD25 has become a popular event, making regular appearances in the programme. Having been pipped to the post by other eager assistants last year I was very pleased when I managed to get a place.

The aim of the day was to give paraprofessionals an insight into a variety of careers, to give honest advice on getting your foot in the door, and to arm us with basic skills and ideas that will make our applications and CVs stand out.

The event had the secondary theme of ‘Current trends in Higher Education and the Future of Library Services’ to prepare us for very competitive application processes. Information workers have been hit hard in the recession. As we are often found working quietly within large organisations our work can be mistakenly seen as a ‘back room process’ just waiting to be trimmed down. Public libraries in particular have been hit hard, and academic libraries are currently undergoing a drastic makeover aimed at increasing efficiency.

For paraprofessionals, the decision to pursue professional qualification and move up the career ladder is one that must now be made in light of these changes. The job we had once hoped for may no longer exist in the form we had known it. The landscape of the information world is changing – are we prepared?

The day’s speakers came from a variety of backgrounds and had experienced qualifying and job hunting during this increasingly precarious climate. Their stories contained valuable lessons and warnings, but also great success and job satisfaction.

Our first speaker, Robert Hall, is Director of Library Services at Kings College London. Having previously worked at Southbank University he was able to describe the effect of rising tuition fees on students’ expectations of university services and how our roles are changing to reflect their changing needs and demands. Information workers in HE have been adapting their services to accommodate new learning and teaching practises - including VLE (e.g. Blackboard) and distance learning – and as our departments restructure, the librarian jobs that we have been aspiring to have changed too. Robert Hall’s lead presentation set the tone for the day perfectly by rationalising the changes.

Our second speaker, Karyn Stuckey, is a Special Collections Archivist for the architects, Foster and Partners. She gave insight to information work in the private sector, where the roles can be slightly more unusual and defined differently from the public sector. She suggested that this can be because private companies may not have a longstanding dedication to record keeping in the way that some traditionalist information workers can do! Stuckey’s work history was varied and interesting, comprised of both permanent positions in reputable archives and temporary project posts. Her story contained lessons for all of us who are faced with a tough jobs market and the possibility of temporary employment and slightly unorthodox positions.

The third speaker, Helen Williamson, had been working at the Horniman Museum since qualifying, first as a library assistant and now as the librarian. The recession hit during her studies and finding work in the museum sector became difficult. She fought a long and difficult battle to promote the library within the museum, organising educational visits and contributing material to exhibitions. She also came to compromises with practical changes in the library to save money, such as restricting public access. Williamson’s story was a fantastic example of why it is important for information workers to constantly promote the worth and relevance of our profession during a difficult economic climate.

Our final speaker was a current Information Science student, David Pearson, who spoke about his experience of balancing part-time study with full-time work. Pearson spoke in depth about the benefits of the course to his current work in SOAS library and why now feels that the qualification is a valuable one – an opinion he admits he did not have during his 10 years of paraprofessional work at SOAS.

The morning’s speakers were followed in the afternoon by a far more practical few hours with Donald Lickley from Sue Hill Recruitment. With two decades of experience working in libraries and another 10 years of HR and recruitment support for information workers he was well-equipped to speak with us about expanding our skill sets, job applications, CVs, and interviews. The afternoon was lively as attendees took on the advice from the morning’s speakers and considered the possible routes that Lickley’s advice could take them on.

The entire event was definitely a useful one to attend. Many paraprofessionals find themselves in assistant roles for years as they save money for tuition fees. Indeed there were some of us in the room that had begun to feel like it might just not be worth it. However the success of this event was in its anecdotal approach. The speakers, from their range of backgrounds and in their wonderful range of jobs, inspired many of us once again and reminded us why we wanted to become information professionals. They all proved through their stories that with ingenuity, open-mindedness, and determination, it is possible to enjoy working in the profession despite the murky economic climate.

- HJ McQuarrie

The Language of Leadership

The practical challenges of leadership in times of change came to the fore at this week’s Sue Hill Breakfast.  On one side of the table we had a manager who is facing the prospect of the loss of decades of knowledge and experience during a current redundancy programme.  On the other, one who is charged with reinventing a once-thriving information service that has had no direct senior management for a significant length of time. 

