Library Day in the Life #8, part 3

It seems like Friday has come around very quickly!  Today will be a very busy day, to celebrate National Libraries Day, CLIC (Cardiff Libraries in Co-operation) have organised a series of tours of Cardiff libraries for library staff.  We have two planned for today, one in the morning, and the other in the afternoon, plus both myself and the other library assistant will be heading off to attend tours of our own.

The day starts with an all staff briefing first thing in the morning to introduce the new exhibition, The Queen: Art and Image, opening to the public on Saturday.  These briefings are a really great opportunity to hear about what went into the planning of an exhibition and to get a chance to look around it before the building opens.

After the briefing we race back up to the library to start getting everything ready before the first tour arrives at 10.30am.  We put out on display a number of items from our locked cases that the visitors will be able to handle, including a 15th century incunabula, a copy of Pliny's Natural History!


Museum scrapbooks from the early 20th century


I'm a little nervous about the first tour, as I will be leading it for the first time.  Normally the head librarian is responsible for all the tours, but he decided to give me and the other library assistant the chance to do the morning one.  I think everything goes ok, I don't forget anything too important or get too tongue-tied, and everyone seems to enjoy it.  They weren't however, quite prepared for just how much walking was involved as we showed them around all the many departmental libraries we have scattered throughout the building.  Thankfully, no-one got lost in the labyrinth maze of the basement corridors!



Doing the introduction to my tour


There's time for a quick break for lunch, and a trip across to the art department to drop off some new books and see if they have anything for me to collect.  The art staff are often sent free copies of books and exhibition catalogues, or they pick them up on their travels, and they usually donate them to the library.  We have a shelf in their department where they leave books for us to collect and catalogue, today there is only one, a V&A publication on Jingdezhen porcelain.

The second tour of the day is conducted by the head librarian, but I have to duck out early in order to make it up to Cardiff University's SCOLAR (special collections and archives) department for my guided tour.  When I arrive at SCOLAR, I get the opportunity to check out the latest exhibition they have put on in the foyer.  A selection of students were each given a display case to exhibit items from the special collections that illustrate their chosen theme.  It was a wonderful example of how you could showcase your 'treasures' in different ways, and the various ways books could be interpreted depending on how they were grouped together. 

Also out in the foyer is Cardiff University's Turning the Pages kiosk, a massive thing which must be incredibly difficult to move, on it students can view ten items from the collections that have been digitised.  Going through to the main area, I see a few researchers hard at work in the reading room, before we duck in to the closed stacks to see shelf upon shelf of books and archival material that staff are working through. 

Items from the Cardiff Rare Books collection at SCOLAR, Cardiff University

The largest project that the SCOLAR team are working on is the collection of over 14,000 items that make up the Cardiff Rare Books collection.  The collection was acquired back in 2010, and although work began on cataloguing it immediately, only a fraction of it's potential as a research tool has been explored yet.  The collection includes many rare and unique items, including 175 incunabula (pre-1501 printed books), Shakespearean material and a wide selection of private press material.  I spent most of my visit oohing and aahing at all the amazing books, and feeling very jealous of what an amazing experience cataloguing that collection must be!

Library Day in the Life #8, part 2

The second of my Library Day in the Life days begins with a meeting of the CLIC (Cardiff Libraries in Co-operation) Staff Development Group at one of the Cardiff University buildings.  Although I've been involved with CLIC for a while I've only just joined the Staff Development Group, and this is the first meeting I've attended.  We discuss the upcoming library tours that have been arranged to celebrate National Libraries Day, and the next scheduled CLIC event focusing on marketing.

I don't get back to the office till late afternoon to discover that the printer wasn’t working, and we had to wait for an engineer to come out and fix it.  This creates a bit of a nightmare as we need to print out all our library leaflets and drop them off for tomorrows display.  Thankfully we managed to find someone in another department willing to do the printing for us.

Before I head off to lunch I deal with a query from a member of staff who wanted me to perform a search for a book title on our catalogue.  We are currently waiting for an upgrade to our system, until it is completed user searching is not as accurate as we would like, so staff often ask us to search on their behalf.

The leaflet designed to promote the library,
the Welsh translation is on the reverse

After lunch we pop across to the Welsh Assembly Government building to drop off a poster and the leaflets for the National Libraries Day display.

When I return I discuss with my boss some of the items we will put out on display for the library tours the next day and work on what I am going to say in my introduction. I also email everyone attending the tours to confirm the arrangements for when they arrive.  Finally, I email any staff whose work areas the tours will be passing through so that they are not suddenly surprised to see a load of visitors outside their offices.

