Have been doing various chartership activities lately. I am starting to feel more prepared for the writing of the statement and finishing it all off that is imminent.
The other week I shadowed our Systems Librarian for a morning. It was quite interesting to see just how many emails he gets to wade through (I hardly get any emails these days, compared with when I worked in law firms. Not sure whether to feel relieved or unwanted!). I also counted the number of visits in one morning from his manager (5). His main tasks seemed to be troubleshooting various problems relating to campus cards, the catalogue, and dealing with IT issues (he also had a discussion with his boss about who deals with things which fall between IT and Library) and queries from other departments.
I already had a vague idea of what the Systems team do on a day to day basis, as I share an office with them. I still found the shadowing exercise useful though, as it meant he could take the time to explain what he was doing, and why.
On Monday I visited an NHS Library. I was there for about an hour, and the Principal Librarian (who also happens to be my father), gave me a talk about the history of the Library Service, the politics, the users (apparently the biggest user group is student nurses/midwives). I also got a guided tour, and a talk from two other members of staff. It was all very interesting, partly to see what my Dad gets up to every day, and partly from a professional standpoint – seeing the similarities and differences between NHS libraries, university libraries, and law libraries.
All that remains is for me to write up reports about these two activities, and I can include them in my portfolio.
Next up – interviewing the Director of Library and Learning Support Services at my place of work…
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