Advice to prospective library school students

I am horrified to see that I haven't written a post for five weeks (and one day). What's more horrifying is that I have been aware of my absence for some time now but have done nothing about it.

I like to think that my silence reveals a lot about what is going on at the moment but, from the reader's perspective, I fear it suggests I haven't been bothered to write anything. Admittedly, that is the case but I haven't bothered to write anything because there really hasn't been any time. I thought I was being ambitious in setting up this blog and giving myself the aim of writing at least one blog post a week. I have failed to achieve this goal horribly.

Why have I been so busy? Too much university work to complete combined with too many hours at work (28.25 per week to be exact). On the day I handed an assessment in for the module Information and Library Management, the tutor gave us the specification for the next assessment. I didn't actually look at it for at least a week, in denial that there was yet another assessment that needed completing. The specification is to do a group presentation and, similarly, there is another module on the course with the same requirement. The groups have been purposefully created so there is a mix of part-time and full-time students. The presentations aren't assessed until January but I have discovered a definite full-time/part-time divide between students whilst preparing for them. 

For the part-time students, their next assessments are these two presentations. For the full-timers, up until last week, there were another two assessments to hand in. Needless to say, my concentration and effort went on researching and then writing the 5,000 words these assessments demanded. During that time, I received many emails from fellow team members with updates on all the research they had completed, PowerPoint presentation slides and scripts. I, on the other hand, had done nothing. Or very little, at least. Every week our groups had a meeting to share our progress. I turned up with a very small amount of information to make it look as though I had done something productive. 

My sensitivity on this subject stems from jealousy. Jealousy that part-timers have half the number of assessments to hand in, half the amount of preparation to do for lectures, and less information filling their brain to saturation point. I don't wish I was doing the degree part-time because I'm half way through the year already, whereas if I were a part-timer, I would have another year and a half to go, which is just depressing. If anything, I would like to have fewer hours to work, (and by 'work', I mean my job.) Twenty eight  and a quarter hours per week is really pushing the limit and I would suggest to any prospective library school students that they seriously consider doing fewer than that. People frequently say how impressive it is that I manage to fit everything in. At a job interview earlier this week I was asked whether there is a clone of me doing the other half of my work. I have been asked before how on earth do I cope? I don't, really, is the answer. I am grateful to my parents, who are probably reading this, for taking many a phone call from me and also @simonabond for not rising to my argumentative ways. I don't dislike library school. In fact, having filled in evaluation forms for the various modules, I have come to realise how much has been shoved into my memory over these three months. I just think that all future library school students should be advised to make a wise decision when it comes to balancing university work with a job (or jobs, as the case may be).

The unsuccessful funding applicant

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The other day I read a blog post by @theatregrad, in which she describes her current life as a library school student. She was a successful funding applicant and is able to complete her library school Masters full-time without having to work. There is one sentence that struck me, which is why I am writing this post: "I wonder how the people who do work or commute or have relationships and families cope [with studying]." I don't have a family but I do have a relationship, have to commute and work. I shall tell how I, the unsuccessful funding applicant, cope with completing a full-time library degree.

Firstly, I think the saying 'money makes the world go round' is true. If you have money, whether it is just enough to pay rent, bills and food, or whether there are thousands of pounds to spare on a new car or house, your world goes round quite nicely. If you don't have money then your world stops. You can't pay your rent so you have nowhere to live. You can't go to a supermarket and buy food so you go hungry. So if you don't manage to get funding for your degree, then you need to find some way of getting it. In my case, having to work.

Fortunately, savings were able to pay tuition fees but there is the small problem of general living costs. Ideally, I would have one job with a decent wage that would let me work three days a week, the other two days spent at university. The ideal is not always reality, however, and I have ended up with two part-time jobs that take up the majority of my days.

