I'm beginning to have trouble keeping up with this now as the start of term and a new set of students to induct looms. So I'm probably not going to go through these tools as it looks as if I won't be able to download Jing anyway. I can see how we could use them though, maybe to make a demonstration of how to search the library catalogue/search online resources for our students and it is something I would like to try in the future, maybe when I have more time.
Podcasts: my colleague here has made some Podcasts for the library in the past. These have been very useful, a library tour one for the start of the year and then some 60 second podcasts for various themes (ILL's reserving a book etc). I guess the main thing I would say about Podcasts is be careful with them, don't use technology for technology's sake. A library at a university where I studied a few years ago (I shall not name and shame them) created a podcast which was about the library but it was literally everything about the library in one podcast, very long and it definetly induced sleep. I would say, if you are going to make a podcast, keep it short and sweet and to the point.
Wednesday 28 September 2011
Friday 2 September 2011
Thing 16: Advocacy, speaking up for the profession and getting published
Advocacy: This is something I have not had to do much of as an academic librarian. However, I think it is going to be increasingly important when the tuition fee rise hits next year. Where I work, we are currently going through an implementation process for a reading list management system and I am putting together a report on it and detailing where we are at the moment with regard to reading list management and why we need to have it. This is all so that, if we need to, we can justify to senior management the financial commitment that it is going to entail. I feel this is something we are going to have to start to do more and more here, in order to justify our existence and how we can help the students. One thing that may help is that the subject librarians here are going to get membership of academic programme committee's, this should help to raise our profile and ensure that we can get the message out about what the library is doing.
I do feel I should be doing more with regards to public library advocacy. I have used public libraries since I was a small child and feel very strongly that they are undervalued as a resource and looked upon as an all too easy target when it comes to cutting council funds. I have done something though. I signed and sent a WI petition regarding library closure's round to all my friends a few weeks back and I am a regular user of my local public library.
Getting published: I guess this blog is the nearest thing I have got so far to being published. (if you don't count my adaptation of a story in the middle school magazine, circa 1982). I guess at the moment I don't feel I have enough to say about something to make an article out of it but we shall have to see what happens, maybe when I have more experience under my belt.
I do feel I should be doing more with regards to public library advocacy. I have used public libraries since I was a small child and feel very strongly that they are undervalued as a resource and looked upon as an all too easy target when it comes to cutting council funds. I have done something though. I signed and sent a WI petition regarding library closure's round to all my friends a few weeks back and I am a regular user of my local public library.
Getting published: I guess this blog is the nearest thing I have got so far to being published. (if you don't count my adaptation of a story in the middle school magazine, circa 1982). I guess at the moment I don't feel I have enough to say about something to make an article out of it but we shall have to see what happens, maybe when I have more experience under my belt.
Thing 4: RSS Feeds, Twitter, Pushnote
Ok, back from a week's hols in sunny Norfolk, seeing the family and catching up and onto Thing 4.
Twitter: I feel I am quite proactive with this, I use Twitter, although I only log onto it at certain times of the day, so I may miss some things, I also like the fact that you can have hastags for events, as these can be good if you are unable to attend the event although, I'm not sure if I have completely understood how this works yet. We have a Twitter page at work, which I feel can be quite helpful for putting what the library is doing out there. One thing I was impressed with a few months ago on Twitter is when the University of Warwick I think had a very quick, 'tell us what you like/don't like about the library in one tweet' that seemed to be an effective way of garnering feedback from the students without having to recourse to a long and involved questionaire, I would also be interested in what the response rate was if there are any Warwick librarians following this blog as we put out a questionaire last year and it did not have a very good response rate.
RSS: Again an area where I am already quite proactive, the Google Reader is a godsend as it allows me to post the URL of whichever blog I want to follow and then they notify me when something new has been posted, a lot easier and quicker than remembering to go round all of the blogs, especially as I now follow 121 of them.
Pushnote: not used yet, I can't see how I would use this tool at the moment.
Twitter: I feel I am quite proactive with this, I use Twitter, although I only log onto it at certain times of the day, so I may miss some things, I also like the fact that you can have hastags for events, as these can be good if you are unable to attend the event although, I'm not sure if I have completely understood how this works yet. We have a Twitter page at work, which I feel can be quite helpful for putting what the library is doing out there. One thing I was impressed with a few months ago on Twitter is when the University of Warwick I think had a very quick, 'tell us what you like/don't like about the library in one tweet' that seemed to be an effective way of garnering feedback from the students without having to recourse to a long and involved questionaire, I would also be interested in what the response rate was if there are any Warwick librarians following this blog as we put out a questionaire last year and it did not have a very good response rate.
RSS: Again an area where I am already quite proactive, the Google Reader is a godsend as it allows me to post the URL of whichever blog I want to follow and then they notify me when something new has been posted, a lot easier and quicker than remembering to go round all of the blogs, especially as I now follow 121 of them.
Pushnote: not used yet, I can't see how I would use this tool at the moment.
Thursday 1 September 2011
Thing 15: Attending, presenting at and organising seminars, conferences and other events
Attending: This is the easy part. I try and attend as many events as possible. I am a member of my local CILIP committee and I attend a lot of events organised through this as I feel it is important to set a good example. I also try and learn something along the way, like the E-book session I attended last year where I found out that a high proportion of Arts and Humanities students use E-books at one particular academic library. I think there is potential for informal and unexpected learning at these events sometimes, you can pick up information from people you network with at breaktimes and can certainly make contacts.
One thing I have not attended yet is a conference. This is just something that I have never got round to doing. At the moment, my workplace would not fund this as money is scarce also, I would feel guilty for taking the time off as we have lost some staff and have not got them replaced. So, if I went to a conference at the moment, it would have to be on my own time and money which I really do not want to do as both are precious to me in order to keep a work/life balance. I love my job but I do need to have a life outside it.
Speaking: This again is something that I have not got round to doing. I am quite a shy person, although as time goes by I am managing this better, so the idea of speaking at a conference or event for any length of time scares me. Also, the fact of presenting in front of my peers, some of whom may have 20 years worth of experience on me feels quite daunting. I can manage speaking in front of undergraduates, as they are still getting over last night's hangover and the shock that they are at university and have to do some work now.
