Canada Water Library Visit 19th November 2013

Image copyright http://craigsheppard.photodeck.com/ 2013

Nestling close to the water of the old dockyards, above the underground station is the rather imposing bronze ‘inverted pyramid’ of Canada Water public library. We were lucky enough to be taken on a tour behind the scenes of this ‘super library’. Set for a huge regeneration plan  Southwark council started, perhaps surprisingly, with commissioning a new library to be the centrepiece of the community they are building. Certainly one can see the current transition all around with the quaint wooden bridge across the water starkly contrasting with the crumbling architecture beyond. A few years from now it is planned that even more modern flat blocks will have been built and shopping centre expanded so it will need a central place for its new residents to gather; in this case it is hoped to be the library and the (currently empty) plaza it occupies.

Richard took us on a tour of the building which, on such a sunny day, benefits hugely from the light pouring in through large windows gazing out on the water. The central staircase creates a sense of occasion when entering the library; echoing the awe inspired by grand older libraries. We went up into the main reading room where it was children’s Rhyme Time then onto the second floor mezzanine where many readers were escaping the noise with laptops and headphones. We were lucky enough to go out onto the roof where there were some incredible views out across the London skyline. 

Photos by Alex Giles

The Green Roof

Intentionally built into the ground floor is a performance space with capacity for an audience of 150. Management of this space has been outsourced to The Albany group who organise productions throughout the year. It also gives the library a place to hold book launches and related events away from the main collection negating the need traditional libraries face of hastily rearranging the bookcases. In addition to the performance space, there are several meeting rooms of various sizes leading off the top gallery of the library. These are open to bookings from anyone leading to a diverse spectrum of activities (Yogameister anyone?). The performance space and the meeting rooms are great examples of how purpose-built new libraries can fulfil all of the changing roles of libraries within modern society. Thankfully books remain prominent, but it is also important to have other spaces which the community can utilise for other ends. In enabling this Canada Water library has placed itself at the centre of the community which is rapidly growing up around it ensuring its use and survival. Additionally revenue created by private bookings and ticket sales can go back into the library resources.

Membership is free and which includes use of the free wifi and pcs scattered about the library and the building is fully accessible to everyone. The collection itself comprises of 40,000 volumes ranging from children’s books and general fiction to reference materials on local history. Designed as a community library rather than an academic one their acquisitions policy focuses strongly on what will be popular among their readers which seems to have led to a rather large Manga collection. On the ground floor there is an independently run café, several computers and some book displays containing either new or popular books and themed displays suggesting related works people might enjoy (while we were there the theme was time travel). There are also self-service check-out machines enabling people to borrow books incredibly quickly if their schedule doesn’t allow for browsing. There is also a selection of audio-visual materials allowing users to borrow new films and cds etc. at a small cost. With many of the rental giants collapsing  it is sometimes easy to forget that there are still many people in the UK without internet access and therefore unable to access new popular services such as Netflix. This allows people to pop into the library (handily located above the tube station) on their way home and select something to watch/read. Furthermore the small fee charged by the library again allows them to make this process sustainable.

Top of the spiral staircase in the main reading room

It was quite refreshing to hear that Southwark do not (unlike many libraries) require that their staff are fully qualified before hiring them. Instead they interview people and hire them based upon whether or not they are suited to the job, which can at times differ radically to traditional library practises. Considering the competitive nature of librarianship at present and the rising costs of University fees it is always reassuring to know that there will be further opportunities for work beyond our traineeships even if we cannot go forward with a library course at present. Or indeed, if we decide to pursue one part time or even distance-based. It is a further comfort to see that, with constant threats of library closures, with a little innovation even new libraries can still thrive.

Thanks again to Linda and Richard for arranging such a great visit for us!

Alex Giles: Grad Trainee at City Uni.
Hi fellow trainees,
  Just wanted to let you know that there is an open evening at City Uni this Wednesday eve (20th November) for their post-grad library and information courses. I went last year, and really enjoyed it - there were some good intro talks by the course leaders, and lots of past and present students to quiz  - oh, and wine too... Check it out: http://www.city.ac.uk/events/2013/november/postgraduate-open-evening

Trainee profiles 2013-2014

Institute of Classical Studies

Kate Symonds (again...)

Hello! I’m still here... much the same as last year if a little more wizened. Having the opportunity lengthen my traineeship has allowed me to get started on the first year of my distance based course in Digital Libraries and Information Services at The University of Borås.  It’s also allowing me to fine-tune some of my training based around the aspects of librarianship I now know I want to focus on which is great. I’m looking forward to the next year to compare with last in order to see what aspects of the job and trainee scheme change and which remain constant; not to mention another twelve months of new books!

