Palely Loitering

Library Day in the Life - Round 8

2012-02-05T16:28:00.000Z

I’ve decided to participate in Library Day in the Life Round 8. This is the first time I’ve taken part in my current role – last summer I was on holiday during the week allocated. I did take part this time last year, however, when I was working at Northumbria University on a temporary basis as a Senior Information Assistant. It’s hard to believe I’ve been in my current post for almost a year!

I work for an HE establishment which provides (mostly) postgraduate legal education. My role involves helping to manage courses on the VLE (we use Blackboard). Officially my job title is Team Member (Delivery Team) but considering that this means nothing to anyone outside the organisation, I tend to use the unofficial title Information Officer outside of work.

My job doesn't change all that much from day to day, so instead of writing about each day individually, I decided to write about a 'typical day'.

I normally get in just before 9 and have breakfast and a cup of tea while waiting for the computer to boot up. I check my emails and then start on the day's work. At the moment my colleagues and I are engaged in building a number of courses on the VLE system which are due to become available to students in a couple of weeks. This involves checking we have received all of the course materials from the designers, uploading the materials and linking to them from the course itself, checking all links are correct, all audiovisual resources are the right ones, and that everything is named properly and in the right place. Depending on the size of the course, it can take anything from a couple of hours to a day to finish building a particular course. At the moment I am working on LPC (Legal Practice Course) courses, but I have also built GDL (Graduate Diploma in Law) courses in the past, and am responsible for building the courses we run in conjunction with the Open University. There are a number of courses for each qualification - they are divided by stage of study, subject and/or mode of study. Many students attend either full or part-time, but many are distance learners and the resources we offer on the VLE are particularly valuable for them.

As well as building courses myself, I also QA (check) courses that others have built, and they do the same for me - sometimes it takes a new eye to see if there are any mistakes. When you're adding links to lots of different documents and resources it's fairly easy to make a mistake and it really helps to have someone else go through it - a bit like proofreading.

At lunchtime, I generally stay in but sometimes like to go out and go for a short walk. Working in central London means that there is a lot to see, and as I work round the corner from the giant Paperchase on Tottenham Court Road, lots to buy too! I try not to go in here too much as I have a bit of a stationery addiction. I try to go the other way, away from the shops, and was rewarded on one occasion by finding this:

I love London, because you can find pieces of history like this around just about every corner.

In the afternoon I might have a Helpdesk session. We deal with student and staff queries via email, which can be very varied. The enquirer could have trouble locating or downloading a document, or a member of staff could be asking us to upload documents for a forthcoming course. Some queries have to be forwarded to the IT Service Desk, Library or another department, if they are not queries that we can deal with. In previous jobs I've always dealt with users face to face, so it's been interesting learning to handle queries via email. In some ways it's easier, as I prefer explaining things via the written word, but in other ways it's more difficult - getting the tone right, for example, can be a bit tricky.

Later in the afternoon, when the Helpdesk gets a bit quieter, I get on with another task - testing the VLE upgrade. We are due to move to a new version of Blackboard in a few months and I have been trying out the test version of the new system, building a test course to see what's changed and checking out the functionality. I have to give a short presentation to my colleagues during our next team meeting which is quite nerve-wracking!

This is a typical day in my job - no two days are exactly alike but they all follow the same rough pattern. It's not the sort of role I envisaged doing while I was studying my Masters, but it's been an interesting and different kind of experience.

It seems learning to code is my New Year's resolution

2012-01-16T21:43:00.001Z

Unlike some others I hadn't made any specific professional resolutions for 2012. However I noticed that several people on Twitter were talking about something called Code Year. This is a programme run by Codecademy designed to teach people to code using Javascript. A lesson is emailed to you every Monday which you can then work through in your own time. The Twitter discussion can be followed using the #libcodeyear and #codeyear hashtags.

Not wanting to be left out, I signed up and have finished working through my first lesson. I'm proud to have completed it, but I'm not sure how much I actually learned. I worked through the instructions step-by-step with success, but I'm not sure if I could apply it in the real world. Still, this is only the first lesson and I want to reserve judgement for a while.

I wouldn't describe myself as a techie person and I'm not aiming to go down this route in my career. However I think it's important for librarians of any kind to keep up with technology as much as possible and the recent news relating to the idea of teaching secondary school pupils computer science shows how programming has become much more of a general skill than it was. I don't want to be left behind and feel that if school children are going to learn this stuff, the least I can do is try and keep up...

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-24T10:27:00.003Z

I got my 23 Things certificate about a week ago. I really enjoyed the programme and am grateful to the cpd23 team for all their hard work.

On that note, Merry Christmas!

Seven books that changed the way I see the world

2011-11-23T17:12:00.000Z

A while ago I read blog posts by Rachel Bickley and StEvelin on Seven books that changed the way I see the world, originally inspired by Bobbi Newman’s post on the same topic. Now that 23 Things is over, I’ve been thinking about what my own choices would be. It was a tough decision, but I’ve finally come to a conclusion.

The Story of Holly and Ivy – Rumer Godden

I first read this book when I was about five and found it on the bookshelf in my infant school. It made such an impact on me that I tried to track it down on Amazon twenty years later, having still remembered the story after all this time.

The book is about a lonely orphan girl called Holly and how she wishes for a grandmother to love her and a doll of her own. Put on the train to a children’s home one Christmas, she ends up in the little village of Appleton, where Christmas doll Holly waits in the window of the toy shop hoping for a little girl to love. Meanwhile, Mrs. Jones prepares for Christmas, all the time feeling that Christmas is a time for children and wishing that she had a little girl of her own.

This is a lovely story about Christmas, magic and wishing. It strongly influenced my view of Christmas and the sort of books I liked to read afterwards – books with a bit of magic in them, even if it’s implicit.

The Doll in the Garden – Mary Downing Hahn

I came across this book while I was in primary school. Though I absolutely adored reading as a child I wasn’t incredibly adventurous – I read a lot of Enid Blyton for example – but took this book out of my local library as part of the Summer Reading Challenge.

The story is about a young girl called Ashley whose father has recently died. She and her mother move into a house next door to a rather unpleasant old woman, Miss Cooper. While exploring the garden, Ashley and her new friend Kristi find a doll buried in the soil, along with an apology note. Following a ghostly white cat that appears in the garden, Ashley travels back in time to the early 1900s and finds the owner of the doll, a young girl called Louisa, who is seriously ill with consumption. Back in the present day, Ashley and Kristi discover that their neighbour Miss Cooper is the person who stole the doll all those years ago and have to try to persuade her to return the doll to Louisa, hoping that this will help her get better.

This book is excellent in the way it explores grief, jealousy and relationships, dealing with adult themes in a way children can relate to. It made me think about all of these things in a way I hadn’t before, and the memory of it stayed with me all these years. As with The Story of Holly and Ivy, I managed to track down The Doll in the Garden on Amazon recently and enjoyed re-reading it from an adult point of view.

Jane Eyre – Charlotte Brontë

This one’s probably a bit of a cliché but I first read this book when I was about eleven and really related to the heroine. I really admired Jane and tried to model myself on her. I think she is inspiring in the way she maintains her self-respect and determination even though she is completely alone in the world. I have to admit that I have never expected a Mr Rochester-like figure to turn up and carry me off, although I maintain that Edward Rochester could wipe the floor with Fitzwilliam Darcy.

His Dark Materials Trilogy – Philip Pullman

I first read this trilogy when I was about fifteen, around the time the final book, The Amber Spyglass, was released, and absolutely loved it. As well as telling a fantastic story, the books tackle important subjects like religion, philosophy, quantum physics and the nature of the soul. One part that made an enormous impression on me was the part towards the end where Will and Lyra end up in the world of the dead. I loved the idea that when you die the most important thing is to have a story to tell – about something you’ve done or something you’ve learned – to show that you’ve lived. This genuinely influenced my outlook on life.