Organising: This is something that I have a little experience of, I have organised events for my local CILIP committee. I am going to organise their christmas quiz for the third year in a row this year. I also organised a trip to Winchester Cathedral last year. I do enjoy it, even if the organising can be a bit of a headache. I feel that it builds up my confidence and I get to meet people that I would not normally meet. The fact that I am organising an event means I have to put myself 'out there' and cannot lurk in the background as I normally do. The only thing I would say about organising events is be wary of certain times of the year. My trip to the cathedral was literally this time last year and, in hindsight, I would not have organised a trip so near to the bank holiday as a lot of people then dropped out the week before and I think this may have been a contributing factor.
One thing I have not attended yet is a conference. This is just something that I have never got round to doing. At the moment, my workplace would not fund this as money is scarce also, I would feel guilty for taking the time off as we have lost some staff and have not got them replaced. So, if I went to a conference at the moment, it would have to be on my own time and money which I really do not want to do as both are precious to me in order to keep a work/life balance. I love my job but I do need to have a life outside it.
Speaking: This again is something that I have not got round to doing. I am quite a shy person, although as time goes by I am managing this better, so the idea of speaking at a conference or event for any length of time scares me. Also, the fact of presenting in front of my peers, some of whom may have 20 years worth of experience on me feels quite daunting. I can manage speaking in front of undergraduates, as they are still getting over last night's hangover and the shock that they are at university and have to do some work now.
Organising: This is something that I have a little experience of, I have organised events for my local CILIP committee. I am going to organise their christmas quiz for the third year in a row this year. I also organised a trip to Winchester Cathedral last year. I do enjoy it, even if the organising can be a bit of a headache. I feel that it builds up my confidence and I get to meet people that I would not normally meet. The fact that I am organising an event means I have to put myself 'out there' and cannot lurk in the background as I normally do. The only thing I would say about organising events is be wary of certain times of the year. My trip to the cathedral was literally this time last year and, in hindsight, I would not have organised a trip so near to the bank holiday as a lot of people then dropped out the week before and I think this may have been a contributing factor.
CPD23: Thing 14
Thing 14: Zotero, Mendeley, CiteULike
I'm probably going to skip over these three, mainly because I don't really have a need to use them myself as I'm not writing academic papers or presenting at conferences (more of that in Thing 15). Suffice to say that we use Endnote where I currently work and I can advise on this and I was given a session on Refworks when I was studying for my MA, although I never did get around to using it. I think these bibliographic citation tools are good, although you do probably need to set aside some time to learn how to use them.
I'm probably going to skip over these three, mainly because I don't really have a need to use them myself as I'm not writing academic papers or presenting at conferences (more of that in Thing 15). Suffice to say that we use Endnote where I currently work and I can advise on this and I was given a session on Refworks when I was studying for my MA, although I never did get around to using it. I think these bibliographic citation tools are good, although you do probably need to set aside some time to learn how to use them.
Tuesday 23 August 2011
Thing 13: Google Docs, Wikis and dropbox
Ok, Google docs: this is the one that I use already as a secretary of a sub branch of CILIP. I think it is handy to have a shared repository that committee members of members of a team can access, although I do not find it very handy for editing, unless I am missing something. When I asked my predecessor how I edited or started a document from scratch in it, he said that he tended to create the document in Word but then upload it to Google Docs so that it was accessible to everyone. I must say, it will be handy when I do decide to stand down as my sucessor will have everything there without us having to worry about a handover meeting as such. Also, we do already have a shared folder at work where we can store work that multiple people need to have access to and used it last year when we were updating our webpages.
Dropbox: This looks a good idea, I can see how, I can use this if I am working on a project and need to have other people view documents, this would be useful. I'm sure it would be very good at facilitating working at home, although I am not in this situation myself at the moment.
Wiki's: again something that we do not use where I currently work but I can see how it could be relevant. We have subject guides at the library which we display on our webpage, these are something that could have gone on a Wiki although, we are constantly being told that our webpages, Facebook pages and Twitter page etc needs to adhere to the 'corporate' feel of the university, we could probably use Wiki's for staff documents but not ones that needed to be made public.
Dropbox: This looks a good idea, I can see how, I can use this if I am working on a project and need to have other people view documents, this would be useful. I'm sure it would be very good at facilitating working at home, although I am not in this situation myself at the moment.
Wiki's: again something that we do not use where I currently work but I can see how it could be relevant. We have subject guides at the library which we display on our webpage, these are something that could have gone on a Wiki although, we are constantly being told that our webpages, Facebook pages and Twitter page etc needs to adhere to the 'corporate' feel of the university, we could probably use Wiki's for staff documents but not ones that needed to be made public.
CPD 23: Thing 12
Ok, so thing 12 is 'putting the social into social media'. I'm going to approach this by addressing the questions on the CPD 23 website.
1. are there any advantages to social networking in the context of professional development that have not already been mentioned: not at the moment: not really, although there may be scope for chartership discussions within social networking (apologies if this has already been done and I have missed it), so may be a Facebook page or Twitter feed specifically for chartership, revalidation and fellowship and people can post their queries/ concerns and get a response.
2. Can you think of any disadvantages: the obvious disadvantages would be privacy settings and how much information you share online, Laura Woods has written about why she has cancelled her Google + account here and this prompted Laura Wilkinson to do the same. I guess this is the main disadvantage that I see. Also, if there is some information about you that you are prepared for your line managers to see and some that you are not, then you need to find a way to manage this, which tends to be by having Facebook as a personal network and then finding something else for work purposes.
3. Has CPD 23 helped you to make contact with others that you would not make contact with normally: yes, I am pleased that I have participated in CPD 23, not only has it made me finally start a blog but I have also started following a lot more other people and been aware of other blogs.
