Library Help Desk - arty shot

I seem to have been busy this term.  Busier than I have been since my first year here.  It might be an illusion (the Autumn term always feels frantic after the lovely self-managed Summer vacation) but I had a few extra teaching sessions to previous years, and a new e-Library to learn, so it’s possible it was the case.  And more students than ever before seemed to be asking for me at the Help Desk by name.  Which is great – my academic colleagues are telling more students that their Information Specialist can be useful to them, and mentioning my name.  But busy requires prioritisation, so this term I have been refusing to run to the Help Desk immediately for each student who mentions my name.

• If I happen to be the Information Specialist “on call” for the Help Desk at the time they ask, they got lucky – I will obviously do my best to help them immediately.
• Students asking for me at other times are asked to speak to the Information Specialist “on call” who will probably be able to answer their question, or to e-mail me to make an appointment (many do).
• Once I get an e-mail, I check my sign-in sheets to see whether this student has been offered any timetabled Information Literacy Seminars (with me!) and if so, whether they attended.
• If they did attend, they are asked to review the material from the seminar, and get back to me with their specific questions.  Most get back to me very quickly and we arrange a suitable appointment time (often I just tell them when I’m next “on call” so they can find me easily then).
• If they did not attend, they are also asked to review the material from the seminar, but in this case I tell them it is not my policy to make appointments with students who did not take up the opportunity to attend a seminar which would answer the very questions they are asking.  Most do not get back to me at this point – although one or two press the point and I do agree to see see these students.

Is this all very Scrooge-like?  Should I just be grateful the students are asking for me, and talk to them regardless?  I do feel bad when a student doesn’t get the support they need – that’s what we’re here for, after all – but equally, I cannot prioritise students who ask me to repeat myself just for them.

Bah, humbug.  Merry Christmas, one and all!

So, it’s done.  The thought, “oh, I should do that…”, has been converted into form-filling, nervous waiting, and fee-paying, and the certificate has arrived.  I am entitled to use the post-nominals FHEA.  And?

Well, in practice of course, nothing has changed.  I still do the best I can to support student learning through the VLE and Help Desk, I still try to engage students in developing crucial skills in my teaching sessions, and I still don’t have time to reflect on and improve my teaching as much as I would like.

My Business Card

However, should you care to decipher them, the letters after my name now give a pretty comprehensive impression of my skills and areas of expertise.  I have a numerate undergraduate degree (MChem) and research experience (PhD); I have theoretical knowledge of Librarianship (MA) and am an effective practitioner in this area (MCLIP); and I am committed to professionalism in teaching and learning in HE (FHEA).  These are all relevant to my current role and having them detailed on my business card and in my e-mail signature gives me that extra little bit of confidence when introducing myself to a new academic colleague, or trying to convince an old one to adopt a new way of working with the library resources.  And I will find it easier to prove to a potential new employer that I have skills and expertise in teaching in HE.

Before considering the FHEA, I had been toying less-than-half-heartedly with the idea of completing a PG Certificate for a while.  My employer was (and still is) keen for me to do Aston University’s PGCPP.  My reasons for being reluctant to do the course are myriad, overlapping, sometimes vague and probably difficult to defend in their entirety, so I won’t detail them here.  But having been recognised by a Fellowship from the HEA feels like the perfect compromise for me to demonstrate my professional approach to learning and teaching without needing to sign up for a formal course.

If you’ve been teaching in HE for a few years, and you haven’t got your FHEA yet, why not?

“Everyone is so concerned that final year students will rate them badly on the NSS that they go out of their way to keep them happy; …giving direct links from Blackboard to e-journal articles that are required reading (I don’t even like putting Reading Lists on the catalogue…) … None of this helps the student in the long run.”

I disagree.  In the context of promoting independent learning, I disagree very strongly.  The book or journal article from the reading list is not, in itself, a package of independent learning.  The students can only develop their independent learning by reading the material, forming their own opinion, and then, perhaps, engaging in further reading or discussion to develop their thoughts.  All of which requires time.  By providing convenient links to reading materials within modules on the virtual learning environment, I am maximising the amount of time the student will spend actually engaging with their subject.  I am providing them with precedents, which encourage them to seek out further reading.  I am ensuring that students who are less able, have additional needs, or just have more important things to worry about this week, are not left behind.  And I can spend my time teaching information literacy, helping students to find, evaluate and use those further reading resources, rather than providing un-ending training on the Library Catalogue.

