Ever since I started working in libraries one thing has troubled me – what do we call the people who use our service? Where I used to work the most common term was Reader, but this for some reason always felt a bit odd and slightly pretentious to me. Working in an academic library I will often refer to them by their status at the University but this causes problems if you want to refer to them as the group as a whole. I don’t like calling them customers as they don’t pay us directly for the service we provide. [...]
libraries
Library Day in the Life – Friday
The following post is written as part of round 5 of the Library Day in the Life project. Morning soundtrack: This American Life First thing this morning I had a meeting with the student from earlier in the week who is researching the relationship between optometrists and the NHS. We looked at search strategies, identified useful journals and databases and talked about applying for funding. After this I spent a little time tidying the papers strewn across my desk. I always like to leave at the end of the week with a tidy desk, I find it makes Monday morning [...]
Library Day in the Life – Thursday
The following post is written as part of round 5 of the Library Day in the Life project. Morning soundtrack: A selection of TED Talks including Hillel Cooperman’s Legos for grownups (the video is at the end of this post) Today I spent a lot of time writing and responding to emails and consequently I didn’t get round to my donations again. Most of the emails were about setting up or feeding back from meetings. Added into the mix was finalising my induction timetable with the programme managers. I think I’ve just about managed to fit everyone into the slots [...]
