An Apology and a Resurgence

Firstly, an apology. I am afraid that my blog has, in recent months, suffered the same fate of all of my adolescent diaries and been left to gather cobwebs in some long forgotten corner of the spare room. However, today marks the beginning of my virtual resurgence of the blog. I offer no promises though on the regularity of content.

This time of year, when the balance of light and darkness moves and everything appears tinged with an eldritch air, is a time of reflection. After a summer fraught with building works, followed by a busy start to the academic year, we are now half way through the term. As the cycle of the academic year moves towards the end of the first term, we can reflect about what we have done well and what we can do better next time. I was particularly struck by Miss Julie’s blog post about librarians weeding themselves. If we had to apply the same rules to our profession as we do to our stock, how would we look? I think it is true that we have to constantly reflect on our skills and behaviours and evaluate how we do things.

I am currently going through the process of Chartership and, as such, have been encouraged to analyse myself and my workflows. Why do I do this? Is this the best way of doing this? How can I be more efficient? How can I better serve my institution? How can we make sure that our information service (and that’s what it is, a service with readers as customers) supports the mission of our institution as best as it possibly can? These are all crucial questions to ask. The answers can range from evaluation of workflows to experimenting with changes in some areas. I don’t believe in change for the sake of change, but I do think that we need to be constantly reflecting and evaluating our service and our procedures.

If I ever start to show the signs of a MUSTIE, someone please tell me! Happy Halloween everybody.