Welcome to the 2013-2014 cohort of library trainees!

It's that time of year again where we say goodbye to this year's lot of trainees and hello to a new bunch.
Welcome to those of you who are just starting a new job in a library and watch this space for news of visits and events to get involved in during your trainee year!

Support for Researchers: how librarians can support REF, data management etc

On the 8^th May I went to the CILIP headquarters to hear my colleague Monique Ritchie and Andria McGrath, from Kings College, and David Buckley talk about their positions (Research Librarian, Research Information Specialist, and Liaison Officer for Any Book Library Services respectively) and how they support academics in their research. I arrived early, and after some considerable confusion as to what room the event was in, and having walked in on two separate meetings (one was a roundtable discussion that I have to admit I’m glad I wasn’t involved in; it appeared quite heated...) and walking around the labyrinthine CILIP's corridors for some time, I arrived, still punctually, for the meeting and sat down with a coffee and biscuit, courtesy of David Buckley.

David Buckley was the first to speak, and humorously too, about his company: Any Book Library Services. The company started in Greenwich and has since moved to Leicester where they are now based. They pick up books from libraries and sell them, splitting the money between the library and themselves. It sounded very interesting and I’m definitely more positive about giving books to them to sell; to pump the money back into the library as well as David’s company is surely better than hiring a skip to dump them in unloving. (And, of course, I feel compelled to support a fellow Buckley!)  David's company collect the books free of charge and 100% of profits are given to the library if the book sells on the first day of being uploaded to all of the usual suspects online (Amazon, Abe (also now owned by Amazon), Libris etc.). If it sells after that, the money given to the library is on a daily sliding scale; 1^st day 100%, 2^nd day 99%, and so on.  David seems passionate about his company and it’s certainly an interesting and seemingly profitable business model for both libraries and the company itself, but I have to admit I’m not entirely sure how it makes enough money, considering the competition for selling books online and the percentages Amazon, and the like, take from sellers.

Next up was Andria who discussed the importance of working with IT and research management as well as supporting academics. Andria highlighted the importance of providing training that is designed for supporting the researchers, however designing this training it seems is only half of the work; getting people to attend being the other half. Together with providing the teaching, Andria mentioned, the key to success is having very solid relationships with the institution, such as a good working relationship with the Graduate School in order to publicize and get people through the training room door. Along with providing training, another key skill is a willingness to professionally develop. Andria attended a course in Leiden, which, along with an amazing trip, helped her to fulfill her role to her full potential. Obviously this is not something that every institution is willing to pay for, especially in a time of falling student numbers and smaller budgets, but attending free events and training is something that is available, and well worthwhile.

The third Speaker, Monique Ritchie, Research Librarian at Brunel University, spoke about her new post supporting researchers and the Research Data Management Project. The key skills that Monique brought attention to are:

·      Flexibility and adaptability

·      Prioritizing

·      Diplomacy

·      Sense of adventure

·      Thinking strategically

·      Networking

Networking is something that has always sent a shiver down my spine, and many other people’s as well, but from the events that I have attended that have included that twenty minutes for “coffee, tea and (yes! the dreaded) chat”, that very twenty minutes has often been for me the most memorable. I’ve met some very interesting people and even stayed in touch with some. Other skills Monique drew our attention to are those that many other library roles require as well; most people it seems must be flexible with the ability to move around the institution, but with such a heavy workload for librarians supporting researchers, the skill of prioritization certainly seemed like a must. Other skills at first seemed more aligned with Parliament than libraries, such as diplomacy and strategy, but Monique soon explained that she often had to justify what she was doing and fight her corner. The research librarian has to stay up to date and even determine in advance what the needs of the researcher will be.

Supporting researchers seems to be a fluid role that constantly changes with the developing needs of researchers themselves, the publishing world, and changing academic practices.  Both speakers were incredibly enthusiastic towards their professional lives and appeared to relish the dynamic positions they held, and the opportunities for learning and developing they offered.

Monique's slides are available here:  http://www.slideshare.net/CoFHELASEC/arlg-supporting-researchers

Andria's slides are available here: http://www.slideshare.net/CoFHELASEC/library-researchsupportpartnerships

British History Online Focus Group

Not knowing quite what to expect from an invitation to join a British History Online focus group, a gaggle of slightly trepidatious graduate library trainees arrived at the IHR on Tuesday afternoon armed with their laptops and were treated to a few hours of gentle mental exercise with one of the leading digital history resources.