I can also thank The Amber Spyglass in particular for my interest in poetry. At the beginning of each chapter there is a quote from a poem or play and I took great pleasure in tracking down the ones I didn’t recognise, which in turn led me to a greater exploration and understanding of poetry.

Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy

I absolutely love Thomas Hardy’s books, even though most people I know can’t stand him. In Jude the Obscure, the title character Jude Fawley faces a number of hardships including being unable to attend university owing to his working-class background, difficult relationships, and other tragedies I won’t go into in case I spoil the story for those who haven’t read it. Jude is my favourite of Hardy’s novels, though it’s also considered his most depressing. I think this is why I like it so much, although I’m not entirely sure if Hardy appeals to me because of my pessimistic nature or whether his books influenced my pessimism. In any case, I sometimes feel like I do have a bit of a fatalistic attitude to life which was probably shaped by his books, especially this one.

The Seagull – Anton Chekhov

The Seagull is a play not a book, but I’m including it anyway – I do actually have the text in book form, though I’ve also seen it performed three times. It is set on a Russian country estate and peopled with a rounded cast of characters. The younger characters have different ambitions and dreams. Konstantin wants to write plays, but his innovative work meets with bafflement. Nina wants to be an actress, but her family is opposed to the idea and she has to sneak out of the house in secret. The older characters have unfulfilled dreams and regrets of their own: Konstantin’s mother Irina is a fading actress, while Trigorin is a writer who is slightly scornful of his own middlebrow novels. Irina’s brother Sorin, meanwhile, spends much of the play lamenting the mistakes he made while young.

Love triangles and emotional undercurrents form the backbone of the play but it was the different reactions of the main characters to tragic events in their lives that really struck me. Konstantin and Nina in particular deal with things very differently and I found their actions and behaviour alternately saddening, inspiring and thought-provoking. I won’t say any more for the sake of those who haven’t read or seen the play, but it made me think about my own attitude to life and how I deal with things.

Antarctic Navigation – Elizabeth Arthur

I wasn’t sure whether to include this book or not, seeing as I only read it a few months ago. However I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since. I discovered it in a moment of serendipity – it caught my eye while I was browsing the shelves in my local library and I thought it looked interesting.

In short, Antarctic Navigation is about one woman’s mission to visit Antarctica and trek to the South Pole. However it is so much more than that. Covering the first thirty or so years of the heroine Morgan Lamont’s life, it is a kind of Bildungsroman in the tradition of the great Victorian novels. You learn about her childhood, the beginning of her interest in Antarctica, and her obsession with Robert Scott which eventually prompts her to try and recreate his doomed 1912 expedition. The descriptions of the harsh Antarctic landscape are vivid and the history and science of the area are woven into the story in a fascinating way. The story has quite a modern sensibility as it carries the awareness that the continent is under threat due to human activity and the fragility of nature. Antarctica itself also becomes a kind of symbol for the unknown, and the book’s title is a kind of metaphor for exploration both externally and inside of you – this is much more beautifully done in the book than my clumsy explanation suggests.

It’s a sign of a good book when you don’t want it to end and feel bereft when you close it for the last time – particularly when the book is eight hundred pages long. Before reading this novel, I had a passing albeit largely unexplored interest in Antarctica. Now, I have a wishlist of books about the place and really want to learn more.

These books are among my favourites, but I do have other favourite books which I wouldn’t necessarily put on this list. It’s interesting that I read four out of the seven while I was a child – I wonder if you are less likely to have your viewpoint challenged or shaped as an adult. Do we lose the capacity to be strongly influenced by literature as we get older?

Thing 23 - Reflection - What next?

2011-10-16T18:17:00.002+01:00

I've finished!

I'm sorry the 23 Things programme has come to an end: I've really enjoyed completing it. I think the best thing about it was being able to engage with other librarians and information professionals. I hope people carry on blogging, and don't give up now that the programme is over!

I completed a SWOT analysis which I found very useful. I've just found out that my job has been extended to next autumn (it was originally due to end in February) which has given me a bit more breathing space as I figure out where to go from here.

Thing 22 – Volunteering to get experience

2011-10-05T13:44:00.000+01:00

Volunteering has always been a controversial topic, but my own experience has been very positive. Before deciding on a career in librarianship I completed the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, which requires a voluntary placement, and at university I volunteered in the Marketing department of York Theatre Royal. Therefore I already understood how volunteering can develop your skills and allow you to experience areas of work you wouldn’t otherwise have a chance to.

When I decided to become a librarian, I worked full-time at my local council for a year and decided to try and get some library experience to support my graduate traineeship applications. I wrote to several libraries in the North East, ending up with a two-week work placement in the library of Beamish Museum, County Durham, and I was able to spend a few hours every other Saturday helping out at Chester-le-Street Library, also in Durham. Through these very different placements, I was able to gain experience cataloguing library and archival materials, conducting research for other members of staff in the museum, and assisting library users. Not only did these experiences confirm that librarianship was the right career path for me, I am certain that they assisted greatly when it came to applying for graduate traineeships, and helped me get the position at St John’s.

Beamish Museum - Thanks to Calotype46 on Flickr for the image

I was able to continue working full-time while undertaking these placements, as I used two weeks of annual leave to spend time at Beamish and my full-time job didn’t involve Saturday work. This was perfect as I certainly couldn’t afford not to work full-time. I suspect many people are in the same position. I did undertake further voluntary placements where time allowed: I spent a week at the North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers in Newcastle immediately after my graduate traineeship finished, and some time during my MA assisting in the archives of Sheffield Cathedral.

Overall, I think that a certain amount of volunteering is a Good Thing. It proves that you are committed to the profession and gives you a chance to gain experience and develop skills you might not be able to otherwise. However I would hate to see librarianship turn into the preserve of the wealthy or those with the right connections, who can afford to work for months without pay. I agree with Jo that volunteering should be mutually beneficial, and a complement to paid staff rather than a substitute for them. This has been the case in my experience, but with the Government’s calls for volunteers to run libraries, it is likely to become an issue in the future. While volunteering is a great way for potential librarians to develop their experience, if the profession is devalued through the excessive use of volunteers to make up for a lack of paid staff, there won’t be any jobs for these potential librarians to work up to (of course there are many other issues with using volunteers in place of paid staff in libraries, but this is the most relevant to this Thing).

If anyone reading this is thinking about trying to volunteer in libraries to gain experience, I recommend writing to as many libraries as you can. I wrote to lots of libraries in my area; most didn’t reply, and a few replied thanking me for my interest but stating that volunteer opportunities were unfortunately not offered. Only two said yes. Write to the most high-up person you can find: when I was writing to councils I directed my requests to the Head of Libraries where possible. I used both emails and traditional letters depending on the contact details available. I preferred to write a letter, as I feel it creates a good impression when you’ve gone to the effort of typing, printing out and posting a letter. This is just me though – others may prefer email as it shows you are capable of using technology.

Recently I’ve been involved in volunteering of a different kind – I’ve joined the committee of the Career Development Group in London. Hopefully I will be able to develop my skills further and get to know other librarians and information professionals in the process.

Thing 21 – Promoting yourself in job applications and at interview

2011-10-04T14:07:00.000+01:00

Part 1: Identifying your strengths; capitalising on your interests

I think identifying your strengths, thinking long and hard about what you like and dislike, and thinking about what skills your interests have developed is a useful exercise and I would like to take some time to do this. I’m not entirely comfortable with the idea of posting my thoughts here on a public blog, but I will certainly look into it in my own time.

Part 2: Applying for a job

I’m quite proud that, as a Very Organised Person (or else a person who once had far too much time on her hands), I already have a kind of CV database similar to the one Maria Giovanna describes which list everything I’ve done that could potentially go on a CV or an application form. It’s saved me hours of time over the years, as I can just copy and paste onto an application form. Of course I make changes afterwards, to tailor the form to the job, but this is a lot easier than starting from scratch each time. I also have another document listing contact details for all my referees, which is a lot easier than having to Google your last workplace each time you need to find the telephone number for your old boss.

