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Cataloguing Practice at the IOE Library

By utnvmoa, on 9 February 2024

This post is about running a short course for colleagues on cataloguing.  I’ve written it to let people know what we offer, and to discuss too the benefits of sharing expertise for those giving as well as those receiving.

We started running introductory training courses on cataloguing in the IOE Library almost by accident.  Back in mid-2014 a member of staff working in Library Acquisitions in SSEES joined the ‘Peer Shadowing Scheme’, a brief joint IOE and UCL entity before the two institutions merged, and came to the acquisitions section of the IOE Library.  While with us, the shadower asked if he could see how we went about cataloguing too.  We showed him and gave him some to do.  The experience was very positive.  Our first student took to it so well he got a job as a cataloguer at LSE.

Since then a total of 21 library services colleagues have been through 28 courses.  Some have done both general and ebook cataloguing, some both those plus work on metadata for the IOE’s Digital Education Resource Archive (DERA).  Mostly this has been post-pandemic. In the chart below, LCCOS of course means ‘the rest of LCCOS not including the IOE’, just to be clear.  I make the distinction between IOE and rest of LCCOS simply to show how we’ve cast the net more widely over time. In addition to what’s on the chart, Tom Meehan (Head of Cataloguing and Metadata) has also been offering cataloguing practice courses and has seen 7 students (3 in 2022 and 4 in 2023). To find out what the boomerangs are doing on the chart by the way, you’ll have to read a bit further.

So what do we offer?  It’s not shadowing, it’s practice.  The student is given an introduction to the theory of cataloguing and its application here, shown an actual catalogue record or two, then given typically three items to take away and catalogue from scratch, plus a lot of links to documentation for reference.  A feedback session is scheduled on the practice records that result.  After another round or two of practice cataloguing and feedback, if the student wants to do more, we suggest they find items to practise on, then check the catalogue record to compare and if they have questions to ask us.

Those are the bare parameters but the course can be tailored according to what the student wants.  Some may simply want to know what cataloguing is and how it affects other areas of library work, others may have some items in their area of work which they want to be able to catalogue themselves with our guidance. Some may want to add knowledge and practice of cataloguing to their skill set for their own development (and their CV).  Some may even think they want to be a cataloguer, and others may just want an excuse to get away from their own desk for a while (it happens!).  All of the above is fine with us.

Three of the five of us in the IOE cataloguing team are directly involved in offering cataloguing practice.  Kristina Macdonald joined me doing this in April 2022.  She says she was motivated by wanting to gain confidence when explaining our work to colleagues, and a strong desire to demystify cataloguing which she feels is often a gatekept area of library work. And since last year Christina Egan has also been keen to offer an add-on course practising ebook cataloguing as well as our work managing the metadata for records on DERA. Christina cites her love of teaching as the main reason she wanted to join in – she says having that element to her role keeps her happy professionally. As her line manager, I’m happy about that! Plus there’s now Tom Meehan joining in too, and the three of us at the IOE and Tom all liaise on what we’re offering and how it works.

Five temporary staff have taken the course and three people (two of them temps) went on to take jobs either as cataloguers or involving a significant amount of cataloguing.  All three of those jobs were outside of UCL, but I can prove we’re not about providing an escape route: two who did the course and then went on to land a cataloguing job elsewhere, ended up a few years later getting cataloguing jobs back here at UCL. So that’s two boomerang students.  We don’t do the courses as a long-term staffing strategy of course, but well-trained new starters has turned out to be one of the benefits.

It’s also very good for us.  Having to explain what we do, how, and why, makes us think about our own practice, and all these new people coming in and asking questions gives us lots of fresh perspectives.  Those who’ve done the course and go back to their roles here in LCCOS will also have gained some understanding of our work and how it fits in or doesn’t with theirs, which can improve communication between different sections of the library.

A few years ago for a presentation I came over all Venn trying to illustrate how librarians feel about cataloguing knowledge (reproduced below).

How things might ideally be when library staff from other sections meet cataloguers.

 

How I fear they sometimes are.  (This will vary from individual to individual of course.)

I hope our Cataloguing Practice courses are helping bring those circles together.

Congratulations to a new LCCOS HEA Fellow

By Angela Young, on 29 January 2024

Jo BainesMany congratulations to Jo Baines (Academic Liaison Librarian / Archivist – Special Collections) who has achieved the award of HEA Fellow, through UCL Arena Fellowship, which is testament to Jo’s commitment to professionalism in supporting learning and teaching in higher education.

