Becoming Permanent

I have recently been made permanent for the first time ever. I am absolutely thrilled, and finally have that thing called “job security” that has alluded me for years*.
My career so far has been a veritable hotchpotch of fixed term positions, interspersed with education. Each stage of my life so far has been working towards a specific goal. Sixth form was two years spent working towards obtaining the IB. University was three years working for my degree (and a job). My year spent as a library assistant was spent trying to gain as much experience as possible prior to my MA, which in turn was spent trying to gain as much knowledge as possible to get back into work.

My first position following the completion of my MA was a fixed term, maternity leave contract. It served me fantastically well (I’m still there!), and following the initial contract period it was extended, then extended again, before becoming permanent. So now what? My brain has been conditioned to working towards the next goal, be that work or education.  How do I motivate myself further?

Thankfully, on one level, that is a really easy question to answer. My role is fantastic, diverse, and I can  become involved in projects that keep me busy. I therefore am able to tick the job satisfaction box that some would say is the first thing that most work towards.

But maybe over time I will feel stuck in one place? Perhaps a bit like those protesters a few years back that stuck themselves to parts of RBS including the trading floor?

I don’t think I will. Not one bit. Firstly, professional development keeps me occupied and gives me a sense of career progression. I am still involved in the SLA Europe Events Committee, and now as part of the board itself. I’m also involved with the SLA Legal Division and with #UKLibChat. Professional involvement is a great way to help skills continue to grow, and to develop alongside your day job.

Bored in the library is not the same as being on a library board.
Picture, “library visitor” by umjanedoan via Flickr CC

Most importantly though, I am able to really knuckle down into projects at work. Prior to becoming permanent, my biggest fear was not having an end point to focus on. I have always used fixed term roles as a way to prove how much I can achieve in a limited time frame, to leave a lasting impression. I had thought that a permanent position would therefore leave me somewhat at a loss.

I’ve realised that this is not true though – I can engage with longer term projects, and become more committed to a wider range of tasks. Appraisals will help me to monitor my progress.

For quite a few years I have jumped around various fixed term contracts; I’m relishing the thought of staying in one place and really getting to know my role inside out. I’ll keep you posted on how I get on.

—

*My first experience to library work in my local public library during sixth form was technically a permanent post, and I was offered at pension at 16, but it was only for 5 hours on a Saturday, so I’m not counting that.

Time management musings

I occasionally find striking a balance between being busy and being swamped a difficult line to tread. Due to the nature of my commitments, as with most peoples’, it is not always possible to control the flow of work that comes in your direction. Sometimes your day job is busier than usual, and sometimes tasks associated with additional commitments take longer to complete than expected. Whilst on holiday, and feeling suitably relaxed, I had a think about why I take on additional tasks, and what I get out of them.

Firstly, I totted up what consumes my time. Obviously, I have my day job,and this takes priority over everything else. After all, that’s why I get paid (and I love the work). Then I have volunteer committee positions. There are four of those. Following that, I have my taekwon-do, which is very dear to my heart and takes up a sizeable chunk of my spare time, both in weekday evenings, and at weekends. Then there is some occasional leisure time (and I also joined the gym recently, but am yet to actually go…).

I have found that when the above are quiet, and there is less going on, I tend to slow down a bit. Tasks that I would usually dispatch swiftly are tackled over a longer time frame. Conversely, when everything gets a bit manic, I find that whilst there is less spare time, I become somewhat more efficient (at least most of the time anyway…). Due to time pressures, I am able to prioritise tasks, and apportion them a more realistic amount of time that is deserved to them. This is not to say that I rush tasks, but merely do not spend longer on them than required.

I was therefore wondering to myself, if I did less, would I achieve more? In theory, I would have more time to devote to each, but according to the above, would I merely take longer to complete a task? I’m not entirely sure. I’d be intrigued to learn how others manage volunteer work and fit it in to their other commitments.

