This week, Former Librarian #16 is now a bookshop manager in the charity sector. Although she needed to acquire skills in retail experience, she finds that the library skills gained are invaluable: "It is not just a question of sticking any old book on a
shelf and hoping someone will buy it."
Name: “anonymous”
Current role: Bookshop Manager, Charity sector
Former role: Deputy Librarian, private library
What led you to move on from libraries?
Previously I had spent 30 years in libraries firstly in the private sector and then in a learned
society and a private charitable library in London. I gave this up mainly as a result of needing
to support my teenaged son, who has learning difficulties, by keeping him in school through
his final GCSE year. I gave up full-time library work - I was commuting for 2 hours each way
a day - and instead did some paid gardening work and was a participant in a university
funded medical research project on depression and mindfulness (I was in the control group
that had not suffered from depression). I accidentally stumbled across an advert for my
current job when I was in a local charity shop.
What do you do in your current role?
I manage a charity bookshop. I am the only paid member of staff, but manage 50 volunteers
who all contribute to the success of the shop. My volunteers range from 15 – 85 years of age
and include former university professors, nurses, teachers, an artist, a librarian, an
accountant and several students. Our aim is to make as much money as possible in support
of the charity’s work to alleviate poverty. Most of the material we sell – books and music - is
donated to us, with a small amount of ‘new product’ e.g. greetings cards.
What library skills do you use in your current role?
There is a huge emphasis on customer service, creating a friendly, welcoming and helpful
environment. I use a lot of the skills I learned in reader/information services – getting to know
my customers, understanding their needs, learning about the stock – which changes daily,
but you can see patterns in what comes in. Grouping books by subject, categorising them for
generating data on what sells. We have regular donors and customers that we get to know.
It has also been interesting to see how many people use a charity bookshop to buy material,
read it and donate it back again – a number of customers have said they regard the shop
like a library. We also take requests and keep a look out for material.
We also sell online around the world, so need to select and list material, which uses
cataloguing skills. The knowledge gained from working in the library world helps in being
able to spot interesting or unusual books, 1st editions, signed copies, interesting/niche
publishers. It helps you spot an academic publisher where someone will pay £25 for a book,
rather than the £2.50 for a popular novel. We recently sold a 1st edition Arthur C Clarke to a
customer in Australia for £160.
Do you think that your library skills helped you to get this position?
Yes. As part of the interview I was given a pile of books donated to another shop and
selected at random to comment on. I was surprised to be offered the job as I had no retail
experience, but was told I would learn that but they wanted the knowledge I already that they
couldn’t teach me. One of the books I had commented on was subsequently priced at £70
because I recognised the illustrator as being important.
What other skills have you had to acquire since leaving the library profession in order to
enable you to carry out your work?
Knowledge of the retail sector, its processes, language, how to display material to maximum
effect. It has also been interesting learning how to interpret management information derived
from stock and sales systems that show you which areas of your stock generate the best
returns.
Do you maintain any professional memberships or are there new ones which are more
appropriate?
I’ve just resigned from CILIP.
Do you have any future plans/aspirations?
I’m really enjoying what I’m doing now, I’ve learned new skills and on a personal level I get a
huge amount of satisfaction out of making a tiny contribution to making life better for others.
It’s been interesting to move from an environment where so many meetings were about lack
of funding, cutbacks and lots of negativity to one where you start with nothing and you and
your volunteers with the support of the local community have to build from there and make it
happen. At the end of each financial year we get told what our shop’s net contribution to the
charity has been and what this equates to e.g. how many wells, medical centres, school
equipment. Some days it’s just not like going to work.
Anything else that you’d like to tell us?
My job has made me realise how transferable library skills are and also how much is
involved in running a charity bookshop. It is not just a question of sticking any old book on a
shelf and hoping someone will buy it.
Tuesday, 26 April 2016
Tuesday, 19 April 2016
Former Librarian #15
Former Librarian #15 is a little different as she is currently working as a volunteer in 2 different capacities and a tutor. I thought that although this emphasis on volunteer work does not directly relate to finding employment beyond libraries, it is worth including as she is very clear that the skills gained in her library work directly contribute to the success in her current roles.
Current role: Volunteer (Project Manager of a Trussell Trust Foodbank; Tutor (Piano, Music Theory, Math & English); Volunteer Family Learning Centre Coordinator (for a Baptist Church); Recording Secretary and activist for a local Neighbourhood Forum.
Former role: Community Librarian (working for the Birmingham City Council) managing 2 libraries in the east of the city (3 by the time I left). My role was to promote reading and learning activities to all ages using a range of programmes and inventiveness to encourage library usage and book borrowing.
What led you to move on from libraries? I left Libraries because the role and job was gradually being undermined, as a profession and as an essential area of influence in the leisure, learning & community cohesion sector.
