3 Jul 2018

Erasmus + Librarian Internship at Dublin Business School Library

Guest post by Susanne Patt-Bohlscheid, BRS University Library

When I was researching my Erasmus + internship, I looked for an institution of comparable size to my University, Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University (9000 students). I also felt that it would be advantageous to visit a partner institution. Consequently, I chose Dublin Business School Library where I had the opportunity to learn from the “Best Library Team in Ireland 2017“(National Education Awards).

During my internship, I participated fully in all aspects of College operations, including attending the weekly Academic Operations meeting and observing the Library tour component of a programmatic review conducted by Quality and Qualifications Ireland.

Within the Library, I gained practical experience on the circulation desk where I also observed impressive one-to-one consultations delivered by the Reader Services staff, Debora Zorzi and Robert Alfis. I also got an insight into the work of the Teaching Librarian, Trevor Haugh, in relation to the delivery of information literacy at DBS Library. A variety of Library classes are offered (stand-alone and programme embedded). The organization of IL classes is similar to IL delivery at BRS University. The workshops on referencing at DBS are particularly similar, despite the fact that DBS promotes use of Zotero and BRS uses Citavi. I was very interested in the work of the Postgraduate and Law Librarian, Joan Colvin, who has excellent knowledge of law-related referencing (OSCOLA style) and law-related literature, cases and sources. I was interested in the activities of Systems Librarian, David Hughes, who encouraged me to engage more with social media platforms for professional purposes.

Marie O’Neill, Head of Library Services, invited me to present at the DBS Library Annual Seminar 2018 (#dbslib2018). This was the highlight of my Erasmus experience. There was an impressive line-up of speakers. Of special interest to me were the keynote presentations; John Cox’s “Positioning the Academic Library within the Institution: Changes & Challenges” and Niamh Brennan’s “The Benefits of Open Scholarships for all Library Roles“. My presentation on the library at “University and District Library Bonn-Rhein-Sieg” (in German: Hochschul- und Kreisbibliothek Bonn-Rhein-Sieg) was well received as it resonated with some of the topics mentioned in the former presentations on positioning and also on citizen scholarship.

During the week, I had the opportunity to visit some of Dublin’s tourist attractions (The Chester Beatty Library, some museums, the Book of Kells and more). I also partook of some original Irish food and drinks. I was fortunate to conduct a tour of the Central Library of Dublin City Public Libraries in the ILAC Centre. On a Monday morning, the ILAC library was full of patrons. The widespread use of the Irish language in signage is wonderfully present in the ILAC Library and beyond.

The Erasmus + experience has given me an enormous boost to my professional self-confidence. I took away many ideas, big and small, for the BRS library, not least the encouragement to speak at conferences and to publish in journals, blogs and on social media.

Bibliography
Cox, John (2018) Positioning the Academic Library within the Institution: A Literature Review, New Review of Academic  Librarianship, DOI: 10.1080/13614533.2018.1466342

DBS Annual Library Seminar  presentations  https://esource.dbs.ie/handle/10788/3394

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