The first is in the ironic position of having actively encouraged the team to develop their skills and competencies over the years with the direct objective of feeling able to move on.  The other has to reguide an independent workforce back into delivering a service in line with organisational rather than individual imperatives. 

Both must maintain morale and direction, as well as service continuity, and ensure that their teams understand and embrace the need for change.

A number of wry smiles were raised at the question of whether restructuring and severance programmes were being conducted on a truly strategic and sustainable basis, or simply on the basis of headcounts and political expediency.  Regardless of local politics, it was acknowledged that the key to successful staff leadership in times of radical change and crisis is clear, honest and frank communication.  Where staff are properly informed in a timely and truly transparent manner, the equally damaging processes of worst-case-scenario rumour mills, or heads-down-it’ll-never-happen-here can both be avoided.  Whether HR departments, with their litigation-wary circumlocutions, always support this frank and fearless approach to communication can be debated endlessly.

Do organisations learn during these processes, or does so much know-how and expertise walk out of the door that every procedure and programme has to be reinvented and revisited for each generation?  Cases in point include some professional services firms whose outsourcing programmes resemble a merry-go-round: units outsourced then brought back in house for failing to deliver either service or efficiencies. Another breakfaster reflected on the schadenfreude of finding their own redundancy resulting in no less than 5 new staff being taken on in another hemisphere.

However our fellow breakfaster were far from doom and despair.  We also heard of exciting expansion programmes in the wake of regulatory change, and a tantalising mention of innovative new hand-held apps in an unexpected sector.  As our time ran out, I returned to work from Roast energised and wanting to hear more.

- Donald

Loving libraries and telling the world: CPD25 Library Assistants' Day pt.2

Our second guest blogger from last week's CPD25 Development Day is Nicola Cook, Library Assistant at the Wellcome Trust. It's always great to hear that someone is inspired and ready for action from an event like this - take it away Nicola!

I attended CPD25: Career Development Day for Library & Information Assistants for a number of reasons. The main aim was  for a reaffirmed sense of value for the career I had unintentionally embarked upon nearly 7 years ago,  as well as to discover how I can  push myself forwards and progress upwards in a constantly evolving sector.  Unsurprisingly and positively, CPD25 gave me exactly what I’d wanted. Since I graduated in 2010, I must admit I have easily avoided the daunting prospect of thinking about my future. To make the decision to whole-heartedly focus on what I want to be now means that maybe I have finally grown up…

The day was divided into 4 parts. Keynote Speaker Robert Hall began by discussing the current trends in the socio-economy and how they are affecting Higher Education, Universities and academic libraries  as well as how the role of the librarian needs to adapt to these changes.  I was most interested in how the academic library, much like the university itself, is becoming more business-like, increasingly money-driven and associating itself with consumable culture.I don’t think that this is necessarily negative, in fact it ensures the library does not segregate itself from the ‘real world’ and maintains its importance, relevance  and high standards of (customer) service.

The hardest part, for me, was concentrating on taking away the most relevant pieces of information to relate to where I am working now and where I’d like to be in the near future.This  proved to be a little challenging as I work in an academic research library that is not in a university, but instead is part of a research institution and collection, and the latter I’m still unsure of.  Helpfully however, the case study speakers covered the broad spectrum of libraries and information services and I genuinely could learn from the enthusiastic museum librarian Helen Williamson, the unconventional archivist Karyn Stuckey and the self-titled reluctant librarian David Pearson.  David is a  current Masters student and was refreshingly honest about combining study and work.

As  a Library Assistant who has not yet embarked upon a postgraduate professional library qualification (but knows exactly where they would like to study,) it was beneficial to hear of the disparate routes into success in the Information/Library sector.  It was useful to learn of the importance of collaboration, self-evaluation and promotion and utilising the digital technologies employed in libraries to enhance our own careers.  Using the web to document and audit achievements and research, be it with a blog, twitter or even Facebook, is increasingly important as a form of mass communication to reaffirm the importance of libraries, and the skills of the librarian, at a time when their value is being questioned in the public arena.

