HLG Nursing Bulletin Vol 31 (2)
Continuing from the last edition of the Bulletin here is the next in our series of “a day in the life of…” a member of the Libraries for Nursing Committee feature and profiles of two of our new committee members.
A Day in the Life of Julia Abell
The following summary is an outline of the roles I am likely to cover during a typical working day at the School of Community and Health Sciences Library, City University London.
My current responsibilities are centred on Inter-Library loans, where I helped set up ‘Secure Electronic Delivery’ (SED) at the West Smithfield site, and Public Services where I deal with enquiries, help resolve loan and registration issues, and monitor fines. I am also responsible for promotional displays and utilise design and marketing experience gained from previous employment and by attending courses such as ‘Promoting and Marketing Information Services’; a four month distance learning course run jointly by the University of Sheffield and the NHS.
Since starting at the Health Sciences Library, the range of work and the responsibility I have has at times far exceeded the title of Information Assistant. For example, for more than a year I was the main person responsible for electronic resources, 1-2-1 information skills training, and a range of work associated with Academic Liaison, such as collection development, compiling reading lists, and producing curriculum based information guides for ten health related subjects.
During this time I took advantage of the lack of support for these areas to identify my interests and strengths and to develop the skills and experience needed for health related information literacy training, and subject support. I followed this through by drawing on previous teaching experience, and attending relevant courses, such as Facilitating Information Literacy in Education (FILE) and becoming an active committee member of Libraries for Nursing (LfN).
A typical day includes staffing the library desk and answering enquiries, shelving, ordering and processing inter-library loan requests, responding to emails, delivering 1:2:1 information literacy skills training, plus marketing library and information services through posters and displays.
I feel fortunate to have a job that I really like doing; this is mainly due its diversity, the opportunity for CPD, and the ability to organise and plan my workload accordingly. I am currently preparing my Chartership portfolio for submission and in the future would like to focus more on Information Literacy skills training, Subject Support, and Reader Services.
Committee Profiles
Clare Boucher – After completing an MA in Library & Information Studies at University College London in 1999, I came to work as Deputy Subject Librarian for Health Sciences at Swansea
University. Working with nursing and midwifery students, as well as with postgraduates studying healthcare management, public health and health promotion, has always been rewarding and enjoyable. In 2005, the University established a School of Medicine and a graduate entry medicine programme, which added an extra dimension. I now act as Subject Librarian for Health & Medicine.
For many years, I was the meetings secretary for the University College & Research Libraries Group (Wales) committee. During this time, as well as gaining much experience in organising events I also learnt a great deal from my fellow committee members, and I hope that this will help me to be a useful committee member for Libraries for Nursing.
Last year, as well as joining the LfN committee, I also worked with the Core Collection Group to develop a core collection for medicine. This was a great experience and one that I would thoroughly recommend to others to get involved with. I also co-facilitated a workshop on the RRSA (Research Readiness Self-Assessment tool) at LILAC. Information Literacy and e-books are areas of interest to me.
Jodie Knight – I joined the Libraries for Nursing Committee in November 2010 and have taken on the role of Web 2.0 co-ordinator. As the only health librarian on Guernsey my links with other health information professionals are very important to me and membership of the committee is a great way to meet people, share experiences and contribute to the wider health libraries community.
As Library and Information Services Manager for the States of Guernsey Health and Social Services Department I am responsible for the policy, planning, organisation, management and promotion of Library and Information Services, in addition to representing the department within the organisation and externally, particularly within the information community. Organisationally, the Library sits within the Institute of Health and Social Care Studies, which, in addition to providing essential skills and other training / CPD courses, delivers a pre-registration nursing programme and a Professional Practice degree in partnership with the University of East Anglia.
I have been in post for 10 years now and have really enjoyed the fact that each year has been different, as technology has developed and new opportunities have come along. For example: membership of our local clinical guidelines committee; managing the organisations’ intranet and working with representatives from other government departments to improve users’ experience of our government website. I have also recently been able to appoint an ‘Electronic Resources Co-ordinator’ who will assist me in delivering information skills training, managing the library’s collection of electronic books, journals and other online resources and developing the use of e-learning in our organisation.
Health Libraries Group 