What do you do in your current role? With 3 roles on the go, my first is to inspire young people to learn – so I teach piano & music theory skills from an early age and currently help with 11+ preparations (including reading skills). I do this alongside developing a church site as a place of learning & leisure through community engagement; As a volunteer Project Manager for a Trussell Trust Franchise, I researched foodbank business for a group of churches and set one up from ‘scratch’ and now two years in, turning over 25+ tonnes of donated food and feeding over 2000 local people while supporting other feeding charities. As in Library work where developing a trained team through 1-2-1 coaching, group sessions or external provision, is now part and parcel of the role of equipping the 50+ volunteers to provide support for foodbank volunteers and in the case of the learning centre coordinator, the same in safeguarding & health & safety.
What library skills do you use in your current role? The Skills I used to function as a library manager include – Operations management (H & S); Building management; Trainer; Public speaking; Bid writing, People Management; Negotiating; PR; Customer care; Team/Community work; IT skills (own admin; ppt presentations; database; leaflet designs and production); Event planning & management; liaising with councillors and other elected members, and a host of professionals (from children’s centres, schools, community groups etc)….various skills for the 3 roles.
Do you think that your library skills helped you to get this position? As a volunteer, the skills I practiced running 3 libraries are still valuable and well used in what I do now, especially in my role as a project manager, learning centre coordinator and community activist.
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 to troubleshoot my own IT problems; recently learnt more about website management and social media know-how (PR for the foodbank and neighbourhood forum).
Do you maintain any professional memberships or are there new ones which are more appropriate? I chose not to cancel my ‘Library Association’ membership. I am still a paid up full associate member of CILIP (as if I was still employed). Currently renewing my Institute of Customer Services Membership.
Current role: Volunteer (Project Manager of a Trussell Trust Foodbank; Tutor (Piano, Music Theory, Math & English); Volunteer Family Learning Centre Coordinator (for a Baptist Church); Recording Secretary and activist for a local Neighbourhood Forum.
Former role: Community Librarian (working for the Birmingham City Council) managing 2 libraries in the east of the city (3 by the time I left). My role was to promote reading and learning activities to all ages using a range of programmes and inventiveness to encourage library usage and book borrowing.
What led you to move on from libraries? I left Libraries because the role and job was gradually being undermined, as a profession and as an essential area of influence in the leisure, learning & community cohesion sector.
What do you do in your current role? With 3 roles on the go, my first is to inspire young people to learn – so I teach piano & music theory skills from an early age and currently help with 11+ preparations (including reading skills). I do this alongside developing a church site as a place of learning & leisure through community engagement; As a volunteer Project Manager for a Trussell Trust Franchise, I researched foodbank business for a group of churches and set one up from ‘scratch’ and now two years in, turning over 25+ tonnes of donated food and feeding over 2000 local people while supporting other feeding charities. As in Library work where developing a trained team through 1-2-1 coaching, group sessions or external provision, is now part and parcel of the role of equipping the 50+ volunteers to provide support for foodbank volunteers and in the case of the learning centre coordinator, the same in safeguarding & health & safety.
What library skills do you use in your current role? The Skills I used to function as a library manager include – Operations management (H & S); Building management; Trainer; Public speaking; Bid writing, People Management; Negotiating; PR; Customer care; Team/Community work; IT skills (own admin; ppt presentations; database; leaflet designs and production); Event planning & management; liaising with councillors and other elected members, and a host of professionals (from children’s centres, schools, community groups etc)….various skills for the 3 roles.
Do you think that your library skills helped you to get this position? As a volunteer, the skills I practiced running 3 libraries are still valuable and well used in what I do now, especially in my role as a project manager, learning centre coordinator and community activist.
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 to troubleshoot my own IT problems; recently learnt more about website management and social media know-how (PR for the foodbank and neighbourhood forum).
Do you maintain any professional memberships or are there new ones which are more appropriate? I chose not to cancel my ‘Library Association’ membership. I am still a paid up full associate member of CILIP (as if I was still employed). Currently renewing my Institute of Customer Services Membership.
Tuesday, 12 April 2016
Former Librarian #14
This week, Jo McCausland is our 14th Former Librarian. She tells us that she had "an amazing library career" but that she is astounded to "have found a new area of work that gives me great satisfaction even beyond what my library career gave me" working in the NHS. I was also interested to hear about the similarities that she has identified between the NHS and the library sector, as well as the heavy use of library skills in her current role.
Name: Jo McCausland
Current role: Improvement Project Manager, Strategy and Transformation, Sheffield Children’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.
Former role: Prior to working for my current Trust, I worked in a similar role for Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and prior to that I was a Project Manager working for Sheffield City Council Business Strategy and as part of that role was working with Sheffield Teaching Hospitals and Sheffield Clinical Commissioning Group on health and social care integration. Before that I was unemployed for 9 months and applying mostly for public library management jobs. Before that I worked for several years on a range of library development projects on temporary contracts. Before that I was a mainstream public library manager.
What led you to move on from libraries? Accepted that after many months of job hunting while unemployed that I wasn’t going to be appointed to a role in mainstream public library management. I also came to the realisation that the emerging public library landscape was not going to play to my strengths in developing and improving services.
