Case studies : Research council librarian and repository manager: Linda

Linda has a degree in library and information studies and works as a research council librarian and repository manager.

I began my library career working part time as a paraprofessional, in a team of 8-12 staff including both professional and paraprofessionals, having transferred from an administrative role within the same organisation. My role at that time was ordering books for stock selected by the acquisitions librarian and cataloguing scientific reports from other institutions, e.g. ESA, NASA and CERN.

As I gradually increased my working hours, I also increased my responsibilities and was promoted to the role of external services librarian. This involved marketing and providing library services to other scientific companies on the wider campus. During this time, I was encouraged to study for my degree, choosing a distance learning course which fitted in with career and family commitments. My organisation paid for my studies and gave me study leave, which was a great help, and I graduated from Aberystwyth in July 2006 with a BSc in Library and Information Studies.

Around this time, many cuts were made to the organisation budget which reduced the library staff to six, and it was decided that it was no longer viable to offer an external service. I became responsible for the front of house activities, which included managing the enquiry desk staff, inter-library loans, circulation and collection management for three subject areas, acting as secretary to the Library Committee, and promoting the library by presenting induction tutorials to new staff of the organisation, all requiring skills I had acquired during my studies.

After graduation, I began my Chartership through the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) . At the time I was a member of the CILIP Cataloguing and Indexing Group (CIG), which gave me valuable experience for my Chartership. I continue to represent the CIG on the Society of Indexers  Wheatley Medal panel. My role also changed again when staff numbers were reduced further and I became development manager for the Institutional Repository (IR). The IR was developed in-house in 2004 and currently holds over 27,000 metadata records, about a fifth of which are full text. I work working closely with the software developer and users to develop an IR specifically tailored to the needs of the departments within the organisation. I am also a member of the United Kingdom Council of Research Repositories (UKCoRR)  and the Repositories Support Project .

In 2009 I was promoted to the role of site librarian. This role involves recruiting new staff, managing two qualified librarians, promoting the library, collection management for a wide subject area, and continuing to manage the IR. It is a busy and varied role where there is lots of scope to broaden the user base by promoting the library to the organisation staff, as well as to staff on the wider campus and in the new businesses which are starting up there. I enjoy the variety of the work and meeting and working with the scientists and researchers. I have a good working knowledge of the organisation and its history over the last 50 years which is invaluable to my role within the organisation, especially when working on projects involving past events or research.