Why apply for HEA fellowship?

HEA fellowship is a nationally recognised award and can be great evidence for your CV or when applying for jobs. In addition to gaining post-nominals, the process of applying for fellowship means you reflect on your teaching and work to support learning and develop your skills, identify areas for your future development and enhance your support of students so contributing to the user experience. There are various categories of fellowship depending on your role and experience, including Associate Fellow, Fellow and Senior Fellow, so it’s relevant to all sorts of roles across LCCOS. UCL Arena Fellowship provides an accredited route to HEA Fellowship and is free for UCL staff. Why not make working towards HEA Fellowship a development goal in your appraisal this year?

LCCOS support for HEA fellowship

Did you know that there are monthly peer-support meets for colleagues in LCCOS who are interested in applying for HEA fellowship? Jo found the meets invaluable for providing encouragement and support, as well as motivating her to get on with her application and get it submitted. Jo will return to a meet soon to share her experiences and what worked for her.

We also have an LCCOS Teams site for sharing friendly tips, asking questions and providing peer support and motivation for getting started and getting on.

How can I find out more?

The UCL Arena Fellowship website and Moodle course are great places to get started with finding out more, or attend a UCL Arena Fellowship initial guidance session. To join an LCCOS HEA Fellowship support meet, or be added to the Teams site, please contact Angela Young.

Professional Registration Questionnaire for LCCOS

By Craig Martin, on 28 November 2023

Aside from obtaining a formal qualification (e.g. Masters / diploma / apprenticeships), there are several options available to LCCOS colleagues who wish to advance their professional knowledge, experience and skills. This can provide evidence for your expertise and commitment to professional development in the sector through attainment of a professional qualification. This survey will give us an understanding of the current status and future aspirations of LCCOS colleagues in relation to these qualifications, which will inform how we can best support staff who would like to work towards them.

To get a full picture, we kindly request all within LCCOS complete the survey by 12th January 2024.

All responses will be treated in confidence.

Please get in touch if you have any questions.

Many thanks

Craig Martin, Subject Liaison Librarian
Angela Young, Head of Library Skills

 

 

Induction insights 2023 – we need you!

By Angela Young, on 26 July 2023

In this edition of Induction insights 2023:

  • Sign up to be part of the Library Induction Taskforce.
  • Helping students understand what to expect from their library when they start university.
  • Sharing induction materials.

1. Sign up to be part of the Library Induction Taskforce

The Library Induction Working Group invite all library staff to get involved with meeting, greeting and supporting our new students by contributing to our face to face, central library induction activities as part of the Library Induction Taskforce. This is an opportunity to meet and work with other colleagues from across Library Services, to broaden your experience of providing support to students and develop or enhance your professional skills. Contribute as much or as little as you are able over the induction period, mainly in the week commencing 25th September 2023.

Activities include staffing a stand at the Support Services Fair or a ‘Getting Started’ space in Main and Science libraries or contributing to demonstrations of Explore or welcome talks to international students.

If you would like to get involved, with consent from your line manager and prioritising support for induction activities at your own library site as required, please sign up.

If you routinely contribute to central induction activities every year, please ensure you still complete the form so we have a complete record of everyone who will be involved to help facilitate communications.

2. Helping students understand what to expect from their library when they start university.

For students starting at university for the first time, getting to grips with navigating UCL’s many libraries, collections and extensive online library resources can be overwhelming and daunting. We have produced a short guide with tips to help smooth this transition. Initially presented as a Sway, we plan ultimately to turn this into a video, and have deliberately framed it so it is relevant to anyone about to start at university, not only at UCL, so it can be useful to people before they have a confirmed university place. It is available on the Pre-arrival page of the Library Skills pages. Please share in any communications where it might be relevant.

3. Sharing induction materials

At the recent Induction Exchange (part of the LCCOS Staff Summer School (Get an enrolment key for the Moodle course)) we discussed the benefits of sharing induction materials put together for academic programmes or library sites. These might include videos, Sway presentations, quizzes, etc. Sharing can inspire, ensure best practice and save duplication of effort. Please share your local induction materials in the new ‘Induction sharing’ tab in the Library Skills Team site. Materials shared by colleagues at the ‘Induction exchange’ and previous staff training events are already listed.

