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While scanning the daily newspapers today (noh I don't do it for pleasure, it is part of my job trust me!) I came across this article in The Guardian. I have highlighted some of the sentences in the article which made me nod my head while reading. I must admit, despite being a Librarian I hardly read books anymore, strange world isn't it?
In The Guardian, Tuesday 18 August 2009:
Academic libraries are undergoing a quiet revolution
Being a librarian these days is all about technology and customer service; no time to stick your
Anne Hannaford has a passion for what libraries can mean for people. Photograph: Andrew Fox
Thirty years ago, says Professor Jane Core, director of library and learning services at the University of Northumbria, people went into librarianship for a quiet life that had a bit of cachet. If they think that now, however, "they may be disappointed," she says. "Here, our focus is on working with people and with information." There's not much spare time to stick your nose in a book.
Applying for a job in a university library because you "love reading" isn't going to get you very far these days. These hallowed repositories of academic knowledge have changed beyond recognition over the last decade, and the people recruited to work in them have to be willing to embrace new technologies and customer service with an alacrity that would likely horrify the shushing custodians of the past.
The digital revolution in the late 1990s transformed – and is still transforming – everything, explains Toby Bainton, secretary of the Society of College, National and University Libraries (Sconul).
"It's been a mixed blessing," he explains. "Distributing and sharing information is much easier, but things are much more complex behind the scenes. Students think that what they see on their screens is free, but information is very valuable and has to be bought, so often what they see is very strictly controlled by contract."
Legal knowledge and sophisticated negotiating skills are therefore now at a premium for librarians of the future as they try to secure rights – at an affordable price – to view journals and research papers online, he explains. Once contracts have been finalised, university libraries also need IT specialists who can ensure that the information is only seen by those allowed access. Otherwise, he points out, publishers tend to sue.
The way students use libraries is also changing, observes Core, and this affects not only the way space is deployed within library buildings – silence is no longer golden, at least in some areas where collaborative project work is done – but also the way librarians do their job.
The fact that many UK and overseas students will complete much of their coursework through distance learning, and that others will have arrived at university via the FE sector on access courses, means that tuition in research skills and how to use online library services is crucial. Finding attractive ways to market the services that university libraries can offer is also important, says Core, or else students will scoot off into cyberspace for their information – and not every website is renowned for its academic rigour.
This means that for librarians who are just starting out, there are far more options for specialisation and career development now than ever before. And despite the technological emphasis, a passion for communication is crucial.
"The tech side of things has allowed us to interact with students in a completely different way. Instead of students being passive consumers, now we use the technologies to engage with them," says Paul Williams, team leader for systems and access services at Worcester University's library, who became a university librarian in 2000.
"Something I wasn't expecting was the amount of teaching involved, or that I'd regularly be standing in front of 100-200 students to sell our services," says Emma Butler, a subject librarian at the University of Derby.
Butler is one of the new breed of librarian whose careers have developed alongside the rapid growth in access to information, and who now mould the way students interact with – and learn to critically evaluate – that data.
Flexibility and willingness to adapt to new ideas is key, she says: her typical day might include a stint on the enquiry desk, a one-to-one session teaching an access student research skills, creating an online "data search" tutorial for remote use, editing a guide to library services for the new intake of first years and working with academic staff to develop reading lists for the kind of new courses – such as the spa management degree taught at Derby – that may never have existed before.
University libraries have of course traditionally been highly exclusive in terms of who they let in. Gown can wander the university's well-stocked book-stacks from early in the morning till late at night, while town has only had access to the scruffy municipal library that's open for a few hours a day if you're lucky.
But the recent launch of Worcester University's £60m collaboration with Worcester county council to build a completely integrated community and university library bang in the middle of the city will fundamentally challenge this separation between student and citizen.
And given that the skills required by those who work in university libraries fundamentally depend on what its users want and need, it's anticipated that there will be a massive expansion in the staff who will be employed to get different audiences using the snazzy new facilities come the opening in 2011.
The council's customer service desk will be in the entrance. "Library staff will get the opportunity to interface with people who may not be natural library users, and not university students," points out Anne Hannaford, director of information and learning services at Worcester University. Some of the customers will have a query about their council tax or housing, for instance. "It really is about reaching people who are hard to reach, as well as existing audiences."
The university and council's joint vision, she explains, will be to use existing and yet-to-be-recruited staff to develop and deliver a vast range of activities that will appeal to every sector of the public.
Hannaford clearly has a passion for what libraries can mean to the people who – sometimes very nervously – cross the threshold.
"When libraries started, they were referred to as the poor man's university with free, democratic access," she says. "We will be offering things that are fun, things that widen horizons, and things of more serious academic interest. And we'll be open very long hours."
For anyone with leadership ambitions, the available scope – and salaries – are considerable.
"At any university [a director is] managing a multimillion-pound budget and teams of people. You'll probably be on the senior team of the university, so you have to be a strategic thinker with political skill and judgment, and show considerable persuasive ability," says Hannaford.
That could mean a paycheck of up to £90,000 at a top university, says Toby Bainton. Money and power clearly aren't everything though: at Derby University, Butler says she loves the job she's got. "September is a mad time that I really enjoy," she says. "There are inductions, welcomes, meeting new students. By November we're all looking a bit haggard."
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2009
