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 What is your name?
My name is Gretchen De Búrca
Where are you from?
Connecticut, USA
Where do you work?
I’m the Library Manager at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) in Scotland (http://www.rics.org/). I am based in Edinburgh and I work with one other library staff member. The RICS is the worldwide property organisation, with over 140,000 members globally, dedicated to promoting excellence and safeguarding public interest in all property related matters.
How many people do you work with?
The information assistant and I work together to provide an efficient service to all our members. We are part of a larger library team based at our headquarters in London. They have a team of 18 and together we aim to provide a seamless service to all members and staff. Although we work as one unit with the library in London, we are required to provide all relevant legal documents/texts to members due to differences in Scottish Law.
What do you spend most of your day doing and what do you enjoy most?
As library manager of a small branch, I am fortunate to have a very varied work load. I line manage the information assistant so I am required to carry out all the related management administration. I am responsible for library acquisitions, which includes sourcing information, ordering, budgeting and cataloguing. I also cover for the information assistant during lunch breaks and annual leave, so I am still in contact with members directly for basic enquiries. Another aspect of the job, which I probably enjoy the most, is subject enquiry work. As the surveying industry includes a wide range of specialisms, the types of enquiries also vary and are often challenging but can be very interesting. Our main priority is answering all members’ enquiries as efficiently and quickly as possible and our annual staff survey continues to show one of the highest member satisfaction rates within the organisation.
The current challenge I face in this role is to not only maintain but continue to increase the number of users. The real challenge to achieve this is continuing to adapt to changes in users’ needs and demands as well as technology and to be aware and open to new services and methods which will benefit our users. One area we are beginning to focus on is the information management role and training our users on how to access and manage information themselves.
Did you always want to be a librarian, and if not what did you do before you became one?
I am new to the world of Information and Library Services. I received a Postgraduate Diploma in Information and Library Studies from Robert Gordon University in May 2007. During the two year part-time course, I worked as the information assistant at RICS. When my manager retired in June 2007, I was promoted to library manager. I was familiar with many aspects of the role, but quickly realised there was a lot more to learn and I have really enjoyed these challenges.
However, I must admit that becoming a librarian was not my childhood dream. My interests were always languages and linguistics but after finishing a BA in Spanish from the University of Connecticut in 1999 (where I grew up), I moved to Ireland for a student travel adventure. This was supposed to be a temporary move, but I ended up meeting my husband that summer and have lived in Ireland and the UK ever since (with the exception of a few months back in the USA in order to prepare for a move across the Atlantic). Needless to say, fluent Spanish speakers were not in particular demand in Ireland, so I ended up working as a course administrator in Dublin until moving to Edinburgh for my husband’s job in 2003. After working in administrative posts in Edinburgh, I decided that I needed to go back to studying in order to concentrate on gaining a professional qualification.
Although I have many fond memories of libraries from my childhood (my mother loves to read and will forever borrow library books in multiples of 10, racking up fines while attempting to finish them all), I never considered the possibility of library work until my final year at University while researching a topic on preservation of information in the electronic age. However, graduation was imminent, so I put the idea aside. My biggest influence on undertaking the ILS (Information & Library Studies) diploma came later during my time as a course administrator at Griffith College Dublin where I met and became friends with two of the librarians, Margaret Kelly and Jane Farrelly (who both remain close friends today). I remember them speaking about their jobs and how passionate they were and it was evident that they got true enjoyment from their careers. I remember the day I told Margaret my plans to enrol on the Diploma course and she could not have recommended a career in ILS enough. I knew then that it was something that would suit me and that I had made the right decision.
How do you unwind after a hard day at the office?
Outside of working hours, I currently spend my time preparing for a move back to Ireland. My husband has recently been transferred back to Dublin and I look forward to beginning a career in ILS in Ireland
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