The day was rounded off with Sue Hill Recruitment consultant Donald Lickley who guided us through our skills, possible careers outside the library walls and advised us on effective CVs, applications and (the dreaded) interviews.  It was participatory and took us out of our comfort zones, but allowed questions to flow and doubts and concerns to be addressed.  SHR was the first agency I signed up to when I moved to London.  Their consultants sourced out part-time work in public libraries for me during university,  as well as for the job that I am working in now.  The emphasis was on selling ourselves, marketing our skills and providing a real approach to applying for jobs in the current economic situation – all of which simply boils down to the basic fundamentals of continuing personal development; working collaboratively, actively engaging in professional networks, seeking out mutually beneficial opportunities exploiting technology and being willing to keep on learning to stay one step ahead.   It is becoming increasingly obvious that a career in the Information sector will continue to be  rewarding just as long as you put in the effort to gain the reward.

Thanks to all of the speakers of CPD25 who have (slightly) diffused my fears of the future and left me loving libraries and wanting to tell the world (wide web) about them…

- Nicola Cook

Should Information tip the scales on the balance sheet?

Our Friday breakfast discussions highlighted the importance of online content strategy being understood and supported by everyone in an organisation, in particular at CEO and board level.  Information, unlike a warehouse full of product or work in progress, is invisible and often not recognised or valued as asset.  In the current climate the easily recognised costs of organised access to information are often being cut (the information managers) thus indirectly adding to the cost of ensuring that those who need it can find and identify the appropriate information.  This becomes even more difficult in a global organisation where the cultures may differ and local management have a differing view.  Corporate memory is an eroded value asset.

Equally having a sound information or online content strategy can bring benefits that outstrip information forced into an IT infrastructure that doesn't always fit the need of the users or the organisation.  One delegate mentioned that the corporate ethos of "make search work" was somewhat at odds with several thousand users developing their own mini libraries on local servers without understanding the need for globalised sharing.  This led another delegate to make the point that in their company people only admit where their information stored is if it appears they may lose it or lose access to it.

Risk is always an issue.  Users expect the keepers to circumvent the rules put in place by IT or even to try and bypass contractual limitations. The security of information in the cloud was seen as uncertain - sanctioned by some employers and feared by others.  Social Media is still blocked in certain types of organisation and consequently people use their own personal devices more and more.  This is something that mobile and home working tends to take advantage off.  Providing accessible access to internal information but encouraging staff to provide their own space, PCs and devices cuts overheads whilst at the same time giving risk management a higher profile as organisations try and balance security, access and reputational management.

Intriguingly cultures differ within the same types of organisations and recent co-operation between public organisations has brought that into perspective.  Of three local authorities moving to shared services one has everything outsourced, directly opposite to another where everything is done in-house whilst the third has a mix of both.  Change needs driving from the top down but you often still need information people to make sense of it.

Above all the ability to make a decision (be it right or wrong) is vital as failure to make decisions invariably causes damage and can stall progress.  In a tracked programme of change, four months of 13 months was attributed to failure to make appropriate decisions.  A valuable aid going forward has been to run risk registers alongside the process thus facilitating better decision making.

Asking delegates present to outline the biggest changes they had seen in the last five years brought forth growing user expectations, outsourcing (justification and value), mobile technologies, ways of working, lack of boundaries, globalisation ideology and keeping up with the pace of technological development and concepts.  The final comment brought a wry smile from all those present; "SharePoint is not the answer!"

Sue H

Career Development at the Coalface: CPD25 Library Assistants' Day pt.1

I thought I was being a bit cheeky when I asked for a guest blogger from the CPD25 Career Development Day last week, so I was bowled over when no fewer than six people came forward!  We'll be blogging all of their versions of the event as they come in.  Adam Ray, Library Assistant at the Foyle Special Collections Library, King's College London was first past the post with his contribution, so over to you Adam.

Twenty-five enthusiastic Library Assistants from Higher Education institutions across the south-east gathered at Birkbeck College for a Career Development Day on Thursday 16^th February 2012.

A range of speakers introduced topics and responded to the questions of delegates, some of whom had completed a professional qualification in library science, and some of whom were considering attending library school in the future.

The keynote speaker, Robert Hall, Director of Library Services at King’s College London, introduced the day with a talk addressing the role of the librarian within current trends in higher education. These included how librarians’ roles are becoming more mobile and responsive: instead of a student having to come to a defined area of the library to have their query addressed, librarians now move around a building (in a process known as roving) and proactively seek to answer customer questions, thus improving the student experience and perceptions of service within the library.

