INTERVIEW
Flexibility with work: a case study
Oona Ylinen is a part-time LIS student at UCL and Academic Support Librarian at University of Essex. Here she explains how she chose her course and her career and how an employer’s support with flexible working hours opened the door.
Information Professional (IP): When and why did you decide to do a master’s? Oona Ylinen (OY): I was studying Crea- tive Writing at the University of Surrey but because study space was hard to come by on campus, I would study at the local public library. During one such study session in 2018, I saw a poster advertising a part-time role in the library. I got the job, as a front- line library assistant, and decided on doing a master’s a few months into the role. I quickly recognised that librarianship provided a career option that plays to my personal strengths, whilst still supporting my writing goals and providing endless learning opportunities. I also found that the parts of the job that I enjoyed the most would need a master’s if I wanted to take them further or understand more about the guiding principles behind them. (Like queries on the library management system, solving puzzles with missing stock or mysterious user records, acquisitions, and collection management). I gained more experience through a gradu- ate traineeship at Gray’s Inn, one of the Inns of Court, where my interest in cataloguing and classification really sparked. It took me two years to apply, because I’d been balancing the financial pressure of funding a master’s with having enough time to attend classes. I finally applied because my line manager in my post as a Content Assistant at University of Surrey raised it as a CPD opportunity with support,
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if not financially, then from a flexible-working perspective. The flexible working arrangement meant I could work and study at the same time, which eased the financial pressure, seeing as I had already done one master’s and couldn’t get funding or a loan for a second one. I did often feel I could do more for the team if I had studied the subject, so doing a master’s felt like the next logical step both in my career and to satisfy my endless yearning to learn more about anything and everything that I find interesting.
IP: What did you hope the course would give you? OY: By the time I applied, my interest in the course had shifted from general interest to want- ing it to fulfil a very particular goal that would help me progress in my career. Firstly, I hoped to gain a more thorough understanding of some of the theoretical perspectives and wider contexts that underline the day-to-day workflows – why things are done a certain way – so that I’d be able to contribute to workflow improvements and system migrations at my workplace. This included the more philosophical debate about the future of libraries and librarianship, as rapid technological and digital advancements will mean changes.
Secondly, I hoped to gain practical skills and applications to complement the theoretical side. I am happy scouring the internet for research papers, but I knew that no amount of reading would replace teaching by qualified experts who can contextualise research and help apply the knowledge in a practical setting.
September 2023
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