Part 3: Interviews

I’ve had mixed experiences with interviews. When I was applying for graduate traineeships I was offered the second job I interviewed for, which was a surprise as I’d mentally prepared myself for months of rejection. On the other hand, when I graduated last year it took me six months and seven interviews before I got a job, whereas most of the librarians I know were offered jobs after one or two interviews (even if they found it hard to get those interviews in the first place). I must have been doing something wrong, but I was also confused. During my traineeship I was told that I’d come across as confident and knowledgeable in my interview, and as far as I could work out I was behaving in exactly the same way last year. However, this can’t have been the case: my interview record speaks for itself, and I was actively told by one interviewer in her feedback that I’d come across as very shy.

I was talking about this with a (non-librarian) friend a few weeks ago and she gave me a very useful piece of advice: basically, “It’s not you, it’s them”. She said that she had been interviewed for several jobs and been told by some interviewers that she was too shy and quiet, and by others that she was very confident. It’s all to do with how different people perceive you, and if you don’t fit with what they are looking for, or they don’t ‘get’ you, do you really want to be working for them? It’s probably better to find out earlier rather than later if you and a potential employer aren’t right for each other. This made me feel a bit better about the whole situation.

Dickens Journals Online - the online text correction project

2011-09-30T14:03:00.000+01:00

I would like to interrupt my regular 23 Things blogging to talk about something else I’ve been involved in recently. Not long ago I found out about Dickens Journals Online, a project which aims to make Charles Dickens’ journals including Household Words and All the Year Round publicly accessible online. The site is due to be launched in March 2012 as part of the Dickens Bicentenary celebrations. This Guardian article explains more.

In order to make the journals available online, the journal pages have been scanned as image files, and optical character recognition software has been used to convert these pages into text files. However, this software isn’t 100% accurate and paper smudges, tears and unclear text mean that the text files do contain errors.

The team at DJO requested that members of the public offer their help to make these magazines accessible. I can’t remember where I originally heard about the project, but I thought it was a great idea and signed up. You simply select an uncorrected magazine and, using the scanned page as a guide, edit the text file to remove all errors. The work would suit someone with a pedantic nature and an eye for detail, as well as anyone with an interest in the Victorian era.

If it sounds like something you’d be interested in, you can find out more and sign up on the website. You can also follow DJO on Twitter or Facebook.

Thing 20 – The Library Routes Project

2011-09-29T08:44:00.000+01:00

A nice straightforward Thing this time. I’ve already blogged my Library Roots/Routes and added it to the wiki, so I had a look at some of the other entries and came to the conclusion that my route into the profession was fairly typical. I didn’t know I wanted to be a librarian when I was younger, in fact I didn’t know what I wanted to do at all; I studied a humanities degree, panicked when it ended, and ended up choosing librarianship after doing a bit of research and realising it was perfect for me.

I don’t really have any advice as such, but I would like to say that I’m glad I didn’t know what I wanted to do when I was younger. Because I didn’t know, I ended up trying out a lot of different things, such as writing for the uni paper, marketing, EFL teaching and general customer service work, not to mention the skills and knowledge I developed during my History degree. I believe that all these skills and experiences have made me a better information professional, and I’ve gained a more rounded outlook than I might have done if I’d gone straight to university to study a BA in Librarianship when I was eighteen.

I’ve taken part in the Library Day in the Life project in the past, and posted the entry on my blog. I couldn’t take part last time as I was on holiday, but would like to next time if I can, particularly as I haven’t taken part yet while in my current job.

Thing 19 – Catch up week on integrating ‘Things’

2011-09-20T09:04:00.000+01:00

I can’t believe how quickly 23 Things is going. It only seems two minutes ago that I was reflecting as part of the last catch up week. Inspired by what some other bloggers have done, I would like to choose a Top 5 Things that I think have been, or will be, most useful to me.

Image courtesy of Swami Stream on Flickr

1. Thing 9 – Evernote

As I mentioned in my original post, I had tried Evernote previously and hadn’t figured out a way to use it effectively. I’m so glad it was covered in 23 Things because I use it constantly now and wouldn’t be without it. I use it for professional things, such as writing my cpd23 posts and saving a copy of each Thing’s page for future reference. I also use it for personal things: recipes, quick notes, To Do lists, books to read, films to watch, my Christmas list (yes, I know it’s still September!)… I love it!

2. Thing 18 – Jing / screen capture / podcasts

Many of the tools covered in 23 Things have been useful for my professional life in general, but Thing 18 looks as though it would be incredibly useful for my actual job. In particular, Jing and other forms of screen capture would be so handy for directing students to the right place on the VLE without actually being there in person.

3. Thing 13 – Google Docs, Wikis and Dropbox

Though I had used Google Docs before, I feel I am much more aware of what this tool offers in the way of collaboration. I had never used Dropbox at all, but now I make use of it constantly. Looking at Wikis in a bit more detail has given me the confidence to examine them more closely should I need to in the future.

4. Thing 16 – Advocacy

In the past, the concept of advocacy has sometimes made me a bit nervous. However, this Thing has made me feel more positive about the idea. After the programme has finished I’d like to have a think about how I can advocate for libraries in a way that fits in with my personality and my life.

5. Thing 2 – Exploring other blogs

I decided when the programme started that I was going to make a real effort to keep up to date with other blogs, rather than just writing my own posts and ignoring what everyone else was doing. By and large I’ve been successful, and I’ve enjoyed the chance to see what other people think.

In addition to the above, 23 Things has helped me to clarify the way I use and feel about some of the tools I already use, such as Twitter, RSS feeds, reflective practice and online networks, which has been useful.

Thing 18 - Jing/screen capture/podcasts

2011-09-12T14:10:00.000+01:00

I didn't have any previous experience with screen capture or podcast tools so it was interesting to explore them for this Thing.

1. Jing
I got very excited trying out Jing because I can see that it would be really useful in my job. We get a lot of requests from users, particularly at this time of year, asking how to access particular documents, and it's often easier to send a screenshot rather than rely on a written explanation (we only deal with queries via email). Normally we make screenshots by using the Print Screen button, pasting the resulting image into Word and cropping it, but Jing would be so much more straightforward to use. I found it simple to download and incredibly easy to use. Here's a screenshot I created showing how to get to the Theatre Royal Haymarket from Piccadilly Circus Station, in preparation for my visit this Thursday to see The Tempest (starring Ralph Fiennes!).

The wonders of Google Maps

I also made a brief video, showing how I used Google to search for the map and find directions, which was also incredibly easy. I can see lots of potential in Jing - videos on our VLE homepage explaining how to access particular things could be really useful.

I can see myself using Jing for personal purposes too. The download sits unobtrusively on my computer and I can get rid of it if I need to.

I also had a quick look at Camtasia and saved the link for future reference.

2. Podcasting
Podcasting also seems like a really useful tool, especially to appeal to those students who prefer to learn through listening. My workplace makes podcasts available on the VLE for students to use but I am not involved in their creation. They are created by the Media department who record the i-Tutorials (used instead of lectures at the college) and convert the sound files from these into podcasts. They are ideal as many students here are part-time or distance learners and podcasts offer a lot of flexibility. I bookmarked the Podwhating? link for future reference in case I ever need to make a podcast.

I don't listen to podcasts myself - I'm a very visual person and much prefer to read or watch something. If I'm only listening to something I tend to forget that it's there and end up concentrating on something else instead (this happens a lot when I'm listening to music too!). However it's important to remember that everyone learns differently and some people will respond well to this kind of learning.

Thing 17 - Prezi and Slideshare

2011-09-08T18:02:00.015+01:00

Prezi

I’d heard of Prezi, but I hadn’t explored it for myself, so I was interested to see what it was all about. I watched the presentations suggested in the Thing 17 blog post, and I can see that it could be very useful for presenting ideas in a non-linear fashion. However, I have some reservations. All the zooming in and out and moving around made me feel a bit sick, and I would worry that the bright colours and snazzy graphics of the presentation might overshadow any actual content. Also, just because Prezi looks impressive, it doesn’t mean it is the best medium for all content. Some information might be better presented this way, but some might still work best when displayed in a linear fashion. I won’t abandon PowerPoint just yet.