I head home feeling that somehow the day has flown past before I had enough time to get everything done.

Library Day in the Life #8, part 1

I took part in Library Day in the Life round 7 last July, which I used as an opportunity to provide an insight in to my job in the library at the National Museum Wales.  I decided to take part again this year because I think that working in a museum library can be varied enough that there shouldn't be too much repetition. 

I only work at the museum three days a week, so I don't start the project till the Wednesday.  I’m running a little late this morning, and it’s 8.50 before I get in.  There's just time for me to say a quick hello to the Head Librarian before he heads off to one of our other sites for the morning. 

My workspace in the library

I start by going through my emails, checking what needs doing.  The most urgent to require my attention include;
-Updating the subscription details for the auction catalogues we receive from Bonhams.  We take sale catalogues for a number of auction houses, but only for certain sales.  We need to regularly check that we are receiving all the catalogues as if we miss one it can be tricky getting a replacement, they only print so many at a time.
-Going through the final edit of our new library leaflet which has come back from the translation and publications team.  As part of National Libraries Day we are contributing to a display celebrating libraries in the foyer of one of the Welsh Assembly Government buildings.  We haven't produced much in the way of promotional material for the library in the past, so we feel very proud of our new leaflet.
-Attempting to reinstall a printer to my computer (with partial success, primarily my own fault). 
-Answering a query that came through via our website from a man trying to research a member of his family.  We were not able to help, but I passed him the details of someone I thought might.  We often get queries from people researching local or family history, but in those instances we find that the records office and local history section of the public library are better sources of information.

By the time break-time comes around I'm very much ready for my caffeine fix down in the museum restaurant.

When I head back up to the main library I do some shelving in the stacks which are freezing.  They are right up in the roof of the building and tend to reflect whatever the weather is like outside, very hot in summer, very cold in winter, today it feels like stepping into an icebox.  I hurry back to my spot next to my heater as soon as I can. 

After lunch we had an email from one of our curators trying to trace the reports of Scott’s National Antarctic Expedition of 1901-04, that we had received back in 1913.  Had a dig about on our folio shelves and finally found them, the shelves were triple stacked with big hefty folio volumes, and the reports I wanted would be the ones right at the back, typical!

Because we are relatively quiet today I decide to get on with some cataloguing. I’ve been so busy lately that I haven’t really had time to do any, and the next two days will be busy, so I doubt I’ll have time to get any done then either. I'm focusing on books for the Industry library at the moment, and am currently working my way through a pile of Mines and Quarries reports from the early 20th century.

I finish up my day by looking through some of the posts other people have been writing for Library Day in the Life project.

Thing 19 - Reflection

I think this 'Thing' was originally intended as a way to give people a chance for a bit of a breather and catch up.  I'm so far behind now that I'm starting to fear I won't be done in time to get the certificate (and I really want that certificate!), so I'm only going to do a brief reflection now.  I think I'll save doing a fuller evaluation of the whole course once I'm finished, and preferably after a little time has passed.  I think a little distance, and breathing space, is often required to see the true value of what you have been learning.

Some of the changes that have occurred since doing CPD23, either as a direct result, or because it confirmed what I'd already been considering, include;
Having a blog, a Twitter and a LinkedIn account
Considering setting up a library blog and Twitter account at work
Joining CILIP, and plan on joining ARLIS and the SLA (Special Library Association) in the New Year
Going to networking events, including Library Camp 2011 in Birmingham
Getting re-involved with CLIC (Cardiff Libraries in Co-operation)
Taking part in a couple of #uklibchat discussions, Library Day in the Life and the Library Routes project
Offering to do a guest post on LISNPN in the future

So far one of the things I've found most useful has been Twitter, which really surprised me.  I never used it before CPD, and had a rather negative impression of it, but once I got into it I realised how incredibly useful it is a professional tool.

But I think overall, looking at the list of things I've done I'm struck by the fact that it has all worked to raise, both my profile as a library professional and that of my place of work to the wider world.

Thing 13 - Online collaborating and file-sharing

Thing 13 looks at tools to assist with sharing files and working collaboratively, such as Google Docs, Dropbbox and Wikis.
I was interested to learn from reading some of the other posts about Google Docs that it can be a useful alternative to Microsoft Office on a home computer.  I’ve recently been thinking about whether to purchase Office for mine, so I think I’ll give Docs a try first and see how it works out.  I also discovered that the Android Google Docs app allows me, in addition to the regular features, to take a photo of a document, sign, or other text on my phone and use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to convert it to text that can be edited.

