If you are a trustee, it’s now possible to accurately record this information in Discovery, using the Activities Membership options.

Our team have been doing some housekeeping to tidy up Discovery data, largely with the purpose of supporting more accurate public engagement reporting. During this process we were asked how to record a trustee role and have produced this brief step-by-step guide to creating a record of your trustee status in 5 simple steps:

1. Using the appropriate Membership option, start by adding the name of the External Organisation for which you are a trustee. You can search for an existing record or, if your organisation isn’t listed, create a new one.

2. Write a brief description of your role and what the organisation does. Remember that this description appears on your Discovery Profile.

Example of a good description:

Joe Smith is a trustee for the UK Librarians Research Administration Group with responsibility for representing early career librarians.

Example of bad description:

I am a trustee.

3. Indicate the Period of Time during which you will hold the role. If you know that the role is for a set period of time, please include an end date.

4. Add the Trustee role by clicking on the small Edit button beside your name and selecting Trustee from the drop-down menu.

5. Add any links or documents that evidence your role.

Additional Information

If you want to, you can complete additional fields that will help to build a better picture of the impact of your role.

For example:

Degree of recognition. This helps to identify between local and international collaborations.

Indicators. Tell us how your role relates to public engagement or what influence it has on society. Multiple indicators can be selected.

Keywords. Adding keywords can help interested parties find your information more easily and potentially lead to collaborations.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Adding relevant SDGs helps to identify how your activities relate to key societal concerns.

Once you’ve completed filling out the form, set the visibility to “Public – no restriction” so that your record will appear on your Discovery Profile. Alternatively, set the visibility to “Backend” if you’d rather that the information is only used for reporting.

Finally – always remember to click on the Save button!