Presented at LILAC 2015

1. Creating student-centred
employability resources at City
University London Library
Diane Bell, Research Librarian
Alex Asman, Subject Librarian (Arts)
City University London
www.city.ac.uk/library

2. www.city.ac.uk/library
Library Employability Group
Research best practice and develop
Library Services support for employability.
Embed employability in information
literacy provision.
Create employability support materials.
Build a small, current careers collection.
Produce a report and recommendations
for our Library Leadership Team.

3. www.city.ac.uk/library
Diversity at City
• We are located in Central London and focused on Business
and professional courses such as Law and Health. There are
also courses on Psychology, Journalism, Music & Creative
Writing etc.
• The University specialises in education, research and
enterprise for business and the professions and we are ranked
10th in the UK for graduate-level jobs and 12th for graduate
starting salaries.
• Approx 16,500 students (35% at postgraduate level), 47% are
international students from 150 countries & our staff are from
50 countries.

4. www.city.ac.uk/library
Approach
• Create student-centred employability resources informed by
experience- based design (as used in the NHS) and case
studies to enhance services.
• To use the experiences, narratives and ideas of participants.
• Development of collections, library guides and workshops as
part of our IL programme.
• Provide organic, evolving rather than static resources.

5. www.city.ac.uk/library
Engagement methods
• Survey on Survey Monkey sent to some selected students &
via Departmental Administrators (Law & Social Sciences &
Business).
• Follow up qualitative interviews with some respondents.
• Asked for feedback & ‘crowdsourced’ content on our new
Employability Library guide in terms of the design, content
and suggested resources.

6. www.city.ac.uk/library
Survey respondents Departmental responsibility
Student 53% Researcher 17.5%
Academic 6% Admin/ Library staff 17.5%
Self employed 12% Private sector 6%
Careers 65%
Student Services 48%
Library Services 30%
Academic Departments 48%
All university departments 58%

7. www.city.ac.uk/library
IL: how can Library Services help? Library resources used
89
77
59
53
36
0 20 40 60 80 100
1
2
Study skills packages 36% Signposting other departments 53%
Workshops 59% Online employability guide 77%
Online resources 89%
Databases 25% Books 19%
Journals 19% Training 19%
Online guides 19%

8. www.city.ac.uk/library
Case study 1: Research student
Profile: Research student, self-employed, lived and worked
abroad, motivated by employability, social media and apps.
Key findings:
• Our Employability library guide is “a rich resource that should
be shared and heavily promoted”.
• Use social media page to promote apps such Feedly.
• Develop communities on LinkedIn, Mendeley for discussions.
• Offer Current awareness workshops as part of IL programme.
• Employability should be embedded in everything.

9. www.city.ac.uk/library
Case study 2: Masters student
Profile: International student with some previous
workplace experience, intends to work in libraries abroad.
Key findings:
• Library is an important source of information.
• Provide information in print, online and in IL workshops.
• Increase collaboration between Careers, Library etc.
• Use academics to disseminate information on employability.
• Produce step by step guides eg. on using RSS feeds.
• International careers resources are a challenge for us.

10. www.city.ac.uk/library
Case study 3: Undergraduate student
Profile: Third year undergraduate, previously worked in retail,
has used websites for Careers and has self-taught soft skills.
Key findings:
• Employability is having a range of qualifications and
experience.
• Students require soft skills: flexibility, drive, confidence,
teamworking, enthusiasm.
• Promote library online resources, online guide.
• Offer workshops on researching employers and job searching
resources.

11. www.city.ac.uk/library
IL workshops for staff and students

12. www.city.ac.uk/library
Our Employability LibGuide

13. www.city.ac.uk/library
Conclusion
• Closer working relationships with other departments
is a great outcome for us.
• Personal narratives & case studies are interesting but
are more difficult to use than quantitative data.
• Feedback on the Library guide was very useful.
• Strong IL skills can assist job searching.
• If the University had defined graduate attributes/
skills these could be mapped to an IL programme.

14. www.city.ac.uk/library
Thank you for listening:
any questions or discussion points?
• Employability guide: http://libguides.city.ac.uk/employability
• Workshop booking website: http://libcal.city.ac.uk
diane.bell.2@city.ac.uk @dianelouisebell
alexandra.asman.1@city.ac.uk