I had a look around some other cpd23 blogs and saw that several participants have had a go at making their own Prezis. I was particularly impressed by Infopromom's Prezi resume and Annie Johnson's adventures in Dublin. I was temporarily inspired to create my own presentation based on a recent holiday to Iceland, but I actually found Prezi quite difficult to use and didn’t want to spend hours on it for no real purpose. I don’t create presentations as part of my job, so this software isn’t necessary to me just yet. If I ever do need to create a presentation for whatever reason, I might go back to it and give it another try.

Slideshare

Again, I’d heard of Slideshare and in the past I’ve used it to view presentations from conferences. I’ll continue to do this as it’s very handy to be able to view these all in one place. I’ve never uploaded anything to Slideshare, and I don’t suppose I will until I am called on to create a presentation for work or some other career-related reason, but it’s good to know I have the option.

I’m not keen on the idea of posting a CV up here. I’d rather stick to the standard Word format in all honesty, and only send it to the people I want to see it – not stick it on Slideshare for all to see!

Thing 16 – Advocacy, speaking up for the profession and getting published

2011-09-06T13:27:00.000+01:00

As far as advocacy goes, I agree that it’s very important for those in the profession to be able to explain, promote and publicise what they do. It certainly seems to be more common these days, with organisations like Voices for the Library taking the lead, and CILIP demonstrating a more proactive advocacy role than it has in the past.

Library advocacy comes in all forms

I’m glad a distinction has been drawn between advocacy and activism. I’m not an outgoing person, and wouldn’t be comfortable with public speaking and many of the other demands that being an activist makes. I really enjoyed Johanna Anderson’s blog post about the differences between the two, and it made me feel more comfortable with the idea of advocacy. I also gained a lot from Alice Halsey and Simon Barron’s workshop at the New Professionals Conference 2011 about activism for new professionals. It helped me realise that some of the things I do without really thinking about them, such as talking about libraries to friends and family and occasionally linking to library-related content on Facebook, could count as advocacy.

When I was a graduate trainee in Cambridge, the library did a fantastic job of promoting the college’s special collections to outside users, such as schools as part of an outreach programme and the general public as part of Cambridge Open Days. Katie Birkwood and Naomi Herbert talked about this in more detail as part of their NPC 2011 presentation. In a wider academic context, I would say that academic libraries are under less of an immediate threat than public libraries, but there are still issues with services being cut, and at a time when increased tuition fees mean students will likely expect an even better service without any extra money going to the library. Students may not even be aware of the services academic librarians offer – I know I wasn’t as an undergraduate.

As far as being published is concerned, I have already had an article published in Relay (the journal of the CILIP University, College and Research Group) on digital asset management. This was adapted from a Masters assignment and is largely thanks to the help and encouragement given to me by one of my tutors – it would never have occurred to me to try this by myself. I certainly feel much more comfortable writing than speaking or anything else, so I might try to pursue this further in the future.

Thing 15 – Attending, presenting at and organising seminars, conferences and other events

2011-08-31T17:11:00.000+01:00

I don’t have a great deal of experience attending professional events, but I did attend the New Professionals Conference, both this year and last year. I enjoyed these conferences, particularly the most recent one, and came away feeling inspired and enthused. I feel intimidated by the idea of most conferences and events, but not the New Professionals Conference for some reason – I think because everyone’s in the same boat.

If you're nervous about attending an event, I recommend wearing something different or taking an unusual accessory in order to spark conversation. I took my teapot bag to the NPC this year and it worked - I got lots of comments!

I know I've posted this already, but it's so pretty...

I’m not really sure what else to write for this. Generally I would like to go to more events but I need to find the time and / or the money. I don’t actually work in a library at the moment so I’d feel a bit guilty asking for time off that wasn’t annual leave for an event that might not be directly related to my work.

As for speaking at an event, I hugely admire anyone with the courage to do this, but I could never get up in front of a massive audience and speak – the presentations I had to do as part of my MA were bad enough. Organising an event sounds more my thing – it would appeal to my personality and I’d prefer to take on a more ‘behind the scenes’ role. So this is something I might look into further.

Thing 14 - Organising references

2011-08-31T08:56:00.000+01:00

Despite a first degree in History and a Masters in Librarianship, I’ve never used any referencing tools to help me with my work. I was introduced to Endnote last year during my MA as part of a computing skills module, but I found it quite difficult to use and never bothered with it further. This was partly because I didn’t have it on my laptop, and since I do almost all my work on there, this wasn’t much use.

When I was writing my Masters dissertation, like Isla, the author of Thing 14, I did all my referencing and compiled my bibliography myself. I didn’t find this too difficult – I’m very pedantic and trust myself to spot mistakes and follow a required style. Therefore I wasn’t sure if I would actually make use of any referencing tools. Also, I have no need of them at the moment. I’ve finished my MA and have no more essays to write. However, I decided to take a quick look at these tools, as they will be handy to know about if I ever get a job in an academic library and need to make students aware of them.

Zotero

I’ve heard good things about Zotero but the fact that it needed a Firefox plugin put me off. I used to use Firefox but I switched to Chrome recently and didn’t want to go back to using a different browser just for this tool. However, I found out from Stephen Ayre’s blog that a beta version is now available as a standalone package (http://www.zotero.org/support/3.0) so this is reassuring.

I watched the introductory video and I have to say Zotero looks easy to use. I like how it updates over different locations so you can access your references wherever you are. I imagine this would appeal to students who do work on their home computer as well as at university. I also liked the function of adding notes and quotations to individual records. I used to write all my notes on random bits of paper and was then faced with the task of keeping them all in order, but this seems like a much more convenient way.

Mendeley

I watched the introductory video to Mendeley and liked the look of it too. I thought it seemed similar to Zotero in many ways. I’m not sure which one I would use – I think if I am ever in a position to use one of these tools I will investigate them both in a bit more detail before choosing one to download. I definitely want to pick one and stick with it rather than messing about with more than one.

CiteULike

I had a quick look at this and it seems interesting, but I already have a delicious account so don’t think I will bother with this.

I’m actually quite glad I had a look at these tools, as they do look quite useful and I would almost certainly use one of them in the future. Though they aren’t directly related to my life or work at the moment, they may well be in the future and at least I’ve got a bit of a head start.

Thing 13 - Google Docs, Wikis and Dropbox

2011-08-22T13:23:00.000+01:00

I was looking forward to this Thing as I’d heard of these tools but hadn’t explored them in any great detail. I’m forever emailing documents to myself so I hoped they would help me simplify the process of working on things from more than one computer. I'm a little late though as I've been spending a few days at home in the lovely North East.

Nice view of the Millennium Bridge, the Sage and the Baltic

Google Docs

I didn’t think I’d ever used Google Docs before, but when I logged in I found some documents there: a copy of my CV, a list of referees and a couple of other Word docs. I was briefly confused until I remembered that I’d uploaded them back in December when I was still looking for a job, so that I had access to them in different places. I prefer to keep Google Docs for professional use, as all my Google accounts are LIS related (I have a separate Hotmail account for personal email, for example) and will try to make more of an effort to store work-related information here, possibly including my Chartership portfolio, when I eventually get around to chartering. I haven’t actually converted any documents to Google Docs yet, and haven’t used the collaborative function either, but it seems easy enough to do and I can see that it might be useful in the future.

Dropbox

I’d heard of Dropbox but had never got around to exploring it properly. I found it easy to set up and straightforward to download, and the presentation was simple to understand. I had the usual problem with not being able to download it on my work computer, but this shouldn’t be a huge issue since I can download any individual item from the web. In any case, I’d probably want to use Google Docs for anything work-related.

