Three years ago this month marks the launch of the library returners blog (April 22, 2018). The blog was set up for library returners, that is, people who have been out of the library and information workplace for some time. It is primarily aimed at those who are looking to return to professional librarianship after their career break or employment gap.

A wider relevance

Since the blog went live, feedback suggests that the content is read and it has relevance for a much larger audience. For example, early career professionals have written to me to say that they find value in what is posted for their current job search. Also, it appears that the topics are useful for anyone in the profession who is considering their library career and wanting to work in a different way to the full-time 9-5, e.g., part-time, remotely, flexibly, or if they are thinking of taking a break in the future and they want to understand the ramifications for their long-term career.

A changing workforce

April 2021 is a good time to reflect – more people have visited the website in the past six months than at any point previously. Changes in the workplace and the wider profession in response to the coronavirus pandemic mean that people are considering their future. There have been redundancies for some and in the Jan/Feb 2021 edition of Information Professional, CILIP Chief Executive, Nick Poole wrote that “Covid-19 has accelerated the retirement of many professional colleagues.” Alongside apprenticeships and other new professionals, I continue to believe that returners are well-positioned to renew and reinvigorate the LIS workforce.

Here’s a quick review of the top 5 most popular articles on the library returners website since it launched on April 22, 2018.

Getting Back in the Game: How to Restart Your Library Career After a Break

While the blog was launched in April, it was this article, written in September 2018, which really introduced the blog to readers, set out the barriers those on careers breaks face and tried to present practical suggestions for those navigating their way back and returning to employment.

Read it here.

 

Guest post: Catherine Finch. Rejection hurts: the difficulty of finding high-quality, professional, part-time, librarian jobs

This post contained Catherine’s thoughts about two burning issues – professional part-time work and job rejection – which also meant a lot to a significant number of other librarians. It was widely read, shared, debated and discussed. It continues to be accessed regularly today, almost two years after the initial publication and it is this post which I am written to most and asked, “What happened next?”.

Read it here.

 

Linkedin for Library Returners

In March 2019, I wrote a blog post about how to achieve the coveted All Star profile on LinkedIn. It explores topics such as uploading photos, building connections, extracting skill endorsements and recommendations from former colleagues and so on. It was of some interest therefore to see a surge in popularity toward the end of 2020. The reason? Its listing on University reading lists!

Read it here.

 

Staying Upbeat: How Library Returners Can Job Search in the Age of COVID-19

We don’t have the luxury of a returners programme in information and librarianship to help us transition back to our former careers. Instead, we must be a bit more resilient and create a personal, do-it-yourself version, a pick n’ mix upskilling, with resources like library returners as a meeting point for support. This blog post included seven suggestions to get people going if they were a bit stuck career-wise while in lockdown. While previous posts had been read by the library or returner community, this was the first blog post to be read by both. It was also shared widely on career sites in north America, and since then, more people have accessed the library returners website from the States and Canada than in from blog base HQ in the UK and Europe.

Read it here.

 

Guest post: Ellen Mehling. Networking in the New Normal

Those of you with a keen eye may have noticed that I quoted Ellen Mehling in the 2018 blog ‘Getting Back in the Game’. With a wealth of job search advisory and career development experience behind her, it was a privilege for me to have Ellen as a guest blogger and to write this piece on networking for library returners in 2021. It is a great article and has been very popular with readers. This is the fifth article and appropriately it celebrates our plans too as Ellen will be continuing to write for library returners in 2021.

Read it here.

 

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