What do you do in your current role? I have a lead responsibility for improvement projects related to clinical pathways, business units and in-patient services in Sheffield Children’s Hospital which is one of the 4 specialist children’s hospitals in the country alongside Alder Hey Birmingham Children’s and Great Ormond Street Hospitals.
What library skills do you use in your current role? Research; enquiry skills; information gathering, organisation and dissemination; data analysis; benchmarking; performance analysis and management; stakeholder engagement and management; project management; change management; planning; influencing and negotiation; political awareness; leadership and management.
Do you think that your library skills helped you to get this position? No. That said, I have spoken with numerous NHS colleagues about the surprising similarities between the two sectors in terms of organisational development, change management and service transformation. I’ve found existing skills equally applicable within a culture and ethos that puts patients (i.e. customers!) at the heart of our services.
What other skills have you had to acquire since leaving the library profession in order to enable you to carry out your work? More knowledge than skills I would say e.g. infrastructure, funding mechanisms and tariffs, terminology and acronyms, national and local targets and penalties for non-compliance etc.
Do you maintain any professional memberships or are there new ones which are more appropriate? No
Do you have any future plans/aspirations? I plan to see out my working days contributing to making things better in my local NHS. Having now turned 50, it astounds me that I have found a new area of work that gives me great satisfaction even beyond what my library career gave me. I know that my presence makes a difference and even if I was to ever doubt it, all I have to do is walk down a hospital corridor, nip into a ward or visit a clinic and I’m reminded of why I’m here!
Anything else that you’d like to tell us? I had an amazing library career and worked with some fantastic and committed people who went far above and beyond despite circumstances. I always thought library people were special people but I find the same attitude and behaviour with my NHS colleagues so feel quite ‘at home’.
Name: Jo McCausland
Current role: Improvement Project Manager, Strategy and Transformation, Sheffield Children’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.
Former role: Prior to working for my current Trust, I worked in a similar role for Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and prior to that I was a Project Manager working for Sheffield City Council Business Strategy and as part of that role was working with Sheffield Teaching Hospitals and Sheffield Clinical Commissioning Group on health and social care integration. Before that I was unemployed for 9 months and applying mostly for public library management jobs. Before that I worked for several years on a range of library development projects on temporary contracts. Before that I was a mainstream public library manager.
What led you to move on from libraries? Accepted that after many months of job hunting while unemployed that I wasn’t going to be appointed to a role in mainstream public library management. I also came to the realisation that the emerging public library landscape was not going to play to my strengths in developing and improving services.
What do you do in your current role? I have a lead responsibility for improvement projects related to clinical pathways, business units and in-patient services in Sheffield Children’s Hospital which is one of the 4 specialist children’s hospitals in the country alongside Alder Hey Birmingham Children’s and Great Ormond Street Hospitals.
What library skills do you use in your current role? Research; enquiry skills; information gathering, organisation and dissemination; data analysis; benchmarking; performance analysis and management; stakeholder engagement and management; project management; change management; planning; influencing and negotiation; political awareness; leadership and management.
Do you think that your library skills helped you to get this position? No. That said, I have spoken with numerous NHS colleagues about the surprising similarities between the two sectors in terms of organisational development, change management and service transformation. I’ve found existing skills equally applicable within a culture and ethos that puts patients (i.e. customers!) at the heart of our services.
What other skills have you had to acquire since leaving the library profession in order to enable you to carry out your work? More knowledge than skills I would say e.g. infrastructure, funding mechanisms and tariffs, terminology and acronyms, national and local targets and penalties for non-compliance etc.
Do you maintain any professional memberships or are there new ones which are more appropriate? No
Do you have any future plans/aspirations? I plan to see out my working days contributing to making things better in my local NHS. Having now turned 50, it astounds me that I have found a new area of work that gives me great satisfaction even beyond what my library career gave me. I know that my presence makes a difference and even if I was to ever doubt it, all I have to do is walk down a hospital corridor, nip into a ward or visit a clinic and I’m reminded of why I’m here!
Anything else that you’d like to tell us? I had an amazing library career and worked with some fantastic and committed people who went far above and beyond despite circumstances. I always thought library people were special people but I find the same attitude and behaviour with my NHS colleagues so feel quite ‘at home’.
Tuesday, 5 April 2016
Former Librarian #13
This week we welcome an anonymous Learning and Teaching Technologies Manager to the blog. He moved into this role from public libraries.
Name: Just Anon is OK!
Current role: Learning & Teaching Technologies Manager in a faculty at a well-known UK- based distance learning HEI
Former role: Reference Librarian in a town centre public library.
What led you to move on from libraries? I wasn’t interested in the work and I didn’t enjoy contact with the public.
What do you do in your current role? I have responsibility for policy and practice in relation to use of the internet for presenting university-level learning materials to students.
What library skills do you use in your current role? I think there’s a crossover between taxonomy and organisation of thoughts and ideas, which I have to do a lot of.
Do you think that your library skills helped you to get this position? No.
What other skills have you had to acquire since leaving the library profession in order to enable you to carry out your work? Internet and pedagogy-related skills that have only come into existence since the time I left the profession (the internet was hardly a thing in 1993).
