The University Library of the Hamburg University of Technology (TUB) has been training media and information services specialists (FaMI) since 1998. FaMIs work in various areas of a library. Among other things, they procure and index information, prepare it and are active in consulting. Ronja Schwardt started her FaMI training in the library specialization at TUB on September 1, 2023.
This is what our FaMI trainee says about starting her career
My training as a FaMI takes place on a dual basis. That means that part of the week I’m at the university library, where I gain practical experience, and the other part of the week I’m at vocational school.
On-the-job training
During the introductory weeks of my training, I got my initial insights into many departments and areas of the library as part of the “onboarding”. I had the opportunity to take a closer look at the user department first. There I helped staff the ServicePoint, got to know the reading rooms and the stacks better, took part in the daily tasks and took on my first small projects. For example, I was allowed to design the first semester shelf. It contains basic literature that can be used by first-year students of various degree programs at the TUHH in the upcoming winter semester 2023.
The next department I was able to look into is media processing. There, it’s all about procuring, cataloging and providing media. Here, I was able to order media with a colleague and process newly arrived journals.
I also got an overview of the work of the Open Access team and got to know TORE (TUHH Open Research).
Next, I got a small insight into the subject departments of the TUB. The subject departments are, among other things, contact persons for media acquisition requests in various subjects. The respective subject librarians also select literature and take care of its acquisition. I witnessed the processing of an acquisition request live. I also gained insight into tasks such as consulting services for literature management.
The Digital Services department framed my introductory weeks. On the first day, I got help to start using all the systems in the library. At the end of the weeks, I gained further insight into the organization of the department and into research data management.
Vocational school training
Last but not least, there’s vocational school. I attend the school two days a week with 35 other prospective librarians from Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein. There, in our first field of study, we learn the legal principles and organization of our libraries or how to deal with users in language and communication. The curriculum will include more subjects later, such as specialized English.
Conclusion
The first weeks of my training went by quickly and I already got an initial overview of what to expect in the coming years of training. There will certainly be more topics to come, and what I have already learned will be further deepened. I’m really looking forward to it.