A busy morning

The common room of the Education Department (picture by @the_short_librarian)
The common room of the Education Department (picture by @the_short_librarian)

Until mid-October I will continue working in the Sainsbury Library with a few exceptions… because when new students arrive it gets very busy. That’s why I was at the Education Library last Friday to prepare for Monday and that means for the nearly 200 new arriving PGCE students. PGCE is, by the way, the abbreviation for “Postgraduate Certificate in Education”. It is a one-year teacher's training course for people who already hold a University degree and want to qualify as a teacher. It is very similar to the "Quereinstiegerkurse" at "Pädagogische Hochschule Zürich" in Switzerland.

 

 

The students do not arrive all at the same time, because that would be a very big group. So they were split up into two groups for Monday and while the first group was at the Education Department the other group was in the college.

 

So, are you curious what my tasks last Monday were? Well here is the morning from my perspective…

 

I had to be at the Education Library before the students arrive, to get ready and check our time schedule for the day. I also had to reread my notes for the library tours. At 9am the day officially started: The students walked past the reception (which is also the library desk) and asked for the way to the registration. After the registration they then proceded to the common room where they waited for their library tours and a welcome talk. My task was to encourage and help these students to connect them with the Eduroam WIFI (the WIFI used in the university buildings as well as colleges). At about 10am I enjoyed a short tea break. Then the for me very exciting part came: my first library tour. So I got back to the common room to call up a group of about 15 students and we walked to the reception desk. Then, I showed them the different library rooms and explained to them how they could borrow books and gave them other important information about using the library. At the end of their 15-minute tour I showed the students the resources room. The most important message throughout the tour was: “If you have any questions, please do ask us!” (I don’t know how many times I had repeated this sentence 😊). Then I helped some more students to set up their WIFI. After lunch the group of students who had been touring the college arrived. The afternoon was pretty much the same as the morning - and really interesting.

 

And the next day I got an email from my supervisor, Cathy. The students had walked past the reception with a smile on their face. So I suppose that we (the library team) must have done a good job 😊

 

by Anne

 

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