Do you maintain any professional memberships or are there new ones which are more appropriate? I was a member of the Library Association during the time I was working in libraries but once I left I knew there was no way I would return to public libraries, so it was not worth keeping up with my membership.
Do you have any future plans/aspirations? I’d like to progress in my current institution, doing the sort of work I’m currently doing.
Name: Just Anon is OK!
Current role: Learning & Teaching Technologies Manager in a faculty at a well-known UK- based distance learning HEI
Former role: Reference Librarian in a town centre public library.
What led you to move on from libraries? I wasn’t interested in the work and I didn’t enjoy contact with the public.
What do you do in your current role? I have responsibility for policy and practice in relation to use of the internet for presenting university-level learning materials to students.
What library skills do you use in your current role? I think there’s a crossover between taxonomy and organisation of thoughts and ideas, which I have to do a lot of.
Do you think that your library skills helped you to get this position? No.
What other skills have you had to acquire since leaving the library profession in order to enable you to carry out your work? Internet and pedagogy-related skills that have only come into existence since the time I left the profession (the internet was hardly a thing in 1993).
Do you maintain any professional memberships or are there new ones which are more appropriate? I was a member of the Library Association during the time I was working in libraries but once I left I knew there was no way I would return to public libraries, so it was not worth keeping up with my membership.
Do you have any future plans/aspirations? I’d like to progress in my current institution, doing the sort of work I’m currently doing.
Tuesday, 29 March 2016
Former Librarian #12
We're starting to scrape the barrel a little bit for Former Librarians - lots of interest, but that hasn't necessarily translated into completed questionnaires - so if you are reading this and can help out then please do get in touch!
Former Librarian #12 spent 10 years working in libraries and has now switched to the field of clinical research. The new skill required in this role (aside from learning about clinical research governance) has been making cups of tea!
Current role: Research Coordinator on a clinical project.
Former role: Reader Services Team Leader in a University Library.
What led you to move on from libraries? My career change wasn't entirely planned although it has been an excellent move. During 2014/15 mental health problems had affected my life in a big way. One of the things that I thought would help me would be to work part-time, but my former organisation could not support that long-term. In order to find something where I would be able to work part-time, and to maintain the grade/salary that I was on, I needed to be very open in considering what I might move into. Given that I had been in the same role for nearly 6 years and not managed to progress career-wise (although I had really continued to develop my skills over this time period), it was becoming obvious that libraries might not be an option, given that I was tied to a specific area. I wanted to stay working for the same university (or very possibly the other one in town) as it is an environment that I feel comfortable in, so I concentrated my search on their job advertisements and tried to work out where my skills best fit. Administrative roles within departments and administrative roles in clinical research seemed to be the most likely candidates.
What do you do in your current role? Rather like my former role, I do a lot of things and success in the role seems to be dependent on being able to do lots of different things and keep several balls in the air at once. I look after the day to day coordination of a clinical research project (that involves IT and databases rather than a more obvious clinical trial) under a Programme Manager who has responsibility for the overall oversight of a number of projects. This involves organising things and people! I make sure that we are running on track, organise meetings, take notes, liaise with members of the project team, make sure expenses are paid and that our finances are tracked, make cups of tea (!), ethics applications, and research governance agreements. As I am still so new in post and new to the field, quite a lot of it is done with guidance from the Programme Manager but there are definitely days when I leave work feeling like I have done some good research coordination! I have to say that it is very refreshing doing something new and it's nice to feel totally enthused about work.
What library skills do you use in your current role? I suspect that my organisational skills are perhaps the most useful on a day to day basis. However, I would like to think that my customer service skills give me a day-to-day willingness to help and sort out problems and maintain a cheerful expression even when we are rewriting an ethics application yet again. Attention to detail is good for checking through reports and publications and I seem to be quite good at spotting inconsistences (as well as improving English - there's definite benefits to the team in having a humanities graduate to hand!). One of the mandatory pieces of training for me was "Information Governance" but the concepts felt very familiar to me coming from a library/information background.
Do you think that your library skills helped you to get this position? I almost feel the opposite. I spent a lot of 2015 applying for different roles and I did not get any interviews until the one for this position. I did start to wonder if I was being pigeon-holed by the fact that I was working as a librarian, even though I could clearly demonstrate that I had skills relevant to the essential selection criteria. I described myself on my CV as an information professional and I used a skills-based CV but it didn't seem to work! My current manager is very accepting of a non traditional background for this role (in fact she also came from a non traditional background) and so was perhaps more open to shortlisting me. Subsequent discussions have led us to agree that my skills are very relevant and useful to this sort of role, but perhaps recruiting managers may sometimes believe that experience of clinical research is essential. It hasn't been.
What other skills have you had to acquire since leaving the library profession in order to enable you to carry out your work? I've had to learn an awful lot of things! Coming to clinical research from a humanities background, there are many differences, in terms of jargon, and the way that people seem to work. "Good clinical practice" knowledge is an essential induction requirement for anyone working in clinical research and I had to do 5 online training modules in this. I've had to learn a lot about the research ethics process. I'm in the middle of learning about patient engagement and involvement and how best to go about these activities. I've learnt how to use Microsoft Project and to produce Gantt charts. I've also learnt how to choose and negotiate over meeting venues, what sort of sandwich selection is appropriate for a post-meeting lunch (I agonised over this for several days) and how to set up a teleconference!
