The document discusses the City University London Library's efforts to create student-centered employability resources. It outlines the formation of a Library Employability Group to research best practices, develop employability support materials, and embed employability in information literacy programs. Surveys and interviews were conducted with students and staff to inform the resources. Case studies provided feedback, including promoting the new Employability Library guide through social media and offering workshops on job searching. The creation of personal narratives and increased collaboration between departments were outcomes that can strengthen employability support.

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