Month 2

I've just finished the second month of my traineeship. In two months I have had a chance to take on a multitude of different tasks and projects and get used to invigilating researchers and managing the enquiry desk. I do an average of three desk shifts a week. Desk shifts are organised in four hour shifts, 9.30-1.30 and 1.30- 5.30. This means that over the last few months I have had plenty of experience working on the enquiry desk. Our library has two enquiry desks and I am normally situated in the main reading room, meaning I get to meet the members and researchers that visit and say hello to the members of the public who might be stopping by to take a look at the library.
My day starts with the usual email and calendar checking, a coffee and then checking the email enquiry in-boxes for the library. This involves answering users enquiries regarding Athens, answering general queries and actioning requests. I find this a nice way to start the day and enjoy the opportunity to help and build rapport with users over email and phone. It's always good knowing you've helped a professional reach the information they require for an important case report, or given some much needed advice about e-journals.

Over the last week I've been given a new task to focus on, which incorporates both systems and user services. I've been asked to seek out and compile a list of open access clinical and surgical journals to be added to the library's catalogue. The aim of this, is to make finding open access material more accessible to users and to add relevant and complementary resources to the library's existing subscriptions. Rather than the users having to actively seek out OA material themselves, relevant journals will be added to the speciality journal lists on the college website. This additional service will help members of the library, but also make it a great deal easier for library staff when conducting research and literature searching. I'm excited about this project and it's addition to the website and will be prioritising it as my main user-services task over the coming weeks. Over the last month I have and boxed, labelled, organised and stock checked the print journal collection. I've really enjoyed doing this and have found it really useful, especially when a member asks me to direct them towards a particular journal.

October saw a number of trainee developments taking place, the first being the London graduate trainees meeting at Senate House library. Although not technically a University of London trainee, my managers very kindly set up a link with the scheme in order to provide me with the support of library visits and meet ups with other trainees. The other development came in the form of my library school applications. I started writing my supporting statement, which was a lot less scary than I had anticipated. Now I've just the CPD25 'Applying to Library School' event to attend and then it will be time to submit my applications!