Also on the agenda was the move towards a student centred hub within libraries – an area not restricted by dealing with only one kind of enquiry but somewhere that students can go to ask questions of staff relating to wider issues of being a student, such as fees and funding, or obtaining relevant documentation. Within this new varied environment there is, of course, still the facility to speak to a subject specialist, study alone or within a modernized group study area.

The need for collaboration between higher education institutions, in for example, procurement initiatives was also addressed. Librarians, particularly in these tough economic times were encouraged to behave with business acumen.

Karyn Stuckey addressed the delegates in regard to her work as a Special Collections Archivist at the renowned architects, Foster and Partners. Necessarily more secure than a traditional library archive (due to the need to protect intellectual property and to protect the security of some of the famous buildings they have designed) her work within this corporate environment sounded both fascinating and challenging. Karyn dealt with the digital preservation of architectural plans and also had to gently encourage her fellow staff from outside the archive to be gentle with some of the physical items she looked after and provided for them!

Helen Williamson detailed her dramatic and exciting rise from Library Assistant to Librarian at the Horniman Museum. Threatened with redundancy, she embraced the challenge of promoting the library in difficult times by making her colleagues aware of the material it housed and the advantages of using the library. She had succeeded in both heightening the profile of the library within the museum (books were now being displayed in the exhibitions) and if her positive and enthusiastic presentation was anything to go by, the library was in great hands for the future!

The experience of David Pearson, Subject Librarian at SOAS and currently in his second year of an MSc in Library Science at City University surely encouraged the prospective library school delegates in the audience to undertake such study. He detailed how he was tailoring his study to fit his workplace role – to the benefit of both; and that, although he had to carefully manage the time he devoted to study, he was very much enjoying the intellectual challenge.

Michael Martin, Adviser for Qualifications and Professional Development at CILIP further emphasised the value of a professional qualification and how a Chartership qualification could also be an asset to library professionals. He explained how CILIP membership benefitted members in terms of providing continuing professional development, networking opportunities and also allowed the organization to effectively represent library and information professionals effectively.

Delegates, having listened attentively to the speakers, were now encouraged into action by Donald Lickley of Sue Hill Recruitment. The roles and skills of delegates were discussed, and this led into discussions of how these experiences and proficiencies could effectively be sold to prospective employers. He encouraged delegates to be aware of the diverse range of opportunities open to information professionals, even within these economically straitened times. Valuable information was imparted as to where to look for these vacancies (as well as Sue Hill Recruitment!) that ranged from Football Researcher to Execution Manager(!) and how to give oneself the best chance of success, in terms of honing the contents of an application form and handling oneself at interview.

An informative and useful day was had by all. With thanks to the CPD25 staff for their hosting and setting up of the event.

- Adam Ray

Work Experience - good for all

For the last two weeks we have had the pleasure of two students from local schools, undergoing work experience. Eamon is 15 at a local school and Hawa is 17 and studying at a nearby college. The timing was fortuitous as they started at the same time as our new Administrator, Shelley (who is 18 and who I found handing out her CV in a local bookshop - never one to miss an opportunity I pounced and brought her back to the office for an interview and she joined us the following week).

Eamon and Hawa have been a delight to have, they have sat in turn with each member of the SHR team understudying and sometimes doing their work with them. They have restored my faith in the education system as both are numerate (essential when checking piles of temporary worker timesheets) and also articulate. They have both impressed Gary our accountant with their intelligent questions about accounts and quickly picked up the essentials of Records Management - I think they know more than me about retention scheduling now.

It takes time to put a work schedule together for them, and then more time to sit with them and explain our work processes but the team here have been happy to share an insight into work in a busy SME, which I think has benefited them as well as Hawa and Eamon. 

In all our years of having work experience students from local schools and colleges we have never been disappointed. In fact one of our work experience students came back here and worked for seven years. He is now a Senior Credit Controller for an investment bank and another (Karen) who joined us straight from school, is a mother and works part-time for us in our payroll and credit department.

Yam Jam at breakfast - more than just toast and jam

Some interesting words reverberated around the lively agenda-setting session at the breakfast table at Roast on Thursday morning for the first SHR networking breakfast of 2012.  Strategic review was swiftly followed by strategy, business objectives and restructuring; budgets, economy, offsite and time fitted nicely with volume; intranets and wikis; and last but not least governance, reliability and compliance.