I'm not sure that I will find Dropbox so useful.  It probably would have been very handy when I was doing my library course as I tended to work on both my work and home computers equally, and was always transferring documents to and fro with a USB stick.  Nowadays I don't find I need to transfer documents to more than one computer to the same extent so it may not be something I would get as much use from.

I don't really have much experience of working on joint documents, primarily the only times I've done that have been with colleagues at work.  We already have a number of shared drives at work which people use to share documents so the idea of using an internet based program to do it doesn't seem necessary.

However, I'm soon to be collaborating on a project with people I don't work with, and this is where I think services like Dropbox will be most useful.

My only experience of wikis is when I took part in the Library Day in the Life project back in July, although I believe we cover the Library Routes website as a later ‘thing’ so no doubt I’ll take part in that also.  I think wikis are a great idea, particularly for organising events between large groups of people.

Library Day in the Life #7 part 3

I started writing this post on Friday to record my final day of the Library Day in the Life project, but for one reason or another I never got round to posting it.  Even though the project has finished now (for this round) I thought I might as well go ahead and post it any way.

Today I manage to get in relatively early, as it’s just gone 8.30 when I arrive.  I bring the morning’s papers up to the library with me, and sit down and go through the local ones for any mention of the museum.  We cut out and paste into scrapbooks every newspaper cutting we find from the local papers regarding the museum.  Our scrapbooks go right back to the formation of the museum, and make for fascinating reading, although some of the early ones are practically falling to pieces these days.

After that I set about weeding the main library new books and journals displays.  All new books and journals are displayed for a period in the main library, and for many staff they are the first place they head to when they visit us.  I tend to weed the books once the shelves get full, so how often I do that tends to depend on how much new stock we have coming in.  Occasionally we make exceptions for books that we think lots of people are going to want to see, and they get to stay on longer.

I nip down to the main hall coffee shop to grab a takeaway coffee, I don’t really have time to take a full break this morning.  When I get back up I start going through the morning’s post.  This is not one of my regular jobs, but rather something I do when my colleague is away.  I end up getting side-tracked by Plastiquarian, the journal of the Plastics Historical Society (more interesting than it sounds), and in particular by a photo of Ekco’s Novaware by David Harman Powell, tableware that was designed in the 1960s.

Also amongst the post were a few journals for the Cambrian Archaeological Association.   In addition to our own library collections we also house the libraries of the Cambrian Archaeological Association and the Cardiff Naturalists Society.

After lunch I package up some museum publications to send to the copyright libraries.  The museum is obliged to send out copies of all its publications to the 6 legal deposit libraries; the British Library, the Bodleian Library, Cambridge University Library, the National Library of Scotland, the Library of Trinity College, Dublin and the National Library of Wales.  The publication I am sending out today is the new companion guide to the Museum's art galleries, in both English and Welsh.

The end of the day comes around before I know it, and it's a mad rush to get things finished off before I'm back in again next week.

Library Day in the Life #7 part 2

It’s back to normal again today, as I don’t manage to make it in before 8.30 so I try and power through the basement corridors to get up to the library on time.  It’s funny to think how easily I used to get lost walking about the museum basement.  For the first few weeks I used to have to be escorted to and from the library otherwise I would have got lost en route, the basement can be a bit of a maze when you’re new.

I head over first thing to do some shelving in one of the department libraries, I prefer doing things like that early as it means I can trundle through the galleries with my trolley and not have to worry about the noise being a disturbance.  I also do a bit of tidying while I’m there departmental libraries rely on the ‘trust’ system for loans, staff fill in a loan card and place it on the shelves in the spaces occupied by the books or journals, and sign them back in afterwards, removing the loan card.  Because it’s a ‘self-service’ arrangement the shelves can get a little messy, so every now and again we go out and put them in order, although to be honest it’s not something that has to be done too often, staff are pretty good at keeping the place neat. There is no limit on how many books a member of staff can borrow at one time, nor how long they can keep them for, I’ve seen loan cards for books signed out from back in the 1980s.  As we are primarily a reference library it’s not really a problem if someone else wants a book already on loan, as you just check the name on the card and pop over to their office to ask if they’ve finished with it.

We are a great deal quieter today than yesterday; we have no external visitors, only staff members in, and one of the Museum Friends doing research for the art tours they do around the art galleries.  It’s not surprising to find staff up here simply using the library as a quiet place to work, plus if they need to spread their work out then we often have more space for that than in their offices.

