On the first day, I was warmly welcome to the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (Library & Archives Service) by the Head of Library & Archives Service, Mr. David Archer, who introduced me to all the staff and sections of the service.
He further gave me an overview history of the School and the Library as well as the activities of the service and the Faculty staff (I was so surprised to find out that Barnard Medical Classification Scheme for books was originated by their first Librarian).
Later in the day, I had a training session with Sangha Baljit on how to use Endnote along with some Masters Degree students at an Information Technology Services class. This was followed up with questions and answers with David Archer for daily assessment and evaluation. I also was privileged to visit the University of London for sight-seeing.
On the second day, I commenced the day training with Gemma Bayliss & Kim Coles (LAS staff) who gave me the summary of the duties rendered by the User Support & Information Services team to the students, staff and other library users.
I had another intensive training session with Kim Coles (Assistant Librarian) shadowing her at an Information Skills Teaching session with some Master Degree students. The focus of the training was GREY LITERATURE; developing search strategies and how to link your search results with endnote for easy referencing.
Gemma Bayliss (Assistnat Librarian) took me through the LAS social media channels: Facebook, Twitter and Blog. She taught me how to attract students to use the library social media as well as benefits of using them for library service delivery. A good librarian is expected to know what to share, engaging the users, suggested hashtags, and learning to credit the creator of anything to be shared in line with copyright requirements.
The third day training session commenced with the Chris Manning (Collections & Digital Services Librarian), who gave me general overview of the Collection Support & Digital Services team and what the individual members of staff do on daily basis. The section performs more of technical services: collection management, cataloguing and supporting research publication. The Library uses Alma – Ex Libris library management software for cataloguing its resources.
I had another training session with Victoria Cranna, Archivist & Records Manager, on the activities in the Archives & records Management Team. The archives resources includes: collections of Ronald Ross and malaria, posters, historical materials, etc. I learnt how to manage the resources for the purpose of preservation and access.
I was also privileged to meet with Gareth Knight & Alice Gibson (LAS staff) where we shared ideas on Open Access, Research Data Management and institutional repositories, and Eloise Carpenter (Assistant Librarian) to discuss e-resources.
My time with all the staff of the Library & Archives Service at LSHTM was a great experience for me. It further opened my horizons about the dynamics of medical librarianship and better service delivery.
Thank you to David Archer and his entire team.
Olalekan Moses Olayemi
CILIP HLG INTERNATIONAL BUSARY WINNER 2016.
