Job shadowing: Susan and Naomi

Susan: and Naomi, Academic Liaison Librarian for School of Management at Swansea University, spent a day together after Susan found Naomi’s details on our job shadowing list. 

Susan: After first checking with NLPN some time ago that it was acceptable for somebody like myself (who is a not a new professional but is rejoining the profession after a career break) to make use of the excellent NLPN job shadowing list, I went ahead and contacted Naomi, Academic Liaison Librarian for School of Management, Swansea University Bay Campus, in July 2019.

A series of emails followed where Naomi confirmed that she would be happy for me to shadow her and she gave me a choice of coming during summer recess or at the start of the new term. Naomi explained that during the summer the Management students don’t tend to stay around and I would be shadowing the professional staff working on special projects. Whereas teaching and interaction with students would take place during term time and in hosting me during this time I would have the opportunity to see some of the library instruction sessions. I elected to visit the campus during the autumn and we agreed a convenient date.

We started out the afternoon with a tour of the Bay Campus Library. It was my first visit to the beachfront library, which, as well as being the library for the Management subject discipline and the base for the School of Management library subject team, serves the needs of the College of Engineering and Computer Science and Mathematics. My initial observations of the library space were very positive; the impressive windows reveal a great view overlooking a site of special scientific interest. As the tour developed this was tempered with the realisation that the lack of a second floor will probably place a test on library staff as the inevitable expansion of the Bay Campus will mean that physical resources will compete for room with student study space.

Next on the visit I met some of Naomi’s colleagues briefly before Naomi and I discussed her work at Swansea; what she actually did day-to-day, her broader responsibilities and how her role and her team fitted in to the wider library service.

I was probably least familiar with the liaison aspect of Naomi’s work. I’m a qualified librarian though I worked in the information and library studies department in Aberystwyth as a Development Officer for a good part of my professional career developing distance learning masters courses. My pre-library school and most recent library work experience has been in the public library sector.

During this part of the afternoon I had the chance to ask about a number of challenges and opportunities that someone in a role like Academic Liaison Librarian might face. Some of the topics we covered included: information literacy frameworks, digital and information skills development, working with academic departments, staff development, e-resources and collection development.

I finished the day shadowing a session of teaching and learning support. The full-time induction session was an end of the week ‘mop-up’ aimed at undergraduates and postgraduates. It included some interactive elements using the voting app Slido. While Naomi was responsible for leading the session, her colleague Allison was on hand to provide updates to the voting and to interject when there were any questions. Though I have previous experience of open learning this Q & A tool and its associated interactive engagement was new to me. I particularly liked how the team used it to break up the teaching, bringing in Allison to represent the students rather than expecting Naomi to present her information, engage and manage the tool at the same time.

I would like to say thank you to Naomi for adding her name to the NLPN job shadowing list in the first place, for agreeing to my visit, for giving up her valuable time and for being so welcoming and helpful while I was there. It was really great to find someone on the NLPN’s job shadowing list that was locally based and I would encourage anyone who has thought about the possibility of being a host to put their name on the list.

As a returner to the profession, I’m just as open to learning about other workplaces and gaining new perspectives as new professionals. However sometimes there aren’t quite as many opportunities for those relaunching out of their messy midlife. Job shadowing is a great way for those who’ve had a career break to feel their way back into the profession. I was a big supporter of the NLPN job shadowing board prior to my involvement. My actual experience has not undermined this but further strengthened it. Thank you to NLPN for hosting and maintaining the list the whole year-round.

Naomi: Susan joined me for an afternoon at our Bay Campus Library. It was during our welcome week this September. This is a busy time of year; delivering inductions and preparing teaching for the coming weeks. Being shadowed offered me a valuable opportunity to stop and reflect on what I do and why I do it. I do try to regularly take the time to reflect as it an essential part of revalidation process. However, I probably don’t do it enough at the beginning of the academic year when things can get a bit hectic.

Meeting with Susan offered me to chance to learn from her. I have been a librarian working in higher education for a very long time. I run the risk of getting stuck in a rut of doing the same things and not looking outside my sector. Susan works in a different sector and has qualified much more recently than me. This means she was able to provide me with valuable insights. Our discussions covered collection management, Welsh language support, and marketing library services. As is often the case when talking to Librarians from other sectors, I was struck by the fact that we all face similar issues.

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Thank you to both Susan and Naomi for sharing their experiences, which will hopefully encourage others to make use of the job shadowing list.