4. Did you already use Social Media for your career development before starting CPD23 ? Will you keep using it after the programme has finished: yes I definetly used Social Media before I started CPD 23, I had a Facebook and Twitter page as well as helping to start ones for work also. Some of the tools I have used whilst doing CPD 23, I don't think I will use again as I just don't see how I am going to need it but I can see their relevance to other librarians, so I guess that is the main thing.
5. In your opinion does Social Networking help foster a sense of community: I guess I'm going to say yes and no to this, I am of the opinion that there is a place for face to face networks, which I have to say as I am in a CILIP sub-branch, and the fact that there were CPD 23 meetups arranged a few weeks ago just proves this point. However, I think there is a place for Social Media to be used for professional development particularly in the case of lone workers or workplaces which are in rural areas (my favourite example of this is the Orkney Library twitter page).
1. are there any advantages to social networking in the context of professional development that have not already been mentioned: not at the moment: not really, although there may be scope for chartership discussions within social networking (apologies if this has already been done and I have missed it), so may be a Facebook page or Twitter feed specifically for chartership, revalidation and fellowship and people can post their queries/ concerns and get a response.
2. Can you think of any disadvantages: the obvious disadvantages would be privacy settings and how much information you share online, Laura Woods has written about why she has cancelled her Google + account here and this prompted Laura Wilkinson to do the same. I guess this is the main disadvantage that I see. Also, if there is some information about you that you are prepared for your line managers to see and some that you are not, then you need to find a way to manage this, which tends to be by having Facebook as a personal network and then finding something else for work purposes.
3. Has CPD 23 helped you to make contact with others that you would not make contact with normally: yes, I am pleased that I have participated in CPD 23, not only has it made me finally start a blog but I have also started following a lot more other people and been aware of other blogs.
4. Did you already use Social Media for your career development before starting CPD23 ? Will you keep using it after the programme has finished: yes I definetly used Social Media before I started CPD 23, I had a Facebook and Twitter page as well as helping to start ones for work also. Some of the tools I have used whilst doing CPD 23, I don't think I will use again as I just don't see how I am going to need it but I can see their relevance to other librarians, so I guess that is the main thing.
5. In your opinion does Social Networking help foster a sense of community: I guess I'm going to say yes and no to this, I am of the opinion that there is a place for face to face networks, which I have to say as I am in a CILIP sub-branch, and the fact that there were CPD 23 meetups arranged a few weeks ago just proves this point. However, I think there is a place for Social Media to be used for professional development particularly in the case of lone workers or workplaces which are in rural areas (my favourite example of this is the Orkney Library twitter page).
Friday 5 August 2011
CPD 23: Thing 11
Thing 11: Mentoring
This will probably be a shorter blog post than Thing 10 (collective sigh of relief) as I have only had a mentor once so far, when I was chartering. I actually found my mentor through personal recommendation, which I think is a good thing to do. They were very helpful throughout the chartership process, supportive and gave a listening ear but also firm when I needed it about what I had to do. Although I have now chartered, I still keep in touch with my mentor through local networks and feel that I can go to them if I have any other concerns with my job.
After chartering, I did consider the prospect of being a mentor myself and did a PTEG course (they have one coming up in September if anyone is interested), these are actually quite good as they focus on other types of mentoring as well as mentoring for chartership purposes. I asked my mentor what she thought about this and she thought I would make a good mentor. I have decided though at the moment, not to pursue this, as I have other priorities that I want to concentrate on which would mean that I would not be able to give mentoring the commitment it deserved. I would like to go back to it at some point though. I think it is important, if you are going to be a mentor, that you give it a full commitment as you have a responsibility to the people that you mentor and it is not just for your own personal gain. Also, I think it is important if you would like to become a mentor that you get the full support of your workplace as this may impinge on your work time to varying degrees (I am extremely lucky in this respect that I work somewhere where this kind of development is actively encouraged).
We don't really have workplace mentors where I currently work although there is a push towards a buddy system. I am on a university committee with a member of HR management and we are trying to push through a 'work buddy' scheme, someone who a new member of staff can turn to, maybe not neccessarily within their first couple of weeks but 3/6 months down the line if they have any problems. I guess it goes back to when you started a new school and had someone who showed you where the toilets were etc. I certainly think this would be a good idea in libraries. Quite often, library assistants are librarians in waiting and may be doing the job to get some experience so that they can then go on and do further training to be a librarian, so I think a 'buddy' would come in useful.
This will probably be a shorter blog post than Thing 10 (collective sigh of relief) as I have only had a mentor once so far, when I was chartering. I actually found my mentor through personal recommendation, which I think is a good thing to do. They were very helpful throughout the chartership process, supportive and gave a listening ear but also firm when I needed it about what I had to do. Although I have now chartered, I still keep in touch with my mentor through local networks and feel that I can go to them if I have any other concerns with my job.
After chartering, I did consider the prospect of being a mentor myself and did a PTEG course (they have one coming up in September if anyone is interested), these are actually quite good as they focus on other types of mentoring as well as mentoring for chartership purposes. I asked my mentor what she thought about this and she thought I would make a good mentor. I have decided though at the moment, not to pursue this, as I have other priorities that I want to concentrate on which would mean that I would not be able to give mentoring the commitment it deserved. I would like to go back to it at some point though. I think it is important, if you are going to be a mentor, that you give it a full commitment as you have a responsibility to the people that you mentor and it is not just for your own personal gain. Also, I think it is important if you would like to become a mentor that you get the full support of your workplace as this may impinge on your work time to varying degrees (I am extremely lucky in this respect that I work somewhere where this kind of development is actively encouraged).
We don't really have workplace mentors where I currently work although there is a push towards a buddy system. I am on a university committee with a member of HR management and we are trying to push through a 'work buddy' scheme, someone who a new member of staff can turn to, maybe not neccessarily within their first couple of weeks but 3/6 months down the line if they have any problems. I guess it goes back to when you started a new school and had someone who showed you where the toilets were etc. I certainly think this would be a good idea in libraries. Quite often, library assistants are librarians in waiting and may be doing the job to get some experience so that they can then go on and do further training to be a librarian, so I think a 'buddy' would come in useful.
