For our AGM in October2023 we were lucky to have a talk by guest speaker Alastair Flett. Alastair is Deputy University Librarian and Director of Academic Services at the University of Cambridge. He has responsibility for: Collection Development and Management, Education and Reader Services, Faculty and Departmental Libraries, and the Office for Scholarly Communications. In this talk Alastair reflected on his first year in Cambridge University Libraries. He shared his career path and lessons learned along the way.
Alastair started his career as a Graduate Trainee at the University of Kent at Canterbury, before completing an MA in Library and Information Science at UCL. Upon graduating, Alastair moved into medical librarianship, first in an NHS hospital library then as Assistant Librarian (Health Sciences) at the University of Manchester.
While he did not see medical librarianship as his long-term career path, Alastair did feel motivated to continue working in Higher Education. He therefore took the unusual step of joining the University of Liverpool planning team, eventually being promoted to Head of Operational Planning. He recommended servicing committees as a great way to keep gaining experience.
Alastair then joined the University of Liverpool’s Executive Team, and was ultimately promoted to the post of Deputy Director of Libraries, Museums and Galleries, bringing his career back into the world of libraries. Alastair held this position until he joined Cambridge University Libraries in 2022.
Alastair generously shared some of the main lessons that he learned along the way in his career:
- Pay attention, no matter how senior you are.
- Remember that everyone has a boss; it can be useful to understand all the relationships and legal frameworks.
- Alastair’s career path made him ‘bilingual’: able to understand both the world of libraries and corporate governance.
Alastair shared some insights into his current role of Deputy University Librarian and Director of Academic Services at the University of Cambridge. This position combines delivering strategy, deputising for the University Librarian, and leading on the development of library services in support of research, teaching and learning, and collection development and management (or, the so-called ‘new stuff’ in Cambridge libraries!). While Cambridge has some similarities to Liverpool libraries, Alastair also pointed out some of the key differences, such as number of library sites and number of employees.
From this unique perspective it was really interesting to hear more of Alastair’s lessons and reflections after his first year in Cambridge:
- Libraries are special; they are a window into culture and different ways of thinking, and their input and output are knowledge.
- Libraries are spaces that are meaningful to people.
- Librarians are special; they want to help people and engage with people.
But there are things that libraries can learn from professional services, and vice versa.
- Libraries are a narrative, and we need to be willing to move things forward.
- We are all in a learning organisation and we should all be learning.
- It’s about the people; what the users and staff want and need is hugely important.
Alastair concluded by saying how lucky he feels to be part of the group that gets to write the next chapter. A huge thank you to Alastair for his openness and honesty in this thought-provoking talk.
Post contributed by Natalie Kent, Deputy Librarian at Pembroke College.
