Month One

Almost a month has passed since I began my traineeship. The first few weeks were very much focused on allowing me to settle in to my role and to begin taking on my own projects. Last week I began enquiry desk duties on my own which gave me a chance to interact with users on a closer basis, learning a lot on the job! My customer service experience has really started to come in handy when dealing with users face to face and over the phone, especially during the times when I don't know the answer to a question or can't find something! As our library forms part of a membership organisation, whose members are often based all over the country, the typical day to day duties have been substantially different to what one would expect from say, a public or academic library where library staff are more likely to deal with users in person by way of a busy enquiry desk. A different user base calls for a different kind of service and this month has taught me the different ways to provide information to users who aren't necessarily in the library building itself. I've been involved with the document delivery service which has involved processing inter-library loans and delivery of items from the library's print collection, to users who would otherwise not have easy access to them. I've gained a good grounding of the different systems involved with this process including our scanner and editing software. Electronic resources are another essential area I have had the opportunity to get involved in by checking and amending the holdings information for the libraries electronic subscriptions and ensuring that all the information corresponds correctly to the catalogue. I have taken over dealing with Athens enquiries each morning, which has increased my procedural knowledge and given me a good grounding in administrating Athens accounts and ensuring efficient access to members.

Getting to know the collections and how they are classified has been high on my list, so I have been using the weekly journal check-in as time to get acquainted with our modern collections, which also allows me a chance to re-organise and oversee the archived journals to enable the easiest access. In terms of collections projects I have utilised the LMS to ensure that the Hunterian tracts which form part of our rare book collection are catalogued correctly and consistently. Ultimately, I've had a fantastic overview of library life so far and am really looking forward to what comes next!