Dropbox strikes me as an incredibly useful tool for backing up important files. Unfortunately the 2GB free limit means I couldn’t really store photos on there, although I have an external hard drive on which I can keep these. As a way to back up Word documents and similar it seems great.

Dropbox seems a bit like Evernote in some ways: both can be downloaded to your desktop and backed up on the web, although Dropbox seems more suitable for actual documents while Evernote appears better for web clippings, brief notes and lists. I really like the way that documents are stored on both your computer and the web: it seems much more reliable than straightforward cloud computing, since you can continue working on your documents without an Internet connection. When I’m spending three hours on the London to Newcastle train I don’t want to be unable to access my documents because I’m unwilling to pay for East Coast’s hugely expensive wifi.

I don’t think it’s likely I’ll want to share files or folders from Dropbox with other users, but it’s nice to know the function is there should I want it.

Wikis

Although I’m familiar with Wikipedia and have visited wikis before, I didn’t have any experience of creating or contributing to one. The benefits of Wikis seem many and varied but I just never had the opportunity or the need to manage one.

In order to practice editing a Wiki, I added my contribution to the Library Routes project by linking to my Thing 10 post. This was really simple to do and has given me confidence to explore wikis further should I need to in the future.

Uses in my job?

Although I think all of these things seem really useful, none of them are directly relevant to my current job. At work we have a shared drive and any files to be edited by more than one person are stored there. However, both Google Docs and Dropbox could be useful if I needed to work on a document at home. I will continue to use both of these tools, keeping Google Docs for documents relating to my career and working life, and Dropbox for more personal items. I can’t see that I’ll be using wikis any time in the near future, but I’m glad I now know how to contribute to one and set one up if I do ever need to.

Thing 12 - Putting the social into social media

2011-08-09T08:59:00.000+01:00

Oh, we’re halfway there…

*Apologies for gratuitous Bon Jovi picture*

I am definitely a fan of social media, mainly for professional purposes although I use some sites for personal or ‘profersonal’ reasons. I found that my Twitter network started off very small but has grown considerably in the last year, and I’ve learned so much from fellow Tweeters, particularly from the blog posts and articles that are linked to. Twitter is my favourite social network but LinkedIn and forums such as LISNPN also have their part to play. A big advantage of social networking for me is an increased level of confidence when interacting with other professionals. Twitter in particular is an informal, non-intimidating environment and I feel reasonably happy about addressing random remarks to fellow Tweeters, which makes me a bit more confident in real life. However I sometimes feel that active participation in social networking can disadvantage those who don’t want or are unable to take part: perhaps they are too busy, relevant sites are blocked at work, or social networking just isn’t their thing. I don’t think people should feel obliged to use these sites and they shouldn’t be made to feel ‘out of the loop’ because of them. However, personally I have enjoyed using social networking sites and will continue to do so.

23 Things for Professional Development has been really helpful for me to make contact with different people. I’ve added several blogs to my Google Reader and try to make time for them, as well as dipping in and out of the cpd23 blog roll. It’s a perfect example of how social media can be used for professional development purposes.

I genuinely do believe social networking helps to foster a sense of community, and it’s great at enabling professionals to share ideas and items of note. However I think care needs to be taken not to exclude people, whether actively or by perception. I won’t go into details as Rachel Bickley and Lauren Smith have already written blog posts on the existence or otherwise of a ‘new professionals clique’, but I think it’s important that people don’t feel excluded, intentionally or unintentionally.

This week’s task was to add a new contact to a social network. I do make a conscious effort to add new Twitter contacts anyway, so I chose a blog to add to my Google Reader instead, ensuring I’ll always read their posts.

Thing 11 - Mentoring

2011-08-08T13:12:00.000+01:00

I was interested to read the Thing 11 post on mentoring as it reminded me of Rachel Bickley’s presentation on establishing dialogues between new and experienced professionals at the New Professionals Conference 2011. Mentoring seems like a more individual, personal way of establishing a line of communication between a newer professional and a more experienced one.

I don’t have any experience of the mentoring process myself. The closest I came was earlier this year when I faced a huge dilemma over whether or not to apply for a particular job. I ended up emailing two of my friends explaining the situation and asking for their advice. Neither of them are librarians, but I’ve known them for a long time, they’re both successful in their own careers and I admire their outlook on life. In the end they both gave really good advice which I didn’t actually end up taking – but their advice was really valuable in the sense that it made me think about my priorities, what I wanted from a job and my life, and generally put things into perspective.

The coolest mentor ever?

I think the idea of having a mentor is a good one: benefiting from the knowledge and experience of someone more senior is helpful on a personal level as well as helping to facilitate the dialogue suggested by Rachel in her presentation. However, I personally wouldn’t know where to find one or where to start looking. I do hope to begin chartership in the next couple of years and since having a mentor is a formal requirement, I should be able to experience the process then.

Can anyone help with a copyright query?

2011-08-05T08:50:00.000+01:00

My friend is in a brass band and they would like to promote themselves by posting films of them performing on YouTube. However the band performs a lot of popular and modern songs and some of the band members are worried they might be infringing copyright if they post videos of these.

If anyone can help or advise I'd really appreciate it!

Thing 10 - Graduate traineeships, Masters Degrees, Chartership, Accreditation

2011-08-04T13:12:00.001+01:00

I always meant to write about how I got into librarianship, and this Thing seems as good a time as any. Like many people, I didn’t want to be a librarian when I was younger. When I was at primary school, I was going to live on a farm with my friend Helen. She was going to be the farmer and I would look after the house. Realistically speaking, though I always wanted to go to university and knew from the age of about eleven that I wanted to study either English or History, I found it impossible to visualise a life after education.

In the end, I studied History at the University of York (2003-2006) which I loved. I briefly considered a few careers while I was there. I dismissed publishing and museum work because they were too competitive. I thought briefly about journalism and even wrote a couple of articles for one of the student newspapers, but didn’t pursue this. I volunteered in the Marketing department of York Theatre Royal and seriously considered a career in arts marketing, until I realised that it would probably require someone with a much more outgoing personality than I actually possessed. Ironically, I’ve now realised that librarianship is a. competitive and b. not ideal for the shy. If I’d known this at the time I would probably never have become a librarian, so it’s just as well I didn’t.

After university I went to St Petersburg, Russia, to teach English. I never had any intention of pursuing a career in teaching – it was simply a means to an end so that I could visit a country that interested me. I also wanted to experience going abroad, which I hadn’t been able to do much of previously – in fact when I got on that plane to Russia it was the first time I’d ever been on a plane in my life!

St Petersburg was lovely but I realised very quickly that teaching wasn’t my thing.

The adult classes weren’t too bad, in fact I came to enjoy them on occasion, but I was completely out of my depth when it came to the younger students. Also, I found having to stand in front of groups of people every day incredibly stressful. I left Russia after three months.

Back home, with no clear plan about the direction my life was supposed to be taking, I started temping and spent my spare time on the Internet looking for inspiration. Somehow I discovered CILIP, then the CATALOG website, and websites about other graduate traineeships. The more I read about librarianship, the more I felt it would suit me and the more I wondered that I’d never thought of it before. Not wanting to rush into anything, I decided not to apply for traineeships straight away, but wait for the next year’s round. I spent the next year working for my local council while volunteering at my local public library at the weekend, undertaking another work placement, and studying for the ECDL in my spare time while applying for every graduate traineeship on the CILIP website.

I ended up in Cambridge, as the Graduate Trainee at St John’s College (2008-2009). I loved the job, and was able to get experience in lots of different areas: reader services, cataloguing and classification, website design and archives and rare books, as well as visits to other libraries and training courses.

I wanted to study the Masters full-time so that I could get it over with. I applied for the MA in Librarianship at Sheffield (2009-2010) and was lucky enough to be accepted with AHRC funding. I really enjoyed the course, learned loads and met some lovely people. The practical experience vs formal qualification debate has been discussed before, but for me, the combination of both was ideal – I got so much out of both my traineeship and my MA and I honestly wouldn’t want to have missed out on either. During my course, I was Chair of the Library and Information Professionals Social Society (which chiefly involved trying to get my coursemates to the pub, with varying degrees of success), worked as a library assistant for a few hours per week and volunteered in Sheffield Cathedral Archives.

