interview, teamwork exercises and individ- ual face­to­face interviews. The successful candidates at ARU included one of our own graduates and the Library was involved in the recruitment process. The Library, along with other Professional Services and Fac- ulties, was also able to pitch projects which we wished an Ambitious Futures Trainee to undertake. The service pitched two ideas, one of which was then shortlisted (in a list of three projects) by our Chief Operating Officer and his team, and it was from this list that our two trainees then picked their first placements. Katie Jardine, a graduate from the University of Cambridge, picked our project which is focussed on the experiences of degree apprenticeships and utilises UX methods. Katie says: “I am currently nearing the end of my first Ambitious Futures placement within ARU’s library at the Cambridge campus. I decided to apply to Ambitious Futures for a variety of reasons. During my undergraduate degree I worked with a variety of services (mainly admissions and outreach) and I’ve always been drawn towards the education sector. Admittedly, for a while I was contemplating studying for a PGCE and going into teaching. However, it was the structure of Ambitious Futures which appealed to me. Through the scheme participants undertake three six­month placements across two institutions and a variety of service departments with a diverse range of projects.


“Whilst I was studying throughout my undergraduate, I saw libraries as a place to find books, to ask for help if I needed anything and one of my go­to study spaces. Since starting my placement I can safely say I’ve been surprised by the sheer variety of roles and tasks which the library oversees. Whilst my main project is researching how degree apprenticeship students utilise the library, I have also been able to engage with a variety of different projects both internal and external to the library.


52 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL


CHE journals area.


“To start, I’ve helped our Research Services Manager with the REF effort, joined the inclusivity group and helped create displays for various events such as Black History Month (and the related effort to diversify the curriculum), learnt about the wider library profession through shadowing ARU’s University Librarian to Sconul meetings and researched the current attitude towards Open Access and publishers. I’ve really enjoyed being exposed to how the ongoings of the ARU library sits within broader trends of the university itself, the wider sector and society.


“Whilst I have two further placements to complete, I’ve already found Higher Educa- tion (and libraries) to be extremely diverse and interesting, and I would definitely recommend both to anyone who asks! I hadn’t considered working in a library prior to this placement, showing how important opportunities to try out different roles/envi- ronments are. I think it’s vital to break down the dominate perceptions individuals have of librarianship and emphasise the variety of work you can do.”


The placement has been extremely benefi- cial for the Library, Hannah Fogg (Assistant Director, Customer Services) states “Our trainee was tasked with using UX approach- es to gain insights into the challenges faced by students on our degree apprenticeships. It’s proven really beneficial to get an ‘out- sider’ perspective – someone who’s new to libraries and to university management, who won’t be making assumptions or judging the students’ responses, and with fresh ideas for change. As it’s her primary project during the six months she’s with us, it also means we can allocate as much time as needed,


depending how things progress. This is something we just wouldn’t be able to do within our normal staffing resource – it’s certainly demonstrating the potential benefit of using intern­type posts for specific larger­scale projects.” Further to this, as a University we have not engaged with Degree Apprenticeship students as much as we would have liked, and therefore Katie is sitting on our De- gree Apprenticeship Steering Group and helping to inform the University’s service provision to this group.


Next Steps


We will continue to offer the employment opportunities described here, but also seek new alternatives and avenues. We are ac- tively responding to the recommendations made in Sconul’s BAME staff experiences of academic and research libraries report (https://www.sconul.ac.uk/publication/bame-staff-ex- periences-of-academic-and-research-libraries) and assessing the inclusivity of our job descriptions and recruitment practices. We are also committed to the professional development of our Library staff and offer regular learning hours, visits to other libraries and will be holding a Staff Well- being event in May 2020. Further to this, we have begun dis- cussions on areas we can collaborate on with Cambridgeshire libraries and the University of Cambridge. Whilst these are in their early stages, it seems that creating opportunities for both employees in these services and graduates, whilst demonstrating the benefits of entering the information profession would be a good starting point for joint working. IP


January-February 2020


Libby Homer ARU pp50-52.indd 4


22/01/2020 20:49


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