Do you maintain any professional memberships or are there new ones which are more appropriate? I have maintained CILIP membership for now but that is more to do with the fact that I am still mentoring three chartership candidates. I am not sure if I will renew again at the end of this year. I do not think that there are any other more appropriate professional organisations.
Do you have any future plans/aspirations?
I'm very aware that my current role is a fixed term contract, and to be honest, almost all roles in this area will be. Although I have been reassured already that I should not find it difficult to get another role based on current performance (and with all of this lovely experience under my belt), I am thinking about ways in which to make myself more marketable at the end of my contract. I am weighing up the benefits of a couple of different Postgraduate Certificates (one in health research, one in systematic reviews). Otherwise, it is taking advantage of all of the training on offer (and there has been a lot!).
I'm very aware that my current role is a fixed term contract, and to be honest, almost all roles in this area will be. Although I have been reassured already that I should not find it difficult to get another role based on current performance (and with all of this lovely experience under my belt), I am thinking about ways in which to make myself more marketable at the end of my contract. I am weighing up the benefits of a couple of different Postgraduate Certificates (one in health research, one in systematic reviews). Otherwise, it is taking advantage of all of the training on offer (and there has been a lot!).
Anything else that you’d like to tell us? One of the best bits about my role after working in a library for so long is the ability to eat and drink at my desk whenever I like (well, perhaps not on a teleconference...).
Tuesday, 22 March 2016
Former Librarian #11
This week, Former Librarian 12 has done two very different things since leaving libraries. The first was a manager with responsibility for disability in student support services; the second and current occupation is as a full-time Mum!
Name: Anonymous
Current role: Full time stay at home mum, but my last paid job was as a manager in student support services (specifically disability) within a University setting
Former role: Disability Librarian in a University
What led you to move on from libraries? I was promoted from an assistant librarian's post in a small library within a large University into the newly formed disability librarian because I wanted a challenge, and also the pay was better. After a few years of setting up a new service, and working with a lot of assistive technology and supporting disabled students in libraries, I wanted to move on from where I was and back into a more traditional librarian's post. I found, however, because of the disability in my title, and what I had been doing with assistive technology and access, myself a bit pigeon holed and struggled to get back into traditional reader services. As I wanted to leave the institution I was in, I applied for several jobs in disability support and found myself as a support manager in a large academic insitution, as it involved helping to set up a new service, which is what I had done previously. I gave up the job at the start of my maternity leave for my second child because I found it very hard to do a stressful job and also be a mum. I wasn't happy in the role at all, and I found the stress of knowing I was going to back to work again at the end of the maternity leave was too much. It had been hard going back after my first child was born and I didn't want the same situation again.
Current role: Full time Mum, but before that Disability Team Manager
What do you do in your current role? In my role as Full time Mum I manage two small children and all that entails. It is definitely 24 hours a day and you don't get paid! I get children up, sort them out for school, pick them up from school, do the majority of the household chores and organise the food for the week, day trips at the weekend, buying all they need, organising children's parties. It is full on and extremely rewarding.
When I was in my previous paid job in disability support, it involved managing 6 people in their roles working and supporting disabled students. I had to: organise making sure they all worked efficiently, and get involved in disciplinary issues; manage service rotas; plan for new services, and improve the ones we had; liaise with a lot of staff in different faculties and advise on whether what they were doing regarding access and support for students was legal and correct. It was more of a managerial post than supporting disabled students.
What library skills do you use in your current role? I certainly use my library skills in my role as a mum. It involves major organisation on a daily basis! Timing is everything, and I have to schedule in tasks for every day - food shopping, cleaning, washing etc. I'm also constantly tidying up - it's like a never ending reshelving task. As we've been having a lot of work done on our house, I've had to liaise a lot with different workmen and having set up a service in a library, I know all that involves. I also had a bit of budgetary responsibility and that comes in very handy with monthly budgeting.
As Disability Team Manager, I definitely found my skills from librarianship were hugely helpful. All of the organisation; working towards deadlines; dealing with people from all areas of the University and at all levels; budgeting.
Do you think that your library skills helped you to get this position? Certainly for my last paid role all my experience in libraries helped me get it. For my role as a Mum, given my husband is also a librarian, that's a definite yes :-)
What other skills have you had to acquire since leaving the library profession in order to enable you to carry out your work? I definitely think I didn't have as many skills in general management as I needed, particularly when working with difficult people. I was lucky in that the situations I came across in librarianship were not as severe as those I walked into. I've definitely improved on those since my last paid job, and they have improved tenfold since becoming a mum - I've learnt to say No a great deal now, and give reasons why, and deal with subsequent tantrums - something you think you never would have to do with adults in the work place, but in higher level management, you do.
