Working across Multi-sites

This is a subject that has been on my mind recently as over the last couple of weeks I ahve been based only at one site. As it is I usually only work at one of our other sites one day a week due to staffing. Perosnally I think it is useful to work across at all sites as it give an interesting variation to the job with the different tasks that need to be carried out at each of the site and the type of visitors you get at the different libraries. I also think it is a good opportunity to work with, and as a result get to know your colleagues. Currently due to the way we work there a members of my team I only see for half an hour at our team meetings or for half  day when I'm at the other site.

I do enjoy being at thie site I work at mostly and I have a good gauge of the staff and students and therefore how to approach them if necesary, this is likely due to the fact that I am here for three days in a row at the begining of the week. On the other hand my time at our other site is much busier when I'm on the counter and there ore lots of tasks that need doing all the time and as a result the time flies by.

we do have a third site that is due to expand and I haven't had the opportunity to visit it as yet due to travel difficulties but would like to do so in the near future.

I think for good communication nd an understanding for other peoples job roles it is essential when workng at a multi-site Library that the team makes the most of the opportunity to work at all sites.

Stock take - The aftermath

I blogged before Christmas that I had done my first ever library stock take. Well for most of January I have been working through the data produced from this and trying to tidy-up our records so that our catalogue actually reflects our stock.

Thie first stage of this was to locate books that came up as "no accession" these are books that I scanned during the stock take (and are therefore on the shelves) but have no catalogue record. Secondly I had to check/ change the status and location of many of the books. I managed to work my way through this list of books quite quickly.

My current on-going task is to process our 'missing items' this is a rather large list of items that are currently listed as available at Hinckley but were not scaned during the stock take. Part A of this was to establish that none of the books had appeared back on the shelves, Luckily for me quite a few had been retruned at some point. Part B is to work down the list and either withdraw (for items that are over 10 years old/ haven't been borrowed recently) or change their status to missing.

If only it was this simple - I am also making a record of books that have been borrowed in the last couple of years as we need to establish how these have gone missing, it may have been during the move to the new site or they may have been transferred to another site.

At the moment this seems like an arduous and never ending task, I know that when I complete it I will feel a great sense of satisfaction and it will make my job so much easier as we won't be trying to locate books that aren't on the shelves or have students/ staff complaining as they can't find the book they want. It has made me realise that catalogue or systems management is probably not an area of Librarianship I would particularly enjoy as I find it doesn't hold my interest and I get bored easily. I am much happier being at front of house, interatcing with the students and helping them find resources or solve problems.

BETT 2012

Last Thursday I went down to London with some of my colleagues from e-services to attend the BETT 2012 exhibiton at Londons Olympia exhibiton centre. When I was originally asked if I wanted to go I declined as the thought of being the only member of the library team going was a bit daunting and I wasn't really sure what to look for. However as it turns out our line manager requested that both myself and our Senior Learning Resource Assistant for User Education both go.

I'm glad I did go though as it was a great experience it was initially a bit overwhelming as the venue was huge and there were an uncountable number of stands. I stuck with the SLRA and one of the e-services team to track down useful items for the library. One such item was a sanner mouse - this allows the user to scan a portion of text and transfer into a word document. This is a great idea - especially for use on our reference books however I can see it being problematic in realtion to copyright liscences and plagarism.

We also saw some multi purpose computer desks which work by storing the screen and accesories under the desk so it can be used as a study desk, or if you pop-up the scrren and take out the accesories you can use it as a computer table. This type of desk would be ideal in smaller libraries/ resource centres as it creates a more flexible workning environment.

I do wish we had more time there as we didn't get the oportunity to look around all the stalls, perhaps if i were to go again I would plan the stalls that I want to fit in a visit to.

New Year's Resolution (sort of)

As a rule I try not to make resolutions as I end up feeling like I've failed when I reach the end of the year and I haven't kept it up.

However earlier today I was thinking about blogs as a reflective tool and thought it would be worth looking over my old (personal) blog. It surprised (and concerned) me how easy it was to find my old blog and read the posts. I simply put my blog name into google blog search and there it was, a whole three years of my life laid out for anyone to read.

 It was interesting to read back through them as it was written partly during my time at uninveristy and then through my first couple of years of life post Uni.  It charts my first steps in the the world of being an adult and how I dealt with it including my first job after University, living away from home and general finacnial woes. I can see how much I have changed between then and now in the way I deal with situations and my life focus is completely different. This is the first time I have really seen the benefits of blogs as a reflective practice as before now I kept my personal one as an online diary and my professional one has only been going for a few months.

 But back to the point I opened up with - this year my aim is to try and blog at least either once a week on either here or my personal blog.