Hands up who wants a story? My job is about getting children and their parents to read and speak and communicate. I spend about half of my time doing things in the libraries and half the time out and about in the community.  I visit schools, pre-schools, toddler and baby groups promoting the library through ‘storytimes’, ‘rhymetimes’, ‘toddlertimes’ and other activities.  

I try to forge links between other agencies and the library and encourage families to join and use libraries more, by showing them the great things we do.  In libraries, I run a programme for ‘early years’ children, book groups for school aged children and a big summer holiday scheme, linked to the annual summer reading challenge. I purchase children’s books and audio stock in the City and I am involved in all aspects of children’s library work, including speaking up for children’s services! This involves dealing with any problems, co-ordinating work, training, administration and health and safety issues pertaining to children.   

My background is a BA in English (Leicester) and MA in Library and Information studies (UCL) (where I chose the ‘library services to children’ option).  I have worked previously as a cataloguer in a university library and as a Librarian at a special library. I’ve also worked in schools and at an Educational resource centre.    

Alison’s tip:

• Do whatever work you can to get into the library sector. If that means volunteering to get experience, give it a go. That’s how I started out.