‘Beyond the shelves: telling the untold stories of UCC Library Staff
through a radio show and podcast’
Abstract
Shush! Sounds from UCC Library radio show began broadcasting on University College Cork Campus Radio in 2016. The show was started as a fun and innovative way to tell the Library story, promote the Library and its services, and to engage with the community in a different way.
In November 2021, I introduced a new feature – Takeover Shows. So far, 25 UCC Library colleagues (and librarians from other institutions) have appeared on air to tell their story.
For the Takeover Shows, guests choose music, a la Desert Island Discs, and discuss why they chose the songs they did and what it means to them. As well as reflecting on their music choices, they answer 6 questions where they reflect on their career, talk about their role and librarianship in general.
These shows, which are recorded live and then podcasted after, tell the untold stories of UCC Library Staff and offer an insight into the Library profession for those who may just have a superficial knowledge of the work librarians do. I believe their stories help to tackle the ‘black box’ issue which libraries have – of people not necessarily knowing the scope of everything we do.
The talk will provide an insight into the process, expand on the why, provide feedback from staff, air a few examples and offer advice to anybody who might like to borrow the idea for their workplace.
And as always with Shush – there will be some cracking tunes..
Biography
Martin O’Connor is Communications Coordinator at UCC Library. He has widely published and presented in the areas of library outreach and communications, marketing of libraries, social media, blogging, podcasting, leadership and Chinese Librarianship. He co-runs Libfocus, the Library blog. He runs the award-winning music and socio-cultural blog The Blackpool Sentinel. He also hosts the weekly radioshow Shush! Sounds from UCC Library on UCC 98.3FM.
He was awarded the LAI (Library Association of Ireland) / CILIP (Chartered Institute of Library & Information Professionals) Library Staff Champion Award in 2021.
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