About me
I have worked in libraries since my undergraduate degree when I started on the IT & Library Support desk, progressing to work part time in the Library Comms team and IT training team. I had responsibility for project support, learned process mapping, joined the shelving team in the Library and even stepped in to support copyright, licensing and the SCONUL return. This all led me to a project role supporting academic librarians implementing a new reading list system, and in working with the librarians, I found my place.
From there, I moved from project work into a full-time role as a library assistant, where I got to experience the full range of responsibilities thanks to some truly amazing mentors. I experienced acquisitions, selection, stock management, teaching and training, and even spent time in special collections.
I was also able to study for my MSc Library and Information Studies from Aberystwyth via distance learning with the support of my husband and my amazing mentors at work.
While completing the MSc, I moved to a role as a library assistant in Sciences, a team that had a secondary responsibility for the repository and research support.
Connected to the researcher support work came my first experience of project leadership in the form of the UK ORCID projects, funded by Jisc, where I took the role of recruiting and managing the team of student advocates, creating comms and designing materials.
After this, and a sojourn in Front Line services multi-tasking as a Project Manager, I was offered my first professional role as a research support librarian.
Research support and openness
Around the time I moved officially into research support, and my first professional role, the implementation of the REF Open Access Policy was in full swing. I was able to embrace my role and take part in outreach campaigns, presenting to departments, creating materials and sharing comms outlining the changes and what needed to happen.
And the rest, as they say, is history… I have moved through a couple more roles leading researcher support services, building my expertise, growing in confidence, defining my specialisms, and expanding my network. I have been able to join committees, represent my colleagues in stakeholder groups, write and publish works, and speak at conferences.
In 2022 I began my PhD part-time at UCL. The project seeks to understand the evolution of researcher support teams in university libraries and how the shifting policy environment and associated compliance culture has affected their development over time.
Venturing out…
While my PhD is in progress, I have had the opportunity to reflect and once again throw myself into learning something new. It’s a huge challenge that I have set for myself and as much a voyage of self-discovery as a research project. This site is going to have a blog, I will write something about that at some point…
I have now hit the point in the project where ‘getting the research out there’ and ‘getting myself out there’ as an academic, rather than a professional, has become the next step. Which brings us here - investigating ways in which I can use everything I have learned throughout my career to support or to collaborate.
If you would like to have a chat about speaking, working together on a project or requesting my expertise as a consultant, then get in touch.
