My Job - Deputy Team Leader

My Job – Deputy Team Leader, Reader Services Desk
Originally published: Sunrise, July 2015.
I stumbled into librarianship almost by accident but it has turned out to be the perfect career for me. Due to family commitments I found myself unable to commit to full time work immediately after completing my undergraduate studies in 2002 but found a part time job at Cambridge University Library. This led to another job and another which eventually led me to where I am now on temporary secondment as Deputy Team Leader at the Reader Services Desk.
This job title is a bit of a mouthful but essentially I help to manage the main issue desk at the University Library no easy task in a library with eight million items! My department is responsible for the issue and return of library material which can get pretty hectic at exam time. We are also the first point of contact for students, staff and visitors from around the world. No two days are the same as all of our users have different needs and therefore different questions. Having hundreds of visitors ask you hundreds of questions a day is a great motivator for keeping your knowledge current and I try to keep up with new developments. I make sure the team do the same and arrange visits for them to other departments both within the main University Library and wider Cambridge libraries to help them provide a good service.
As we are the first people users see when they enter the library we try to provide a warm welcome. A high standard of customer service is very important to us and we try at all times to be friendly and helpful. This is not always as easy as it sounds as there are times when we are rushed off our feet with a queue of patrons, the phone ringing off the hook and the sound of the lift breaking down in the background. It's fair to say that life at the desk can be unpredictable and hectic but that's part of the reason I love it and it helps to keep things fresh. It's also nice to get to know the regular visitors to the library, be they staff or students. Many know us by name and will stop to have a quick chat if the desk is quiet. They also come to us for help on a range of things and even if we can't help ourselves we can usually put them in touch with someone who can. Having previously worked in roles which were mainly office based moving to the front of house has been a bit of challenge for me. Working in customer service all day every day can be tiring but also rewarding and eyeopening. It has forced me to think about my attitude to customer service and I find myself judging staff in shops and restaurants on their service standards. Equally if I get good service I think about how I can adapt it for the library. I'm quite a shy person so it's been a bit of a challenge working in a public facing area. It has turned out not to be as scary as I thought it would be and should give me some great experience as I move forward with my career.
Another part of my role is providing inductions to new library users. This can be through something formal like an orientation tour or just providing guidance on library basics as needed. Leading tours is one of my favourite parts of the job as it's wonderful to see the interest on people's faces when they see the inside of the library for the first time. Having worked here for over a decade I can easily forget how awe inspiring the building can seem if you have never visited before. We run several different types of tour for different audiences so you sometimes have to think quick to remember which one you are giving! Whilst having a large library is a wonderful thing it can also be a bit intimidating so it's nice to be able to help people find their way around. The department is also involved in a lot of other outreach activities including events like Twilight at the Museums and the Cambridge Festival of Ideas. I'm currently involved in planning an event for the Festival which focuses on World War One propaganda. This is a great excuse to explore our underused war poster collection and I'm looking forward to bringing it to wider attention.
The final regular part of my job involves working in the library Admissions Office. Whilst most students come to us preregistered to use the library we get visitors and academics from all over the world who want to come and study here. We have sixteen different patron categories which each have different rights and procedures associated with them. When I first started working at the Reader Services Desk I felt like I was learning two jobs in one but I seem to have it straight now. I usually work in Admissions at least once a week so I can keep my knowledge fresh and it always makes a nice change from the main desk.
Outside of my day job I'm quite active in the profession, serving on the CILIP East and CILIP Cataloguing and Indexing Group Committees and working as Candidate Support Officer for professional registration candidates in the East of England. I've just started a teaching course to help with my current role and I'm looking into becoming a CILIP mentor so it's going to be a busy few months. I'm usually found on Twitter as @ces43 so feel free to say hi or ask me any questions about my role. If nothing else, it's another way to practice my customer service skills!