Thursday 4 August 2011
CPD 23: Thing 10
Thing 10: Graduate traineeships, Masters degrees, chartership, accreditation
Graduate Traineeships: I do feel that the title of thing 10 is a bit misleading as it assumes that you can only be a librarian if you have done a graduate traineeship. Ankova states in her blog that she wishes she had done a graduate traineeship, even though she seems to have had a much more varied pre-professional career, covering quite a lot of library sectors and is going to do some work experience at the BBC as part of her MA ( I am most jealous). There are plenty of people who did not do graduate traineeships before they went on to do an MA and have not suffered for it. I certainly do not think that employers favour people who have done traineeships, I don't think having done a traineeship meant that I found a job any quicker, employers are looking for an all round experience and someone who has the passion to work in libraries.
That said, I do now have to confess that I was a Cambridge graduate trainee. I had actually worked as a library assistant at my local public library for the first year after I had graduated but was thinking I would like to work in academic libraries and wanted something which would give me a taster of it (a kind of try before you buy), it was never a conscious decision to do a traineeship, I just wanted to work in an academic library. I'm pleased that the CATALOG site is mentioned on the CPD 23 website (presumably whoever wrote it is a former/current trainee themselves). Graduate trainee schemes do offer a more structured programme of library experience, you get to go on visits to other libraries in different sectors, you get to meet a bunch of people who, like you, are interested in a career in libraries and can bounce ideas off each other. They can also be a lot of support when it comes to applying for MA courses, funding etc. Also, if there is a graduate trainee website, then there is also the chance to add web editing and HTML stuff to your C.V. The year we were trainees was the year after CATALOG had started, so it was exciting to be a part of it. The CATALOG site is also very good as a general reference tool for prospective librarians, even if you are not a graduate trainee as it has lots of useful information on working in various library sectors, the library school interview experience and a library timeline (which is very scary as I realise I have moved slightly further down it now), as well as information on the actual traineeships themselves and what they involve on a day to day basis. It also contains information on previous trainees and what they went on to next (this is reminding me that I need to probably email the current trainees and get them to update my details). Whenever I look upon my year in Cambridge now, it is with fondness for the experience's I had and the people I met.
Masters Degrees: From Cambridge, I then went on to the East Midlands and sunny Loughborough (the town that time forgot) to do my Masters degree, I actually like how one of my lecturers described it 'a first class university in the middle of nowhere' it is certainly a good place to go if you are wanting to do a Masters degree and are even more cash strapped than you were in your undergraduate days, as there are not too many monetary temptations. I actually went to Loughborough by accident, Sheffield had been my number one choice when I was a trainee but I felt that I should have a second, standby choice. Once I started to look at Loughborough's prospectus however, it started to look like a more attractive proposition. Sheffield seemed to have a slight, public library bias, UCL, a more academic library one. I was leaning slightly towards the academic library but could not afford to live in London and go to UCL, but Loughborough seemed to offer a course that combined the best of both worlds. I ended up having my interview for Loughborough on the Wednesday and Sheffield was the following Monday (how different things could have been if they had been the other way around ?). I turned up at Loughborough on the Wednesday lunchtime after 4 hours and 3 trains from Cambridge and negotiating the massive campus (with about 20 sportsfields), I finally found the upside down pyramid which houses the Pilkington library and the Department of Information Studies at the top. After a quick talk from a couple of the lecturers and some current students (always good to get a student point of view whenever you are in this situation), it was on to my interview. This was fairly straightforward after making sure that I was under no illusions about my capacity to get AHRC funding (which I wasn't) and ensuring that I could still do the course without it, there were a couple of questions about why I had chosen Loughborough and why I wanted to work in libraries. After telling the interviewer that I had an interview for Sheffield the following Monday, he ended the interview by saying that he hoped my interview there went badly (presumably because he wanted me to go to Loughborough, thats my story and I'm sticking with it anyway) so I obviously had impressed him with my commitment to work in libraries. I didn't actually go to the Sheffield interview in the end as I felt that Loughborough was a close knit and friendly department and it would do for me. Suffice to say that Loughborough was another fantastic year, where I made some great friends and, although I was cash strapped, look on it now with fondness.
Chartership: this is the more recent of my activities, after just over 18 months of long hard work, I finally passed chartership on August 13th of last year. Chartership was always a subject that came up but, whilst I was still a trainee, then a Masters student, then looking for work, it always seemed such a long way off. Finally after landing a job as a subject librarian at Winchester University and spending the first six months finding my feet, I decided to register to charter. I found chartership hard to get used to to start with, the fact that it is not a structured programme like an MA or a training course can make it hard to stick to if you are not very disciplined. I was lucky in that I had a firm mentor who would regularly check up on me and make sure I was doing what I was supposed to, I don't want to say too much at this point, as I want to save it for Thing 11 but it did help a lot. Once you get over the fact that you are pretty much setting the agenda, then the fact that it is all about you and that you, within CILIP regulations, pretty much decide what it is about is actually, I think, an advantage. I do feel that chartership recognises that, although a Library MA is pretty much a gateway to a host of careers in library sectors, it does not teach you everything, the chartership application is about YOU and how you develop as an information professional in the workplace once you have left formal education. Different people have different ideas and attitudes towards chartership and whether it is necessary, a member of staff here who is senior to me does not even have it but I am pleased that I took the plunge and got it and am already thinking about how I can enhance my skills now so that I can be where I want to be in a couple of years time when I start to think about revalidation.
Graduate Traineeships: I do feel that the title of thing 10 is a bit misleading as it assumes that you can only be a librarian if you have done a graduate traineeship. Ankova states in her blog that she wishes she had done a graduate traineeship, even though she seems to have had a much more varied pre-professional career, covering quite a lot of library sectors and is going to do some work experience at the BBC as part of her MA ( I am most jealous). There are plenty of people who did not do graduate traineeships before they went on to do an MA and have not suffered for it. I certainly do not think that employers favour people who have done traineeships, I don't think having done a traineeship meant that I found a job any quicker, employers are looking for an all round experience and someone who has the passion to work in libraries.
