A day in the life...

An interesting challenge posed by Lauren's Blog. Write about what a librarian does in a typical day..

2 things before I start, there is no such thing as a typical day, and I think I may be the only non-librarian in my type of role in the whole of the UK (but willing to hear from anyone who thinks differently!).

I'm the Information Resources Manager at Edge Hill University, UK which is a similar role in lots of ways to a Technical Services Manager.

Today then, 8am start and checking any urgent emails whilst saying that I would clear my inbox (yeah right). Big project on the go in relation to reading lists, and a whole new acquisition workflow so looking for emails from two suppliers, as we're trying to match up the marc fields that we'll receive from one, with the LMS so that we won't have to manually input orders anymore - yay.. Deb in Inverness, Fiona in a very wet Ringwood.

Read the Governers report that landed on my desk before passing it to Ruth to catalogue and file, and discovered that EHU are planning to build student accommodation to the tune of 10 million squid, and some other things.

Went to see the Dean of our service to have a chat about some of the information in the Governors report, and digressed into Leadership courses, SMS enquiries, current projects and writing for research.

10am - attended staff development session on Infozone - an online induction that is supported by staff but stands alone should students need to refer back to it. Very interesting, and good to have time to look at it properly. Main things that came out of it was the need to have it aligned with the LS web pages, and that it probably needs a wider team to look after it. Very useful though..

Whilst in the session, was hunting for some further information on leadership courses as recommended by boss, and emailed for programme information for an April 09 intake.

Caught up with a project team member who can't make tomorrow's meeting, and had 5 minutes then back to the office.

Quick check of emails before heading off for lunch with colleague.

Back into it, and loaded some test bibliographic and order records to see what outcome would be. Fed back to both suppliers re: results. Not quite there yet, but I'm sure it only needs a little tweak.

Worked on a Library 2.0 presentation that I'm delivering next Monday, thought about a presentation that I'm delivering next Friday at our staff conference, created a document in Google docs gathering research on IM (Instant Messenger, and Interruption Management) and read a few articles.

Used spark chat tool with colleagues who are new to it, and passed on IM dictionaries relating to jargon and slang!

Discussed with a colleague the possibilities of using Google Scholar in our link resolver, and did a bit of digging in WorldCat - updated our profile and emailed for clarification on some things.

Emailed Sonya at LibraryThing in relation to getting an institutional account so that we can play at putting word clouds in the library catalogue.

Had a chat with a colleague looking at Google Analytics as part of the Walter project, and how we might use the stats. In addition, using the stats from both the web pages and the library catalogue could prove very interesting! Google showed that I accessed from Cork at the end of June !

Got a quote from Allwag for the LS merchandising, which I'll need to follow up tomorrow as it happens, and spoke to Angela to discuss/negotiate price decrease based on quantity ordering.

Wrote a team update and sent it to senior managers, the team and the IRD team for information.

Arranged a visit to Chester University to benchmark the fines payment product. Phew...

Checked on progress of receipt, sorted out a 'too much leave' issue, had discussion with colleagues about use of IM Spark and how it might work for the service.

Booked a day's leave for friday and arranged to meet a friend.

In between, facebooked a bit, twittered a bit, read my google reader and hotmail, received a pep talk from a trusted confidante, and that was about it which took me to a 5pm finish!

I'm sure there were other bits in there too, but hopefully you can see that it is anything but a 'typical' role (which is why i love it) , and books were never mentioned once !!

5. 10 Pick Georgia up.
5.50 Get home and make tea
6.30 Tidy up and play (one usually cancels other out!)
7.00 Bath time for Georgia
7.45 Bed time for Georgia
8.00 My time !!! Blogging, twittering, research, writing presentations (see library 2.0!), housework if i can't avoid it, and reading (currently Taleb's Black Swan, just started it)

Oh, and I might add - it was a 5.50am start this morning!