Chris Wilson, CultureNL Ltd

Category: Meet our Members

This blog is part of our Meet our Members series, focusing on different members and their jobs and careers. If you would like to write one, please e mail us at admin@cilips.org.uk

My name is Chris Wilson and I work for CultureNL Ltd who manage the cultural services of North Lanarkshire. My role within CultureNL Ltd is the E-Services Librarian and is part of the library service in the organisation. It’s a role I have occupied for the last two and half years.

My usual routine and tasks from day to day can be quite varied. One of my main tasks take the form of managing the social media accounts for the library service. You can usually find us under the alias of LibrariesNL on your social media of choice. Social media is something I’ve always had an interest in (Geeky life fact: I met my then-to-be future wife on Bebo – remember that? – some 7 years after being at school together) so to have it as part of my work routine is something that I find quite rewarding and enjoyable. On top of this, I get to work with another of my hobbies – web content management, creating content for the CultureNL website. In my time in the role, I have made improvements to our website information to make the pages more interactive for users rather than simply being static information. The final major part of my role is to manage our eLibrary (eBooks etc). This involves both selecting, managing the collections and promoting the services to potential users.

The thing that I like most about my job is the varied nature of the tasks that come up. On top of the tasks mentioned previous, I am part of a few working groups and together we arrange various annual events – planning, inviting authors/participants, sorting promotional plans and staffing events. Soon I will also be heavily involved in creating online staff training courses on a new LMS – something that I’m very interested in and looking forward to getting to grips with. With this wide variety of tasks though, comes the biggest challenge of the role – time management. To help with this, I tend to try and split my week up into sections and focus (as best as possible) on tasks on particular days.

My career in libraries to date has been a steady climb up the ranks, starting as a part-time Library Assistant in Airdrie Library to my current post now. My original career path had been secondary teaching, however after this derailed due to ill health whilst at university, I started that part-time post and have never looked back. A distance learning degree from Aberystwyth University followed and I am now working towards my Chartership. I wanted to become a teacher because I wanted to help educate people. I discovered while working in libraries there are other ways to do that, so I am still achieving one of my life goals.

I am the only E-Services Librarian in the organisation, and don’t directly have a team that I work with. The online nature of the role means that I work closely with all the professional team in order to promote their programmes via the web and social media.

I’ve always found being a CILIP member hugely beneficial. From attending CILIP events and conferences, receiving regular professional updates and now being a member of a CILIPS branch committee. It’s helped me stay up to date with what is happening in the profession.

I love working in the public library sector. Anyone starting out in the profession, my advice would be that what you get out of working as a library and information professional is very much linked to the passion you put into it. It is highly rewarding, and satisfying place to work.