We must be very careful not to value process above principles.  Because, let’s face it, the skills of getting good results from a Library Catalogue, remembering to reserve books over a month in advance in order to photocopy a single chapter, and negotiating a complicated, publisher-specific, multi-stage login procedure to access journals from off-campus are skills only useful to those students who wish to go on to become Librarians.  More important is that students learn the value of resources to inform their learning.  Which they are never going to do if they struggle to access them in the first place…

Anyone who has completed their MCLIP portfolio for CILIP will know that there are two main challenges associated with it:

1. Writing evaluatively/reflectively
2. Actually putting the thing together

It is pretty much the same with an FHEA application; the form filling is almost more troublesome than the content itself.  As far as the content goes, my Head of Curriculum and Learner Development’s main advice was never to describe what you do when you’re teaching, but say how your activity benefits your students.  Having attended Margaret Chapman’s excellent Reflective Writing course and practiced this extensively in writing my MCLIP submission, I didn’t find this too difficult.

“Each IL seminar is planned by me to encourage the students to engage with the material covered, by explaining why the content is relevant to them during their course, with particular focus on an assignment where the seminars are embedded”

However, it was choosing suitable examples for each area of activity that was the hard bit – I felt before I started that I would have far too many for one area and nowhere near enough for another.  While I struggled with this to start, once I got into the flow of it a bit more, it became a question of shuffling things around to fit my examples into each section in the most suitable and word-efficient way.

An FHEA application requires three times as many words than MCLIP (500 words for each of six areas of activity) but thankfully you are not required to compile any evidence.  The evidence in this case is provided by the references, so it was important to choose referees who were going to take the time to build my references carefully.  In the end, chasing busy referees to do what was required delayed my application for quite a long time.

My top tips:

• Get on with it.  It won’t write itself.
• Don’t worry about which area of activity your examples will fit in too much – focus on writing them in somewhere and you can re-organise and fill in the gaps later.
• Focus on why you do stuff.
• Get your referees on board early, and send them some of your later drafts to get started with – their feedback will be useful and you won’t be waiting as long for a reference once you’re happy with your application.
• Get on with it.

In May 2010, CILIP’s CDG WM co-organised a “Librarians as Teachers” event with UC&R WM.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend the event, but luckily I had a fairly quiet morning slot on the Enquiries Desk, so I was able to follow some of the morning sessions using Twitterfall*.  Conversation on Twitter was lively, particularly in response to both Debbi Boden and Jo Webb extolling the virtues of teaching qualifications and professional recognition by the HEA.

Photo by Patrick Lauke

I hadn’t previously been aware that you could get professional recognition from the HEA without first obtaining a Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education (or similar), but Jo Webb’s presentation at #LAT10 made it clear that you could and this knowledge was extremely well timed for me as it was just after I had received confirmation of my MCLIP award.  One advantage of following from outside the venue was that I was immediately able to have a look at the HEA website, find out exactly what was required, and print out the documentation.

The application form to become an Associate (AHEA) or a Fellow (FHEA) is very similar; there are six areas of activity listed, and you have to write 500 words explaining your activities within each area.  For AHEA, you need to complete two areas, for FHEA you need to complete all six.  FHEA looked a bit daunting, particularly as one of the areas of activity relates to assessment, but AHEA seemed fairly do-able, so I sought further advice.

I am very lucky that this initial inspiration met whole-hearted support within my organisation, from both my line manager and the Head of Curriculum and Learner Development.  Her advice was to prove crucial, and right from the beginning she was very clear about encouraging me to apply to become a Fellow, not just an Associate.

And so, armed with 10 years of supporting or teaching students in Higher Education, the forms, guidance notes, assessment criteria and encouragement from colleagues, I was ready to make my application…

* Jo Alcock and Emma Cragg have both written detailed and well-linked blog posts on the whole “Librarians as Teachers 2010” day, if you would like to find out more about this excellent event.