That said, I do now have to confess that I was a Cambridge graduate trainee. I had actually worked as a library assistant at my local public library for the first year after I had graduated but was thinking I would like to work in academic libraries and wanted something which would give me a taster of it (a kind of try before you buy), it was never a conscious decision to do a traineeship, I just wanted to work in an academic library. I'm pleased that the CATALOG site is mentioned on the CPD 23 website (presumably whoever wrote it is a former/current trainee themselves). Graduate trainee schemes do offer a more structured programme of library experience, you get to go on visits to other libraries in different sectors, you get to meet a bunch of people who, like you, are interested in a career in libraries and can bounce ideas off each other. They can also be a lot of support when it comes to applying for MA courses, funding etc. Also, if there is a graduate trainee website, then there is also the chance to add web editing and HTML stuff to your C.V. The year we were trainees was the year after CATALOG had started, so it was exciting to be a part of it. The CATALOG site is also very good as a general reference tool for prospective librarians, even if you are not a graduate trainee as it has lots of useful information on working in various library sectors, the library school interview experience and a library timeline (which is very scary as I realise I have moved slightly further down it now), as well as information on the actual traineeships themselves and what they involve on a day to day basis. It also contains information on previous trainees and what they went on to next (this is reminding me that I need to probably email the current trainees and get them to update my details). Whenever I look upon my year in Cambridge now, it is with fondness for the experience's I had and the people I met.
Masters Degrees: From Cambridge, I then went on to the East Midlands and sunny Loughborough (the town that time forgot) to do my Masters degree, I actually like how one of my lecturers described it 'a first class university in the middle of nowhere' it is certainly a good place to go if you are wanting to do a Masters degree and are even more cash strapped than you were in your undergraduate days, as there are not too many monetary temptations. I actually went to Loughborough by accident, Sheffield had been my number one choice when I was a trainee but I felt that I should have a second, standby choice. Once I started to look at Loughborough's prospectus however, it started to look like a more attractive proposition. Sheffield seemed to have a slight, public library bias, UCL, a more academic library one. I was leaning slightly towards the academic library but could not afford to live in London and go to UCL, but Loughborough seemed to offer a course that combined the best of both worlds. I ended up having my interview for Loughborough on the Wednesday and Sheffield was the following Monday (how different things could have been if they had been the other way around ?). I turned up at Loughborough on the Wednesday lunchtime after 4 hours and 3 trains from Cambridge and negotiating the massive campus (with about 20 sportsfields), I finally found the upside down pyramid which houses the Pilkington library and the Department of Information Studies at the top. After a quick talk from a couple of the lecturers and some current students (always good to get a student point of view whenever you are in this situation), it was on to my interview. This was fairly straightforward after making sure that I was under no illusions about my capacity to get AHRC funding (which I wasn't) and ensuring that I could still do the course without it, there were a couple of questions about why I had chosen Loughborough and why I wanted to work in libraries. After telling the interviewer that I had an interview for Sheffield the following Monday, he ended the interview by saying that he hoped my interview there went badly (presumably because he wanted me to go to Loughborough, thats my story and I'm sticking with it anyway) so I obviously had impressed him with my commitment to work in libraries. I didn't actually go to the Sheffield interview in the end as I felt that Loughborough was a close knit and friendly department and it would do for me. Suffice to say that Loughborough was another fantastic year, where I made some great friends and, although I was cash strapped, look on it now with fondness.
Chartership: this is the more recent of my activities, after just over 18 months of long hard work, I finally passed chartership on August 13th of last year. Chartership was always a subject that came up but, whilst I was still a trainee, then a Masters student, then looking for work, it always seemed such a long way off. Finally after landing a job as a subject librarian at Winchester University and spending the first six months finding my feet, I decided to register to charter. I found chartership hard to get used to to start with, the fact that it is not a structured programme like an MA or a training course can make it hard to stick to if you are not very disciplined. I was lucky in that I had a firm mentor who would regularly check up on me and make sure I was doing what I was supposed to, I don't want to say too much at this point, as I want to save it for Thing 11 but it did help a lot. Once you get over the fact that you are pretty much setting the agenda, then the fact that it is all about you and that you, within CILIP regulations, pretty much decide what it is about is actually, I think, an advantage. I do feel that chartership recognises that, although a Library MA is pretty much a gateway to a host of careers in library sectors, it does not teach you everything, the chartership application is about YOU and how you develop as an information professional in the workplace once you have left formal education. Different people have different ideas and attitudes towards chartership and whether it is necessary, a member of staff here who is senior to me does not even have it but I am pleased that I took the plunge and got it and am already thinking about how I can enhance my skills now so that I can be where I want to be in a couple of years time when I start to think about revalidation.
Wednesday 27 July 2011
23 things for professional development: Thing 9
Evernote: I have decided not to look into Evernote, on looking at how it works, I just don't feel that it is something I would use in my current position. I spend so much of my job telling students not to get information from the web, to use our own resources. I can see how people who had to maybe provide a current awareness service or something similar would use it though.
Tuesday 26 July 2011
Thing 8: Google Calendar
I have to say, I don't really think I am going to be using Google Calendar that much as I have an Outlook one at work that I use. I also have access to an Outlook calendar for the library enquiries desk which sits along side my one where you can enter if you are going to be busy and, therefore, not able to sit on the desk. I do like the idea of the Google calendar giving you a map if you are going to somewhere you have never been before. So may use it if I am ever going to somewhere for the first time. I also like the fact that Google Calendar can be added to my iGoogle page. I think Google Calendar would be good for a workplace that did not have Outlook calendars or similar as you can get multiple users on a calendar but I don't think I will use it that much as I already have something similar.
One thing that Google calendar may be helpful for is home, we used to have a paper calendar at our old flat, which was very useful for when I had to remind my boyfriend that I had to work late or had a meeting or a course to attend and he had to get his own dinner (or ready meal). So, if I can get our calendars to link up, then this would be good.
One thing that Google calendar may be helpful for is home, we used to have a paper calendar at our old flat, which was very useful for when I had to remind my boyfriend that I had to work late or had a meeting or a course to attend and he had to get his own dinner (or ready meal). So, if I can get our calendars to link up, then this would be good.
