Thompson, JoLinda. 2014. Implementing Web-Scale Discovery Services: A Practical Guide for Librarians. Rowman & Littlefield.

As part of my new job, I'm now responsible for strategies around library systems, including my university's discovery layer (we use Summon from Proquest). As I've never been involved in the implementation of a discovery layer, I was hoping to find a resource that would quickly give me an overview of the types of decisions that the project team at the time would have made, and the kinds of things that might need to be re-visited at as part of a program of continuous improvement.

I got a copy of this book through the power of interlibrary loan (thank you very much, UTS, for sending this via the Bonus+ scheme), renewed it for a second month and then still took it back late, which is a good sign that I was finding it really useful! I would recommend it to anyone wanting to know more about how systems like this work behind the scenes.

The book is well-structured, easy to read and, as the title suggests, very practical in its orientation. All the major discovery products are included and the discussion of their various features is very balanced. There is no sense that Thompson is pushing one product over others; in fact, a lot of emphasis is put on finding the right discovery layer in the context of your specific library, and not assuming that what has worked elsewhere will be best for you. There is also a good amount of space given to non-technical aspects of implementation; how to communicate with people who will be affected and how to conduct a roll-out in ways that will minimise disruption and ensure a good uptake. One of the most useful features is a number of checklists that could be used when deciding which discovery layer to get and how best to set it up to suit the needs of your community. Each section finishes with some key resources for those that want to build their understanding through additional readings.

As a result of reading this book I sent an email to our Resource Discovery Specialist to find out more about how we have configured Summon at Griffith. He has invited me to sit down with him in the next few weeks to have a look at the admin console, which is where all the major tasks are undertaken. I feel like I will be able to ask more sensible questions and know what I am looking at as a result of reading this book. Combined with the evidence that we have at Griffith for how highly used Summon is, the book has also made me think that we should be providing more information and training to our librarians and to our academic staff and students on how to make most effective use of it. 

Last year's #blogjune was a great experience for me: I read more, wrote more and felt more engaged with library colleagues. You might think then that I would have used that as inspiration to keep writing more on my blog, but you would be wrong!

Part of the explanation for the lack of activity on my blog and also on Twitter is that I started a new job in October last year, as the Manager Content and Discovery Services at Griffith University. This was a big change for me and not one that I had been expecting to make. In their book, The Accidental Systems Librarian, Engard and Singer report on the results of a survey that found the majority of systems librarians have 'accidentally' ended up in their roles: "Given the variety of ways a person can become a systems librarian, we come to the role with different combinations of skill sets, knowledge, and comfort with technology." Basically I saw a great opportunity to work for someone I really admired as a leader and decided to go for it.

While I don't regret the decision for a moment, it has been very challenging. Overnight I went from being located outside of traditional library structures (in an eResearch Services team) and working as a project-focused semi-specialist in an emerging area (research data management) to managing a team of mostly librarians. I've had to learn a lot of generic management-y things (budgets, reporting, HR, health and safety, enterprise architecture, activity-based costing); project work has prepared me for some of these, but not all. I've also had to get up to speed on a number of technologies I knew little about, not having worked with commercial library systems since managing projects involving Endeavor's Encompass around ten years ago. I'm fortunate in having a highly knowledgable and patient team, who have guided me through not just our integrated library system and discovery layer, but also interlibrary loans, proxy services, link resolvers, e-resource management tools, library stats packages, subject guides, course reading list solutions and open access journal publishing. (Thankfully, responsibility for self-checkout machines is not on this list!)

On top of this, I'm project managing two projects in areas that are more familiar to me: the upgrade of one repository with new functionality for storing and streaming multimedia collections; and a complete overhaul of another repository for institutional publications. And then there's juggling any number of other new initiatives (hello ORCID identifiers) and still trying to help out when I can with the evolution of research data services at Griffith.

Perhaps more important than all of these technical developments, for the first time I've had to think about longer term strategies for helping a team of experienced library professionals stay motivated and resilient in the face of some big changes to the kind of work they do and the systems they work with now. Singer and Gordon put this quite nicely: "Our primary goal is to facilitate those changes that help our institution carry out its mission. A secondary role is to help our fellow librarians adapt to these inevitable changes."

It's no wonder then that my own professional activities have taken a bit of a backseat over the past eight months. There is no more room in my brain! So, this year's #blogjune for me will be, hopefully, a chance for some much-needed reflection on my new work life and the things that I am learning.

Thanks to Con Weibrands (@flexnib) for getting the ball rolling, and to Peta Hopkins (@petahopkins) for providing an easy way to see what all the other participants (just download the OPML file and add it to your reader).

References
Engard, Nicole C., and Rachel Singer Gordon. 2012. Accidental Systems Librarian (2nd Edition). Medford, NJ, USA: Information Today, Inc.

On Tuesday I am presenting at eResearch Australasia 2014 in Melbourne on Using scenarios in introductory research data management workshops for library staff.

The scenarios I'll be talking about were used at Monash University in 2012 and at Griffith University in 2013, and have been made available by both organisations for re-use under Creative Commons CC-BY licences:

• Monash University. 2012. Case studies. 
• Griffith University. 2013. Scenarios used in introductory research data management workshops for library staff. 

[Update 28/10/14: Here are the slides that I'll be using this afternoon.]

I also wanted to provide a list of some of the reading I have been undertaking while writing this paper. This is a fascinating area that I'm pleased to have delved into. I'm hoping to write this up for publication, so stay tuned!

Cox, Andrew. 2014. Why Librarians Should Be Clumsy with Research Data. Information Today Europe. Accessed July 9.

Cox, Andrew, Eddy Verbaan, and Barbara Sen. 2012. Upskilling Liaison Librarians for Research Data Management. Ariadne, no. 70 (November).

Errington, Edward Peter, ed. 2010a. Preparing Graduates for the Professions Using Scenario-Based Learning / Edited by Edward Peter Errington. Mt Gravatt, Qld: Post Pressed. 

---, n.d. What is Scenario-Based Learning?

Shadbolt, Anna, Leo Konstantelos, Liz Lyon, and Marieke Guy. 2014. Delivering Innovative RDM Training: The immersiveInformatics Pilot Programme. International Journal of Digital Curation 9 (1): 313–23.

Toci, Vicki. 2014. “Why Use SBL?”