Case studies: Subject librarian: Ella Mitchell

Ella has a BA in Politics with Economics and obtained an MSc in Library and Information Studies from City University in 2006. She works at the University of East London (UEL) as a subject librarian for architecture, computing and engineering and is currently studying for the in-service Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education.

Whilst studying for my degree, I worked as a Saturday assistant librarian in my local public library. I was successful in gaining a graduate trainee position at the University of East London, which lasted for 12 months. During this time, I secured a place on the MSc in Library and Information Studies at City University. On completion, I worked as an assistant librarian at a further education college. It was a very challenging first position but very valuable in helping me to gain lots of different experiences, such as staff management and teaching information skills to students. I gained promotion to deputy head of the library and learning centre. However, I decided that the teaching of information skills was an aspect of the job that I thoroughly enjoyed and I wanted to pursue further. I gained the job as a subject librarian for architecture, computing and engineering at UEL, which is my current position.

I have to keep on top of a busy email inbox and I also have a busy teaching/training schedule, so throughout the day, I am often dashing out to deliver guest lectures or tutorial slots to make sure that our students are fully aware of the library resources. Often I will have to attend programme organising committees where I deliver news about the library and also look to get feedback from staff and students on the library services. I liaise closely with the lecturers to deliver meaningful training sessions for the students and to make sure that we have the resources available. Occasionally I am required to work a late evening, which involves managing a small team of student helpers. Part of my role is also to manage the book collections in my area, which means managing the budget, liaising with lecturers to buy new materials and weeding out out-of-date stock.

I very much enjoy my current role as a subject librarian but do see myself progressing into a new role, perhaps as an academic services manager. I like the variety of my work, from project work, collections and teaching, to student and staff enquiries and so much more. I also like to find out about the current research that lecturers are involved with in my specialist area. I really enjoy the interaction with students and find the teaching aspect of my work particularly rewarding, so I would be reluctant to be in a role that had no contact with them. I would also be interested in working abroad to broaden my knowledge and to experience working in other educational systems.

Managing a busy workload and finding enough hours in the day to get everything done can be quite challenging. Stressed students who don't leave enough time to do their research or who encounter technical difficulties, such as printer malfunctions on their assignment deadlines, are not always fun to deal with.

The advice I would give to other students and graduates who are interested in working in this career is that it will really suit you if you are someone who is able to work using your own initiative. Librarians tend to be hard-working and are not always in the spotlight, but the work is always highly appreciated. There are so many areas within librarianship that suit different people but you will find that most roles have strong elements of customer service in them.