Librarian at a brand new school, which opened in September 2013 with Year 7 intake only. Setting up a school library from scratch was a very exciting experience, and having only Year 7s means that I have had time to experiment and try out new programmes. For example, I started a 10 week programme with my PE department targeting reluctant readers. I have developed a reading for pleasure lesson as part of English lessons every fortnight as well, which gets the pupils to focus on one aspect of reading.We now have Years 7,8, 9, and 10 as that initial year group work their way up the years. We had our first Ofsted in May 2015 and was classed as outstanding, but for me the happiest moment was the feedback on the library: “The school library supports learning extremely well. The resulting improvement in students’ research skills has an extremely positive impact across the curriculum.” “They value the impact that adults in the school make on their personal and academic development…Examples of this work include the homework club in the library.” “The school library and its staff are a resource that is utilised well by subjects across the curriculum. Lessons spent developing information research skills have equipped students to question source materials critically and to locate precisely what is required for specific curriculum areas. For example, a Year 7 research project on China in geography has benefited from a structured approach devised by the librarian that guides students through the key questions that they need to ask.”This for me proves that any library can make a significant impact given a librarian with training, a supportive leadership and the passion to make things happen!

As Chair of the YLG Eastern Committee I lead AGMs and committee meetings. I liaise between all the committee members, and support them in their roles.

I have since held the positions of Vice-Chair, Chair and judge for the CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Award (2013-14).

I was hired as a Library Assistant to start in September, but volunteered over the summer to assist in moving the library to the new site. My duties include loaning and returning books; behaviour management; cataloguing and labelling; correcting bibliographic details; weeding; book buying - predominantly for the sixth form; managing library leaders and D of E helpers. I am also responsible for Clickview, a system that records freeview channels for educational use, and updating the library's Moodle (VLE) page. I designed and ran library inductions for Years 7 and 12, which were well received. I designed evaluation forms and ran focus groups to evaluate the library from the prospective of the Sixth Form, which helped inform our decisions for the next year. I applied for the further responsibility of assisting the Head of Additional Studies with the introduction of the AQA Extended Project Qualification, and was successful, which has lead to me leading an examination of the provision of Information Literacy from Year 7 through to Year 13. This has been well received by teachers and the Senior Leadership Group, creates some exciting opportunities for the library within the school.

In this position I was organising archives for moving; labelling items, arranging and checking documents. I also compiled a database of missing items.

I was responsible for cataloguing, labelling, leading user inductions. I corrected and updated bibliographic records; created reader cards and records, sorted the post, collected stationary, checking booklists against the Library’s holdings, checking bibliographic details, and prices, shelving and shelf tidying, and assisting with enquires from users. I designed and created a library website as the current one was outdated and not aimed at users. Being a Graduate Trainee programme I completed visits to other libraries and training in AACR2, MARC, LCSH, HTML (levels 1-4), Photoshop, Web Authoring: Web 2.0 Collaborative Technologies, Creating and Managing a Web site, and Why not to Google.

I was hired as a Customer Service Advisor, and was then promoted to Store Supervisor. I was working part time while completing my English Literature degree. My duties included banking; locking and unlocking the store; booking in deliveries; and completing special orders. I gained responsibility for the book department, and developed it by starting promotional features such as 'Book of the Week' and increasing the departments visibility around the store. I was responsible for ordering and stocking shelves. More generally I was responsible for dealing with customer complaints and enquiries.