The Trouble With Trying To Compare Library Skills

Having visited a number of libraries across various sectors and compared the various services, provisions and space that they are able to provide, I thought it would be of interest to attempt to produce a matrix diagram of the skills that each needs to ensure success in their sector. My aim was to highlight any key differences between librarians and information professionals across various sectors, and more importantly, highlight the similarities and key criteria that are needed to operate as part of any information service or library.

 

I started to plot the matrix diagram using 5 columns. Four of these columns were for the special, university, national and public sectors. The fifth would contain the skills needed to operate in that sector successfully. Whilst I realise that the four sectors are in no way representative of the many areas that libraries and information services operate in, I wanted only to compare libraries in areas that I had visited to avoid making any presumptions. The initial chart looked as below.

 

	Special	University	National	Public
Cataloguing
Training
Current Awareness
Managing Users
Technical/Coding

 

Once I started to compile the chart, I realised that it was inherently flawed for a number of reasons. The first problem that I encountered was trying to make a list of the skills I witnessed in those libraries. If I wanted to be comprehensive, then the list would end up roughly as long as CILIP’s draft Body of Professional Knowledge. If I were to summarise, then I felt I would be misrepresenting key aspects of the work carried out.

 

The second problem I encountered was how to attribute these skills to the various sectors. Whilst I have visited a lot of libraries, and met a wide range of staff, I have by no means encountered the full range of library and information staff that are present in these organisations. I had agreed with myself that I would only record skills that I had seen when visiting libraries or information units to avoid presumptions. Whilst it felt noble at the time, I realise now that one only really sees a small proportion of what staff do – i.e. the customer facing aspect of a librarian’s role.

 

For instance, when I answer an enquiry at work, the user will only see the manner in which I present myself and the service, and the end product of their query; be that the results of a press search, compiling some research for them, or updating a piece of legislation. They do not see the search strings compiled, the information literacy skills used to work the databases, or the work that has gone into organising our catalogue, and these are only a small proportion of our roles. A user at the enquiry desk will not know the work undertaken in providing training to users, negotiating licenses, compiling current awareness, developing our intranet pages or investigating new technologies to make their roles easier. Other areas of the firm will see these, as we are sure to work with other departments and to promote the work that we do, but that enquiry desk user will not.

 

When I visited other services, I was the equivalent of that enquiry desk user, and that is why it would be wrong of me to compare and contrast the skills of librarians in a table, reducing skills and technical abilities to a tick box. Instead I will continue to learn about other sectors and the work that others do in a more in depth manner – reading blogs, building relationships at networking events or by studying professional publications.

Views on LinkedIn

I have been contemplating the benefits of LinkedIn, and ideal amount of information to upload about yourself. Is it wise to treat your profile like a CV and keep it relatively brief? Or should you take the opportunity to add a bit more information and really explain those achievements? After all, recruiters can search across tags, and if they have looked at your profile, maybe they are more willing to spend a bit longer perusing it as opposed to the quick glance a CV is given amongst a large pile for job applications.

A pile of LinkedIn chocolates, more appetising than a pike of CVs! | "LinkedIn Chocolates" by nan Palmero on Flickr CC

I have also been wondering if there is an “optimum” number of connections to have. Does having too many connections make you look like none of them are particularly valuable? Or does having too few make it appear that you are reluctant to branch out and make new acquaintances?

Of course, the answer to pretty much all of these questions depends on your own personal circumstances and what you are hoping to achieve by being visible on the network. Perhaps it is purely to ensure you are representing yourself, and simply to have a small, professional presence online. Perhaps you are touting for a new job role, or looking to flaunt your skills to others? Personally, as I am new to the profession, I use it as a way to keep track of those who I have met so far (useful for helping me to remember names!), to help build some kind of profile for future job hunting, and as an exercise to force myself to constantly review my skills and update my CV. By publishing information online via my LinkedIn profile where others can see it, I am forced to ensure that it is up to date, and represents my skills as I want others to see them.