At work, we have recently undergone a minor re-structure and in my new team we have agreed to maintain and share Outlook calendars to facilitate arranging meetings and finding each other to help that student/researcher with a tricky subject-specific question.  I am already finding it quite stressful to maintain both my paper diary and my Outlook calendar for work commitments (yes, yes, clearly I should move entirely to Outlook, but I can’t take my PC to meetings, I don’t have my own smartphone either, and there’s no budget for staff Blackberrys).  In addition to my paper diary and Outlook, I have to maintain a timetable for my teaching on a separate piece of specialist timetabling software so students know when and where their Library seminars are.  So maintaining yet another online calendar, which I would have to remember to update regularly by referring to my paper diary (which can be consulted and edited in the pub) seems a short road to double bookings, missed appointments and insanity.

However, I have read Katie’s statement: “it is how [my partner and I] organise our lives”.  And I have thought of the numerous e-mails containing lists of dates which I have exchanged with my partner.  And I am willing to try Google Calendar…

On a more professional note, a brief thought about Google Calendar in a library setting.  At the excellent USTLG meeting at the RSC in May 2010, Mark Gavillet showed us the embedded Google Calendar Newcastle University Library is using for their Opening Hours.  It’s a fantastically effective and simple way of presenting opening hours which seem to users to be changing all the time (term time, exam time, vacation, etc).

The content of Linda Smith’s presentation about her work in partnership with the Student Union (SU) at Nottingham Trent University is covered by her PowerPoint slides and Laura’s excellent blog post, so I’ll just highlight a couple of points I thought were interesting and relevant to my work.  The first is the length of time it took to set up an effective collaboration between the library and the SU; this was around 18 months, and was achieved through repeated invitations to meetings, and providing buffet lunches!  It was frustrating to have to re-build the relationship each year when the SU Executive changes, but obviously this was a lot easier if an effective partnership with the previous incumbents had been built.

KitKat - the way to students' and Umbrella delegates' hearts.

Secondly, when providing content for the SU magazine, Linda asked the students themselves to write the copy, only checking the content briefly before publication, as the articles are then written in the style and terminology more students will understand and find approachable.  I wondered if this is something libraries should consider more widely – we spend a lot of time trying to simplify library jargon for e.g. introductory booklets and student handbooks, but perhaps we could get students more involved in making these clear.  Finally, Linda mentioned a couple of campaigns they had run in full partnership with the SU, responding to specific concerns raised by the SU Executive.  I was pleased to hear the “Virtually Stolen” promotion had been a success (and later conversation at the break confirmed that the University of Reading Library have had success with a similar campaign) as unattended belongings are also a problem at Aston University Library.  However, I was much less impressed with the stereotype-affirming “Shhh!” campaign.  While working with ideas from the SU Executive is clearly at the core of their partnership, I felt that this campaign was not encouraging students to engage with their library in a positive way.

The environment at Kingston University, with 24 000 students at 4 campuses with 24-hour Learning Resource Centres (LRCs), is not really comparable to the small, single-campus situation at Aston.  Never-the-less, Karen Belsham’s presentation on integrating student services (e.g. replacement student ID cards, council tax letters) into the LRCs’ information points (which already offered IT advice alongside answering Library enquiries) raised some key issues.  Students had a much more positive experience of the LRCs after integration as the staff were frequently able to solve their problems.  Obviously it requires a large knowledge bank to answer questions on such a wide range of topics, and this is managed using SharePoint.  Something to file away for future reference, I think.

Other sessions going on in parallel to this have been blogged elsewhere:
Track 1, Skills and professionalism: KIM Profession – Opportunities for librarians to embrace changes as the Knowledge & Information Profession evolves.
Presocraticatomist

The Clinical Sciences Library fulfils two roles within the Trust, one relating to Governance (CEBIS librarians improving practice in the hospital) and one relating to Education (UHCW is a teaching hospital).  However, within the management structure of the Trust the library must “sit” in one or the other.  It was interesting to hear Anna’s take on this, as we have a similar situation at Aston – Library & Information Services is currently the responsibility of the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (PVC) for Learning & Teaching but we were previously accountable to the PVC for Research.  Clearly our role spans both these functions.