Because we were so quiet after lunch I was able to get on with some accessioning.  Every book, complete journal volume and annual report that we hold has its own unique identifying number – an accession number.  These are generated manually; we have a list and mark off each number, in order as it is assigned.  These are then inputted into the corresponding catalogue record, and written into the front of the book, they act in exactly the same way as barcodes.  On a regular basis these numbers and the records attached to them are printed out in a list which is stored for future reference, should we ever need them.  We have accession register books dating back to the founding of the museum library; although those ones were all hand written (usually in beautiful copperplate handwriting).  They do still provide a useful point of reference if we are having problems finding an item.

Before heading home I have a look through some old photos of the museum we have in our photographic archive.  There are some lovely ones of the library from the early 1950s, and apart from the fact that there is more clutter and we all have computers, the library hasn’t really changed all that much.

Library Day in the Life #7

I'm a part-time library assistant working in a museum library.  I’m taking part in the Library Day in the Life project this time because although I used to enjoy reading the posts in the previous rounds this is the first time I've had a blog of my own.

The library I work in has been part of the museum since it was built in the early part of the 20th century.  The initial collection moved in the 1920's into a purpose built library, but as it rapidly outgrew that space material moved out to form a number of smaller, unstaffed departmental libraries. The original room, where we are based, is now known as the Main Library (or ML).

Because I am only part-time my week doesn't start till Wednesday, I try to get in fairly early, I aim for 8.30 but it is often later before I manage to arrive.  However, today for some reason I make it in for 8.20, which does leave me with the unsettling feeling that I’ve forgotten to do part of my normal morning routine.

When I arrive in the morning I tend to make my way up to the library through the art galleries, it gives me a chance to be nosy at what exhibitions they have.  At the moment a number of cases are being cleared as a temporary exhibition is moving on so I am looking forward to seeing what will be replacing it in the coming weeks.

It’s always very silent when I first come in, but at 10.00am when we open to the public there will be an explosion of noise in the main hall.  We are at the top of the building up above the public spaces and the sound really echoes.  Mondays are the only days we are closed to the public, and I’ve often wondered what it would be like working here then, as I imagine the silence would be quite eerie.
 
When I first get in I work through my emails, I get a variety including order status reports from our book suppliers, feedback on queries that came in the previous week, and details of any visitors we have coming in.  Although our main purpose is to provide information resources for the museum’s staff, we also accommodate researchers requiring material that is not easily available in other libraries.  These are usually by appointment only and we tend to require that visitors know in advance what they are looking for.

After clearing the backlog of emails I head out shelving and tidying, both in the main library and in one of the departmental ones.  The advantage of having our libraries spread throughout the building is you do get the opportunity to get out and about a bit; in fact there are some days when I am barely at my desk at all.  I’m less enamoured of shelving in the main library stacks, as I have a real love/hate relationship with them.  On the one hand I appreciate that they are originals from when the building was designed, and that they are unusual because they are pull-out stacks rather than static shelving or roller racking.  However, their disadvantages are that they were obviously designed for small books, the shelves themselves are not very wide, and all the stacks are too close together, and they are really heavy, particularly when full.

This morning I also made time to sign up for Library Camp UK 2011 in Birmingham, I’m really looking forward to it, and particularly all the cake that seems to have been promised.  I checked Twitter and my RSS feeds to see what people are talking about in the library world today, and I finally got round to posting Things 6 and 7 of my cpd23 things, I’d written them earlier, but hadn’t yet published them on my blog.

After lunch I’m checking back in journals and auction catalogues that have been down in the various departments.  Much of the stock we have either stays in the ML or heads down to its permanent home in the departmental libraries.  However, we have a small portion of the collection that goes on circulation before finally returning to be housed in the ML.  We keep a check list for things going out and coming back in, and one of my jobs involves recording the safe return of these items, or chasing up any outstanding ones.

We are unusually busy today, as well as a member of staff working all day in the library we have had visitors in both the morning and afternoon.  We are normally much quieter, and particularly so during the summer months when staff tend to be away.  Many of our outside visitors tend to be postgraduate students from the nearby universities, particularly the conservation, archaeology and museum studies courses, but as it's the summer holidays we have not seen so much of them recently.  We also have our volunteer with us today; he is currently working through shelves of pamphlet material, checking their details on the card catalogues and then inputting them onto our cataloguing system.  We started using a computerised catalogue back in 1999 but the job of putting all the old stock on to it is so vast we are still working through it.

Towards the end of the day it gets a bit quieter and I’m able to work for a bit on the library e-newsletter.  We decided last year to start producing an electronic newsletter to circulate to all staff.  I act as the editor (although the Head Librarian always has the last word!) and content tends to include details of resources we have purchased, interesting new acquisitions and library announcements.

By then it is time to head home, and I realise I’ve been so busy today I haven’t even had time to make myself a cup of tea!