 One can be confident that 12 people working in strategic information roles will have something to say.  Those present represented all the facets of information not just sectorally but also nationally and globally

 It was exciting to hear of different organisations' views and usage of the myriad of communication channels.  Not all firms are fast movers and adopters and it seems that IT still hold the reins and are hesitant to condone organisation wide of tweeting, yammer, wikis and more.  Yammer implemented firm wide but working outside of the fire-wall raised eyebrows and certainly was of great concern to IT and we were greatly amused by the idea of a Yam Jam.  The need to drive IT to manage cultural shift away from fear of sharing was high in everyone’s minds.  At least one person found it frustrating and pointed out the difficulties in not being the owners of our destiny and thus needing to take a place in the IT queue which placed CRM ahead of KM.  We needed more time to talk about wikis vs intranets vs web but I heard enough to think I could find a use for an internal team wiki.

 I confess I came straight back to work and checked out http://digbig.com/5bfnkn a great blog by Austin Hunter on how he as a non social media user was able to use Yam Jamming as a way to discuss business priorities. 

Concern about corporate memory and impact of its loss came to the fore.  (Is corporate memory becoming an eroded value asset?)  So too did the mix in old business values re new highly mobile bright social media communicators.  This works well when we can ensure diversity in attitudes to work and life balance and boundaries. It’s good when oldies can understand young folks’ need to publicise all they do, and young ones understanding oldies need for boundaries between work and personal life in return!   

We all felt strategic reviews were happening more frequently and not always with good reason.  They shouldn’t’ be driven by panic.  Some felt them hard to endure and wondered what the end game was but others had found them positive and resulting in the creation of exciting new opportunities, directions and ways of working.

Our delicious breakfast (eggs benedict, full veggie borough, boiled eggs with marmite soldiers and more) nourished us for the day and also nourished our minds.

What time is PIMS o'clock?

Most recently it was Friday 4 November at 2pm.  This is when the Property Information Management Society (PIMS) last met for their regular group networking event.

After tea and coffee in the offices of EGI the workshop started off with a presentation from Susie Kay on Professionalism.  This was a stimulating talk (no mean feat on a Friday afternoon) which asked the question, what is professionalism?  It is fair to say that everyone went away with more than a few useful ideas to implement not only at work but also in our personal lives.

Afterwards I spoke about how to approach career direction, recognising your skills and the ever popular topic of CVs and interviews.

This was followed up with refreshments and nibbles as well as some interesting conversations about part time working, professional membership groups and animal husbandry no less.

Thank you to PIMS for inviting me to speak, an interesting and thoroughly enjoyable way to finish the week.

- Jeremy

Breakfast cures industry hangover

Decisions and development (or lack thereof) were the order of the day at today's SHR breakfast at Roast. Having collectively decided not to allow the "Murdoch Pause" for fear of running out of time, we discussed how the workforce will adopt differing ways of completing work.

Senior management came up several times - from keeping them engaged and ensuring their buy-in to the difficulty of knowing that their focus is always financial so you have very little chance of getting anything on the agenda. Is it true that finances are driving information/records/knowledge programmes rather than strategy? There's a sense that people are meeting the immediate need rather than addressing the long-term strategy meaning the the level of effectiveness is never improved.

Cuts, change and, subsequently, some resistance have fuelled a sense of frustration and low morale and one term that reflected the whole situation is that they have a 'hangover' - in many cases self inflicted, painful but with the knowledge that it will, ultimately, get better. The realisation that this has happened before means that there is awareness of the cyclical nature of events. Cutbacks also mean different ways of working, for example using social media. This, in turn, has massive reputational risk - can we see this as a challenge to our profession to raise its game? We discussed examples of other departments who make the most of their confidence by promoting their services internally and externally. Conversely, we talked about examples of people who don't want to be seen to make a decision, even though approval has been given, as they are afraid any deviation from the original plan will be looked upon negatively. We should use our expertise and be decisive whether others aren't. Sue Edgar quoted a former colleague who said "it is easier to seek forgiveness than to ask permission".

I'll conclude on the subject of responsibility. It was quite apparent at yesterday's Select Committee hearing that no-one, specifically the Murdochs, wants to take responsibility for something that has clearly gone wrong. We discussed at length how we must understand personally and professionally what it means to take responsibility and to act upon it rather than sit back, deflect blame and give one word answers.

- Suzanne