Thing 10 - Routes to librarianship

I've previously blogged about my routes to librarianship for the library routes project so I won't repeat myself here. I will expand a little though.

I did the undergratuate course in Library Studies way back in 1978. In those days you didn't need practical experience to do the course, but two periods of work experience were a compulsory part of the summer holidays! I spent a wonderful 6 weeks working at Harrogate Public Library, with some very nice folk, and was able to put into practise a lot side of things which I had learned about at uni. I was fortunate enough to be taken to the headquarters at Northallerton, spent some time in a branch library, went on the mobile and spent a couple of days in York library.

During the second summer vacation I spent 6 weeks working at what was then South Gwent College of Education. 5 of the weeks were based at what was the teacher training college in Caerleon and I was involved in classifying the collection of posters, drawings and other teaching material they had. I also spent one week at the Newport (Allt-yr-yn) where I worked closely with an inspiration librarian (whose husband was the County Librarian for Gwent) who had had 4 children and then when they were grown up had done the two year librarianship course.

Each period of work experience was a vital part of my education, and I was lucky enough to work in different sectors, which gave me a broad range of experience, and I'm sure helped me to achieve the university result I ended up with.

As for CILIP, well, I joined the Library Association as it was then, in my first year at university and have been a member ever since. I am a strong believer in the value of chartership, so I am a bit worried that in thing 10 we are told that only "Some professional posts require their applicants to be chartered". In our place, chartership is essential to all our professional posts ata certain level - and I believe that is the way it should be.

About 18 months ago I looked into the possibility of pursuing re-validation. I would still really love to do this, but am finding the demands on my time are so great at the moment that I haven't got enough time to do it properly. Maybe in the next 18 months. In the meantime ...

on to thing 11!