Friday 22 July 2011
Thing 7: Face to face networks and professional organizations
Ok, this is the moment I have been waiting for, the chance to present my pitch for involvement in professional organizations.
Let's start at the beginning, I joined the mighty CILIP way back in 2004, when I was a very naive and green graduate trainee and did not have the first idea about working in libraries, I certainly had not amassed the huge amount of knowledge that I have now (ha ha). I trundled along, through my graduate traineeship, through my MA, through a year of working as a relief library assistant whilst I applied for jobs and through 3 months as a School Librarian, all the time holding onto my CILIP membership almost as a Talisman in that I would, one day, get the job that I craved. In February 2008, this came to me in the form of my present job, Arts Liaison Librarian at the University of Winchester. I started my job, eager to learn and with a vague notion that I would, at some point, get more involved with CILIP.
In December 2008, this opportunity came to me as, one of the former librarians from my workplace who just happened to be in touch with the person who had got her job asked if we would like to join our local CILIP committee as she was a member. I feel I should take a brief interlude from my narrative at this point to stress that, although this is how things turned out for me and it was quite nice to trot along to my first committee meeting as one of a pair of 'new girls' you should not feel as if you have to wait until someone you know joins a committee just so that you can go with them and have safety in numbers. If there is a committee that you want to get involved with, then get in touch and find out how you can help and go along. Although I joined this committee as a pair, there have been previous committee's that I have joined as a lone person, I have found it quite exhilerating (I think it is for me, the equivalent of mental bungee jumping) and, more importantly, I have never looked back.
So, fast forward to 2011 and here I am, with 2 1/2 years experience of involvement in a CILIP committee under my belt, having also held the positions of both secretary and treasurer and having organised my very own trip to The Great Hall and the Cathedral Library in Winchester. I cannot emphasise enough how enjoyable it is to be part of a committee, you get to meet lots of people, make new networks which, particularly if you are like me and are new to the area are good to have and your confidence grows enormously. Plus, if there is an event or training session that you would like to do and that you feel would benefit other librarians, then you can just organise it yourself.
I find it very rewarding to be part of my local CILIP committee and very proud to think that we are organising local events for local networks who aren't always available to go to London for an event. There are various plans underfoot at the moment at CILIP and the future of Special Interest Groups and Branches is not stable, I for one would hate to see branches go and, if they are merged with SIG's, I do hope that they manage to maintain some sort of regional identity.
Let's start at the beginning, I joined the mighty CILIP way back in 2004, when I was a very naive and green graduate trainee and did not have the first idea about working in libraries, I certainly had not amassed the huge amount of knowledge that I have now (ha ha). I trundled along, through my graduate traineeship, through my MA, through a year of working as a relief library assistant whilst I applied for jobs and through 3 months as a School Librarian, all the time holding onto my CILIP membership almost as a Talisman in that I would, one day, get the job that I craved. In February 2008, this came to me in the form of my present job, Arts Liaison Librarian at the University of Winchester. I started my job, eager to learn and with a vague notion that I would, at some point, get more involved with CILIP.
In December 2008, this opportunity came to me as, one of the former librarians from my workplace who just happened to be in touch with the person who had got her job asked if we would like to join our local CILIP committee as she was a member. I feel I should take a brief interlude from my narrative at this point to stress that, although this is how things turned out for me and it was quite nice to trot along to my first committee meeting as one of a pair of 'new girls' you should not feel as if you have to wait until someone you know joins a committee just so that you can go with them and have safety in numbers. If there is a committee that you want to get involved with, then get in touch and find out how you can help and go along. Although I joined this committee as a pair, there have been previous committee's that I have joined as a lone person, I have found it quite exhilerating (I think it is for me, the equivalent of mental bungee jumping) and, more importantly, I have never looked back.
So, fast forward to 2011 and here I am, with 2 1/2 years experience of involvement in a CILIP committee under my belt, having also held the positions of both secretary and treasurer and having organised my very own trip to The Great Hall and the Cathedral Library in Winchester. I cannot emphasise enough how enjoyable it is to be part of a committee, you get to meet lots of people, make new networks which, particularly if you are like me and are new to the area are good to have and your confidence grows enormously. Plus, if there is an event or training session that you would like to do and that you feel would benefit other librarians, then you can just organise it yourself.
I find it very rewarding to be part of my local CILIP committee and very proud to think that we are organising local events for local networks who aren't always available to go to London for an event. There are various plans underfoot at the moment at CILIP and the future of Special Interest Groups and Branches is not stable, I for one would hate to see branches go and, if they are merged with SIG's, I do hope that they manage to maintain some sort of regional identity.
Thursday 21 July 2011
Thing 6: Online networks
Ok, so Things 6 is online networks and we are looking at Linked in, Facebook, LISPN, Librarians as Teachers and CILIP communities. This is probably going to be a bit sporadic and not in order as I am going to have to sandwich it into other work as well as dealing with all of the stressed out students who have just realised that, if they don't return their library books/pay their library fines, they will not get their spangly new degree certificates.
Facebook is easy, I'm already on it, so I use it a lot, although I would say probably more for personal use than professional.
LISPN, this is something I signed up to ages ago but haven't been on for a while, someone on one of the other blogs mentioned how it can get a bit out of hand if you are signed up to too many forums also, as LISPN does not have an RSS feed (unless I have missed it) it is going to be harder to keep up if I have to log in every time rather than checking my Google Reader. Whilst looking at the recent posts, it would appear that it is more relevant to people about to study or currently studying for their Master's or trainees. So, probably something that I would have found more relevant when I myself was a trainee or studying, but I will try and start to keep an eye on it.
