Since the first lockdown, the one that seems like it happened in another age but in fact was just a little over 12 months ago, we have almost normalised a working environment influenced by the idea that you are and others will be subject to the possibility of infection, that people going about their daily business are a danger to one another. This environment is set to continue.…
When organising events, things often fall into a pattern. We have the tick list of venue checks, timelines for communication and constructing the programme. In 2020, everything was prepped for the UK Knowledge Mobilisation Forum in March, and only weeks before Covid-19 forced the organisers to cancel the event. Like so many committees, we had no idea what the future would hold. By summer 2020, we knew we wanted to hold the Forum and that online was our safest option.…
If you had told us in early 2020 that we would be able to run our library from home we wouldn’t have believed you. Thankfully the last year has been a great one for growth (although we’re hoping to be back in situ soon!)…
Like most health libraries, and in line with government advice to work from home where possible, my service adopted some remote working during the first COVID-19 lockdown in April 2020. On the whole, we adapted well to working from home – we took issues with technology, pets or children in our stride, and remained very productive. However, following some recent staff changes we felt it was right to review our working patterns and explore what might work better in the future. At the end of February, we conducted a very basic email survey of library colleagues to gauge some views on what was happening elsewhere to help inform our working from home patterns moving forward.…
As Knowledge and Evidence Specialists in the Surveillance team, our remit is to support Local Authority Public Health (LAPH) teams primarily with evidence relating to COVID-19 response and recovery. We will also be on-hand to provide a library service to LAPH teams who do not have access to library support via an existing agreement with another library, or who do not employ an information specialist ‘in house’. Carly will be looking after the North East, Yorkshire & Humber regions, and Tanya will focus on the North West, working together where there is any crossover.…
It’s certainly been a busy and challenging year but we have managed to keep the service up and running and made some great service developments!…
This time last year the library team started working from home, our library spaces remained open for self-service loans, PC and study space however the rest of our services started being delivered remotely. We started with only enough laptops for 4 members of the team but eventually managed to obtain laptops for the whole team. We restarted our physical library service at end of July 2020 with some staff at work and some at home on a rota basis and we have continued with this model of working. We have developed online training via teams, inductions videos, increased our eJournal and eBook provision.…
Last year was one of ‘reimagining’ and adapting when circumstances are not ideal, and of course the CILIP Conference was no exception. Having only begun my role in health libraries in late March 2020, I was absolutely delighted to receive a YOHHLNet Bursary for November’s CILIP conference, an event that I have always been keen to participate in but never previously managed to attend. Unlike previous years (but maybe setting the precedent for several years to come), instead of getting to head off merrily on a train to some far flung destination (or Manchester), and spend break times chatting over complimentary coffee with librarians from near and far, I attended the CILIP Conference from the PC in my bedroom.…
I began my apprenticeship in customer service not long after starting a new role as a library assistant in March 2019. The library assistant job is completely different to my previous roles so I had to learn it pretty much from the very beginning. In my previous role my job was to assist patients. Switching to the library meant that now was to help staff. Around two months after starting my new role, I was offered the opportunity to do an apprenticeship. The objective of the apprenticeship was to get me to a point where I could perform my role with confidence and accuracy.…
2020 was a year like no other. In March 2020 with the rise of Covid19 cases and the country going into lockdown, 3 of the 4 library staff were redeployed, at very short notice, to support HR and managers with the recruitment and induction process. This involved contacting all new starters and sorting badges, IT log ins etc etc and doing a local induction. This was a time consuming process, taking on average 4 hours per new starter. At any one time each library staff member had approximately 20 new starters at various stages of the process.…