For three days of the working week, I work 8:30am-3:30pm at one library. I then work 4:50pm-7pm at the other library. So nine hours and ten minutes (if my maths is correct) of my day is spent at work. The hour and twenty minutes between shifts is spent cycling to the Law Library to squeeze in some university work. My hour's lunch is spent over some journal article or book chapter. I often get up at 6am to get a little work done then too before I travel to work. By the time I get home in the evening, have cooked tea and eaten, it is approaching 9pm and my brain has shut down ready for sleep so I rarely do any work then.

The other two days of the working week are spent at university. The journey is two hours from door to door, and that's assuming the trains are not delayed. The train journey there is during lunch so, once again, I eat food whilst reading for university. The train journey back is very much the same except I don't eat.  The lectures are from 2:30pm-7:30pm with an hour's break in between, in which I eat dinner over some other journal article or book chapter. I take advantage of the morning off and do university work then too.

So that's my working week. Not very varied. The weekend is not much dissimilar. I have to work Saturday from 8:45am-1pm. Then the rest of Saturday and Sunday is spent doing university work. @theatregrad also explains that "having nothing to distract me from staying on top of the workload is great." I haven't actually struggled to stay on top of my workload, despite how busy I've been. I haven't handed any assessments in late and I've done all the preparation required for lectures. With my time scale though, I only ever have time to complete the essential reading for lectures. Suggested reading is impossible to complete, especially when I have reading to do for assessments so I can actually write the things. The only way it could be done is not to sleep. But I like sleep. Very much.

So that is an example of an unsuccessful funding applicant's student life. Those spare moments where I'm not at work are spent studying. And this has to be completed without completely neglecting one's boyfriend, friends or hobbies (in my case, hobby).

It doesn't always work that way though. I am definitely experiencing a mid-term lull where there is little incentive or motivation to do university work. Then there are those occasions where I decide to go to the pub just to see people rather than get some much needed sleep. Then I spend half the weekend in London and actually forget about university (not for the entire evening but the majority of it). Then there are days where I have to work extra hours at my first job so, rather than having an hour's gap between jobs, I have to go straight to the second one. And then there are those times when I write blog posts, telling myself this is not wasting time nor procrastinating.

I don't mind being busy. I like it, in fact. Those few weeks where I didn't have a job were quite dull and completing job application forms or going for job interviews was not my ideal way of keeping busy. There is, though, a fine line between having just enough to keep you going and having so much to do that you never rest, the latter of which I am experiencing.

I'm not sure how other students who are working plan their days but this is how I do it.

My reasonably average day

Rather than attempt to come up with something witty and intelligent about what I learned at university, I have decided to record my reasonably average day. The following was noted on Monday 1st November.

06:45-08:00 After about nine hours of heavenly sleep - wake up, shower and all that jazz.

08:00-08:20 Cycle to work on wonderfully empty roads via Tesco to buy smoked sausage meat.

08:20-08:30 Arrive at work, put lunch in fridge and put excess baggage in locker.

08:30-09:15 Check in journals and process them, as well as informing one supplier they have the wrong address.

09:15-09:20 Try to find one single circular red sticker to stick on a journal. Finally manage to find one.

09:20-09:30 Deal with reader enquiry - someone returned twelve books but the catalogue says they are still loaned out. 

09:30-09:55 Cover desk and classify/process a Legal Deposit book.

09:55-10:00 Delve into the depths of the stack to return a journal.

10:00-10:25 Attempt to figure out an inter library loan request from America for a thesis our library holds. Decide it's best to ask colleague.

10:25- 11:55 Shelving with an intermission to sort out previous inter library loan.

11:55-12:10 Stupidly start dealing with another inter library loan five minutes before intended lunch.

12:10-13:00 Lunch over Cataloguing and Classification Quarterly.

13:00-14:00 Cover desk whilst colleague takes lunch and attempt to do some reclassifying in between reader enquiries. Learn what is meant by 'black box' after interrogating a student about their books.

14:00-15:00 Intended to do some reclass but visitors to the department were blocking my way to the material so I did more shelving, or, tidying up the students' squirreling attempts.

15:00-15:20 Swarms of students arrive having finished lectures and, predictably, the PCAS (photocopying, printing and scanning) machines have a tantrum and die. Enter my 'expert' skills, the off-on trick.

