Eight Weeks to Associateship - Week 2

Week 2: Starting on the detail

This week we're focussing on Part A, which talks about your "Practical knowledge and skills in providing library/information services". As we work through these areas, the idea is to make lots of notes as they come to mind. These notes will form the basis of your application, which we'll start to write up formally in a couple of weeks.

So, here's what they'd like to know about:

(a):
(i) Competence and achievement in some particular aspect(s) of library and information services
(such as circulation services, book selection, collection development, cataloguing, reference and
information services, response to community/user needs, specific services, e.g. Bi/multicultural,
young persons, outreach, special needs, archives, records management, research, user surveys,
etc.).
(ii) A well–demonstrated understanding of the information needs of clients, and the delivery of
services to meet those needs.

Let's start with part i. Sometimes, when you're so close to what you do everyday, it's hard to recognise it as a 'competence', so take out all those job descriptions that you collected last week and give them a read through. What kind of jobs has your library career been characterised by? Are there one or two areas that you'd consider a speciality, or has it been a more of a mixed bag? What did you enjoy doing the most, and where did you feel the greatest sense of achievement? You can pick a few areas if you think you have strengths in several places.

Once you've got your list of competences, for each one, ask yourself
· What were my greatest achievements in that area? It could be a new system of training you devised, a way of making your workflow more efficient, a particular promotion that got lots of good feedback from clients or staff or finding a specialised need and filling it. Take out your performance reviews, and see what you've achieved over the years.
· What other activities have I done in support of this area? Have you done a course or attended training, read specialist magazines, presented at conference, received an award (internal or external) served on a related SIG or working group?
· How do I know that I'm good at this? Perhaps you're the go-to person in your area, you've trained others, or provided support or advice to other libraries. Take out your performance reviews again, and look at your managers comments. How did they say you did the job?

Part ii is about looking at the needs of your clients, and how you deliver a service that fills those needs.
Firstly, think about your clients. These might be your colleagues, your customers, the public, and other libraries. What are their top priorities when they come to the library, or ask you to provide a particular service? Are they looking for speed, efficiency, customer care…? How do you contribute to those needs?

Ask yourself:
· How do I know what my clients want? This might be informal feedback, formal requests, or surveys.
· What areas of my role impact on the stakeholders I serve? Is it speed, efficiency, good knowledge of the library or resources, or doing my role in a thorough way?
· Have I been able to improve on these areas?
· What feedback have I received? Have I had comment on the service, internally or externally? How about positive feedback from a manager or customer? You might be able to see a tangible change, such as increased visitors, or more users of a particular service, or something less tangible, such as a decline in complaints, a better working environment or quicker turnaround time. Or perhaps you know what you're doing works because of your repeat customers!

Hold on to these notes! Again, you might like to keep them close by in case you think of additional ideas during the week. Until next week, happy associating!