Case studies : Assistant information manager: Guy

Guy has a degree in English literature and language and a Masters in Library and Information Studies. He works as an assistant information manager at a UK government department.

I was accepted as a graduate trainee in a legal library in London and learnt an enormous amount during the year I worked there. I became very interested in two aspects of librarianship in particular: research and cataloguing. In September 2009 I moved on to UCL’s Library and Information Studies MA course. 

The MA course was invaluable, broadening and adding depth to my understanding of the profession and developing key skills in cataloguing, classification and information retrieval. I also studied relevant aspects of IT and web design and the principles of management. Although I studied full time, I also worked as a library assistant in a small academic library four evenings a week and was able to build up some practical knowledge of cataloguing and collection management.

My MA was crucial in getting my current job, since the role was only available to candidates with a professional qualification. I heard about the role through a sector-specific recruitment agency and would highly recommend that anybody searching for a job in the library/information management sector register with all of the agencies specialising in the sector (e.g. TFPL , Sue Hill Recruitment , Glen Recruitment , Weekes Gray Recruitment  and Infomatch, the CILIP Recruitment Agency ).

In a typical day I spend a certain amount of time sorting through post and signing in hard copies of journals and newspapers before putting them on display for staff to read and browse. I am responsible for compiling a number of news alerts, which are emailed to a range of individuals and teams, including MPs’ private offices. I also deal with the department’s legal deposit obligations to the UK’s national libraries and am developing a new deposit policy with the department’s publications team. 

Other key responsibilities include responding to information enquiries from staff, organising inter-library loans from other departmental libraries and the British Library, the acquisition of hard-copy monographs and serials when needed, cataloguing, ad-hoc training of staff and the careful balancing of the information service’s budget.

What I find most satisfying about my role is dealing with enquiries, which involves research and often some creative thinking (i.e. how can we supply this to our user for the lowest price possible?). I also enjoy producing current-awareness services based on the information available on databases.

The most challenging part of my job comes from dealing with budget constraints and users who are unhappy when services have to be cut or altered in order to fit in with wider cuts being made across the public sector. It can make long-term service planning problematic but, as an information manager, these constraints highlight the importance of being flexible, having strong communication skills and driving a hard bargain with publishers and suppliers whenever possible.

In the future I would like to move into a more senior position, but also continue to work in a role that requires a fairly high amount of research. 

I would advise graduates thinking about moving into the field to ask themselves whether they are committed to the provision of high quality information and whether they have the high level of attention to detail needed to ‘make order out of chaos’.