15:20-16:40 Go to the Law Library to amend a messy essay for university on collection management and development.

16:40-19:00 Cycle to and work at my second job. I do some foliating of letters from the 1930s and assist with an interesting enquiry (a cataloguer from Lambeth Palace Library suspects an item they are cataloguing  is a satire on the Church of England rather than a true story of a man hanged for piracy and it is my job to scour our documents for these 'pirates' names).

19:00-19:30 Sit in a graveyard eating tea.

19:30-21:00 ring at St Thos.

21:00 21:45 Royal Blenheim

21:45-10:30 Cycle home and sleep!

Too much information combined with complicated search engines

Image from nostuff.org

All has been quiet on the blogging front. I started my second job a fortnight ago, which means working 8:30-7, and Saturday mornings. Sadly, university work became a priority over blogging.

University is actually going well. I emerged from the mathematical lecture understanding what had been explained and able to go home and relax, rather than tear hair out for hours attempting to fathom nonsense. The first two assessments are progressing well, which is nice to know. What isn't nice to know is there's another two assessments that haven't yet been started on.

One of my assessments is on improving awareness and use of web 2.0 tools in the library I work in and results of the survey I distributed shows that, just because these sites are available for libraries to promote their collections and services, without promotion they will never get consulted. Many of the people who completed the survey commented that using web 2.0 tools complicates things - what is wrong with using the main library page for all sources of information? Can there not be a list of new books on the library page, rather than navigating to another website such as LibraryThing or Twitter? Others commented that they just use Google because it's an easier database to search, despite the amount of information the library provides for them. As well as making these services available, libraries need to make sure they market them, otherwise people will not know they are there to use. Once people know they are there to use, they are unlikely to do so if it is too complicated, which means libraries then need to educate readers in how to benefit from the service. This still sounds like quite a lot of faff though when all people want is a basic and easy to use search engine/database. The sheer wealth of information makes finding your way through it complicated, and libraries aren't providing simple search engines to help, which makes you realise exactly why they don't use our services and opt for easy-to-use alternatives.

Libraries in the Modern World

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I actually had a very good couple of days at uni this week. In the Working with Information module we were taught binary codes (which we were apparently taught at school once upon a time but it completely escapes my memory), set theory, and efficient and compact coding. This wasn't actually explained in relation to libraries but I imagine (in layman's terms) it might have something to do with managing and representing information in an efficient manner. Correct me if I'm wrong because I have an exam to do on this.

I mentioned reading Libraries in the Modern World by Brophy in a previous post which created a stimulating discussion in the lecture because of the author's blatant opinion that libraries are coming to an end because librarians are not capable of adapting to the changes in the modern world, ie. technology, and as a result, will perish. Admittedly, he states that the points he makes are "deliberately presented as threats and deliberately couched in provocative terms" (17). Still, it's enough to rile anybody up who knows the effort librarians put into changing.

His fundamental purpose is to make people aware that change is occurring right now and that libraries need to change to keep up. He assumes, however, that there will be no counter-revolution and that technology is definitely the future (understandably). He also generalises libraries, making no distinction between the different types (academic, public, government) and, therefore, assumes that all libraries are equally at risk from the exact same threats.

He bases his assumptions that libraries will wither on the fact that "past experience would suggest that [libraries] are more likely to allow another market player to capture the market" (17) and that at the moment, although libraries are trying to change, they're not doing it quickly enough to keep up with the changes in technology. I think the main point from this, as an argument against Brophy, is that libraries do have the ability to adapt to those changes going on around them and they are going to adapt as they have done in the past, for example, from card catalogues to OPAC. He states that "libraries can seem to be falling victim to these [web 2.0] changes, unintended casualties of the information revolution" (8), which insinuates libraries neither want to or have put any effort into using web 2.0 to help promote themselves, their collections and keep in contact with their readers. Libraries could have ignored this new interactive information sharing facility deciding to maintain their traditions but they have embraced it because they know the difference it will make, and that is what libraries will continue to do.

