Former Librarian #3

This week we welcome Former Librarian Teresa to the blog. Teresa has continued to work within the same organisation since leaving her library-related role but now works in the area of outreach and careers.
 
Current role: Education Outreach Officer at a northern English university.

Former role: Indexer, British Education Index, within the Library at the same University, and before that a role in a special library.

What led you to move on from libraries? The move from a library-related role was through redundancy. However, the previous move to the indexing role from a special library environment was a desire for a more technical role doing something I enjoyed doing, i.e. Indexing.

What do you do in your current role? Outreach and school/college liaison incorporating careers information and advice.

What library skills do you use in your current role? I utilise my information skills producing a current awareness publication on issues relating to outreach, widening participation and educational research. My experience of library and information work has also enabled me to perform literature searches for research projects. I have made gathering and disseminating information an important aspect of my role.

Do you think that your library skills helped you to get this position? Yes and no. I think what I did with them enabled me to get my current job but the skills themselves were not necessarily seen as important because there was no obvious link between the roles. However, I enjoyed the freedom to ensure that I could keep many of my skills up-to-date and prove to the team how useful information management and handling skills could actually be.

What other skills have you had to acquire since leaving the library profession in order to enable you to carry out your work? I have had to become more adept at talking to a wider range of people, presenting to groups, planning, organising and delivering events. The latter was a completely new area for me.

Do you maintain any professional memberships or are there new ones which are more appropriate? I only let my CILIP membership lapse this year despite being 4 years into my new role. This is because I had a more appropriate option that will help me in the future.

Do you have any future plans/aspirations? This role, and that of my colleagues, is constantly changing. Sometimes it is the political landscape that forces us to change the way we are delivering our programmes and to which groups of students but there is also a recognition that we should be doing more career development work and moving more into career education and guidance. This is why I chose to join the CDI instead of CILIP but I have every intention of keeping my broad information skills up-to-date.