UCL LCCOS Staff Summer School 2023 – bookings now open

By Angela Young, on 26 May 2023

The UCL LCCOS Staff Summer School (formerly UCL Library Services Staff Summer School) is a series of training and development sessions, events and online activities aimed at staff from across UCL LCCOS, to support their ability to answer enquiries and to provide support, training and advocacy to users and stakeholders. Sessions are generally delivered by colleagues, so we can share our expertise.

The programme this year has a variety of sessions, running throughout June and July:

For full details of the programme and to book your place(s), see the UCL LCCOS Staff Summer School calendar. Presentations, accompanying links and materials and recordings (where applicable) will be made available on the UCL LCCOS Staff Summer School Moodle Course. If you do not already have access, please get the enrolment key. Sessions are open to all UCL Library Services staff, with approval from your line manager.

UCL LCCOS Staff Summer School 2023 – help shape it!

By Angela Young, on 3 May 2023

We are now putting together the programme for the UCL LCCOS Staff Summer School 2023 (formerly UCL Library Services Staff Summer School) and are reaching out to colleagues to help shape it.
If you haven’t engaged with our Summer School before, it is a series of training and professional development events open to all LCCOS staff but particularly aimed at staff who engage directly with our users to provide training and support, to help develop their knowledge and skills so that they are better able to undertake these activities. Sessions are usually delivered by colleagues, sharing the knowledge and expertise we have across LCCOS, and some may be aimed at staff supporting particular disciplines.

The Summer School takes place during June and July, with a mixture of live online events that will be recorded, and face to face events.

Recordings and materials from previous years of the Summer School are available on the UCL LCCOS Staff Summer School Moodle course.

Please help shape this year’s Summer School by completing our suggestion form by 17 May 2023. You can also use the suggestion form to request the enrolment key for the Moodle course, if you don’t already have access.

eXperience eXchange 2023 – bookings now open

By Angela Young, on 30 March 2023

Bookings are now open for the 2023 LCCOS eXperience eXchange, which will take place online on MS Teams on Thursday 25 May 10.00 – 12.00.

eXperience eXchange – what happens?

experience exchange logoLCCOS colleagues come together to share ideas and good practice about teaching or training design and delivery, academic engagement and support activities through short presentations or other activities.

How does it work?

Colleagues from across LCCOS are invited to give short presentations or teaching activities (5-20 mins) to exchange their experiences an any aspect of their work relating to teaching or training design and delivery, academic engagement or other support activities. This may include feedback from events or training you’ve attended, something new you’ve tried in your work, an idea you might have and would value some peer input, or simply giving colleagues an insight into your role and activities.

The event this year will also include Lessons from LILAC, a report by colleagues who are attending this year’s LILAC: The information literacy conference.

Why get involved?

There are many benefits to being part of the eXperience eXchange, including:

  • bringing colleagues together to give everyone a better understanding of activities happening across LCCOS.
  • benefiting colleagues who may be inspired by your experiences to inform their work.
  • an opportunity to get input and feedback from colleagues to help you develop your ideas.
  • a development opportunity which can provide evidence for an application for HEA fellowship or on job applications, giving opportunity to give a presentation or deliver a short teaching activity in a safe space with a friendly audience, and for sharing best practice with colleagues.
  • an opportunity to try out new teaching activities or tools, including tools for presenting online, such as polls, breakout rooms and whiteboard features.
  • an opportunity to gain inspiration from the work of your peers.

What is the format of the presentations?

This year we invite contributions in one of three formats:

  • A short presentation (5-10 mins)
  • PechaKucha (20 slides of 20 seconds each)
  • A longer presentation or activity (15-20 mins – allows time for more in depth presentations or opportunity for interactivity and input from colleagues).

If you’d rather not present, you can attend as an attendee only, but remember that the event depends on contributions.

How do I sign up?

Simply complete the registration form. We will send you the link to join and liaise with you over your contribution.

CPD25 course: Supporting staff and students with autism and learning difficulties, 07.12.22

By Sharon A James, on 24 January 2023

Back in December 2022 Sharon James and Sarah Turk attended this online course. Below are their write-ups of the presentations.

First presentation, delivered by Clare Caccavone

The first presentation, “Progressing neurodiversity and making adjustments” was delivered by Clare Caccavone, Programme Director at Ambitious about Autism. This charity provides support, specialist education and employability services for autistic children and young people. Clare informed us that 56% of autistic children have been unofficially excluded from school, 4 out of 5 autistic young people experience mental health issues, and only 29% of autistic people are in employment.

