Library Day in the Life #8, part 1

This is my first contribution to the Library Day in the Life project so here goes... My main job is managing the journals collections in the Library at Amgueddfa Genedlaethol Caerdydd - National Museum Cardiff. This entails managing subscriptions; checking in issues, distributing them to the relevant departments [Archaeology, Art, Botany, Zoology, Geology]; accessioning annuals; display, circulation, shelving and claiming missing issues. I also accession all books [assigning them with a 6 figure identification number] and maintain an accessions register which comprises of print outs of all numbers used along with corresponding book details, deal with enquires, manage an online journals list, sort all post and generally run about the place. Now, whereas my work can hardly be described as full on it is none the less relentless – there is always that list of jobs that I am forever trying to get to and sometimes during one of those rare quiet times that occur in amongst the mayhem [the silence in the eye of the storm if you like] I am able to feverishly pluck a random entry and fly through it and oh the joy of striking a line through that task that has been squatting like a black toad on the list for ever such a long time J





The Main Library [my desk is on the right]



One other thing you should know about my job is the geographical layout of our Library. I work in [what we call] the Main Library  that houses general reference material; conservation and museology books and journals; Welsh society transactions; rare topographical books and special bindings. However the Museum's departmental libraries [which we also manage] are dotted around the building so we are invariably dashing about between them [which is a rather nice aspect to this job]. And because of these multiple locations, we operate on a trust system whereby staff can go into any library and take whatever they need but they must always leave a loan card so we can tell at a glance where the item is. The obvious draw back to this system is that not all staff complete loan cards and I can’t tell you the hours of fun we have when that happens.

Okay, to business and here’s my week…

Monday

Spent the morning working through a large pile of post, there’s always loads on a Monday and sometimes it can take all day to sort through. I open everything and then separate it all out, enter journals and art sales onto our LMS [we use ADLIB] and then stamp and circulate them to the departments. At this point, if we have missed an issue I will chase it up with the supplier. I then process any renewal forms and correspondence and pass them to the Librarian or any other library staff they might concern [there are 5 of us]. This morning however, the pile wasn’t too big and everything was done by lunch time. Monday is an odd day as the Museum isn’t open to the public and apart from an eerie quiet around the building I also can’t meet up with colleagues for a mid morning coffee in the main hall restaurant downstairs L



Morning coffee in the Main Hall



I started off this afternoon by working through my emails and like everyone else I get so many these days! Working in a big organisation you get bombarded with messages about everything that’s going on and hardly any of it concerns you. So after deleting A LOT – I got down to the business of answering a few enquiries. My pace has been a little slow this afternoon as I went out for lunch with two colleagues and I had lasagne and chips and then had the dreaded carb lethargy L

Tuesday

In nice and early this morning! I do like a Tuesday because [after Monday’s assault] there’s hardly any post and from 10 o’clock onwards I hear the lovely quiet hum of visitors in the Mail Hall below. I got to work early on accessioning a small pile of books left over from Friday, processed four renewal invoices and sorted trhough my emails. Went for coffee at 10.30 and the post was waiting for me when I got back at 11 - just managed to get through it before I left at 1 o’clock [half day today].

Wednesday

Managed to get in fairly early again [8.15] and got to work immediately on the new pile of books ready for accessioning. The Assistant Librarian does all cataloguing and then leaves the items for me to accession and she’d been working on this pile most of Monday and Tuesday. Sometimes it’s very tempting to down tools for a bit and browse the more interesting books such as this one […but not this one!] however, time is short so I nobly plough on.

Have also noticed two alarmingly large boxes filled with back issues of an old geology journal [someone’s been accepting gifts again!]; therefore at some point I will need to decant, check contents, create a record on the LMS, stamp/emboss and then find a home for them in our increasingly cramped Geology library. Post all done between break and lunch and this morning’s journal offerings included Museums Journal, Art History and Country Life [anti browsing will power stretched to the max with Country Life!]. This afternoon was spent processing renewals invoices; December and January is a busy time for these so there are quite a few. We also had an offer of some Scott memorabilia which I passed on the relevant curator; timely indeed since we are currently hosting our very own Scott exhibition Captain Scott: South for Science.

Thing 17: Presenting information [Prezi and Slideshare]

I have being doing my job for quite some time now and [believe it not] so far have never needed to put together the kind of  presentation that would warrant a Powerpoint or Prezi. However, there's a very good chance I may well be called to do something like this in the not too distant future so let’s have a look… 

Okay so I know I’m a bit behind the times but the first "Prezis" I’ve ever seen were at the CLIC Social Media in Libraries event back in November [Kristine at Taken for binding wrote a post about it here] and in my opinion one of the best was given by Karen Pearce at Dark side of the catalogue and it was most impressive.

According the website, Prezi is different because [unlike Powerpoint] you can move all your images around and zoom them in an out and insert all manner of exciting media and Karen’s certainly did do all of these things and it does make a big difference from watching a more static presentation. I’ve been checking on other blogs and most people that have created Prezis say it’s a real fiddly business and takes a bit of getting used to and I have had a play about with it and absolutely agree though I do relish getting to grips with it and if I did need to put together a presentation I would definitely use it. I need to crack on so will [at some point] have a good old play around with it but for now I will end with Helen Murphy’s wonderful spiralling ode to the joys of Prezi here at Library wanderer even though she warns against using it just because you can and just because it’s new thing because then it will become very passé very quickly although I’m not sure how you can stop that happening – such is life surely?

