CILIP NE webinar event summary - Reflections on being a Library and Information Professional

Dr Barry Hall
Library Assistant at Durham University
NE CILIP Social Media Officer

A CILIP NE Webinar - Event Summary

On Friday 11th September 2020, members of CILIP NE hosted a national webinar entitled, Reflections on being a Library and Information Professional: Tips for Progressing in your Career.  The aim of the event was to facilitate an exchange of ideas regarding how to enter the library and information management sector, and how then to progress in your career and undertake continuous professional development (CPD).  Two speakers were invited to present short papers followed by a participant-led discussion.  The event lasted one hour.  

The first speaker, Phoebe Harvey-Lee from University of Sunderland spoke about her experience of performing a hybrid role as both a library assistant, and assistant liaison librarian in a paper entitled ‘Reflections from a University Library’.  Phoebe’s paper was particularly inspiring given her none-traditional progression through the profession, and shows how hard work, perseverance, and a willingness to, as Phoebe put it ‘be prepared to take a leap of fate’ can be an effective way into our profession.  Phoebe shared her thoughts on the variety of roles she has performed at University of Sunderland, beginning as a shelver, then customer service assistant, and now assistant liaison librarian, as well as how these experiences informed her journey towards chartership.

This paper generated a great discussion, and I was interested to know how Phoebe managed to divide her time successfully between two roles.  Her answer was striking in that each role informs the other, so Phoebe’s experiences as a customer service assistant have a real positive impact on her work as an assistant liaison librarian and vice versa.  This has led to interaction between the roles that is otherwise often difficult in a busy library environment, and she mentioned how she now saw that each role is actually interdependent within the wider context of the library service – something that can be forgotten when we’re focussed on our own working ‘bubbles’.

Phoebe went on to stress the importance of the interview when applying for a first professional role, something that would be examined in more detail in the next paper.  She pointed out that many applicants, particularly those coming from an academic background, will have similar experience and qualifications, so your performance ‘on the day’ can be crucial, and she mentioned the STAR (Situation Task Action Result) technique as being a useful tool when demonstrating your knowledge to the interview panel.

Allison Cullingford, Head of Collections at Durham Cathedral, spoke next about ‘Tips for Librarian Job-Seekers’, and her talk, from the point of view of a prospective employer, really reinforced what Phoebe shared about her own experiences.  Allison’s presentation looked closely at how recruitment works in the library sector, and was an invaluable glimpse into what employers are looking for.  She began by suggesting that a lot of the advice given to prospective recruits is focussed too much on crafting a good CV, which is something not necessarily applicable to the public sector.  Applicants should rather place more emphasis on tailoring their skills to the role as advertised, and Allison made the astute point that organisations such as libraries tend to advertise jobs when there are specific roles that need filling; as she put it, ‘vacancies are advertised when there are vacancies’, and applicants should endeavour to meet all the requirements of a role when they submit an application, rather than send unsolicited CVs to institutions.

Perhaps the most pertinent point I took away from Allison’s paper was that interviewers and selection panellists score candidates against a prescribed set of criteria.  The most successful candidates are the ones who best meet these fixed categories, so it’s vital you do this explicitly at every stage, particularly at interview.  Allison provided an example of what a shortlisting matrix might look like, and explained the process by which candidates are selected.  This involves scoring each candidate for each item on the shortlisting matrix, the ones with the best scores are interviewed.

Allison went on to provide some tips for getting shortlisted (reproduced below).  As she says, ‘The application is the tool to get shortlisted’, and to get shortlisted you must address every criteria on the role profile and explain exactly how you meet them, giving specific examples.  This is fantastic advice that I’m sure will prove extremely useful to anyone applying to library jobs now, or in the future.

With regard to the interview, Allison iterated the importance of being similarly explicit in how you answer the questions – don’t rely on what you say on your application, and make sure you back up everything you do say with specific examples at every point.  

This presentation generated a great question and answer session and discussion, and it was pointed out how nervous interviewers can get – there is a great deal of responsibility involved in appointing new staff members, and candidates might not be aware how nerve-wracking interviewing can be!  

Participants were invited to contribute to a PADLET, sharing their own thoughts and experiences, and it was great to see so many people taking the time to contribute to this.

As Social Media Officer for CILIP NE, I was tasked with providing a commentary of the event via Twitter using the hashtag #cilipnewebinar.  I published live tweets during the event, and responded to feedback from followers after the event closed.  This was the first time I’d done ‘live tweeting’, and found I was particularly attentive during the sessions, and really felt I’d made the most of the event because of this.  I will certainly be more comfortable engaging with social media in this context in the future, and this experience has cemented my enthusiasm for my role as Social Media Officer.

This webinar was a really successful event, and I’m glad that both speakers were so well received, and that their insights provoked so much discussion.  The participants were really engaged and, as you can see from the screenshot below, a lot of people contributed some sound advice and thoughts to the PADLET.  Thanks must go to Phoebe and Allison for giving up their time and being so generous in sharing their experience and advice on being library and information professionals. 

 

The webinar was the first organised by CILIP NE, and I’m sure that, given how well-received it was, there will be many more to come.