Monday
Created a presentation for a departmental meeting - the aim is to promote the scanning service; give a quick update on resources and encourage the academic staff to incorporate more/any information literacy sessions within their modules. I'm quite lucky as I have a foot in the door of most modules but there's room for improvement.
I also prepared a couple of things for some student tutorials that are taking place on Tues. I had to look up a couple of medical terms that I had not heard of before.
General emails were answered - these included various requests such as how much money is left in the budget; how do I access the full text of the journal Menopause International; a request for some items to be scanned for the virtual learning environment and several book orders.
Tuesday
I've carried out 4 student tutorials today where I've given one-to-one support for database searching; creating search strategies and locating the full-text of articles. I also gave advice via email for a student struggling with a search - once we had developed some extra keywords and changed the databases she was using all was fine. I got a lovely reply to the email which is good - it's always nice to feel you've made a difference.
I managed to start work on scoping a project regarding our subject pages on the web. They are a little outdated now and the team are looking to revamp them. This has been given to me as project so I'm still looking at the brief before I get going on anything.
Wednesday
I attended a staff development course called 'The Art of Presenting' which was run by an external company. The brochure described the workshop as a ‘high impact, experiential and playful route to finding your personal presentation style’. This sounded just right for me as I needed to refresh my skills and was looking for something that would challenge me.
I deliver lots of presentations, in fact so far this academic year I have clocked up 66 presentations, which take the form of orientation tours, induction talks, lectures, demonstrations and workshops. I like to refresh my presenting skills every so often, mainly so that I make sure I’m still effective and can get the message across to my audience but also to liven things up for me. It’s important that my audience can’t tell that I’m thinking “Oh no, not another presentation on how to search the catalogue” because that negative vibe would ruin the whole show. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind delivering the same presentation but sometimes you want to shake it up a little!
The workshop was fantastic not least because is dragged you out of your comfort zone. The day involved poetry, the Alexander technique, body language, voice exercises, lots of fun and barely any PowerPoint. Many of the people attending were petrified or at best hesitant of standing up and presenting but by the end of the day they were all volunteering to go first in the different activities. Luckily I am happy to stand up in front of an audience (although that wasn’t always the case) but I was particularly pleased to learn some vocal techniques and get some advice about posture which I put in to practice the day after during an induction talk.
Thursday
Today I had a stack of emails to answer as a result of being at the course on Wednesday. I delivered an induction talk to a new group of nursing students who were studying prescribing. They got a little talk about what the library can do for them and what resources we have for their topic. Plus I did a quick demonstration of how to access e-books and search the British Nursing Index. Finally and this always the bit they like best - they got their Library freebies (pens, pencils, highlighter) and a tailor-made printed subject guide compiled by me. In the afternoon the same group visited the library for a tour and we're most impressed by our moving shelves and the self-issue machines.
My last task of the day was to meet my colleague who is a 'Faculty Learning Technologist'. We are working on a joint display about how to get your students to take notice of your reading list and yet go beyond it to find their own sources of information. We are still at the early stages and spent our time scoping the project, setting deadlines and having a good old natter about all things library and techie.
Friday
No appointments in the diary but lots of things to be getting on with. I wrote a piece for the in-house library newsletter about the 'Art of Presenting' course I attended on Wednesday; made some appointments with academic staff for next week; chatted to my fellow health librarian at a neighbouring institution and read some papers for a meeting happening next week.
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