Continuing with our series welcoming the new members of the ILG Sub-Committee for New Professionals, we’d like to introduce Frances Marsh. The purpose of this group is to bring together new library professionals and contribute towards the work of the Information Literacy Group.
What is your role in the committee?
I am one of the new members of the ILG New Professionals Sub-committee.
When did you join and why?
I was excited to see the call for members and joined the New Professionals Sub-committee in June 2021. I have been lucky to access professional learning opportunities to explore approaches to information literacy and develop my pedagogical skills through the Framework Five self-directed course in my job and an Information Literacy module and dissertation research for my MA, which I loved. I hope that being part of the sub-committee will be a great opportunity to engage in this thriving community of practice. I am excited to meet and learn from colleagues across the UK and Ireland by working in a small team to support other new professionals’ ideas, research and knowledge about IL, and improve the representation of our experiences and ideas to the broader IL community. We’ve only had one meeting so far but it was great to get to know the others in the group and we’ve got some exciting ideas in the pipeline…
What is your day job?
I am the Senior Library Assistant at the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge. I get to work with a wonderfully unique collection of resources about the Arctic, Antarctic and ‘snow and ice wherever found’. I help support multidisciplinary research of the postgraduate students and academic staff based in the Institute, as well as undergraduate students and other members of the University of Cambridge, visiting scholars from around the world, and members of the public who have an interest in anything polar!
What are your other interests?
I enjoy growing my own vegetables on my allotment (and then trying to keep eating courgettes at the rate they appear!) Lots of my spare time over the past few years has been spent organising a big international camp for children and young people, called Common Ground and I’m so excited to finally see it happen in 2022. I also facilitate a Woodcraft Folk youth group, running non-formal education sessions and having fun with a group of teenagers every week! I think it would be poor form not to mention my love of reading here too, and since lockdown I’ve enjoyed discovering the e-audiobooks on offer from Cambridgeshire Libraries which I listen to when I go running.