Do you maintain any professional memberships or are there new ones which are more appropriate? None.
Do you have any future plans/aspirations? Not at the moment, until my second is at school and I have a little more time to myself.
Name: Anonymous
Current role: Full time stay at home mum, but my last paid job was as a manager in student support services (specifically disability) within a University setting
Former role: Disability Librarian in a University
What led you to move on from libraries? I was promoted from an assistant librarian's post in a small library within a large University into the newly formed disability librarian because I wanted a challenge, and also the pay was better. After a few years of setting up a new service, and working with a lot of assistive technology and supporting disabled students in libraries, I wanted to move on from where I was and back into a more traditional librarian's post. I found, however, because of the disability in my title, and what I had been doing with assistive technology and access, myself a bit pigeon holed and struggled to get back into traditional reader services. As I wanted to leave the institution I was in, I applied for several jobs in disability support and found myself as a support manager in a large academic insitution, as it involved helping to set up a new service, which is what I had done previously. I gave up the job at the start of my maternity leave for my second child because I found it very hard to do a stressful job and also be a mum. I wasn't happy in the role at all, and I found the stress of knowing I was going to back to work again at the end of the maternity leave was too much. It had been hard going back after my first child was born and I didn't want the same situation again.
Current role: Full time Mum, but before that Disability Team Manager
What do you do in your current role? In my role as Full time Mum I manage two small children and all that entails. It is definitely 24 hours a day and you don't get paid! I get children up, sort them out for school, pick them up from school, do the majority of the household chores and organise the food for the week, day trips at the weekend, buying all they need, organising children's parties. It is full on and extremely rewarding.
When I was in my previous paid job in disability support, it involved managing 6 people in their roles working and supporting disabled students. I had to: organise making sure they all worked efficiently, and get involved in disciplinary issues; manage service rotas; plan for new services, and improve the ones we had; liaise with a lot of staff in different faculties and advise on whether what they were doing regarding access and support for students was legal and correct. It was more of a managerial post than supporting disabled students.
What library skills do you use in your current role? I certainly use my library skills in my role as a mum. It involves major organisation on a daily basis! Timing is everything, and I have to schedule in tasks for every day - food shopping, cleaning, washing etc. I'm also constantly tidying up - it's like a never ending reshelving task. As we've been having a lot of work done on our house, I've had to liaise a lot with different workmen and having set up a service in a library, I know all that involves. I also had a bit of budgetary responsibility and that comes in very handy with monthly budgeting.
As Disability Team Manager, I definitely found my skills from librarianship were hugely helpful. All of the organisation; working towards deadlines; dealing with people from all areas of the University and at all levels; budgeting.
Do you think that your library skills helped you to get this position? Certainly for my last paid role all my experience in libraries helped me get it. For my role as a Mum, given my husband is also a librarian, that's a definite yes :-)
What other skills have you had to acquire since leaving the library profession in order to enable you to carry out your work? I definitely think I didn't have as many skills in general management as I needed, particularly when working with difficult people. I was lucky in that the situations I came across in librarianship were not as severe as those I walked into. I've definitely improved on those since my last paid job, and they have improved tenfold since becoming a mum - I've learnt to say No a great deal now, and give reasons why, and deal with subsequent tantrums - something you think you never would have to do with adults in the work place, but in higher level management, you do.
Do you maintain any professional memberships or are there new ones which are more appropriate? None.
Do you have any future plans/aspirations? Not at the moment, until my second is at school and I have a little more time to myself.
Tuesday, 15 March 2016
Former Librarian #10
This week, we welcome Former Librarian Lisa onto the blog who has some very interesting and extensive answers to the usual questions. Lisa's career is interesting as circumstances meant that she did not take up a library role after gaining her library qualification, instead taking on employment with an education company. Over the last few years she has diversified into a portfolio career that involves editing work (as did Former Librarian #8) and career coaching. Despite not having followed a more obvious library path, Lisa feels that her "inner librarian" is of great use to her work.
Name Lisa Russell
Current role: Self-employed Editorial Project Manager at Careershifters, and career change coach.
