Thing 16

Advocacy, speaking up for the profession and getting published

This thing scares me a little, as it is discussing things I have never really considered before! Through working in a college library it has not been a concern of mine that we need to promote the service in the way that maybe a public library needs to. We should always be needed, and on the whole students want the same things year after year - that mostly being the space to work! At the beginning of the academic year we 'advertise' ourselves to the new students by creating new leaflets, holding sessions on how to use the library and running tours. This year will be different due to all the structural changes to the building, and the addition of self issue machines. We also promote the use of e-resources and create displays of new acquisitions within the ground floor area for visitors and students. Therefore I think the most important thing for us to be doing is showing the students that we are a great place for them to work, and that we do our best to provide all the resources they require for their studies.One way I could potentially help promote our library more would be through social media, as I feel this an area not touched on currently. I just feel unsure about the usefulness of Facebook and other mediums for libraries as I did not use them when I was a student to access information about the libraries. Maybe time will show me how they can be used and how to encourage students/researchers/the public to sign up and follow them.


I am generally quite a quiet person and keep my views to myself, usually being able to see and understand both sides. I frequently read publications relating to libraries, particularly in the public sector and how vital services are being cut to the dismay of many communities. I have never worked in a public library but this is something I would like to look into further, as I feel we are very restricted when only working in a university library, and even more so in just a college library where it's another world really! I have enjoyed attending Cambridge Library Group events where you get a mix of people from various different library backgrounds. We are all catering for such different things.

Publishing is not something I have thought of within the context of working in a library, all the papers I have ever written (not published of course!) are of a more scientific nature. Writing is not something I feel strong at, though I hope over the next couple of years that will improve. This year I wrote a short piece on the history of St John's College and its foundress, Lady Margaret Beaufort, for a similarly named college in Australia, and I thoroughly enjoyed that. But I am not sure this is quite what we are talking about :-).

Thing 7

Real-life networks...

My experience in this area is relatively limited (being relatively new to libraries!) but I am a member of two organisations - CILIP and the Cambridge Library Group. My reasons for joining them both probably stemmed from the fact I believed it would 'look good' to be able say I have interests in my career outside of my day to day work. With CILIP this really remains the case, as I have not used my membership wisely. I guess to me it seems quite terrifying and big! The CILIP website was of great help to me in gaining the position I have today (which they accredit) and I do enjoy flicking through their monthly 'CILIP Update' magazine. As a trainee I paid so little for my membership I guess I haven't felt the need to really get involved, which is definitely not a good thing. Maybe this thing should prod me to investigate a bit more.

The Cambridge Library Group has been of more use to me whilst I have been a trainee, giving me the opportunity to expand on the number of libraries I have visiting. In the past 6 months I have been to the  Archive and Conservation Laboratory at the Sedgwick Museum's Brighton Building, the Radzinowicz Library of Criminology, the Fitzwilliam Museum libraries and the Needham Research Institute all thanks to my membership of this group. I have also spoken to some interesting people working in business and public libraries, and it has given me a chance to meet up with a few of the other trainees on a more regular basis.

I had a little explore of some of the informal organisations listed, beginning with The Library Society of the World. It confused me a little though as all the posts on the front page were rather dated! I had a further explore of the LIS New Professional Network, which as I have already mentioned in Thing 6 I found quite interesting to read what people were discussing, and thought about making my own comments. I also think the downloadable resources are a great idea, and enjoyed looking at 'how to use twitter' and reviews of various LIS master courses (even if it is too late to change my mind now!).

What I would love to find would be an organisation for scientific librarians - reading and getting to know other professionals who are doing something I would be keen to go into would be useful. Maybe it would give me some more ideas of where my career could go.