In our second blog post of 2022, Dr Karen McAulay provides us with a career reflective piece that encourages us to ‘think outside of the box’ in our development as library and information professionals. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank Karen for taking the time to write a post for us and for her fascinating insights and great advice.
Karen is also giving a talk on, ‘The Representation of Women Composers in the Library’, at the University of the Highlands and Islands’ International Women’s Day conference, #BreakTheBias, on 8 March 2022. This is a free online event, and we would encourage all interested to register and attend what will be a fantastic presentation (and event)!
Seeing younger colleagues thinking about chartership reminds me how much things have changed since I applied for chartership myself, and also makes me realise what a strange and unpredictable thing a career can be.
Back in the mid-1980s, you logged significant events or challenges, eventually submitting a report in which you reflected upon your progress to date. My line manager was my Library Association mentor – not that the word ‘mentor’ was used. ‘Online’ hadn’t been invented, and there weren’t any chartership development courses – you just sat down and wrote that report.
As a music librarian in a metropolitan borough library, I patted myself on the back when I became an ALA (Associate of the Library Association). I was qualified, chartered, had passed my driving test, and as far as I was concerned, was a fully-fledged professional with no more exams to take – ever. Moving to Glasgow for my present role in 1988 took me back into academic librarianship after three years in a borough. My ambition was to aim one step higher in either my present institution or another similar one. It didn’t work out that way.
Nowadays, not many people stay in a job for over three decades. The trouble is, the longer you stay in one place, the more the risk of getting into a rut. I can’t offer anyone any advice about the advisability or otherwise, of staying put. For many, it will seem like enviable stability, and I am grateful I’ve had this. It has been beneficial to family life, but I must confess to having become heartily tired of cataloguing, years ago.
To retain some sanity (that’s enough sniggering in the back, there!), I sought opportunities that would challenge me in other ways. I don’t suggest that everyone will find my chosen steps appealing, but they might encourage you if you feel you, too, need to liven things up a bit.
Join things
Networking is really important, and helps you keep in touch with what’s happening. I’ve represented RCS at SALTG for a number of years, chairing it for a little while a few years ago. I was also a rep on the now defunct SCURL group supporting access to libraries for disabled students, which gave me the opportunity to speak at a Peebles conference, and subsequently author a paper for a journal. I’ve always been a member both of CILIP and of IAML (the International Association of Music Libraries) UK & Ireland Branch. For a while I authored the IAML (UK & Irl) Newsletter, and was Book Reviews Editor for Brio, the branch journal. As other personal demands and new interests grew, I stepped back from any particular role, but still attended the Annual Study Weekend. More recently, I’ve attended parts of a couple of international conferences, and I’m now Communications Chair for the branch.
Get another qualification
Before going to library school, I was studying for a PhD. I was in too much of a hurry to get a job and a pension plan, so made the daft mistake of not finishing the first thing before starting the next. That PhD thesis never got written. Life moved on, what with getting a job, getting chartered, moving to Scotland, and being a full-time working parent. However, around the time when our youngest son started school, I got the chance to do a three-week research project, and that made me realise I still wanted to do a PhD.
Be prepared to keep asking – or at least to persevere
When I first said I wanted to do a PhD, I am told one of the then RSAMD academics asked, “What does a librarian want with a PhD?” I decided to fund it myself anyway, whilst working full-time, and I studied for my PhD at Glasgow Uni between 2004-2009.
I can tell you what a librarian gets out of doing a research degree! Total immersion in research techniques, literature searching and literature reviews, using electronic resources, constructing a bibliography, writing at length, and becoming a whizz at referencing. I have subsequently become quite an authority on Mendeley and Zotero! Add to that, the opportunity to give external talks and conference papers (no more being nervous at speaking to a dozen students); very occasionally to give lectures at work; and to publish your writing. Oh, and networking with a lot of people. All these are quite useful to a librarian. I decided these experiences might help me get Fellowship of CILIP, and sure enough, my portfolio was accepted the year after I got my PhD.
‘But you asked, and you didn’t get funded to do your PhD?’ This is true. However, the next step in my plan for world domination was to do a PGCert. Initially, it appeared that librarians couldn’t do a PGCert because they hadn’t got a regular class teaching commitment. I was persistent. Eventually, I was funded to do a Teaching Artist qualification, and from there it was a short step to add on further study to turn it into a PGCert.
The benefits this time were in gaining an understanding of current pedagogical thinking; learning some of the history of educational practice and the ‘big names’ associated with the different ideologies; and discovering how social scientists conduct a research project – along with the whole concept of ethical approval! As well as becoming qualified to teach, of course. To my delight, an FHEA followed – Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, now known as Advance HE.
Whilst we librarians know that a librarianship qualification and a chartership are reputable qualifications in their own right, there’s no denying that extra qualifications also add considerably to one’s credibility with professionals beyond librarianship.
Opportunities outside of the library
I was lucky enough to be invited to be a research assistant on an AHRC-funded research project at Glasgow University, which meant getting seconded from my main job in the library for a couple of days a week over three years. I later attracted AHRC funding in my own right, for a networking grant, and I’m still seconded to do postdoctoral research for 1.5 days a week. Most recently, I’ve been invited to join the AHRC Peer Review College – I am hopeful to learn more about how grant funding works, when I start attending meetings. It must be a useful thing to know!
Opportunities in the library
Seize opportunities to develop particular parts of your library role. For the past couple of years, I’ve been particularly working on improving representation of women composers, and composers of colour, in our library’s music stock, as part of our work on diversity, equality and inclusion. Seeing a gradual improvement, building relevant web-pages and sharing progress via social media provides more fulfilment than any amount of repetitive cataloguing!
Did I mention world domination? No, that hasn’t happened, either. I don’t offer my suggestions as a blueprint for a successful career; I haven’t climbed up the ladder – not even a little library kick-stool – to dizzying heights of grandeur. However, I hope I’ve demonstrated that even when you find yourself stuck in one place, seemingly with no opportunities for advancement, it is still possible – with creativity and some lateral thinking – to carve yourself an interesting career that will remain challenging as the years progress.
A Fellow of CILIP and the Higher Education Academy, Karen is a librarian and postdoctoral researcher combining musicology with cultural, library and book history, at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Karen worked on the AHRC-funded HMS.scot and was PI for the ‘Claimed From Stationers’ Hall’ network.
Her book, Our Ancient National Airs: Scottish Song Collecting from the Enlightenment to the Romantic Era (2013), was followed by chapters in Understanding Scotland Musically (2018) and Music by Subscription (2022).
SALCTG: Scottish Academic Libraries Cooperative Training Group 
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