Thing 10 Thing 10 - Graduate traineeships, Masters Degrees, Chartership, Accreditation

I first started working with books when I was employed at John Smith & Son Booksellers in Glasgow back in the day when there was a net book agreement in place.  The removal of the net book agreement was detrimental to the company and then there was the influx of new larger booksellers setting up in the city centre.  This was the beginning of the end for a large part of the company and prompted me to look elsewhere for employment.

In 1996 I was successful in becoming a Snr Library Assistant with Glasgow Libraries and was based on their mobile library while also responsible for driving it.  The mobile library was a great experience, it was more up front and personal therefore you got to know all the customers needs which helped with the customer focus and when processing stock I would know who to promote the different authors and genres to, most times I had a selection of books put aside for individual borrowers before their visit.

In 2001 Glasgow Libraries went through a best value review which provided me with the opportunity to apply for new posts due to the restructure.  I was successful in being appointed as a Snr Lifelong Learning Supervisor, which entailed bieng responsible for Lifelong Learning and supervisory duties within a branch.  These were the duties professional librarians had been responsible for in the past and were now past on to supervisors.  

In 2008 I had the opportunity to move into a new role which I saw as a new challenge, this role was Learning Support Officer responsible for the development and delivery ICT training to members of the public while generating income.  While in this role I was looking for a purposeful route of development and became aware of CILIP Certification.  This I thought was exactly what I was looking for, a purposeful route of development while being recognised for the role I was already in.   

I started the Certification course in 2010 and achieved ACLIP status in 2011 and have now embarked in Chartership, again a purposeful route of development in the role I am already in while continually developing in this area and other areas of the profession.  I am presently working towards Chartership and is the reason I came across CPD 23 Things which I see as a new method for learning and keeping up to date with new trends.  I also enjoy reading blogs related to CPD 23 and use this to learn form the experiences of others in my line of profession.