Hello, my name is Antonia and I am currently employed in a year-long library graduate traineeship program at London South Bank University which is based at the Perry Library in Southwark. I started this program in August 2021 and will spend my first 6 months with the User Experience team and the remaining 6 months with the Collections and Administration team. The opportunity to work alongside more than one team within the library is what initially drew me to this traineeship specifically as I am very keen to learn about the variety of different roles available in libraries. In this post I am going to talk about my first two weeks in this role, but first a little about me and how I got to this position.
I graduated with a degree in English and American Literature in 2020 and spent almost a year applying for entry level jobs in publishing whilst simultaneously working in a customer service role in retail. I have always been interested in a career involving books, so after doing some work experience at a publishing house in my second year of university, I had decided this was a career I wanted to pursue. However, after further research into this industry I decided it was not for me and started exploring other options. It was at this point that a job at my local public library came up which I applied for and got. Although I ended up not taking it – as I was looking for something more full time – it had opened my eyes to a career in libraries. A few weeks later I spotted a six-month Junior Library Advisor role as part of the “Kickstart Scheme” in a small University local to where I live. I enjoyed this role right from the first week and was continually keeping an eye out for other opportunities I could move onto when my contract there ended. I particularly enjoyed the interaction with students I had there so I was very interested in finding a library role at another higher education institution. I spotted the graduate traineeship at LSBU in May, applied, was invited to interview in June and soon after offered the role that I would start in mid-August. There are two graduate traineeship positions available at LSBU, one based in technical resources and a more traditional library one, which is the one that I chose and am now employed in.
My first two days were mostly spent getting to know my new colleagues and being informed of things I would need to know on a day-to-day basis. For example, on my first day I was given a laptop and talked through how to access my account, emails and various software specific to LSBU. Following this, on my second day my line manager spent time explaining how I could use outlook and Microsoft Teams effectively including sharing my calendar with colleagues so they would know when I was available for meetings and eventually helpdesk shifts. I was also given a tour of both the library and the LSBU campus. The Perry Library is much bigger than the library I worked at previous to this so I made sure I took some time to familiarize myself with the layout of the building and the location of various facilities.
Later in my first week is when my induction became more library-specific. This started with shadowing one of my colleagues as he completed the library morning checks and procedures. Then later in the day I was also given an introduction to shelving and the opportunity to complete some independently. Shelving had been a big part of my previous library role but now being in a library four times the size (with four times the amount of resources) is going to take some getting used to.
The next day was my first opportunity to shadow on the main library helpdesk where students can receive face-to-face library and IT support. I would be shadowing lots of my colleagues over the next few weeks to start to learn what the most frequent enquiries are and how to advise students accordingly. On this day I was also given a talk about the staffing structure of LSBU’s Library and Learning Resources team. This was a great insight into the number and variety of different roles that are available in libraries. As that was something I was interested in learning more about throughout my traineeship, I was really pleased that an introduction to this was included as part of my induction process.
My last day of my first week included another opportunity to shadow on the helpdesk. In my first two weeks especially, all my colleagues were so helpful and went through the most frequent enquiries and the potential solutions for them. In the afternoon I had the opportunity to sit down with my team leader and ask any questions I had, learn more about what user experience entails and talk about some of the things I would get to be involved in during my six months there. This was particularly useful as I had initially, wrongly assumed that user experience referred solely to customer service. However, in this conversation I learnt that it actually covers a greater variety of services in LLR including accessibility as well as monitoring and responding to feedback from students about the library and the services they provide. I found out that I would get to play a large part in the induction weeks provided to new students which for me would include delivering short tours of the Perry library.
My second week began with a one-to-one with my line manager which gave me the chance to evaluate how I had found my first week and ask any questions I had. I will have a one-to-one with my line manager every week for the duration of my traineeship which I believe will be extremely valuable for my development in this role.
Following this I was given an introduction to the opportunities for staff development within LLR which includes weekly sessions run by my line manager on a number of different topics. Some past topics have been career pathways in libraries, research methods and copyright information. Personal development is something that is extremely important to LSBU so they offer many different opportunities for staff to invest in their development such as, apprenticeships, staff digital skills training and work shadowing. Later that day I attended a staff development session on Microsoft Teams that focused on assisting students with accessing electronic resources. I think what I learnt in this session will be of great use to me during my traineeship, especially when I am working on the main helpdesk where students come for assistance with finding electronic resources relevant to their studies.
The next day I attended my first weekly team meeting with the user experience team where my team leader discussed plans for the upcoming induction weeks and assigned tasks to my colleagues. This was a great chance to get to know my new colleagues better and also learn what everyone would be working on over the upcoming weeks.
Throughout the rest of my second week, I had regular shelving and helpdesk shadowing shifts as well as time to complete my compulsory training and familiarise myself with the library website. I enjoyed having scheduled shelving shifts where I got to work independently and get to know the set-up of the Perry library on my own terms. Furthermore, the amount of helpdesk shifts I was given meant that I had sufficient time to shadow and get to know my new colleagues whilst not being overwhelmed with lots of new information all at once.
On one of the days of my second week I was also given a talk about a reflective learning log, created by staff development, that I can utilise throughout my traineeship to keep track of what I am learning and the skills I am developing. It was explained that this was a personal log - meaning I would not have to show any of my managers - so could adapt and use it as I saw fit. I took some time over the next couple of days to edit and fill it in as I know it will prove useful to refer back to in the future when I am applying and interviewing for other library jobs.
Overall, my first two weeks of my graduate traineeship left me excited to continue learning and get involved more within my team. All my colleagues did their utmost to welcome me, make me feel comfortable and answer all my questions to the best of their ability. Over the next few weeks I will be completing further training, continuing to shadow on the helpdesk and delivering tours of the library to small groups of new students.
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