CPD23 Things 10 & 11

I’ve skipped thing 9 to look at things 10 & 11, so will come back to that later.

Things 10 focussed on graduate traineeships, masters degrees, chartership and accreditation and asked us to blog about our experiences as a librarian so far – why we joined the profession, how we got here and where we plan to go next. So here goes…..

For as long as I can remember I wanted to be a lawyer and had my heart set on going to university, studying for a law degree, then taking the LPC course before finding a training contracts place and finally becoming a solicitor – possibly in the business sector.  That happened as far as going to university and achieving my LLB Hons Law Degree, then I changed my mind!  About half way through my final year I decided I didn’t want to be a lawyer anymore, but having spent quite a bit of time in the library (both the university and public libraries) I quite liked the idea of working there! What to do?  I completed my degree and decided I would work or a year and see whether having the break from studying made me want to go back – it didn’t.  I kept my eye out for library posts, but from my basic internet searches I (mistakenly) thought I’d need some sort of library qualification to even begin working in a library.

My first job on finishing uni was in Customer Relations for a train operator, and then I moved into Local Government – during this time I saw a post advertised in a local community library working alternate Sundays and no ‘qualifications’ were required!  I applied, was successful and from there my love of libraries grew.  In 2007 I pooled my library knowledge and skills from my other post to apply for the post of Assistant Area Manager for libraries in South Suffolk – big shock when I got it as at the time I honestly thought I’d given the worst interview of my life. That September I commenced studying via distance learning for my Post Grad qualification and then I embarked on a rather steep learning curve.  Just over a year later I applied for an Area Manager secondment and got it (talk about a jump), that was then made permanent following another interview in March 2009 and I’ve been here ever since – studying whilst working, learning lots through work as I go and now embarking on the chartership process.  This time has been a continual learning curve for me, and I have benefitted from working on a variety of tasks, but the one thing I’m sure of is I can honestly say that I love my job and can wax lyrical about the benefits of libraries and why they’re so great.  I hope I get to work in this sector for a long time to come – the only way that I see my law degree is ever going to be of use is if I see something eye catching on the BIALL Job Board!

Thing 11 was about mentoring and my experience of this is as a ‘mentee’. 

To date I’ve benefitted from the experience of two official mentors, both quite different.

Mentor one was arranged through work for a number of us in early stages of our careers and we had dedicated sessions once a month for a period of about six months, with a follow up a few months later.  These sessions were useful, provided me with some useful info and certainly helped boost my confidence.  However, as the mentor was chosen for us and paid for their time I felt that there was some sort of connection missing at times. 

Mentor two has been helping me through the chartership process and this has been invaluable.  I approached her, having deliberately chosen someone outside of the public library sector, and have had three really useful face to face meetings plus email communications.  We last met a few weeks back, and I drove home from that session feeling so much happier about the chartership process and my current work for it – these meetings have been a great use of my time.

Like Meg who wrote the thing 11 post I’ve also consulted colleagues and thought ‘what would they do…’  in fact there are probably two senior colleagues that I will instinctively go to now in this way, and their help is invaluable.  They probably see it as doing their job, but I would argue that there is more than that and they've really helped me to grow by spending time with me rather than just saying 'do it this way'.

I’ve never officially mentored someone – I’m still quite early on in my career and personally don’t feel I have the skills or knowledge to fully support someone – however a friend I met through online study has joked that I’m her unofficial mentor!  She’s completed her Masters but is still looking for a job in the sector – if I see anything that I feel may benefit her I send it on, and we chat from time to time about how it’s all going.  This is something outside of our friendship, but not a mentoring role as such.  It has however helped increase my self awareness, empathy and thinking about how to communicate things, which are useful skills to build up.