Hi Lena Holmberg!

In a series of portraits we are going to introduce the staff at the Library to all our readers and customers. Who are the people working at the library? And what are they doing there? Read our portraits and get to know your librarians! We asked Lena a few questions.

How long have you been working here?
I celebrated ten years as an employee in 2015 and is now in my twelfth year. The years go fast when you have fun! I have always had tasks related to acquisitions, but I have also once taken care of our lovely student assistants who we called library guards at the time. A fun task!

What are your main duties?
I’m part of the function Media, where I purchase literature for the Faculty of Caring Science, Work Life and Social Welfare. I’m also responsible for interlibrary loans, which means everything from ensuring that both researchers and students get books and articles they can not find at the University Library, to invoicing and development of systems and routines. I’m also a member of the library’s communication team where I mainly work with social media but also other communication channels. Like most of the librarians, I also have scheduled time at the information desk a few times a week. Although the last six months I have spent most of my time as a working member in the project group for implementing a new library system, which has been both tough and frustrating but at the same time fun and educational!

What do you enjoy most about the job?
To help people, to help users get that article they need for their dissertation, or to make the students feel great when the leave the library after helping them a bit along the way. It’s also fun (and a challenge) to try and get information about the library to our users in a good way. In addition, having lovely colleagues makes life at work fun everyday.

What do you do when you’re not at work?
I’m a nerd that devour both movies, TV shows and I like to go to the cinema, theater, museum and I also read quite a lot of fiction as soon as I get a free time. I have a family who I spend a lot of time with and we often play boardgames together and as long as the kids are small, we like to be out geocaching or chasing Pokémons, but sometimes I force them to a cultural event instead.

Do you have any book tips you want to share?
I have a lot! but I’ll settle with three: Sara Lövestam’s books about the paperless private detective Kouplan provide insight into a whole different life than many of us live today, start with Sanning med modifikation (only available in Swedish). A dramatic and intense novel of my taste is Butcher’s Crossing by John Williams. It is about hunting buffalo but equally about the pursuit of your self. If you instead feel like having a funny reading experience, you have to read Christer Lundberg’s Bläckfisken (only available in Swedish). A tall tale that takes place in Gothenburg and in its madness gives many good laughs.

Text: Tandis Talay & Lena Holmberg
Foto: Tandis Talay

Hello Kristoffer Karlsson

In a series of portraits we are going to introduce the staff at the Library to all our readers and customers. Who are the people working at the library? And what are they doing there? Read our portraits and get to know your librarians! We asked Kristoffer a few questions.

What are your main duties?
I mainly work with publications in DiVA and support to researchers. In the future, I will work more with research data and help with information retrieval.

 What where you doing before you started working here?
After graduating from The Swedish School of Library and Information Science, I worked at Chalmers University of technology library in about one and a half year.
Do you have any book recommendations you want to share?
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami are among the best books I’ve ever read. Everone should read it. The English translation, not the Swedish.
Another tip is The Expanse by James‘s A Corey. The first book is called Leviathan Wakes. It is now also available as a television series on SyFy. Best science fiction series since Battlestar Galactica and Firefly!
What made you apply to the library at the University of Borås?
I was homesick. I have been active in the University of Borås between 2009 and 2015 as a student and in the Student Union,I enjoyed it a lot. To get a job at the University Library was like coming home again. In addition, the work tasks seemed fun!
What are you most curious about within the Librarian role according to development?
I‘m very curious to see how the Librarian role will evolve now that we have the problem of alternative facts. Source criticism is more important than ever, and that’s something that librarians are professionals at. I want to see librarians taking place in the media and talk about source criticism and the importance of being skeptical.
Text & picture: Tandis Talay

Hi Alejandro (Alex) Crespo

In a series of portraits we are going to introduce the staff at the Library to all our readers and customers. Who are the people working at the library? And what are they doing there? Read our portraits and get to know your librarians! We asked Alex a few questions.

What are your main duties?
At present it is mostly about the implementation of our next library system and our new search engine that will replace the systems we use today. After the launch, I will mostly will be working with system management and usability testing of systems.

What did you do before you started working here?
I worked as Web/IT librarian at University West in Trollhättan.

What do you do when you’re not at work?
I try to go to concerts and try different restaurants.

