Monday 24 January 2011

Library Day in the Life: day one


All week I am going to be blogging about what I do, as part of the Library Day in a Life project. I’ve decided to do a week rather than a day, due to the different elements of my job; I don’t normally do a bit of everything in one day, so a week will be more representative of what my role involves. I had originally planned to do one post, at the end of the week, but having typed up today, I’ve realised that that would make for far too long a blog post, so I’m going to blog daily. So, Monday…

…my week starts in an untypical fashion; I am spending the morning at a library induction for new staff up at the main campus. These inductions only take place once a year, hence why I am attending now despite having been here for just over two months. I don’t really learn anything at the induction – with my job covering several different areas, I’m already familiar with all of the aspects of the service that are covered – but it’s really good to meet some more people from the other campuses. At a multi-site institution like ours, there are a huge number of staff across the library service, so getting to know people who don’t work at my campus is taking time!

I catch the bus back down to my campus, and have some lunch before starting my afternoon. It’s very cold in the library! Our heating has been broken since Friday, but we have been told it’s being fixed right now. I catch up with my emails; there’s quite a few to get through, having been away from my desk all morning. They’re mainly LIS-LINK messages, publishers’ alerts, and emails discussing annual leave and enquiry desk swaps. I flag any that require actions on my part, and reply where necessary. I have an email from one of the academic staff in the department I support, who is having problems accessing an electronic journal. I can access it when I try, so I reply, trying to ascertain whether the problem is that they are accessing it from off-campus and haven’t logged in. I also check the journals inbox; unusually, there are no new emails.

My interim probation report is due in a few weeks’ time; here we are reviewed after a couple of months in the role, before the final probation report after six months. I am meeting my line manager next week, to discuss and complete the report, and they have asked me to look at the report form and prepare my thoughts on my progress. I work my way through the form, jotting down some notes on how I perceive myself to be doing, thinking of specific examples to illustrate my points.  I also have a look at the probation pages on the HR section of the university website, to familiarise myself with the procedure.

I spend the rest of the afternoon reading through HR’s webpages on equality and dignity at work, appraisal, leave, and sickness procedures. I have just taken on my line management responsibilities (line-managing two members of staff), and need to familiarise myself with these policies and procedures. There’s a lot to take in, but I feel confident that I’m learning, and feel able to ask my line manager for advice when necessary; I go and ask about something I’m unsure about with sickness forms. Shortly before I leave work, the radiators begin to gurgle – hopefully this means we have heating again, finally! I check my emails again, make notes of any actions I need to take from them, and look at my schedule for tomorrow, before heading home.

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