And this is just the beginning

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So the first week of uni is complete. It wasn't as bad I thought it was going to be, although I was imagining hell itself. Things were pretty easy going with discussions about learning skills and studying skills, the history of libraries and key issues. 

The most interesting lecture, for me, was Working with Information (WWI),and yet it was also the most daunting as I was confronted with binary codes, HTML, document formats, digitisation and so on. All quite foreign to someone who studied English. 

For two of the modules (which are not WWI) we have already been set our assessments and it is the WWI module that has given me inspiration ... for one of the assessments, at least. Something along the lines of how once upon a time (not sure when exactly that is) information was quite sparse and hard to get hold of. Now, we have an abundance of information, so much so we're not entirely sure how to go about accessing it and what to do with it, which affects librarians as information changes format, ie. print to e-resources. As an example, I have been creating hyperlinks in Word for the DPhil reading list at work. A number of the items are only available as an e-journal but for the entire of today the server was down so I couldn't create these hyperlinks. Neither could any of the PGCE students access their set reading. Print copies seem the favourable option in this scenario but, as another example, three copies of one book that had their status as 'available' were all missing and have not yet been found either. In this case, an online version is best. It seems that either method of making resources more widely available has its faults, which may be a fault of our own in that, perhaps, we have become too used to having things, whatever they may be, readily available and information won't ever be constantly accessible to everyone, no matter how hard we try.

University ahoy

Image from chakpak.com

This week I attended university for my induction sessions, which are two weeks in advance of the lectures starting. My first impressions included thinking the campus was like a town in itself; a concrete jungle that is very easy to get lost in (I wandered around for half an hour trying to find the building I was supposed to get to. It was a good thing I arrived three quarters of an hour early).

I learnt about the faculty of environment and technology, which has around 7,000 students, more than the place I studied my undergrad degree at had in total. We were informed of assessment regulations, how to use the library, and other things that escape my memory. The most interesting, and relevant, part of the two days was the subject specific session for people studying librarianship, or indeed, information management. I was a little disappointed to be informed the timetable still hasn't been completed and isn't ready to be published. Also, only one tutor has uploaded any preparation tasks for the first lecture (and being ever the keener, I have completed these, including week two's task which was accidentally done before week one's task. Some might call this being 'proactive'). This makes me wonder at the enthusiasm, organisation and cooperation of staff.

In a mingling session, AKA 'networking' session, many people drew in breath when they discovered I was studying full-time as well as working part-time and said things like "won't that be difficult?" Most probably, yes, and I am well aware, thank you very much. If anything, their comments have made me want to prove it can actually  be done and I, strangely, don't fear this prospect as I did once before.

One of the essays we have to read in preparation for the lectures is called Libraries in the Modern World by Brophy explaining how libraries have changed over the centuries and how they are now under threat due to development in technology, which they are for some reason unable to adapt to. Brophy lists many alternative and better ways to access information - bookshops, social networking, mobile communications, print on demand and e-commerce - all of which people prefer to "librarians [who] have not developed the skills to understand [technology], exploit it or create it" (18). This is all assuming that technology is, indeed, the future.

[In other news, I have a new job, which is very exciting and will pay me enough to support myself and is a job that I really really wanted and worked extremely hard for.]

Funemployment

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I have not yet started library school (that begins next week) but the next stage in my progress as a librarian appears to be unemployment, or 'funemployment' as my friend @cigriggs calls it. I suppose I should take comfort in the fact that I haven't been sacked but that my job was simply a one year contract. When I applied for the job, got offered it and accepted it, I never really thought any further than actually starting work. Pretty soon I was getting told I had to apply for library school without really knowing whether that's what I wanted to do. I followed suit of previous library trainees who decided to stay in Oxford and work part-time, then travel down the road for an hour and a half to get to university on the necessary days. It seemed so simple but I didn't imagine finding a job would be so difficult, time consuming and demoralising. Last year I applied for the graduate traineeship, miraculously got an interview and even more miraculously got the job, and that was without applying for any other job or going to any other interviews. So one year on, sixteen application forms later (I'm sure it must be more but I've lost count) and six interviews later I haven't really got anywhere and it is quite a shock after the ease of last year's success.