Do you have any book recommendations you want to share?
If you are interested in use of tests and usability, you should read “Rocket Surgery made easy” and “Do not make me think” by Steve Krug. Anyone who is curious about information architecture should not miss ” How to make sense of any mess” by Abby Covert. It is also available as a website http://www.howtomakesenseofanymess.com/.

Last fiction book I read was “Mary” by Aris Fioretos. A book I can recommend.

What made you apply to the library at the University of Borås?
I want to work with something that has a clear link to user benefits. Availability of information is one of the library’s most important services. Systems should not constitute an obstacle for the communication of information and the creation of new knowledge. The ability to make these systems easier to use,  led me to seek the job.

Text and picture: Tandis Talay

Hello Karin Süld!

In a series of portraits we are going to introduce the staff at the Library to all our readers and customers. Who are the people working at the library? And what are they doing there? Read our portraits and get to know your librarians! We asked Karin a few questions:

What are your main duties in the Library Karin?

– I work with education in information seeking, source criticism and reference management, primarily for students at the Swedish School of Textiles. The teaching is organised so that each moment includes both a lecture and a workshop. The planning and evaluation of each moment is done in collaboration with the teachers of the various programs.

Another part of my work is to staff the library’s Information Point where students, staff and the general public can come to get help with small and big issues, ranging from finding at our premises to searching for information.

For how long have you worked here?

– I have worked here since the mid-90s, for a while, then! The work has changed a lot over the years. Among other things, education has increased and become an integrated part of the education. This has contributed to making the librarian role more of an educator than before. And, it’s impossible not to mention the digitisation, which has changed the work both in content and in approach.

What do you do when you’re not at work?

– Then I am with my family and my friends. I also like being out in the forest, fix in the garden, watching movies and reading. My husband and I are building a new house and moving to the country, so it will fill a lot of our spare time for a while.

Do you have any book recommendations you want to share?

– A book I would recommend is The detour by Gerbrand Bakker. It is a story about a woman who suddenly and without explanation, leaves her home in the Netherlands and settles in a house in the Welsh countryside. Her days seems to be mostly work in the garden and care of a number of geese who happens to be on the farm. There is much that is mysterious and odd in the story. A young man shows up, unclear why and who he is. The woman’s husband is looking for her along with a Dutch police. The US 1800-century poet Emily Dickinson figures, such as the woman who previously lived in the house. Gradually, however, the picture of the Dutch woman and her story becomes clearer. It is a quiet and at the same time exciting book with an unexpected ending.

What do you enjoy most about the job?

– To meet the students, take part of their work and their issues and together with them work the way through the information jungle. Collaboration with teachers is also very fun and interesting; it gives me a good insight into what is going on in the different courses at the Swedish School of Textiles.

Text: Karin Süld and Lena Wadell
Picure: Lena Wadell

Hi Christel Olsson!

In a series of portraits we are going to introduce the staff at the Library to all our readers and customers. Who are the people working at the library? And what are they doing there? Read our portraits and get to know your librarians! We asked Christel a few questions.

christel_books_1200

What are your main duties?
I work as a teaching librarian where I mainly teach the students who are studying to be teachers, preschool teachers and leisure-time pedagogues. I’ve worked here for quite a while so I have had the privilege to work with many different things over the years. The last few years have I worked in the function for Customer service but in March this year I started as a teaching librarian in the function for Education.

For how long have you worked here?
I’ve been working here since 2000. First I worked extra as a student assistant when I studied LIS and then (after 6 months at Jönköping University Library) I came here “for real” in 2002. Since then I have been on leave a few times, because of studies, parental leave or other jobs but I have always come back. Before I started here, I moved around and lived both abroad and in Sweden, I have studied and worked at a variety of places.

What do you do when you’re not at work?
I am happy to spend a lot of time with my children, either at the stable or in the icerink. They have caught an interest in my main hobby so now we ride together once a week and I try to practice their interest in figure skating by participating in an adult group, which is both scary and lots of fun. I love spending time with family and friends, I am part of a very cool book club and some other great “dinner-gatherings”.

We also visit our summer house in my hometown Kalmar as often as we can and once or twice a week I sell clothes through home sales. I also try to catch up with some jogging and skiing. I’m supposed to attend “TjejVasan” in the winter so I might have to increase my training volume a bit this fall. If time is given this semester I might also learn Icelandic once a week. I’m a little bit obsessed with Iceland.

