Taking the plunge!
TY, or not TY – that is the question.
Setting: Lyons Estate
http://www.villageatlyons.com/
(Photo: B. Gardiner)
The Library fosters a learning environment for Transition Year students from local schools in the area. This experience is of benefit to students and staff alike. Please enjoy Kate’s account of her time spent on work experience in the library during her Transition Year 2013/14.
***Posted on behalf of Kate Moore, Transition Year Student***
Voluntary work; Work experience; Gaisce; TY or not, these are all very intimidating words for a 15 year old already stressed about the Junior Cert. However, I was lucky enough to get a position at NUIM Library over the summer, and began working on the 2nd of October, 2013. After the initial introductions and outfitting (“Ooh look, I get a card! Ooh look, the card opens the door!”) I started work right away. One of the first (and most memorable) jobs I had was to help sort out the shelves in the reading room. The SP number of every book had to be taken down, and labels had to be made for every shelf. It might not sound like much, but it took two or three weeks.
On that note, I believe the sheaf catalogues deserve a mention as my constant companions for quite a few weeks. One thing I will say is that I passed my ECDL excel exam with flying colours and I firmly believe the sheer amount of time spent transferring information from the catalogues to a spreadsheet was the reason why.
Most weeks I would be processing books for the library, and that meant getting to grips with Aleph and databases like Worldcat; and once I learned how to use them, they became my new best friends. Don’t know if a book should be in special collections or out on the open shelves? Worldcat. I also had to process books for the open shelves, which meant stamp, bar code, tattle-tape and repeat. I consider myself lucky to have gotten the experience that I did, in the place that I did.
Another thing I consider myself lucky to have seen is the inside of the Russell Library. It’s a beautiful building and it doesn’t hurt that as soon as you walk in you’re hit by the smell of nearly two hundred year old books!
But I think the thing I will remember best is how friendly everyone was during my time here in the Library. Everyone was helpful, friendly, and I never felt like I couldn’t ask questions. I will definitely miss the people I’ve befriended here throughout the course of the year.
Library Staff Development 