You wouldn't think it but I've actually taken weeks getting this Prezi post done so after a scandalously brief glance at the wonder that is Slideshare I give you Katie Birkwood’s [Girl in the moon] very informative Slideshare post J

Merry Christmas!

My tree

Christmas in the Library

Our Christmas wreath [bought by the Librarian last year], a festive beacon to welcome our hoards of weary researchers

My Santa has indulged in a little too much festive cheer over the years going by his glassy eyes and matted beard but I still love him. No-one else likes him though and say that his eyes follow them around [I don't know what they mean].

The Library on a late December afternoon tastefully adorned with tinsle and baubles.

Nicely understated compared to some of the other departments!

A new addition this year [again from the Librarian], a beautiful cardboard tree with coloured bells from John Lewis.  To those of a certain age, somewhat reminicent to the trees on The Magic Roundabout and The Singing Ringing Tree :-)

And finally, our snow menagerie [Kristine's owl, my squirrel and the Librarian's penguin].

I'd so like to tell you they all get on but...!

Book Ins reading aloud event November 2011

On Saturday 5^th November, I took part in the Book Ins reading aloud event here in the Museum. This is the second reading aloud event to be held here, the first was back in March to co-incide with International Women's Day and on the website, Leona Jones [the organiser] describes the experience intriguingly as creating a visual and aural impact in unexpected places. Basically, anyone is free to turn up and bring along a favourite book to read aloud; the choice of book is yours as long it covers that particular events "subject" and this one was travel]. Leona even had a table of spare books and print-outs for anyone deciding to take part on the spur of the moment [and a good few did].

Myself, and two colleagues [including Kristine from Taken for binding] along with a group of willing readers met up in the Main Hall with Leona and were told that we could either stay in the Main Hall or go up to the beautiful Welsh Landscape Gallery to read. Being ‘first timers’, we opted for the quieter gallery and from 12 o’clock until 12.30 we all sat or stood and read aloud from our chosen books [my choice was a vintage guide to Cornwall]. Well there you have it; the half hour went by pretty quickly and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was concerned that all of us talking at the same time would be off putting but it wasn’t; I could hear the others speaking but their voices weren't quite loud enough for me to listen to them. I can tell you that it was a little odd [to say the least] glancing up every now and again to see people sitting reading cross legged on the floor with their backs against the wall just inches from some of our greatest historic works of art! It's been tricky trying to put into words why I enjoyed the experience so much and the best I can do is to put it this way; I think that our group created a subtle hum of energy with the quiet cacophony of our readings floating about the gallery space and I felt like I was taking part in something quite unique [certainly for me anyway]. On a more practical level, it was really nice meeting up with my colleagues for something other than work which we don’t do very often and [if I’m honest] I was proud of myself for trying something new as I don’t do that anywhere nearly as often as I should.

The event was also a good promotion for our Library as Leona had made contact previously and asked for print-outs from some of our earliest travel books including Sarah-Ann Wilmot’s Manuscript journal of tours in England and Wales 1793-1802 and Gerald Cambrensis’ The Journey through Wales/The Description of Wales. We also supplied images from these books along with more contemporary pictures by Shirley Jones [we hold a collection of her special bindings which contain hauntingly beautiful illustrations of the Welsh landscape]; and these were displayed on a plasma screen in the Main Hall for the duration of the event.

 STOP PRESS! The next event [taking place here in the Museum again] has already been announced – find details here on the website J

Thing 16: Advocacy, speaking up for the profession and getting published

Advocacy is something I had never really considered before I did two very important things; firstly, writing my Masters thesis [on how we manage one of our own special collections] and secondly, starting the CPD 23 Things course.

Writing my thesis was the first time I began to consider that we [the library] might be just a tad under valued within our own organisation; and taking into consideration the amount we do and the amazing collections we hold, this was not a comfortable realisation. If that can be taken as a negative, then starting the CPD 23 Things course was most definitely a positive. It opened my eyes to an active and vibrant community of information professionals who not only care deeply about their profession but are not adverse to a good old rant when they feel the need.

My library, just like all the others, needs shouting about – these days it’s not enough that we have been doing sterling work for years; we are now required to prove our relevance time and time again. This post comes at an opportune time as we have begun to discuss how we can we promote ourselves both within and without our own organization. We are going to look at outreach and marketing and improving our online persona and this just the beginning – we have come up with lots of good ideas!

On a practical level I am starting small J I make sure that my blog contains continuous references to my own library and have started Tweeting about both my own and other local libraries’ events whenever I can [last week I re-tweeted events for CLIC and Glamorgan Archives].

As for getting published, this does not currently apply to me. I am a long way from even considering it but [and I know I say this all the time] I’d like to think that in the future I might create something that would be worth publishing.

Ps. Just in case anyone was wondering... I'm the white kitten.

More Friday afternoon suntraps

After a very busy Friday I was the last one in and [as luck would have it] remembered I had my camera with me when the late October sun came out... I hope I've captured how eerie and gothic our beautiful library becomes.