For the reasons outlined above, I therefore have my profile locked down, displaying only my current place of work, and a photo. I make a point of trying only to accept LinkedIn invitations from people who I have either met in person, or exchanged emails/correspondence with. I also try to keep connections limited to those who have relevance to my sector or work (Twitter and Facebook will suffice for friends and the rest). Where I have invitations from people who I have heard of and would like to connect with, I still try not to accept until I have actually had some kind of interaction with them, so that when I do “LinkIn” it might have a greater meaning.

The point of this post is to encourgage you to think about what, if anything, you hope to achieve out of maintaining online professional connections, and then tailor your approach accordingly. I’d be intrigued to hear about your approaches, and to have some of my own thoughts challenged!

Sharing ideas

This post will be somewhat brief compared to my usual offerings (it is written on a phone, on a train). Think of it more as a brief musing.

I have just compiled a list of topics that interest me; these will hopefully act as a stimulus to investigate them further. From these topics, I was wondering how many are worth trying to blog on, and how many are simply too straight forward.

A bit of further reflection has convinced me that at the current time, nothing is straight forward. Technology is amending roles such a fast rate that nothing stays the same for very long. Practices established even in the last year or so can be challenged, updated and streamlined.

The point of this is, I think, to not take your ideas for granted, or think that they are obvious and not worth sharing. That should never be true. Putting new thoughts out into the field will help the sector, regardless of if they are implemented or not.

I’ll try and follow this post up with some concrete examples soon. My stop is fast approaching.

Job Hunting

I was recently asked to comment on how I went about job-hunting and securing employment following the end of my MA. Whilst the questions provided for me to answer resulted in what I fear to be an overly chirpy set of responses, it left me thinking about the harsher realities of securing employment.

Job hunting at the moment is tough. It has been for several years now. Whilst I have been fortunate enough to land employment following both my undergrad and postgrad courses, I know many that have had a much harder struggle. We seem to be living in an age of austerity, which sounds to me something like the title of an Eric Hobsbawm text. What I do not think I conveyed whilst talking about employment is that is it is extremely difficult not to become disheartened when an application is rejected (that is if you ever hear back at all), and this can be doubly hard to face following an interview. It can leave one feeling dejected, devoid of energy and down heartened. Generally full of words that begin with ‘D’ (I’d not noticed that before).

Unfortunately, I do not have a remedy for this, or a great revelation at the end of the post that will ensure that this malaise can be overcome, other than to keep going. There are jobs out there to apply for, and if you work hard to make yourself right for the job then that can go a long way in keeping up your spirits and increasing your chances at selection stage.

I wanted to write this post as a general “keep going” to those looking for employment. Hopefully it comes across as a positive message of goodwill. I have also summarised my tips for job hunting from my recent short section in CILIP Update:

- Constantly amend and critique your CV. It may seem like a bore, but even small things such as amending words to tie in with those used in job descriptions can make a difference. Keeping it up to date even whilst you are in employment or not specifically looking for a job can ensure that you capture and note down all of those skills that you have and projects undertaken that may be forgotten about when scrambling together an application at the last minute.

- Make use of recruitment agencies, but do not rely upon them. Imagine them to be like a walking stick, not a full set of crutches.

- Use RSS feeds to keep an eye on a range of sites that you are interested in without having to check them constantly

- Identify skills that you think may be useful for your ideal position, and then work to develop them before that perfect post arises so you are in a better position to apply.

- Don’t always worry about completing all of the desirable criteria perfectly, if something doesn’t quite match, explain any deficiencies and offer something else instead – demonstrate that you really want that job and have something special to bring to it.

- Apply for opportunities that present themselves through professional bodies and apply for bursaries to keep costs down! Use the JISC mailing lists to keep and eye out for things.

- Build a network, either via Twitter, LinkedIn or in person. You can then use your connections to help you job spot and suggest ways you could spruce up your CV. Don’t be shy in asking for help!

