Library Skills: synchronous (live and face to face) training guide

The Referral / triage contact is the colleague(s) triaging requests for liaison or skills in the absence of the skills trainer / liaison librarian responsible. These will often be through a queue in LibAnswers. The referral / triage contact will vary depending on the library. For sites, this may be the generic site email address, (or other jointly staffed e-mail address, e.g. the IOE Subject Liaison e-mail). For Subject Liaison Librarians in Main and Science libraries, the referral / triage contact may be libraryskills@ucl.ac.uk (for skills) or another Subject Liaison Librarian based at Main or Science libraries (for liaison).

• Agreed cover arrangements
• Planned absence
• Unplanned absence
• Process for referring / triaging requests for 1-1 appointments

In the absence of a colleague, planned or unplanned, the referral / triage contact should refer queries as appropriate, ensuring an initial response to any enquiry in line with our Library Service Response Times, within one working day. This can be an acknowledgement of the enquiry and does not require the enquiry to be resolved within that timescale.

The absent colleague should have made you aware of the planned period of leave and of the designated cover contact and have prepared alternative support information to facilitate dealing with requests.

The line manager of the absent colleague should have made you aware of the absence and designated cover contact.

In the absence, planned or unplanned, of a colleague, requests for 1-1 appointments will need to be considered individually by the referral / triage contact (e.g. colleague covering the relevant LibAnswers queue, or other designated contact) who should triage the request as appropriate.

Below is a checklist for triaging requests for one-to-one appointments. A more detailed process is outlined in the Referral flowchart for one to ones in absence of library trainer.

• For short absences, encourage requestors to book an appointment in MS Bookings for a date after the staff member returns to work, or email the staff member to follow up on their return.
• Consider requests in context, referring students to asynchronous materials and our scheduled programme of bookable sessions or other sources of online support where that may fulfil their needs. This information may be in a pre-drafted standard message from the skills trainer / liaison librarian (See guidance above for skills trainer taking absence - Planned absence: messaging and communications). 
• Where the request cannot be satisfied by other means before the return of the skills trainer / liaison librarian, refer it to the designated cover contact.
• Where the designated cover contact is unable to arrange a consultation and the request is urgent or high priority, put out a call for support from the wider pool of library skills trainers via the Library Skills MS Team site. This relies on good will of colleagues, and cover is not guaranteed. Explain the circumstances of the required cover to give a sense of the necessity for the request to be fulfilled in the absence of the dedicated library staff member.
• If cover still cannot be found and the request is urgent or of high priority, colleagues may email libraryskills@ucl.ac.uk to request that Library Skills colleagues approach relevant library staff members directly who may be able to help. Again, there is no guarantee that cover can be found through this route. If cover cannot be found, Library Skills colleagues may seek help in the form of email support for the requester as an alternative to a one-to-one appointment.
• If cover cannot be found through all these channels, even if the request is urgent or of high priority, refer the requester to asynchronous materials and our scheduled programme of sessions, or suggest they book an appointment on the return of the dedicated staff member.

This guidance has been agreed by: Angela Young, Lindsay Ure, Kate Cheney, Anna Di Iorio, Michelle Wake.

Please contact us if you have any comments or suggestions for improvements.