We were introduced to the online resource which is run at the Institute of Historical Research by Bruce Tate, Project manager at British History Online, and Jonathan Blaney, its Project Editor. BHO is essentially a digital library which aims to provide primary and secondary sources for the history of the British Isles between the middle ages and c.1900. The team have, to date, digitised more than 1,000 sources and choose these sources based not only on their centrality to historical research, but also their interconnection. The resource also has a strong element of collaboration since users are able to annotate and correct the digitised sources, greatly enhancing their value to the history community. Notable BHO collections include the Journals of the Houses of Commons and Lords, as well as a huge amount of local history sources which draw from the IHR’s Centre for Metropolitan History and Victoria County History, to name but a few. They've even made some nifty online tutorials to help even the most technology averse historian along, which you can see here.

What’s really great about the resource though is the fact that on top of digitisation Bruce and Jonathan are also always looking to develop text analysis features designed to allow historians and researches to search and organise their findings in new and exciting ways. And it was in this area of text analysis features that we, enthusiastic knowledgeable and digitally literate (hmmm) early career librarians that we are, came in. Goodness help us.

In actual fact the features we tested were all manageable, intuitive, and interesting enough for us all to navigate easily and have an opinion on. So we started off with looking at ways the journals of the Lords and Commons could be searched and manipulated to give the user a quick colour coded visual representation of when and how frequently a searched-for topic (eg. Naval budget, war, cattle etc) was talked about in the Houses across a specified period of time. Elsewhere, we created social network diagrams which used the correspondences between individuals in the records to show how connected people in the houses were. Another great resource was BHO use of online maps to organise local history sources, something that can be played around with here

In addition to us trying out the resources and commenting on their usefulness as (broadly) cogent and (seemingly) intelligent young people, it was also a really interesting opportunity to be asked, as library professionals, to consider what other kind of interactive digital resources our respective library users value, or might value if only they had the opportunity. The energy behind the projects was infectious and certainly encouraged me to think about the role of today’s librarian as being - at least in part - a trainer or facilitator in these ways.

Thanks to Bruce and Jonathan for arranging such an interesting afternoon - and for keeping us happy with timeouts!

The Library of the Institute of Historical Research

Tuesday 7^th May 2013

After an interesting feedback session with the British History Online team, we headed upstairs for a tour of the Institute of Historical Research’s Library with Mike Townsend, Collection Librarian.

We were treated to a trip up the Tower, where Mike had dug out some of the library’s treasures, which he felt represented the work of the library at the IHR today. This was a really interesting and useful way of telling us about the library and illustrating the work it does. Plus we all enjoy an old book or two: Diderot’s Encyclopedie, a major Enlightenment work, certainly caught our attention! The key themes illuminated were collection management, discovery and promotion.

The IHR is currently reclassifying its material and is increasingly discovering new gems among its collection. They have been uncovering items which have never been catalogued, which is quite incredible. As well as cataloguing and classifying these works, the IHR has been working diligently to ensure that these works enrich their current collections, publicising them on their website, seeking out themes and trends, and writing interesting blog posts. For example, see this fascinating post by the lovely Katherine Quinn: http://www.history.ac.uk/news/2013-03-22/british-west-indies-slavery-problem

Collection subject guides have been created highlighting topics within the IHR’s vast collections, including books and e-resources. One example Mike gave us was the History of Food and Drink – this topic encompasses a great array of material, with works ranging from swan offal to cannibalisation. (http://www.history.ac.uk/library/collections/food-history).  I really admire the fact that the IHR is striving to engage with its collections to make them more accessible, user-friendly and engaging, particularly for readers who wish to browse. It struck me as a great demonstration of 'adding value'! 

However, the reach of the IHR's Library has been limited to some extent by being short-staffed. Mike explained that they have been unable to go to universities to promote their materials or to spread word of their extensive and exciting collections. Things are looking positive for the future however, when they will be moving to new premises, as they are planning a grand launch to promote their materials. It’s encouraging to see that in a difficult climate, the IHR is still expanding and it is working hard to reach more people and to promote its collections.

The calm carpeted library itself seemed a lovely traditional place to visit. People were working hard and there was a nice ambience – very different from the bustle of the business library I currently work in!

After a brief tour, Mike took us into a study room to give us an introduction to cataloguing. After kindly furnishing us with a guide to cataloguing and classifying, he spoke about the importance of these skills to librarianship and the emphasis on ‘cat and class’ at UCL. Mike told us that the more subject knowledge you gain, the better your cataloguing can be, as you can include more subject headings, insert extra notes and provide further information to make each entry rich in detail. He tried to impress upon us the importance of cataloguing skills, particularly if you end up as the sole librarian, and spoke of MARC21, entries and fields. 

It was great to hear Mike sound so positive about an area I’ve always perceived to be rather tedious, so that was encouraging. As a host, Mike was interesting, engaging and lively. Another enjoyable Tuesday afternoon!