Former role: Editorial Project Manager at a vocational training company (2008-16)
And previously: Digidocs Project Assistant at the History Faculty Library, Oxford, 2006-7 Graduate Trainee Library Assistant, Nuffield College, Oxford, 2005-6
What led you to move on from libraries? I was all set to move into permanent library work after completing my master’s degree in Library and Information Science. I had a role lined up and had gone through an extensive recruitment process to get it. However, the position involved relocating to a completely new area. After I moved I realised I was deeply unhappy living in the new area, so far from family and friends. Although the job was phenomenal, I wasn’t prepared to sacrifice everything to stay in it. So I decided, reluctantly, that I needed to move back home. Living in the Home Counties, the best chances for finding library work are in Oxford or London. I ruled out London as I didn’t want a repeat of the previous situation, and instead scoured the Oxford library listings for potential opportunities. I had a good interview for a post but wasn’t successful. With financial pressures mounting, I looked for work closer to home, in Berkshire, while temping with a start-up training company run by an old schoolfriend’s parents. I had another interview lined up in a public library for outreach work, but my friend’s parents were so impressed with my skills (mostly librarianship-related: to do with managing their data and conducting research) that they offered me a permanent role, at a much higher salary than the public library post could offer. I felt that I could carve out a role at the company using my information skills, and decided to try this route, hoping to become an advocate for the information profession within the company’s immediate network, and to help my employers to see the benefits that information professionals could offer. However, this did mark the end of my seeking work in a traditional library environment. My wishes for the post certainly played out, initally. I even contributed to a CILIP event on the art of ‘negotiating’ one’s own role. However, as the company grew, my role shifted from information and data, to developing the learning programme and working with actual learning materials. This felt natural for me as it used both my librarianship skills and a host of editorial skills that I had also developed over the years. I remember feeling that the new role was a perfect blend for me, although I doubted that the ‘true’ library profession would consider that I was still a librarian at all! Over the years I became deeply disillusioned with the way the company was being run and decided to take my career back into my own hands. I became self-employed and started an editorial services business. Although this didn’t initially generate much work I learnt a lot about how to set up a business. Alongside this, seeking a fresh start, a new income stream and a different challenge, I decided to train as a personal coach. I set up my coaching practice in 2013 and have been working with clients ever since. Alongside this, my editorial work led to a contract for subediting work, and later editorial project management with the major career change organisation, Careershifters. I have since started to niche my coaching practice into the arena of career change coaching. I am now a true portfolio careerist, using a mixture of editorial, librarianship and coaching skills with a little entrepreneurship to create a career mix that works for me.
What do you do in your current role? For Careershifters, I maintain a busy editorial schedule, planning content, sourcing it and liaising with authors to ensure that it is delivered on time. I also maintain various content logs, chase progress and deadlines (also known as cat herding), and ensure article comments are responded to by the team in a timely manner. I run the team’s editorial meetings, and ensure that appropriate progress is being made towards quarterly and annual team goals. I write social media posts about the various pieces of content we publish, and help prepare weekly newsletters that showcase the best of our output for a growing mailing list (currently around 70,000 subscribers). I also subedit all content that is published by the team and am developing processes with our founder to ensure that the quality of archived material is frequently reviewed and improved in line with high editorial standards. The work is flexible and team members all work remotely; therefore, it fits well around my family commitments.
What library skills do you use in your current role?
* Categorising information and noticing patterns and themes within it
* Digitising information
* Team-knowledge capture and systems / process documentation - something the team is particularly keen to ensure
* Understanding information search behaviours
* Understanding user experience online
* Various organisational and project management skills learnt through running library projects in the past.
* A certain way of thinking – a systematic and detail-orientated approach that supports and provides structure to the more creative work of others in the team – that is common, I think, to many librarians
Do you think that your library skills helped you to get this position? Yes, but perhaps in a subtle way. I am more organised and methodical as a result of my library experiences. I can see both fine detail and the big picture. The team needed an editor that could employ this approach to best support its work. And this makes me an ideal person to maintain the organisation’s content archive. The founder really responded well to this aspect of my experience during our recruitment conversations.
What other skills have you had to acquire since leaving the library profession in order to enable you to carry out your work? I gained a formal proofreading qualification from the Publishing Training Centre. I also undertook my coaching qualification and subsequent specialist career change coach training.
Do you maintain any professional memberships or are there new ones which are more appropriate? I have let my CILIP membership lapse as it’s simply not required in my role. I was a member of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders for some time. Now I am a member of the International Coach Federation.
Do you have any future plans/aspirations? So many! I want to add another business element to my portfolio career, perhaps making and selling something rather than offering a service. I have a few ideas, but they are all still in development at the moment. I also want to gain my ACC credential with the ICF and continue to niche my coaching practice into career change work. I want to continue developing my role with Careershifters, becoming a contributor for the team.
Anything else that you’d like to tell us? I used to worry about the fact that I wasn’t overtly making use of my library skills in the traditional sense; I even worried that I was wasting all those years of training and study. I even used to feel I had to justify myself when people asked why the library ‘thing’ hadn’t worked out for me. But, actually, I look back now and consider that those skills are a hugely important aspect of my career. The Careershifters team LOVE my ‘inner librarian’ and how I am able to bring those skills to bear on my work. Blending those skills with my editorial talents, and now my career change coaching (and content) work, has allowed me to develop a unique portfolio career that feels more thoroughly ‘me’ than anything I have done before. I couldn’t have got to this point without my work in libraries.
Name Lisa Russell
Current role: Self-employed Editorial Project Manager at Careershifters, and career change coach.
