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

• Agreed ongoing cover arrangements
• Planned absence
• Unplanned absence

All skills trainers / liaison librarians are responsible for ensuring the following cover arrangements for individual appointments or liaison enquiries are in place on an ongoing basis, and can be activated in case of their absence.

1. Cover contact arrangement: 

Make an ongoing arrangement with another library staff member(s) to be the primary cover person(s) to whom requests may be referred in case of absence, planned or unplanned. Ideally this would be with colleagues at the same site or in the same team, but reciprocal arrangements may also be made between colleagues in different sites or teams where appropriate and beneficial, e.g. similarities in subject discipline. See also guidance for the cover contact.

2. Ensure skills session materials and relevant departmental contact details are available:

Always ensure up-to-date skills session materials are available to colleagues via the Library Skills Team site, alongside contact details for the relevant academic/departmental administrator: 

• Either: add materials to the appropriate folder in the Library Skills Team site, under General > Training for academic programmes. 
• Or: for those who prefer to keep their materials on their One Drive, ensure the contents of the OneDrive folder are accessible to any UCL user with a link that is made available in a document in the appropriate folder on the Library Skills Teams site

3. MS Bookings: 

Colleagues are advised to utilise MS Bookings, an automated appointment booking system, for 1-1 skills appointment requests, so users can book appointments during their absence, for after their return. Guidance on MS Bookings is available on the Library Skills Team site.

4. Outlook Calendar: 

Ensure your Outlook calendar can be viewed by your line manager and colleagues, with permissions to view all details. The Privacy feature can be enabled for any meetings/events that are private/confidential. 

5. Alternative support message:

Compile a standardised message, with suggestions for alternative lines of support, to be included in an email out of office message and be readily available for use by colleagues triaging requests in their absence. See Templates for alternative support / email out of office messaging.

Ahead of taking planned absence, please ensure the following:

1. Messaging and communications:

Appropriate messaging via the channels through which booking requests or enquiries are ordinarily received, including:

• Email out of office: Include links to online support material and / or direct enquirers to cover contact, or an alternative referral / triage contact, where appropriate. The referral / triage contact can then triage requests accordingly. See:
  • Templates for alternative support / email out of office messaging.
  • Referral flowchart for one to ones in absence of library trainer.
• Set LibAnswers status to ‘Out of office’.
• MS Bookings: Ensure booking slots are not available during the period of absence.

Note: If particular cohorts of users are likely to require support during a planned absence, e.g. with dissertations / research projects / a specific assignment, consider communicating with them in advance, so users have the opportunity to arrange an appointment before or after the absence period. Note, extensive communications to all library users about a period of unavailability of individual appointments may be counterproductive, with the risk of causing a surge in interest in individual appointments from users who may not have been aware they are an option.

2. Instigate cover contact arrangement:

• Give as much notice as possible to the cover person of any planned absences. Where possible, colleagues who have agreed to provide cover should attempt to co-ordinate planned absences so they are not absent at the same time. Where this is unavoidable, seek to find alternative colleague(s) to provide cover during that period if possible.
• If planned leave is for more than 2 weeks, consult with the cover person to arrange additional cover support if necessary.
• Agree the extent of the cover. E.g. the person providing cover might do so only where a user’s query is urgent and cannot wait until the return of their skills trainer / liaison librarian.
• Where appropriate, provide briefing documentation for the cover person to outline the types of support usually requested and the depth of support to provide. This will vary across the Service, and is dependent on the expertise and capacity of the library staff member or team.

Note: Cover will be provided on a best effort basis. It may not be possible to provide the same depth or extent of support, e.g. where a query requires specialist expertise in a particular subject or research method, and / or where capacity does not allow. Support should not exceed the usual extent available to an individual so as not to alter usual expectations for the departments concerned. E.g. students in a particular cohort.

See also guidance for the cover contact.

3. Inform Referral / triage contact(s)

Ensure the Referral / triage contact is aware of the planned period of leave and designated cover contact and provide alternative support information to facilitate dealing with requests.

See also guidance for the Referral / triage contact.

4. Inform line manager

Ensure the line manager is aware of cover support arrangements.

See also guidance for the line manager.

In the event of unexpected absence, including sick leave, or other emergency leave, colleagues already inform their line manager of their absence and any commitments that they are unable to make due to the absence. 

• If circumstances allow, and especially where absence is likely to be for an extended period, colleagues are encouraged to put out of office on their e-mail indicating that they are absent and pointing enquirers to relevant resources or colleagues for support, and to mark their status as ‘Out of office’ on LibAnswers.
• Where it has not been possible for colleagues to cover pre-arranged training sessions or 1-1 appointments in their absence, they should follow up on their return to work to re-arrange.

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.