After the course, I couldn’t find a job straight away so ended up back home in the North East. I registered with an employment agency and a combination of my experience, qualifications and pure chance got me a temporary role as a Senior Information Assistant at Northumbria University, helping to administer the digital repository. I continued to apply for jobs in London, which is somewhere I’d wanted to live since I was a small child. Eventually I was successful and started working at the College of Law in February, helping to manage the VLE.

I would certainly like to charter at some point in the future, but not straight away. My current job is only a one-year contract, so I’d rather wait until I’m more settled before I get stuck in. Also, I feel that I’ll get more out of it if I wait a couple of years.

In the future, I’d like to work in an academic and/or research library; I would love to work with archives or rare books but I don’t know if this is a realistic option if I want to stay in London, which I certainly do. I’ll see what happens anyway!

Thing 9 - Evernote

2011-08-02T13:36:00.000+01:00

Dorothy Parker famously said that women and elephants never forget, but this woman certainly DOES forget, and on a regular basis – and that’s where the elephant comes in.

The incomparable Dorothy Parker - photo courtesy of Confetta on Flickr

That’s the idea, anyway. I’ve already had a brief flirtation with Evernote: after hearing good things about it, I downloaded it a few months ago, however I never really used it, and ended up deleting it once I discovered Diigo. Diigo is a bookmarking and note-making service, quite similar to Delicious. It’s very easy and simple to use, and you don’t need to download anything (except the optional Diigolet, a browser bookmarklet, which helps you quickly bookmark web pages and make notes – there is also a toolbar available). This means I can access Diigo from both home and work without having to download anything. I mainly use it for bookmarks, but also brief notes and to-do lists. Evernote does all this too, but it just seemed more complicated, and I never bothered.

I wrote at the beginning of 23 Things that I wanted to give Evernote another chance and investigate it properly. I reactivated my account, downloaded it to my computer and Android phone, and installed the Web Clipper to my Chrome browser. I don’t normally like things cluttering up my browser, but the little elephant doesn’t take up too much space.

I wasn’t permitted to download Evernote for Windows to my work computer, but was able to install the Firefox extension. In any case, it’s easy enough to use the online version and sync it later. For some reason, I was convinced that you couldn’t access it online and had to download it, which is one reason I abandoned it last time, as I thought I wouldn’t be able to use it at work. This will teach me to investigate things properly.

I decided to play around with Evernote by creating a notebook called cpd23. I saved the web page with the Thing 9 post, and was able to add notes and pictures so that I had everything to hand when it came to drafting my own Thing 9 post. I was impressed by how easy it was and how well everything worked, particularly how easy it was to click and drag images from the web to Evernote. This made it easier for me to write my post and is something I can repeat for future Things.

I tried using the Snapshot feature on Evernote for Android to take and upload a picture with my phone. Again this was very easy. I’m going to try out this feature some more this Saturday – I’m off to the Great British Beer Festival at Earl’s Court and will see if I can photograph some particularly appealing beers for future reference.

This time round, I feel like I’m getting the hang of Evernote and think it’s something I’ll continue to use in the future. I will still use Diigo as a bookmarking service – to me, Diigo is better for saving bookmarked web sites, while Evernote seems more suited to saving individual web pages with associated notes. Though I still find Diigo useful for quick notes, Evernote has more functionality and seems better suited to grouping notes of different kinds and bringing things together. As a compulsive list-maker, this is right up my street.

Thing 8 - Google Calendar

2011-08-01T13:13:00.001+01:00

It’s somewhat ironic that I’m a week late for the ‘organising yourself’ Things. I had a lovely week in Portugal and have come back, I hope, refreshed and ready to get back into the swing of things.

I used to be the sort of person who didn’t write things down, because I could remember them anyway. I’m not that sort of person any longer: whether this is down to my age, or the fact I have more going on these days, I’m not sure, but I certainly need to keep some kind of record of things coming up.

I prefer to keep a written diary, partly because I find that the act of writing something down helps me to remember it. Just after Christmas I bought this pretty Filofax. In all honesty, I tend to use it to keep a record of what I’m seeing at the theatre, rather than anything else.

Birds!

Having said that, I do like to have an electronic version of my calendar, as I don’t want to be carrying my Filofax everywhere I go. I’m familiar with Google Calendar as I have an Android phone which syncs my appointments, which means it’s easy to remind myself when my dentist appointment is or whether I’m going to the theatre on a particular evening.

However, before investigating this Thing, I hadn’t realised that you could get daily weather reports or add other calendars. So thank you for this! I’ve added the 23 Things calendar to my iGoogle page and synced it to my phone, which means I can instantly see what Things are coming up.

I don’t use Google Calendar for anything directly relating to my job, as we use the Groupwise email and calendar client at work and I need to be able to accept and view appointments using this. However, for everything else, I find it incredibly useful.

Thing 7 - Face-to-face Networks and Professional Organisations

2011-07-21T13:38:00.000+01:00

So, from online networks to face-to-face organisations. I find face-to-face networking much more difficult to get on with. This is for two main reasons. One is time. Since I moved to London, I’ve been thoroughly indulging my obsession with theatre which takes up several evenings, including tonight which sadly means I’ll miss the cpd23 meet-up in London. Perhaps I’ll regret going to see Dr. Faustus at The Globe if, as is forecast, we get heavy rain.

Shakespeare's Globe - one of my favourite places in the world

The second reason is that I find it very difficult to talk to new people and I get incredibly nervous about going to things, particularly if I don’t know anyone. I enjoyed the New Professionals Conference, but then again I did know several people there already. Soon after I moved to London I forced myself to go to the joint CILIP London/Career Development Group London AGM and actually quite enjoyed myself. I got chatting to a couple of people (by which I mean, they started chatting to me – starting conversations with strangers isn’t my strong point) and one lovely lady even gave me her business card and said I was welcome to get in touch. I kept meaning to email her but it’s been months now and she would probably find it a bit strange if she suddenly got a message from me out of the blue. I won’t deny that the free wine certainly helped me cope with this event...


Necessary for networking? (Photo courtesy of yashima on Flickr)

I am a member of CILIP and have been since I started my graduate traineeship in 2008. Initially, this was largely out of obligation, but in the last year or so my opinion has changed and I feel membership is worth it, partly because of the increasingly visible advocacy work they are doing, and partly because of the networking opportunities such as the aforementioned New Professionals Conference. Not to mention that I want to charter at some point in the future.

When I moved to London I responded to a call from the Career Development Group for new committee members so I am now a member of the London division. I feel a bit of a fraud at the moment as I haven’t really done anything. Due to one thing and another I’ve only been able to attend one meeting and don’t feel I have enough experience to make a proper contribution. Hopefully I’ll be able to change this in the future.

A big issue for me surrounding professional networks is the cost. I’ve just received my CILIP renewal letter and the jump from student membership to full membership is a bit of a shock. This is one reason I’ve no current plans to investigate organisations like the Special Libraries Association even though I’ve heard lots of good things about many of them. Maybe in the future! I very recently discovered, thanks to Twitter, that CILIP membership offers automatic membership of IFLA, which is something I’d like to look into.

As I mentioned in my post for Thing 6, I am already a member of LISNPN but I’m racking my brains to remember if I have actually attended one of their events in person. This is something I should probably rectify.

I quite like the sound of LIKE (doh) but on the date of the next event – which does sound like fun – I will be sunning myself on a Portuguese beach. This may be something to look at when I get back.

So, to summarise, my aims are:

Play a more active role in CILIP CDG London
Investigate IFLA
Attend a LISNPN event
Check out LIKE

Plenty to keep me going I think!