What do you enjoy most about the job?
All interesting meetings and interesting conversations that take place here every day! Having the privilege of meeting all students. And then I have the absolute best, smartest and coolest colleagues so I think I can honestly say that I love going to work everyday.

Do you have any book tips that you want to share?
Jag heter inte Miriam by Majgull Axelsson – it feels more relevant than ever in view of the situation in the world right now. Then I would like to recommend Fyren mellan haven by M.L. Stedman. (The light between oceans) – it takes place in Australia, a country I often long for, and because I have never cried so much when reading a book.

Text: Christel Olsson and Lena Holmberg
Picture: Klaz Arvidson

Hi Tandis Talay!

image1In a series of portraits we are going to introduce the staff at the Library to all our readers and customers. Who are the people working at the library? And what are they doing there? Read our portraits and get to know your librarians! We asked Tandis a few questions.

What are your main duties?
I work in customer service and just began a week ago, so I’m not sure of all tasks yet, but I know that I will work with scheduling and I will be in charge of the student assistants who work here. It also includes working at the information point 3 times / week, and then also work with the billing of overdue books. And I will also work closely with Campus services and IT.

For how long have you worked here, and what did you do before you started here?
I just started two weeks ago but I have worked here before, two years ago.Then I worked in both Media where I got to work with interlibrary loan and acquisition and Digital Services where Social Media was one of my many tasks.

What were you doing before you started here?
I worked at the University of Gothenburg, mainly at two different libraries: 40% at the Humanities Library in customer service but really most of interlibrary loans and 60% at the Social Science Library as a part of Digital Services, I was a member of the web team.

What do you do when you´re not at work?
I’m either out walking my dog or doing something with the house or having friends over or visiting friends. I recently found an interest in mindfulness and training, so I try to keep that going as well.

Do you have any book recommendations you want to share?
The Art of Hearing Heartbeats of Jan-Philipp Sendker. The book is about a successful lawyer, originally from Burma but lives in New York with his wife and children who do not really know anything about his upbringing. One day he disappears without a word, and his family did not manage to track him beyond Bangkok. Four years later, his daughter Julia finds an old love letter that her father had written to an unknown woman in a small village in Burma. She decides to go there and look for her father. This book makes you think about the stressful life you live and the choices you have made.

Dream Heart by Cecilia Samartin. The book is about two cousins, Nora and Alicia who are living in Cuba during the 1950s. They are best friends and live their dream life until Fidel Castro takes over power. They separated briefly when Nora’s father decides that they should flee to the United States and Alicia’s father and family remains in Cuba. The cousins ​​keep in touch through correspondence. You get to experience how Havana is transformed from the beautiful to the poor ruined city. You also get to experience the struggle for identity. An exciting and entertaining book.

Text: Lena Holmberg och Tandis Talay
Picture: Katharina Nordling

Hi Svante!

In a series of portraits we are going to introduce the staff at the Library to all our readers and customers. Who are the people working at the library? And what are they doing there? Read our portraits and get to know your librarians! We asked Svante who works as Library Director a few questions.

1-svante_kristensson

What are your main duties?
My assignment is to lead and develop the work at the library. I have the main responsibility for colleagues, working environment and economy, I also participate in the development of the University as a whole. That work is about to place the Library resources and services in a strategic way so it fits the University profile according to the education and research that takes place here.

For how long have you worked here, and what did you do before you started here?
I have been working at the University Library since 2002, but I became Library Director 2011. Earlier I worked as a teacher and headmaster within the primary school. Then I decided to study to librarian and studied at the Swedish School of Library and Information Science for two years before the opportunity to work at the University Library occurred.

What do you enjoy most about the job?
To be part of and to develop the workplace. Because of our changeable surrounding world the library world is in constant change and development. To work as a librarian you have an inherent will for new ideas and development, this makes librarians a very rewarding group to work with.

What do you do when you´re not at work?
I ride a couple of times in the week and during the spring and summer I like to spend time in the garden and in my green house. I also enjoy film and literature.

Do you have any book recommendations you want to share?
I was pleasantly surprised by Paula Fox´s book Desperate characters, it´s an American classic, which has recently been published anew. Then I would like everyone to discover what a wonderful author Bodil Malmsten is. All she has written is well worth reading! Her novels, lyric poetry, blog posts…

 

Text: Svante Kristensson and Kajsa Magnusson
Picture: Suss Wilén
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