Thing 10 & Thing 11

A short autobiography of my life in Libraries. Where to begin. At my advanced age, my career in Libraries has been varied. At 16 my school was reoorganised into a tertiary college, where for the first time the library was a big deal. I was drawn to the space and the staff and had my first incling that this would be a good place to work. The summer before I went to Universtiy to study History, I worked as a summer relief person in Richmond County libraries, so had a taste of the Public library sector. I loved the variety of work and community spirit of the branch libraries, but hated the regimentaiton of the large County Library (this was in the 1980s!). All through University I had no idea what to do once I qualified. Careers information wasn't that great. Many of my contemporaries went into Teaching or Accountancy, neither of which I thought was for me at the time. So Signed up for a Postgraduate course at North London Polytechnic as it was then known. Computers had only just been intorduced, so this was an interesting time. I had my pre-course placement at University of London, Senate house library and during the course went to a Special Library in a computer services firm, where my first computer was a PC with 10mb hard drive! After qualifiying, I finally got a job with the same computing firm in London. I'd obviously made an impression! It was here I really started to learn my trade, dealing with enquiries, learning about online searching, new technology and moving an entire library from London to Milton Keynes, involving re-designing the space. During this time I became a Chartered Librarian with the Library Association. Then came children and it was hard to find work which fitted kids hours, so I ran my own peripatetic music teaching business, whilst volunteering at my kids primary school as librarian and parent 'listener' helping youngsters to read. Finally, I landed a job in a local secondary school, which was a huge learning curve getting up to date with all the changes that had happened in libraries during my absence. The CILIP library was really helpful in lending items on new and current trends. Again, the library was transformed during a re-building programme. After a few years I moved from the State sector to the Independent sector, where I am now. CILIP SLG conferences have ben my life blood in keeping up with new technology and services as well as networking. I found it so wonderful as a sole librarian to connect with others and to know 'You are not alone'. The conferences have spurred me on to actively seek training in fields that I knew little about eg: Information literacy, teaching skills, research skills, and more recently Web 2.0 tools and e-books. Where would I be without them? My aim is to try to keep one step ahead of our kids at school, but it is quite hard being a 'digital immigrant' rather than a 'digital native'. However, these skills have meant that during a merger of our school with another Independent one, I kept my job rather than being made redundant. It's not great pay, but it is employment! I fully support CILIP in trying to get our status and pay improved. After all, I have as many qualifications as most of our teaching staff. Next step is to develop our online infrastructure which means a lot of cooperation outside the Library service with IT department and teaching staff. I'm not sure I'd actually go for another qualification such as an M.A., because the CILIP chartered status should be an equivalent. However, I'd possibly like to 'mentor' others. Firstly, I'll do this in house whilst training a new, younger member of Library staff with a view to getting them CILIP qualificaitons. When I gain a bit of confidence in that, who knows!