Meet Your Colleagues: Phyllis McFarlane

0 min read

03 November 2020

Here at SERC we are keen to promote internal colleagues to allow staff the opportunity to get to know each other and put a face to the name, particularly due to the size and scope of SERC.

Here at SERC we are keen to promote internal colleagues to allow staff the opportunity to get to know each other and put a face to the name, particularly due to the size and scope of SERC. With this in mind, “Meet your Colleagues” is a fun Q and A exercise to help raise awareness of people’s roles within SERC and allows you to get to know more about your fellow colleagues.

This week’s “Meet your Colleagues” features Phyllis McFarlane. Phyllis is a Mobile Library Assistant in the Learning Resource Centre here at SERC.

What does your role at SERC involve?

My role as mobile library assistant involves travelling between our four LRC Centres in Bangor, Lisburn, Downpatrick, and Newtownards. A weekly rota dictates which of the four campuses I visit. Short notice changes do occur, and I have been known to start in one campus, and finish in another by the end of that day!

In my role, every day is different. We’re involved with issuing and cataloguing books, stocktaking, enrolling students, and signposting them to relevant resources.

The highlight for me is engaging with students. We’re the first point of contact for students when they enrol on their courses and I like to think we offer an oasis of calm – especially at assignment time! We assist them with Microsoft Office layout queries, and It’s great to see their skills and confidence develop with help and encouragement from us.

I have a keen interest in marketing and recently became involved in the design and creation of content for our new term time LRC eMagazine. This keeps students and staff up to date with our LRC services.

We’re currently looking for staff and students to tell us about their favourite reading for pleasure book. Send in the book title, author and a short 60-80 word review to lrc@serc.ac.uk. Your recommendation may get a mention in our eMagazine, and a free digital copy added to our eBook selection!

Tell us a bit about your background?

My background is in media. For 29 years I worked in various roles and departments at the BBC, beginning as an Administrative Assistant in the Engineering department. After a year I moved into Radio Drama, where as a Broadcast Assistant I was involved in pre-production planning and worked in a studio with directors, actors, and authors, recording plays and documentaries for BBC Radio 4 and Radio 3.

After 10 years in Drama, I moved from pre-recorded Drama to live Radio Ulster programmes, covering a wide array of subjects from agriculture to gardening and sport, then finally working with Gerry Anderson on his Saturday magazine programme.

I was thrown in the deep end with no training. I arrived on my first day at a live studio and was given a stopwatch to cue presenters in and out of their programmes. The only advice given was ‘don’t crash the pips’! I avoided the pips most days, just by the skin of my teeth! After a brief period in Radio 3’s Classical Music department, a new training opportunity came up in Web Development which I couldn’t refuse! This set me on my career path, and I advanced from Assistant Producer to Producer and eventually to Senior Content Producer. Working within the Interactive Learning department, I oversaw a team of illustrators, designers and coders, creating educational games and animation sequences for primary and post primary students.

Some of the highlights in my career as a web producer include winning an award for one of my websites at a ceremony in London, and working with the creators of Sesame Street on a website to accompany their BBC pre-school TV series, Sesame Tree. And yes, I did get to meet the Muppets.

What 3 words best describe you?

Resourceful, adventurous, determined.

What do you like to do outside of work?

I love cooking and eating! I also enjoy photography (though I’m not an expert), gardening, yoga and walking. I recently came second in SERC’s Step Challenge! Thanks to lockdown and not being able to get out much, I’ve developed an interest in birds and have built a bird table in my garden for my feathered friends. I’ve also volunteered with Red Cross and Cancer Research.

My main hobby is travel. So far, my adventures have taken me to Italy, Greece, Spain, Czech Republic, China, India, Jordan, Jerusalem, Kenya, South Africa, Cuba and Peru, though I didn’t find Paddington.

If you could swap jobs for a day who would it be and why?

I’d like to be a researcher in a science lab for curable diseases. I enjoy research and finding creative solutions to problems. The job satisfaction would be immense if you contributed to finding a cure for long term illnesses, especially in our current climate.

List an item you would want with you if you were stranded on a deserted island?

A boat.

What is your favourite film and why?

That would be a toss-up between The Quiet Man and It’s a Wonderful Life. Given that it’s a Christmas movie and the difficult year that we’ve had, it’s got to be It’s a Wonderful Life. It celebrates the power of community and defiant optimism in the face of adversity. It echoes what we’re experiencing today with Covid-19, and the ripple effect of kindness from unassuming people, such as Sir Captain Tom.

Where do you most want to travel, but have never been?

Tibet.

What is your top tip for keeping healthy (either physically or mentally) during the lockdown?

Positive attitude.