Features of autism include difficulties with social communication, social interaction, routines, and sensory overload. To bring this to life we were shown a helpful short video in which young people with autism talked about stimming, a coping mechanism that helps with anxiety. It involves repetitive actions such as rocking, hand flapping, feet tapping, sniffing a scent or squeezing a hand toy. The video is from the Ambitious about Autism YouTube channel. We also watched this Sensory Overload video that allows the watcher to experience what it is like to be overwhelmed by everyday noise and confusion.

Ambitious about Autism are proud of a pilot they ran, the Higher Education Network, where they worked with 17 universities, trained over 100 employers, and enabled more than 170 autistic students to benefit from paid work. Aiming to create a more neurodiverse workforce, they are also working with five universities this year.

Finally, we were given some tips for when working with neurodiverse students and colleagues. These include:

  • In your workplace, notice what could present a challenge for others.
  • Provide advance warning of any changes, cancellations or closures.
  • Allow the use of self-calming strategies that are not harmful.
  • Use someone’s name before talking so that you have their attention.
  • Don’t assume what you have said is obvious; reiterate what will happen and why.
  • Allow more time for information to be processed.
  • Give staff and students any questions you have before meeting up with them.

I found this presentation very helpful, especially the practical tips. The videos were also informative and allowed me to better understand the experiences involved in being neurodiverse.  As a frontline worker I feel that this training will help me when communicating with all library users and colleagues.

Related link

Ambitious about Autism website.

by Sharon James

Second presentation, delivered by Daniela de Silva and Eleri Kyffin

The second presentation, “Inclusive recruitment practices at the University of Westminster, Library and Archive Service”, was delivered by Daniela de Silva and Eleri Kyffin from the University of Westminster Library. We learned about how they have transformed the recruitment process to make it more inclusive and support neurodiverse applicants.

When invited to interview, all candidates now receive a Recruitment Welcome Pack which includes the names and pictures of the interview panel, information about the team and post, interview tips and guidance along with the interview questions (or the topics for questions for senior roles). It was interesting to learn that feedback gathered from both the interview candidates and the interview panel members was on the whole very positive. Whilst some candidates found that having the questions in advance made them more nervous, the majority felt it was very helpful. The interview panel found that even with the questions in advance they could see the candidates’ strengths and weaknesses, and follow up questions could be used to probe a bit deeper.

As a recruiter who sometimes feels that the interview process may not allow a candidate to do themselves justice, it was very thought provoking to hear the positive experiences of both the panel members and candidates at the University of Westminster. What I found particularly inspiring was that whilst this began as a way of making their recruitment more inclusive for autistic candidates, it actually could have the potential to make the process more inclusive for all. Definitely food for thought!

by Sarah Turk

Attendance at UHMLG Summer Conference, June 2022

By david.charles.green, on 27 July 2022

Report on UCL Library Services members’ attendance at the University Health & Medical Librarians group (UHMLG) Summer Conference, held in Swansea 16 & 17 June 2022 (see attached file).

Notes from UHMLG Summer Conference June 22 – all FINAL

*Updated* Job Shadowing Scheme Guidelines and Form

By aanchal.bhatt, on 4 May 2022

Dear Library Staff,

I am happy to inform you that the Library Services Job Shadowing Scheme has been updated, with easy to follow guidelines and only ONE form to complete.

The purpose of this scheme is to make it as flexible and accessible as possible for anyone within the department to take part in a form of job shadowing. The guidelines are there to support you and the form is there to help guide the conversations needed to organise this activity.

What is Job Shadowing?

Job shadowing is a form of learning and development, where an individual from one area or team has the opportunity to work alongside and gain experience of the role of another individual. Job shadowing is accessible to all employees, of any shift pattern, any grade and any experience.

The flexibility of this scheme means that it can be successfully used within a hybrid working environment and job shadowing (observing, undertaking tasks, participating in meetings) can occur virtually as well as face to face.

Further information including links to the form and guidelines, details of how to participate, plus a handy flow chart, can be found on the dedicated Libnet page: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/libnet/hr/learning-and-development/job-shadowing-library-services-staff

If you have any questions or wish to discuss the scheme further, please feel free to email aanchal.bhatt@ucl.ac.uk

Kind Regards,

Aanchal Bhatt