CILIP Communities: I have just had a look at this, I'm glad to see the upper echelons of CILIP management are blogging on there (Annie Mauger, Biddy Fisher) as well as the ever jovial Michael Martin, blogging about his marathon exploits as well as various CPD issues. Also, some of the branches have blogs including my very own Hants and Wight as well as Special Interest Groups. The forums page is good, encouraging discussion about hot topics, the networks page also good although it was a little sparse on the topics, this may be a section where information shared at Teachmeets would be helpful, particularly for those people who are unable to attend in person. The media section also looks like it could be some use, as presentations, photo's etc are posted on there. I know from experience when you go to a training event or presentation that it is helpful to be able to refer back to the presentation at a later time and not spend the whole time the person is speaking writing down notes furiously and listening instead. The only criticism I would have of CILIP communities is that it is maybe under represented and could be used more. I'm not sure whether I would use it much as it is another thing to check and I would have to remember to go into it.
Librarians as Teachers: I have just signed up to this, it must be linked to LISPN somehow as my profile from there automatically loaded up. Some of the topics do look quite interesting, there is an interesting post, actually put on there from someone I know about whether running teaching sessions should be part of Librarianship courses. It is a bit disinheatening to see that the last post was put on in November, so possibly this is a tool which isn't used much. Although one thing that is springing up now are teachmeets, so this would be a good way of promoting these. I probably will check in to this now and again, although the fact that it is another network that you have to sign into does put me off rather.
LinkedIn: I have just signed up to this, I guess it is the sort of thing that would be handy if you were job hunting although I would not like to solely rely on it. Also, it means something else to check and I'm just not convinced that employers, certainly at Assistant Librarian level, would be checking it for headhunting. The American slant to it also slightly puts me off, although lots of material on the web is like that. I can see how, if you annotate your job history well enough, you could use it as a reflection tool on past positions if you needed to.
Right now to Thing 7.......
Facebook is easy, I'm already on it, so I use it a lot, although I would say probably more for personal use than professional.
LISPN, this is something I signed up to ages ago but haven't been on for a while, someone on one of the other blogs mentioned how it can get a bit out of hand if you are signed up to too many forums also, as LISPN does not have an RSS feed (unless I have missed it) it is going to be harder to keep up if I have to log in every time rather than checking my Google Reader. Whilst looking at the recent posts, it would appear that it is more relevant to people about to study or currently studying for their Master's or trainees. So, probably something that I would have found more relevant when I myself was a trainee or studying, but I will try and start to keep an eye on it.
CILIP Communities: I have just had a look at this, I'm glad to see the upper echelons of CILIP management are blogging on there (Annie Mauger, Biddy Fisher) as well as the ever jovial Michael Martin, blogging about his marathon exploits as well as various CPD issues. Also, some of the branches have blogs including my very own Hants and Wight as well as Special Interest Groups. The forums page is good, encouraging discussion about hot topics, the networks page also good although it was a little sparse on the topics, this may be a section where information shared at Teachmeets would be helpful, particularly for those people who are unable to attend in person. The media section also looks like it could be some use, as presentations, photo's etc are posted on there. I know from experience when you go to a training event or presentation that it is helpful to be able to refer back to the presentation at a later time and not spend the whole time the person is speaking writing down notes furiously and listening instead. The only criticism I would have of CILIP communities is that it is maybe under represented and could be used more. I'm not sure whether I would use it much as it is another thing to check and I would have to remember to go into it.
Librarians as Teachers: I have just signed up to this, it must be linked to LISPN somehow as my profile from there automatically loaded up. Some of the topics do look quite interesting, there is an interesting post, actually put on there from someone I know about whether running teaching sessions should be part of Librarianship courses. It is a bit disinheatening to see that the last post was put on in November, so possibly this is a tool which isn't used much. Although one thing that is springing up now are teachmeets, so this would be a good way of promoting these. I probably will check in to this now and again, although the fact that it is another network that you have to sign into does put me off rather.
LinkedIn: I have just signed up to this, I guess it is the sort of thing that would be handy if you were job hunting although I would not like to solely rely on it. Also, it means something else to check and I'm just not convinced that employers, certainly at Assistant Librarian level, would be checking it for headhunting. The American slant to it also slightly puts me off, although lots of material on the web is like that. I can see how, if you annotate your job history well enough, you could use it as a reflection tool on past positions if you needed to.
Right now to Thing 7.......
Friday 1 July 2011
Thing 3
Ok, so thing 3 is all about your online brand, I guess, if I'm honest, this is something I have never thought of before, I kind of just signed up to Facebook, Twitter etc without actually thinking about 'my brand' as such. My name on Facebook is Charmian Oldman, as I use it for half personal and half work related reasons whereas, my name on Twitter is Librarian _1, I can't really remember my original reason for picking this, it may have been due to the fact that Twitter is slightly less secure than Facebook, as anyone can follow you and I didn't want them to know my name. I have heard all sorts of horror stories about Facebook, people leaving their telephone numbers on there etc.
Photo: I don't have a photo of myself on Twitter or on Facebook, like a lot of people I hate having my photo taken but maybe this is something I need to remedy, on Facebook I usually have a photo from the most recent holiday I went on (although I have just realised that my current photo is from the NYC 10 collection and not the San Francisco 11). I possibly need to take a photo to put on there as I have recently had about 10 yards of hair chopped off and look slightly different now.
Personal V Professional: The main area where Personal and Professional clash I would say is Facebook, Twitter: I don't really use that much, just to keep up with professional stuff rather than tweeting, this newly created blog could be used for professional stuff, although I have read blogs where people have put more personal posts on. I think this is a good idea, as it makes the author seem more human and that they do have a life outside of the library world. Facebook is where the Professional and Personal meet in the middle. I have friends on there, but also libraries who have Facebook pages, as they came in useful when I was organising a Facebook page for where I currently work. Also, some of my friends are ex and current colleagues when I was working in libraries, so we tend to share Library stuff about (although this probably looks very geeky to my non-librarian friends). I also, just to confuse the issue, have a childhood friend, who I then lost touch with for about 25 years, only to find when we did reconnect, that she was also a librarian and had done her Library MA at the same place as I did. I do hear people talk a lot about the 'echo chamber' and how to get out of it, maybe one way would be to merge the personal and professional a bit more in online networks ? (This is very deep for a friday afternoon).