The out-of-hours enquiry point at CSL

The hospital is a 24-hour service, but the Library is not.  Access is available, of course, but enquiry support can only be provided by daytime staff.  From next term, we will only be providing a full Help Desk service between 9am and 6pm Monday to Friday, so it was interesting to see how comments and enquiries were captured out-of-hours at the Clinical Sciences Library.

I find myself very jealous of their fiction collection, too.  This is an important part of hospital libraries’ role in supporting staff leisure time, but also a great “hook” to get people into the library in the first place.  We often get requests from students for a fiction collection, but unfortunately we don’t have any slack in our book budgets to implement this.  I have enthusiastically responded when an academic suggests a fiction title or two will enhance their reading lists, though!

And, as for the rest of us, they have recently undergone a rigorous journal subscription review.  It was interesting to hear how they had respondents insisting a journal was essential when the librarians knew for a fact they had never looked at the library subscription version!  The libraries are different, but many of the users are the same…

Click to see Alan's presentation

As I should have predicted, of course, it was much more interesting and useful that I’d thought.  Alan Poulter facilitated a workshop discussing the IT skills required by a librarian, from basic IT skills, through an understanding of the IT environment, to advanced knowledge required by a systems specialist.  Unfortunately, David Stuart, who was to have given a programmer’s perspective, was unable to be there.

Murmuring was heard early on, as Alan described the ECDL as a “horror”.  It simply doesn’t cover the right things, he argued.  The first major ripples went through the room shortly after that, when Alan revealed his list of basic IT knowledge required by all librarians: alongside an understanding of files, directories, file extensions, and file compression he talked about systematic back-ups, encryption and anti-virus.  Clearly not everyone in the room felt they had, or needed, this knowledge.  I confess I was surprised at the number of delegates who suggested that they didn’t need to know about e.g. anti-virus and software installation because their employer managed all that.  What about your home PC?  What about when you move jobs?  What about advising your users?  These points were all raised in the ensuing discussion, which also highlighted a number of useful resources for managing security such as Secunia or LastPass.

Alan went on to talk about the importance of understanding the IT environment (Open Source software developments, Moore’s Law, corporate interests, e.g. Apple vs Adobe); advanced knowledge required by systems specialists; and how Strathclyde is preparing LIS students to be “digital librarians”.  Alan also filled in the main point he thought David would have made:  an understanding of programming, of how computers really work, would help us as users every day.  As the earlier discussions had been lively, there was sadly not much time to cover these in detail.

So what do I need to take away from this?  There are clearly gaps in my basic IT skills by Alan’s definitions.  I know I need anti-virus software on my PC and I know I should do regular back-ups, but if I’m honest with myself, my strategies for my home PC are very superficial and I don’t even know what the IT bods at work do about this (beyond assuming that they do something).  I also need to remember to attend apparently “uninteresting” sessions at Umbrella more often – I will undoubtedly learn something!

Other sessions going on in parallel to this have been blogged elsewhere:
Track 1, Skills and professionalism: Equalities issues in libraries: the emerging tensions
Laura’s Dark Archive (thought-provoking points from a discussion on hierarchies of oppression, and great comments as well).

Florence reflected in the Arno

Despite its importance, despite the fact I don’t have time not to reflect, I don’t do it enough.  Deep reflection is time-consuming and hard.  That’s the main reason I started this blog – to try to force myself to put aside a little time to reflect on my professional activities.  In particular, to force myself to reflect on any training, conferences and visits I have been on.  It’s easy to do the little things, like changing the wording of your PowerPoint slides if students in one class don’t seem to get it; or trying to promote something differently if no-one seemed to know about it first time; or thinking about something from the students’ point of view to improve your service.  But I often find that I return from a conference fired up with enthusiasm only to shelve my ideas and energy while I catch up on the work I missed while out of the office, and never quite go back to give them the attention they deserve.

I would also like to mention and wholeheartedly recommend the excellent Reflective Writing courses with Margaret Chapman organised periodically by the Career Development Group and mentioned by Emma in her post.  I went on one of these a while ago, before I submitted my Chartship portfolio, and I felt it was extremely useful in providing strategies to help me think more reflectively.  The best one is, of course, to talk to someone about your experience and make sure they ask lots of questions!