A Day in the Life... of Janet Peters
The University Librarian is responsible for the 18 libraries in Cardiff University Library Service, which between them employ around 300 staff and spend a budget on behalf of the University of £3.7M
She also works closely with the Director of Information Services, deputising as required, and is a member of the Information Services Board. She chairs the key management groups in the University Library Service, the Senior Management Team (7 members) and the Coordinating Group (over 30 middle managers), which between them establish strategic direction and policies both for the day to day running of the site libraries and also to oversee the wide range of projects which are undertaken to deliver new services. She also regularly attends the University Learning and Teaching Committee and Learning Support Team and attends most other University committees from time to time to discuss possible new services, or, more recently, new library buildings.
Janet Peters, University Librarian and Senior Assistant Director, Information Services (INSRV), Cardiff University
12 March 2008
8.30 | 9.00 | 10.00 | 10.30 | 11.00 | 12.15 | 12.45 | 2.00 | 2.30 | 2.45 | 3.15 | 3.20 | 3.30 | 4.15 | 5.00 | 5.30
8.30
Arrive at Mackenzie House for a pre-meeting with Ruth Thornton to discuss the refurbishment of her site library, the Trevithick Library. This is a major project setting a precedent for the development of the 21st century Library recommended in Cardiff University’s review of its Library services (The 2005 “Library Review” Report).
9.00
Meeting with Estates Department and Design Research Unit staff (from School of Architecture) to ensure all information required for the Trevithick Library refurbishment is ready for the official external tender to be issued next week. The overall project costs amount to nearly £700,000, including generous external funding which we successfully bid for from the Wolfson Foundation.
10.00
Drive to County Hall on Atlantic Wharf for a meeting. Tour their (full) car park twice. Eventually find parking space on a side road.
10.30
Just for once, arrive early, so catch up on reading document I had taken with me about collaborative provision of electronic resources for all higher education in Scotland. In Wales we are considering collaborative procurement between higher education and the NHS, which could be even more challenging.
11.00
Meet up with my Head of Special Collections and Archives, Peter Keelan, and go to visit senior City Council officers to discuss the new Cardiff public library developments, plans for the university libraries, possible shared staff development for library self-issue systems, and the possibility of bidding for funding to purchase research materials so that they can be retained in Cardiff. We make some progress and develop useful contacts.
12.15
Drive back to my office at Park Place, collecting sandwich on the way (need a strong digestive system for this job!).
12.45
Catch up with emails, which include a request from one of the Library staff for me to write a summary paper on the progress of the Library Review for a meeting on Friday, which they are attending on my behalf; another request to proof read an application for funding to the European Commission from another group of library staff; a request from University Registry to check a paper about to be sent to a major academic committee about the submission to the Library of completed theses in electronic rather than print form; and a request to provide feedback on a proposed agenda for an external meeting which we shall be hosting in Cardiff in May. This will discuss the use of bibliometric performance indicators. The Library is advising senior colleagues in the University on the various types of information available, which will be discussed at the meeting.
2.00
On top of the day job, I am deputising this week on behalf of the Director of Information Services, so I sign staff recruitment requests and appointment forms for all of INSRV.
2.30
Discuss issues about our new email/calendaring system with my Administrative Officer and try to work out some different ways of dealing with messages and folders (managing e-records is a major issue on which INSRV is assisting the University through its Modern IT Working Environment programme).
2.45
Write the Library Review summary paper for Friday’s meeting, which will focus on the review of the 7 health libraries in Cardiff and 21 in all NHS hospitals across Wales, emphasising the work done with the health Schools on the concept of creating a new multi-disciplinary library on the site of the University Hospital of Wales, the need for library staff to adopt new roles with even greater support for their clinical colleagues, and proposed ways for developing the services to keep them relevant in a digital age.
3.15
Check slides for a presentation I am giving with colleagues to a group of visiting Finnish librarians tomorrow about the genesis of Information Services, its strategy and fit with the University, and the significance of Information Literacy in Cardiff (in which we consider ourselves to be a UK leader).
3.20
Check my work laptop which has had new software installed. Seem to be some issues with it, which will need to be sorted out by my INSRV colleagues.
3.30
Deal with another 20 emails. With such a large staff (nearly 300), there are frequent requests for advice, comment – or opportunities to congratulate staff on major achievements – which are pleasingly frequent, and are the best part of the job.
4.15
Ask my Administrative Officer to arrange meetings with various University staff to discuss a variety of urgent topics – submission of student theses electronically; promotion of the electronic journal articles in the University repository to researchers; additional support for researchers which may be required in the future, such as data curation and maximising citations; and bibliometric performance indicators which may be used in the next UK Universities’ Research assessment (the ‘REF’), where our Subject Librarians will be needed to support the new system. We also prepare agendas for meetings which I chair, such as the sub-groups of the Library Review Project Board, Library Senior Management Team and our Library managers’ meetings.
We also review progress on booking meetings for me to visit all 18 site libraries between March and June. (The ‘Library Review’ aims to integrate these into around half a dozen major multi-disciplinary libraries over the next 10 years). Each library is promised at least an annual visit, for a chat with a large proportion of their staff, so that they remember what I look like!
5.00
Take phone call from a Head of department about staffing issues and student discipline problems in one of the libraries. These are busy places which need to provide a variety of study environments to meet all tastes, which can sometimes be in conflict with each other. We agree to meet to work with the School to try to resolve them.
5.30
Read remaining emails – the non-urgent can wait for another day – information overload is setting in!