Former role: Editorial Project Manager at a vocational training company (2008-16)
And previously: Digidocs Project Assistant at the History Faculty Library, Oxford, 2006-7 Graduate Trainee Library Assistant, Nuffield College, Oxford, 2005-6
What led you to move on from libraries? I was all set to move into permanent library work after completing my master’s degree in Library and Information Science. I had a role lined up and had gone through an extensive recruitment process to get it. However, the position involved relocating to a completely new area. After I moved I realised I was deeply unhappy living in the new area, so far from family and friends. Although the job was phenomenal, I wasn’t prepared to sacrifice everything to stay in it. So I decided, reluctantly, that I needed to move back home. Living in the Home Counties, the best chances for finding library work are in Oxford or London. I ruled out London as I didn’t want a repeat of the previous situation, and instead scoured the Oxford library listings for potential opportunities. I had a good interview for a post but wasn’t successful. With financial pressures mounting, I looked for work closer to home, in Berkshire, while temping with a start-up training company run by an old schoolfriend’s parents. I had another interview lined up in a public library for outreach work, but my friend’s parents were so impressed with my skills (mostly librarianship-related: to do with managing their data and conducting research) that they offered me a permanent role, at a much higher salary than the public library post could offer. I felt that I could carve out a role at the company using my information skills, and decided to try this route, hoping to become an advocate for the information profession within the company’s immediate network, and to help my employers to see the benefits that information professionals could offer. However, this did mark the end of my seeking work in a traditional library environment. My wishes for the post certainly played out, initally. I even contributed to a CILIP event on the art of ‘negotiating’ one’s own role. However, as the company grew, my role shifted from information and data, to developing the learning programme and working with actual learning materials. This felt natural for me as it used both my librarianship skills and a host of editorial skills that I had also developed over the years. I remember feeling that the new role was a perfect blend for me, although I doubted that the ‘true’ library profession would consider that I was still a librarian at all! Over the years I became deeply disillusioned with the way the company was being run and decided to take my career back into my own hands. I became self-employed and started an editorial services business. Although this didn’t initially generate much work I learnt a lot about how to set up a business. Alongside this, seeking a fresh start, a new income stream and a different challenge, I decided to train as a personal coach. I set up my coaching practice in 2013 and have been working with clients ever since. Alongside this, my editorial work led to a contract for subediting work, and later editorial project management with the major career change organisation, Careershifters. I have since started to niche my coaching practice into the arena of career change coaching. I am now a true portfolio careerist, using a mixture of editorial, librarianship and coaching skills with a little entrepreneurship to create a career mix that works for me.
What do you do in your current role? For Careershifters, I maintain a busy editorial schedule, planning content, sourcing it and liaising with authors to ensure that it is delivered on time. I also maintain various content logs, chase progress and deadlines (also known as cat herding), and ensure article comments are responded to by the team in a timely manner. I run the team’s editorial meetings, and ensure that appropriate progress is being made towards quarterly and annual team goals. I write social media posts about the various pieces of content we publish, and help prepare weekly newsletters that showcase the best of our output for a growing mailing list (currently around 70,000 subscribers). I also subedit all content that is published by the team and am developing processes with our founder to ensure that the quality of archived material is frequently reviewed and improved in line with high editorial standards. The work is flexible and team members all work remotely; therefore, it fits well around my family commitments.
What library skills do you use in your current role?
* Categorising information and noticing patterns and themes within it
* Digitising information
* Team-knowledge capture and systems / process documentation - something the team is particularly keen to ensure
* Understanding information search behaviours
* Understanding user experience online
* Various organisational and project management skills learnt through running library projects in the past.
* A certain way of thinking – a systematic and detail-orientated approach that supports and provides structure to the more creative work of others in the team – that is common, I think, to many librarians
Do you think that your library skills helped you to get this position? Yes, but perhaps in a subtle way. I am more organised and methodical as a result of my library experiences. I can see both fine detail and the big picture. The team needed an editor that could employ this approach to best support its work. And this makes me an ideal person to maintain the organisation’s content archive. The founder really responded well to this aspect of my experience during our recruitment conversations.
What other skills have you had to acquire since leaving the library profession in order to enable you to carry out your work? I gained a formal proofreading qualification from the Publishing Training Centre. I also undertook my coaching qualification and subsequent specialist career change coach training.
Do you maintain any professional memberships or are there new ones which are more appropriate? I have let my CILIP membership lapse as it’s simply not required in my role. I was a member of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders for some time. Now I am a member of the International Coach Federation.
Do you have any future plans/aspirations? So many! I want to add another business element to my portfolio career, perhaps making and selling something rather than offering a service. I have a few ideas, but they are all still in development at the moment. I also want to gain my ACC credential with the ICF and continue to niche my coaching practice into career change work. I want to continue developing my role with Careershifters, becoming a contributor for the team.
Anything else that you’d like to tell us? I used to worry about the fact that I wasn’t overtly making use of my library skills in the traditional sense; I even worried that I was wasting all those years of training and study. I even used to feel I had to justify myself when people asked why the library ‘thing’ hadn’t worked out for me. But, actually, I look back now and consider that those skills are a hugely important aspect of my career. The Careershifters team LOVE my ‘inner librarian’ and how I am able to bring those skills to bear on my work. Blending those skills with my editorial talents, and now my career change coaching (and content) work, has allowed me to develop a unique portfolio career that feels more thoroughly ‘me’ than anything I have done before. I couldn’t have got to this point without my work in libraries.
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