Monday 29 October 2012

Inductions: done and dusted

Inductions are done - well until April when I get a new cohort.

It has been exceptionally busy - busier than last year although I can't figure out why.

The last week included:

Two introductory talks for distance learning students who were visiting for their block placement. Always a treat to meet these students - not only are they lovely but I get to visit them at a 'Jane Austen' country house - the kind of place where you imagine taking a turn around the room and promenading in the garden for the afternoon!

A couple of student tutorials - squeezed in between this and that.

Three workshops on searching for evidence - I usually say that you can tell when a workshop is not going quite as planned (blank faces, confused faces etc) and I thought that was the case with all three of these workshops. However the students' comments at the end and on the evaluation sheets were all extremely positive. I think the session was forcing them to think about new search techniques and the strained faces were a sign of learning rather than not understanding.

A drop-in session for the final year students who are embarking on their dissertation - I had a queue form outside the door which I took as a compliment.

Wrote an article for the departmental newsletter about my work during the induction period - attempted to highlight all the non-tour type of induction work that goes on.

A lot of workshop planning for events looming in the coming weeks.

A couple of meetings in which I volunteered to run library update sessions at the next meeting. I vaguely remember saying something like "I'll do some stuff on copyright, linking to the VLE and e-Library troubleshooting". I have a feeling I may regret this next term when they only give me 5mins on the agenda.

Now that inductions are over I can focus on some workshop planning, book ordering and getting ready for next term. As a friend once said 'Academic librarians are for 3 years, not just the 1st semester'.

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