Information Scotland The Journal of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland ISSN 1743-5471 Issue contents | Journal contents | About the online edition of the journal April 2007 Volume 5(2)

People: Careers

Wonderful job satisfaction

Helen Durndell, appointed as Glasgow University Librarian in November, talks to IS.

Helen Durndell has worked in Glasgow University Library since 1979 in a variety of posts, progressing up to Sub-Librarian (Teaching & Learning) 1995-2002, then Associate Director of Library Services and, from 1 March 2006, Acting Director of Library Services. Her career has also included working at the Andersonian Library at Strathclyde University, Glasgow School of Art, Western District College of Nursing and Midwifery and Gartnavel Hospital, Glasgow. Helen talks about her current concerns and recent activity to Information Scotland.

Why did you enter the library/information profession?
Careers interviews identified librarianship as a good career match for my skills and interests... and so it has proved! When I left university I applied for the Civil Service and also for a trainee library post at the University of Strathclyde. By the time the Civil Service completed the recruitment process and offered me a post as an Executive Officer (with ACAS, the arbitration service) I had been working in the library for several months, and realised the many opportunities available within academic librarianship.

Why did you choose the academic sector?
My first library post, pre-qualification, was at University of Strathclyde, although my first professional post was in a College of Nursing. I felt very comfortable within the post-school sector and was then lucky enough to obtain an Assistant Librarian post at Glasgow University Library (GUL), where I’ve remained ever since. One of the advantages of large academic libraries is the breadth of experience available – I certainly feel as if I have had several very different posts in the course of my career within GUL.

What particular developments or projects are you occupied with at the moment?
I’m about to head off to San Francisco for a week, to attend an Academic Library Directors’ Forum arranged by Innovative Interfaces Inc (our library management systems supplier). Glasgow is the only European development partner on their most recent product – “Encore. I’m looking forward to interacting with directors worldwide. The programme is very interesting, with a focus on students” use of today’s information technologies. This will feed into discussions here on ‘whither the Opac?’

Otherwise, my main overall preoccupation in my job is ensuring that we have the resources – finance/staffing/estates – to support the university’s core mission of research and learning. At the moment, that means persuading the right people that we need an above-inflation uplift in the library materials fund. We’re also working on a capital bid that is about acquiring substantial e-backsets of journals, identifying and relocating the matching print stock and redeveloping the space released appropriately.

We led on the UK-wide EThos project and were particularly pleased to get Senate agreement recently on a change to the regulations to require the deposit of an electronic copy of a thesis, accessible from the institutional repository Enlighten.

My personal ‘comfort zone’ is building project work – I’ve been closely involved in redeveloping our building over the past 10 years (we’ve now completed Level 11… ) and because of the expertise I’ve gained I’ve had the opportunity to work on other projects across campus, currently the redevelopment of the Hub into a centralised Student Services building.

What do you think are the current major concerns in your sector of the profession?
There is a general concern about the standing of library workers within universities as the job evaluation process arising from the modernisation agenda reaches a conclusion. We have come through this at Glasgow with a positive outcome but a lot of hard work was involved, especially in the early stages, to ensure a proper understanding of the skills involved.

Other concerns are about providing the e-content which our users are hungry for within the financial resources available to us (but that is not a new problem!).
Librarians are wonderful collaborators, however, and there are many initiatives within Scotland which allow us to work together. I am convenor of the CASS Steering Group (Collaborative Academic Store for Scotland) which is in the final stages of a pilot project and has established a physical shared store within the National Library of Scotland building on Causewayside. We are now working on the governance and business models which will turn this pilot into a reality underpinning collection management in Scotland.

How would you encourage someone considering entering the profession and, in particular, academic librarianship?
I think there has been a more positive feel in this profession over the past few years. In the mid to late 90s there was a lot of talk about the end of libraries but more recently we are seeing a resurgence of libraries with a lot of building redevelopment activity on campus, investment in digital library resources, the open access movement, and the recognition of the importance of the information professional skills amidst the plethora of information and devices to access that information.

The other point I would make is that it offers opportunities to get involved with broader services either on the IT/Computing side, or with Student/Academic Services.

Our own entry statistics are still going up, and the library building is still a focal point for activity on campus. This is all very energising and gives wonderful job satisfaction!

Information Scotland Vol. 5(2) April 2007

Information Scotland is delivered online by the SAPIENS electronic publishing service based at the Centre for Digital Library Research. SLAINTE (Scottish libraries across the Internet) offers further information about librarianship and information management in Scotland.