James and Christine, Research Services Officer and Electronic Services Assistant at the University of Manchester, share their experience of online CPD after James found Christine’s details on our job shadowing list.
James: I contacted CILIP to find out if there were any job training initiatives for early career library workers like myself. I was specifically looking for any opportunities to shadow library workers in other higher education institutions. Without hesitation they directed me to the NLPN, who have a created an extensive national network of library workers generously willing to offer shadowing opportunities. I got in touch with Christine Sweet who is a Research Services Officer and Electronic Services Assistant at the University of Manchester Library who agreed to the job shadowing.
With the global pandemic of Covid 19 and the subsequent lockdown, all shadowing opportunities were cancelled to be fulfilled at a later date. In these unprecedented times, I had been looking at various ways in finding new and creative solutions to maintain CPD. To my surprise, Christine contacted me about the possibility of shadowing her virtually. I gratefully accepted her kind offer and to my knowledge, we embarked upon our first remote job shadowing experience.
I wanted to find out more about Christine’s day to day as I do not have much knowledge of Open Access services. Christine explained some of the intricacies of Open Access and how the research support team facilitate researchers in the publishing process. We went into further detail on how her team provide Gold Open access to researchers. Christine really emphasised the ability to problem solve as it is a concurrent theme in both her positions. In the research services team, they have guidelines to see if publications can be funded and provide advice to researchers on how this can be achieved. Trouble shooting is a common task in the E-resources team such as helping users to access a particular e-journal or solve any URL issues.
As our conversations flowed we began speaking about career development and I found out that Christine recently became a Chartered Librarian. I’m glad this came up as I see Chartership as a key milestone to achieve in my own CPD. Christine explained that the whole experience provides an excellent opportunity to develop key skills in areas that you are interested in, as well as attending events and training courses. It now doesn’t seem as daunting!
I was very curious to see how Christine’s job had been affected by physical closure of the library. In fact, I discovered that both of her roles can be done from home and that this period has been quite busy. A big reason for this is that some readers are using the e-resources for the first time with the team providing one to one support to facilitate this experience. It was very interesting to find out how the libraries at the University of Manchester have adapted and transformed their library services. We had further compelling conversations about the future of libraries and how this pandemic has challenged the structures of traditional library work.
As an early career library worker, this virtual job shadowing allowed me to gain excellent insights into the life of a Research Support Officer and an Electronic Resources Assistant. I am so grateful that Christine reached out and illustrated how library workers are managing to overcome the physical barriers of the lockdown.
Christine: I have hosted three work shadowing placements through NLPN but this was my first virtual session. I’m aware that due to the current restrictions a lot of library placements been cancelled so it is even more challenging than usual to gain insight into different roles in the sector therefore I was really pleased that we found a way to facilitate the session during lockdown.
Our discussions covered my role within the library. I have a split role and work as both an Electronic Resources Assistant and a Research Services Officer so I was able to provide James with an overview of the day to day activities involved in both roles. I have been working from home since lockdown began in March and we discussed the impact this had had on my library service and my workload. Both teams I work in have been busier than usual but thanks to our IT set-up I have been able to carry out my work in the same way as I do usually from our physical library and provide our users with the support they need.
James had a number of questions about the Chartership process, which I was happy to answer as I completed my CILIP Chartership in February. I explained the process and how I had used it to continue my professional development by identifying the skills I wanted to develop and then work towards achieving them in a structured way.
We discussed the range of roles and specialisms available in the library and information sector. Talking to James allowed me to look back on my previous roles and compare the similarities and differences I had noticed whilst working in different sectors ranging from public libraries to Higher Education. It was great meeting James and I wish him all the best in his current and future endeavours.
D.I.Y. Leabharlannaí 