Thing 6 - Online Networks

2011-07-20T13:38:00.000+01:00

I like online networks, in theory at least. I find them much easier to use than face-to-face ones and they’re definitely more convenient. However, I don’t tend to use them to their full potential. I have a tendency to join something, use it frequently in an initial burst of enthusiasm, then forget all about it. I think the only exception to this is Twitter, which I’ve used continuously since joining. Nevertheless, I definitely understand that networks can help you to become better connected and more knowledgeable if only you make the most of them.

Picture courtesy of .mw on Flickr

I’ve gone through each of the networks mentioned in turn:

LinkedIn – As Helen says in the cpd23 post for this Thing, LinkedIn results do rise to the top in Google searches – I found this to my surprise during Thing 3 when after searching my name (plus ‘library’) my LinkedIn profile was result number one. Although I joined LinkedIn last year after being prompted by my MA lecturers, added some information and connected with several coursemates, I haven’t used it much. I find it rather intimidating to be honest as it is a much more professional environment than any other online network I’ve come across.

I checked out the sample profiles and was impressed as well as being slightly intimidated by everyone’s achievements. I think I need to tidy up my own profile and bring it up to date as I haven’t done much to it since moving to London.

I had a look at the How are people using LinkedIn? article and was interested by the comments, particularly the discussion on whether LinkedIn will replace the need for CVs in the future. I would tend to agree with the lady who stated she prefers to adjust her CV for each potential employer and LinkedIn does not allow this function. Personally, though I’m happy to add my basic job history to my profile, I certainly wouldn’t want to keep my entire CV on there. I find the whole CV-writing process incredibly cringeworthy – it’s basically bragging, and the fewer people who see my CV the better as far as I’m concerned. I have serious doubts as to whether LinkedIn will ever get me a job, but I can see its worth as a professional alternative to Facebook.

Facebook – I use Facebook purely as a way to connect with friends and old schoolmates, and have my profile locked down, so am reluctant to use it for professional networking. However, I ‘Liked’ the 23 Things for Professional Development page, which should give me something interesting to look at on my news feed besides the constant stream of ultrasound scan pictures and my younger brother’s thoughts on life (he recently bemoaned that he had opened his crisp packet upside down, and therefore the world was about to end. I’m inclined to agree – they just don’t taste the same.).

LISNPN – This is a prime example of a network which I joined and then forgot about. I found it very helpful and useful when I was doing my MA but then got out of the habit of checking it. I must change this! It really is friendly and there are some very interesting and relevant discussions on there.

Librarians as Teachers network – I had a quick look at this. I don’t currently teach as part of my role, but if I ever get a librarianship role in a university this could come in very handy.

CILIP Communities – although I am a CILIP member I’m ashamed to say I had never heard of the Communities page. I am going to bookmark this and go back to it in the future!

I’ve found this Thing very useful as I’ve had a chance to re-evaluate some networks I already use and be introduced to some new ones. I would definitely like to investigate CILIP Communities further, update my LinkedIn profile and connect with more people, and rekindle my interest in LISNPN.

Visit to the London Library

2011-07-19T22:27:00.000+01:00

After hearing on Twitter that it was possible to visit the London Library, I signed up for a tour on Monday 18th July. The Library is situated at the corner of St James’s Square near Piccadilly Circus. I was planning on taking a picture, but when I went in there was somebody standing at the entrance - who probably wouldn't have appreciated me photographing them - and when I came out, it was pouring with rain and frankly, I wasn’t willing to stand about taking pictures. So instead here is the Library’s eminent founder, Thomas Carlyle:

Statue of Thomas Carlyle at the end of Cheyne Row

Carlyle, a writer and historian, founded the London Library in 1841 after apparently getting fed up with the British Library. He wanted to recreate the atmosphere of a gentleman’s living room, in a library with open shelves and books that could be borrowed for a long time. To this day, all of the shelves (apart from rare books) can be openly browsed by users, and books borrowed for as long as needed unless requested by another user. The Library has particular strengths in arts, humanities and languages, with comprehensive collections in languages such as French and Russian. The roll-call of previous members reads like a Who’s Who of British literary society, including such names as Charles Dickens, Virginia Woolf and T.S. Eliot, also a past President.

I learned several interesting things about the Library, such as the fact that they use their own classification system which was designed to be understood by a lay person. Also, the Library has a policy of never weeding, unless a book becomes damaged beyond repair or there are duplicates. This means it is a valuable resource for someone researching, say, travel to Asia in the early nineteenth century, as there is likely to be a travel guide from the time somewhere in the Library.

In the Science & Miscellaneous shelving area we were permitted to examine the varied tomes on show (and I was happy to smell that familiar musty book smell again). Most of the books spanned the Victorian era to the modern day: some of the older books had the best titles, such as the breathtakingly politically incorrect Basic Teaching for Slow Learners and the intriguing The Truth About Opium. The bookcases in this area also act as roof supports in an example of ingenious Victorian engineering, while the floor was somewhat terrifying, consisting of a metal grille with extremely wide spaces – I was grateful I was wearing flat shoes, and sincerely hoped I wouldn’t drop anything.

We also had a look around the silent reading room, which looks largely the same as it did in the nineteenth century. I liked the look of the comfortable armchairs by the fireplace! This is the only reading room in which laptops are not permitted – free wifi is available throughout the building, and computer terminals are also available to use.

The Art & Architecture collection was particularly interesting, situated on specially-built shelves to accommodate larger books with colour-changing glass. The Times Room, as the name suggests, contains a comprehensive collection of past volumes of The Times. One of the volumes – from December 1919 – was already out on the desk, and it was interesting to read old adverts from this time.

The London Library seems to be unique among libraries in being open to anyone who is able and willing to pay the membership fee - other libraries I've visited, worked in or otherwise come across are either completely public and free at the point of use, or open only to specific user groups. The staff have tried to create a welcoming environment for all users and I thought it was a lovely place. I definitely like the idea that you can keep books for as long as you like unless someone else requests them. Sadly joining isn't an option for me at the moment but maybe in the future! I definitely recommend signing up for a tour, if you haven't already.

Knowledge Workshop

2011-07-14T13:54:00.000+01:00

I currently work for a higher education institution that focuses solely on law education. Last week, there was a staff training week and I took the opportunity to attend a Knowledge Workshop run by the Head of Knowledge Management. The talk was billed as a way to keep staff abreast of developments in student information resources and a look at social media tools such as blogs and Twitter. It was really aimed at tutors and lecturers (mainly former lawyers now responsible for teaching courses) but I was interested in going anyway. As a qualified librarian who doesn’t actually work in the library – I work on the VLE helping to manage the online delivery of courses – I was interested in finding out more about library resources here.

e-Books, e-Links and i-Guides

The aspect of the talk that concentrated on e-Books was interesting as the college has just completed the first year of an e-book trial, in which textbooks were available to all staff as well as students on one particular course. The textbooks are interactive, and can be annotated, highlighted, searched and downloaded. The textbooks have been very heavily used by some students, particularly those studying via distance learning. The presenter pointed out that some paper textbooks weigh in excess of one kilo – quite a weight to carry around! I am not at all surprised that students with many commitments who spend their days rushing from one place to another would shun these heavy textbooks in favour of their lighter e-equivalents.

There have been some problems meaning that not all students were keen to make use of the e-books. One factor was the timing – students were informed about the e-book resources after many had already accessed the PDF equivalents on the VLE. Also, the original email was sent at the start of term and largely got lost among the general flood of emails. This raises questions about how to promote and encourage use of the e-books among students.

An important issue was that students have open book exams into which they are allowed to take annotated textbooks. However, they are not permitted to take electronic devices into the exams – so what’s the point in annotating the e-books? Some students also worried that hard copy textbooks would be taken away if e-books were greeted with too much enthusiasm. The college is keen to stress that hard copies are not under threat and electronic resources are an addition to, not a replacement for, current resources.

We had the opportunity to look at some e-Links – useful sites grouped by the course to which they related – and i-Guides, which are interactive guides that examine students’ knowledge of legal methods. They are aimed at students on the Graduate Diploma in Law (the conversion course for would-be lawyers who have first degrees in a different subject) but are open to anyone. It’s unlikely I’ll need to look at these in my role, but it’s still handy to know where to find them.

