Learning from colleagues - For the Record COVID-19 project, 2020

Description

I have been really impressed by the opportunities for professional development during the lock down.  I have been able to attend a really useful range of online webinars and catch up on recordings from previous events. 

But you know what I really miss, it's the informal learning that I was getting from sharing an office with my excellent colleagues.  Listening to the way they unpicked a problem, talked to students and coached them to find the information they needed, handled urgent requests from academic staff (they were often urgent), and more. I am still benefiting from that somewhat during online meetings, but it's not the same as sharing an office. 

And another thing - tea breaks - in the staff kitchen waiting for the kettle listening in to IT Services colleagues.  Often the chat would be about cycling or football, but it was also an ideal opportunity to try out an informal query/idea you had that IT could work on with the Library and Archives Service, before sending the more formal email.  I'm not sure I have really replicated that working from home either.

During my career I have learnt so much informally from colleagues with different backgrounds to my own, different working styles and different approaches to librarianship.  In my last few weeks at the University I need to thank my colleagues for all that they have supported me with.  I am moving to a new job at Natural Resources Wales.  I won't be far away and I am reassured that the community of Government KIM colleagues are just as collaborative as my academic colleagues have been.