23 Years Later… And Still Discussing The Same Problems…

Perhaps you have read this post before? Or maybe something on this blog rings a bell? I wouldn’t be surprised if it did.

At Library Camp in Birmingham several months ago, I tried to encourage those who did not consider themselves to be ‘New Professionals’ to join in debates and discussions with those who did – especially in discussions such as #UKLibChat. My concern was that much of what I blog about, and discuss with my peers has been around for years. The same problems keep cropping up again and again, but as new entrants to the profession rise through the ranks and gain additional responsibilities, their spare time to tackle these problems rapidly diminishes. Many of their ideas therefore perish, or are simply lost into the depths of obscurity. New Professionals pick up on the issues, but from a fresh start, without building on work previously undertaken, and so the circle begins again.

This was partly confirmed to me this week when an old box of journals was returned from storage. Inside the box were numerous copies of the ASLIB Journal way back from 1988-1992. I was shocked and amazed that the capacity to publish journals existed in the Triassic period, but nevertheless, they made for interesting reading.

Yep, there was technology back then too. Photo courtesy of katerha on Flickr CC

My mirth at the many John Major look a-likes was rapidly quelled though when I realised that one of the journal articles was not far removed from one of my own recent posts. Entitled “Information Work: Occupation or Profession?”, it dealt with challenges to the professionalism of information work, and touched on the ‘Information Professional v Librarian’ job title issue. The conclusions reached were almost identical to the many discussions that can be seen all over the place today; we do not let our users know of the skills we possess, nor are we valued as much as we might like to be. There was one slight difference though, less militancy! The ending sentiment was that providing our clients are happy, then “our professional credibility will be beyond reproach” – sadly, credibility does not guarantee the protection of a service or jobs in today’s economy.

What really struck me though, was that the article confirmed with a concrete date of October 1989, how long these issues have been discussed for. They are not new challenges facing New Professionals and taking established workers by surprise – they are been discussed and debated for slightly less than my entire life, and longer than my entire educational life (that’s school, sixth form, 3 years of uni and a postgrad course…). It has left me wondering, if the problems have been discussed and debated for this long with no avail, what difference will it make now? If it has taken approximately 23 years to get to a stage where libraries are facing closure, it doesn’t exactly bode well for the next 23 does it?

And so I left this blog post in situ, feeling rather despondent, until last night when I had a bit of a revelation. I have since added a more upbeat addendum.

There is no need to be in total dismay. Whilst the same issues are still be discussed, a greater amount of action is being put in place alongside these discussions, and their impact is reaching a wider audience. Fantastic groups such as Voices for the Library are raising awareness, and initiatives such as National Libraries Day are starting to get the amount of press that they deserve. Whilst job situations are still grave in most sectors, information professionals are proving themselves a resourceful bunch and finding work in usual non-traditional roles.

And what of the issue surrounding the point on continuing to blog about issues that have been around for a while? Unfortunately for those subscribed to this blog, I have decided that there is a point to continuing to write about age-old issues. It demonstrates that the profession is still critically assessing itself. By voicing these concerns, hopefully further collaboration will be continued between all levels of the information profession, from the brand new ‘new professional’ to the highest upper echelon of management, so that we can learn from each other, preventing either a one way learning process, or a complete disregard for work undertaken previously.

There is also a point to be made for discussing the same issues, but in a different context. 23 years ago, the information landscape as we know it today was completely different. The Internet was but a twinkle in Tim Berners-Lee’s eye. The issues that were discussed had to therefore be relevant in a time where people believed CD-ROMs would still work, even if covered in jam and breakfast foods. The solutions that were discussed were therefore appropriate for that time and place, but are in no way applicable now. The fast changing information world means that these problems need to be addressed again in a new context, a world where Opal Fruits are now universally known as Starburst and Coco Pops and milk now make a bowl full of fun. Changes such as this mean everything needs to be evaluated, again.