I'm not entirely sure what the point if this post is or what tone to adopt. I think the main point to get across is the sheer terror of having no income and making the previous month's wages last the foreseeable future. I feel incredibly guilty for going out with friends and spending money on, what is now, unnecessary treats. The other day I accidentally printed off eleven pages of a document rather than two in the local library and thought the £2.20 cost had created a huge hole in my purse. That's an overreaction, admittedly, but never before have I had to watch what I spend so closely. I never thought I would get to the end of my contract at the Law Library and have nothing to go to next. What's worse, one of my housemates has moved out and taken the internet with her and there's no TV to watch, so until they're sorted I can't even keep myself occupied with that form of entertainment. I keep getting told to treat this period of unemployment as a holiday, but when you go on holiday it's because you've taken time away from something and you are going to return to it soon enough.

Not that I like to end on a moralistic note but I was moping around in my room doing not a lot and looked at the brand new Shakespeare quotation clock I got as a leaving present from work to check the time. It reads 'make use of time, let not advantage slip', so for the sake of my sanity I think of that every time I find myself staring into space and feeling sorry for myself, and try and do something productive.

Conflict Shelf

The Law Library is part of the Bodleian and is, therefore, part of legal deposit system, which means it is entitled to claim a copy of every law publication in the British Isles. Previous practice was for my supervisor to head over to the New Bodleian every week and pick out which books our library should have. This has changed and there is now a virtual display. My supervisor can sit in the comfort of her office and choose which books she might like on the computer. This week was the first run and we were supposed to receive 31 books but only received 30. It appears there is a little competition over one book, looking at its current shelf mark:

Change of Roles

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With my contract soon to end at the Law Library, my supervisor and I have decided I should gain some experience of job roles I have had absolutely nothing to do with over the year, namely Academic Services tasks (I work in the Information Resources office).

I was given the task of writing a blog post for the library's Law Bod Blog on how the Kluwer Arbitration website has changed. This was slightly problematic in that I had no idea what it looked like before. I am  eternally grateful to @simonabond for showing me what the website used to look like in 2008, so a comparison could be made and I could start on my blog post. Here is my finished product for all to see: http://lawbod.wordpress.com/2010/08/19/kluwer-arbitration/

What have I let myself in for?

Image from dulemba.blogspot.com

What have I let myself in for? That's what I have been asking myself every day since it dawned on me I'd actually made the decision to complete a full-time Masters in Information and Library Management at unnamed institution, whilst working part-time. I stumbled across the graduate trainee librarian programme at Oxford University and thought "excellent, a year of work ready for when I finish my undergraduate degree". Little did I know that to pursue this career I would need to be in the education system for that little bit longer.

I didn't know whether I wanted to be a librarian when I applied for library school and I still don't. I didn't know what else to do, basically, and all of the other trainees were applying so I thought I should probably do the same. Now the start of term is only just over a month away.

I've started this blog so my progress through library school can be followed, this post reflecting my boundless enthusiasm before even starting the course and towards the end of the degree ... well, who knows. The thing is, I have no boundless enthusiasm. I'm actually dreading this next year. I blame friends and colleagues who are currently completing the degree, friends and colleagues who have already completed the degree, and fellow Twits, all of whom complain about the woes of library school. Thinking about it, I have never heard anyone say anything good about it. I suppose I should make a list of the things I am looking forward to:

1) Writing. A year after completing my English degree I haven't written one jot, besides emails and job application forms, so I am looking forward to using the skills I spent three years perfecting.

2) I will be able to see my family more as unnamed institution is only twenty minutes down the road from them.

Besides that I see myself as having very little money, spending every evening and weekend doing uni work, having no social life, getting very stressed and tired and grumpy. All of which will have dire effects on my personal life. I feel as though I'm going to be like Andy from the Devil Wears Prada who gives up her friends and boyfriend for her career.

I could be wrong though. I might love this year. We shall see.