My Visual Brand: Twitter: I just have a stock, purple background, mainly because I feel that the way Twitter is set out, it can look a bit busy if you have too much detail in the background. My blog has a Green/Blue garden feel to it, I suppose subconciously (again, a big word for a friday afternoon), I picked it because it made me feel very chilled out and relaxed and that is how I would like to appear to people (I can hear laughter from my work colleagues as they read this). I think, even if you don't mean to, the backdrop for a blog can reveal a lot about a person's personality, even if they are picking a stock one from a selection of templates.
Ok, so now to Google myself, the whole of the first page is about me. The first five are a mixture of Twitter, Facebook and the book forum that we run at work. Then there are a couple of old electoral roll entries, some of the pages from the library website (which should have been changed ages ago), something which has me down as Medieval British Literature teacher in Winchester, which turned out to be an information literacy tool I joined ages ago and a reply to someone else's blog. I guess this is where having an unusual name comes in really handy, you get more exact results on a Google search. If I put in Librarian also, then again I get the first few hits, I guess this must mean that I am managing my online brand effectively. Although, I was very surprised to see that I am not the only Charmian doing CPD23. If I take my surname and the word librarian out, then I do not appear for at least the first five pages, so not sure whether this is a good or bad thing as people would have to know my full name and the fact that I was a librarian (although, if we are talking about professional networks, then they should know that anyway) and I realise that, if I had not been a librarian, then it would have been my name destiny to have either been a lecturer, designed jewellery, Jack London's second wife or played Liesel in The Sound of Music.
I will try and keep up with Thing 4 but am away next week, so we shall have to see.
Photo: I don't have a photo of myself on Twitter or on Facebook, like a lot of people I hate having my photo taken but maybe this is something I need to remedy, on Facebook I usually have a photo from the most recent holiday I went on (although I have just realised that my current photo is from the NYC 10 collection and not the San Francisco 11). I possibly need to take a photo to put on there as I have recently had about 10 yards of hair chopped off and look slightly different now.
Personal V Professional: The main area where Personal and Professional clash I would say is Facebook, Twitter: I don't really use that much, just to keep up with professional stuff rather than tweeting, this newly created blog could be used for professional stuff, although I have read blogs where people have put more personal posts on. I think this is a good idea, as it makes the author seem more human and that they do have a life outside of the library world. Facebook is where the Professional and Personal meet in the middle. I have friends on there, but also libraries who have Facebook pages, as they came in useful when I was organising a Facebook page for where I currently work. Also, some of my friends are ex and current colleagues when I was working in libraries, so we tend to share Library stuff about (although this probably looks very geeky to my non-librarian friends). I also, just to confuse the issue, have a childhood friend, who I then lost touch with for about 25 years, only to find when we did reconnect, that she was also a librarian and had done her Library MA at the same place as I did. I do hear people talk a lot about the 'echo chamber' and how to get out of it, maybe one way would be to merge the personal and professional a bit more in online networks ? (This is very deep for a friday afternoon).
My Visual Brand: Twitter: I just have a stock, purple background, mainly because I feel that the way Twitter is set out, it can look a bit busy if you have too much detail in the background. My blog has a Green/Blue garden feel to it, I suppose subconciously (again, a big word for a friday afternoon), I picked it because it made me feel very chilled out and relaxed and that is how I would like to appear to people (I can hear laughter from my work colleagues as they read this). I think, even if you don't mean to, the backdrop for a blog can reveal a lot about a person's personality, even if they are picking a stock one from a selection of templates.
Ok, so now to Google myself, the whole of the first page is about me. The first five are a mixture of Twitter, Facebook and the book forum that we run at work. Then there are a couple of old electoral roll entries, some of the pages from the library website (which should have been changed ages ago), something which has me down as Medieval British Literature teacher in Winchester, which turned out to be an information literacy tool I joined ages ago and a reply to someone else's blog. I guess this is where having an unusual name comes in really handy, you get more exact results on a Google search. If I put in Librarian also, then again I get the first few hits, I guess this must mean that I am managing my online brand effectively. Although, I was very surprised to see that I am not the only Charmian doing CPD23. If I take my surname and the word librarian out, then I do not appear for at least the first five pages, so not sure whether this is a good or bad thing as people would have to know my full name and the fact that I was a librarian (although, if we are talking about professional networks, then they should know that anyway) and I realise that, if I had not been a librarian, then it would have been my name destiny to have either been a lecturer, designed jewellery, Jack London's second wife or played Liesel in The Sound of Music.
I will try and keep up with Thing 4 but am away next week, so we shall have to see.
Wednesday 22 June 2011
23 things for professional development
Ok, so I am going to take part in 23 things for professional development and I'm going to write a short post on why.
I guess, after 3 1/2 years in my dream job now, I am starting to feel a bit like I have lost my way and want to get my enthusiasm back. I gained chartership status in August last year and, although it was lovely to finally get it, it has left me feeling a bit 'what next' about my career. Also, I have just finished a nine month secondment as a Deputy Librarian, which again was brilliant, I met loads of new people and learned lots of new skills but, nine months on, I am now back to the job I left in September last year and trying to find some new challenges, enter, stage right, '23 things for professional development'. This will hopefully give me new ideas for ways of working in my career and give me some new contacts.
I guess, after 3 1/2 years in my dream job now, I am starting to feel a bit like I have lost my way and want to get my enthusiasm back. I gained chartership status in August last year and, although it was lovely to finally get it, it has left me feeling a bit 'what next' about my career. Also, I have just finished a nine month secondment as a Deputy Librarian, which again was brilliant, I met loads of new people and learned lots of new skills but, nine months on, I am now back to the job I left in September last year and trying to find some new challenges, enter, stage right, '23 things for professional development'. This will hopefully give me new ideas for ways of working in my career and give me some new contacts.
Hello
Hello, this is the first post from my new blog so I thought I would introduce myself, my name is Charmian and I am currently the Assistant Librarian for Arts, Business and Sport at the University of Winchester in the United Kingdom. I have been here for three and a half years now and have just finished a nine month secondment from my job whilst I was covering for the Deputy Librarian and dipping my toe into the muddy waters of management. I qualified in 2006 and gained chartered librarian status in 2010.
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