Social media and networking

The talk then moved on to social networking: in particular Twitter, LinkedIn and Yammer (an institution-specific corporate networking site rather like Facebook but with Twitter-style hashtags). I am an enthusiastic user of Twitter to keep up to date with developments in libraries and information, so it was interesting to look at it from the point of view of those involved with the law. The presenter cited some examples of law-related hashtags, and companies and bloggers with a Twitter presence that it might be useful to follow. An interesting point was made that Twitter is serving the purpose of article abstracts for summarising blog posts and online articles. I’m not sure I agree completely, as abstracts generally contain much more information than Twitter can provide in 140 characters and can give you not only a brief summary but a run-down of the arguments, method and conclusions of the article, depending on the style of abstract. However, I can definitely see the similarity and I suppose both Twitter and the average blog post are more informal than most ‘proper’ articles anyway.

The presenter also discussed ways in which Twitter can be used in a non-work context, such as getting updates on weather or traffic or even sharing random information with colleagues. She pointed out that even informal discussion will help you to network and get to know your colleagues. In the staffroom, you won’t just talk about work, you will chat about your children and your hobbies and what you’re doing at the weekend – so why not on Twitter too?

She was preaching to the converted as far as I was concerned, but I was surprised at the level of hostility towards Twitter in the room. Several of those attending hadn’t come across Twitter before and asked questions that showed they didn’t quite understand it – which is fair enough – but some seemed to be ready to dismiss it out of hand. I think more could have been done to emphasise the difference between Twitter and email, since this seemed to confuse several participants who didn’t seem to see the point of exchanging ideas via Twitter when they could do so via email. For me, an email exchange (in a work context at least) is more of a private discussion of a particular issue or topic: Twitter is a way to spread ideas, carry on discussions and share information in a much more wide-ranging way.

Next up was a discussion on LinkedIn, in which examples of personal profiles and organisational groups relating to the law were shown and discussed. The final social media tool examined was Yammer, which as mentioned above is a bit like Facebook but with a corporate slant. The college’s Yammer page is open only to those with a college email address. Many posts are made openly to be viewed by anyone, but it is possible to keep groups private for more confidential discussions. As with Twitter, it is possible to use hashtags to mark posts about a particular topic.

Yammer has been used effectively by several people within the college to post links to articles of interest and begin discussions on particular topics. Personally, though I haven’t posted much on Yammer I’ve found it to be helpful – last week we received a helpdesk query from a student asking if it was possible to access college email from her iPhone. Though this isn’t strictly something we deal with, I was able to send the student a link to the app for our email client on the iTunes store – because I’d read about it on Yammer.

Individual information management

The final topic of the session was individual information management. I like to be organised so I was looking forward to this! The presenter focused on Groupwise, our email client, and gave us several handy tips including quick ways to edit, retrieve and forward attachments as well as pointing out that it is possible to customise the email homepage with links – this was something I hadn’t been aware of so I was grateful for this tip. She recommended putting aside 20 minutes a week to go through and sort emails. There was also a discussion on general ways to find information, such as social bookmarking and tagging, and we were given details of where we could go for help within the college.

Final thoughts

I found the workshop worthwhile – I enjoyed finding out more about what the library offers, even if it isn’t directly related to my work. I found the issues surrounding the introduction of e-books particularly interesting and would like to see where this goes in the future. I also found it useful to look at social media from a law point of view.

The aspect of the talk which was the most useful to me was the part about individual information management. I would like to take on board some of the tips and in particular try and sort out my email homepage!

Thing 5 - Reflective Practice

2011-07-13T13:32:00.003+01:00

Thing 5 already, wow. Where has the time gone? I’m really enjoying the programme so far and I feel as though I’ve learned loads already.

I’ve had a bit of head start with the concept of reflective practice, as I studied my MA in Librarianship at Sheffield and keeping a reflective journal was a compulsory part of the Management module. However, keeping an online journal read only by the person marking it is one thing; using a blog which can be read by anyone who wants to is something else entirely. I do want to use this blog for reflection as I hope to charter in the future.

I find the concept of the ‘recall it, evaluate it and apply it’ framework very useful although I don’t always use it well. Recalling it is usually straightforward (assuming I’ve made decent notes…), evaluating it is trickier. It is the applying part at which I usually fall down: I don’t always put what I’ve learned into practice.

Canal and Belfry, Bruges, Belgium. Library of Congress

So, in the spirit of reflective practice, here is some reflection on 23 Things so far:

I’ve made an effort to use my blog more effectively by writing regular posts, and I’ve come to realise that connecting with other librarians and information professionals makes it more worthwhile.

I’ve also realised that it’s important to reflect how I want to be portrayed online and give a good impression of myself.

I’ve confirmed that Twitter and RSS feeds are useful to me, though I could take steps to use them even more effectively. I wasn’t so keen on Pushnote, but I do think it’s always good to explore new things.

How can I apply what I’ve learnt?

I would like to continue engaging with other blogs – I’m going to try and comment on at least 3 blogs per Thing for the duration of the 23 Things programme (I will try to make only intelligent and thoughtful comments, but I can’t promise this!).

Also, I want to use my own blog more effectively, by making regular, hopefully worthwhile posts, and encouraging comments.

I’d like to unify my online ‘brand’ by maintaining consistency across platforms, particularly Twitter and Blogger – this will mean changing the design at some point.

I want to continue managing my RSS feeds to reflect blogs and websites I want to be kept up to date with. I also want to organise my Twitter feed, by putting those I follow into lists and/or trying out a third party client like HootSuite. I’ll also keep an eye on Pushnote to see if it turns out to be more useful than I’d imagined.

In an attempt to deal with the time management problem, I will try to schedule in at least one blog post per month (after 23 Things is finished) and fit it in around my other commitments.

To try and improve my reflective writing skills I’d also like to attend a CILIP reflective writing workshop, but this can probably wait until I begin Chartership.

By putting this list up here I will hopefully be encouraged to stick to it!

Thing 4 - Current awareness: Twitter, RSS and Pushnote

2011-07-07T13:46:00.001+01:00

For me, current awareness is one of the most important attributes to have as an information professional, particularly as the profession and the issues surrounding it are constantly evolving.

I must admit that current awareness isn’t one of my strong points, and I mean in life, not just in librarianship. I never used to read the news or have any idea what was happening in the world on a day-to-day basis. Though I’ve improved in the last few years, I do have to make a real effort to engage with current events – for example I made the BBC website my homepage in the hope that this would encourage me to click on at least a couple of headlines. If I let myself, I could easily coast along in my own little world (which consists chiefly of nineteenth-century novels).

Since embarking upon my career in librarianship I’ve tried to keep up with the goings on through reading CILIP Update and the weekly email bulletin, but sometimes I can lose track, forget and get caught up with other things. I think current awareness tools can be really handy as they can make keeping up with recent happenings so much easier.

Twitter

Picture courtesy of Dot D on Flickr

For me, Twitter is easily the best social media tool and it’s made a big difference to my level of engagement with library and information issues. I do tend to ‘lurk’ more than I tweet but I find that getting involved is very easy and I feel much more part of a group and connected to fellow professionals than I did previously. One of the best things about Twitter is that it makes the sharing of useful links and important articles incredibly easy. For example, I receive CILIP’s Weekly Information World bulletin, and in the past I always found it difficult to read everything on it. Now, when I get the email I often find I’ve already come across all or most of the links posted because somebody has put them on Twitter. I also find Twitter directs me to interesting blog posts or other information, as well as offering an insight into the day to day lives of the librarians I follow.

I do worry sometimes that I rely too much on Twitter because it’s so easy and I think I need to make more of an effort to discover information from different sources. I am trying to make an effort to seek out other cpd23 participants’ blogs without focusing too much on those blog posts which are tweeted.

RSS

I have a Google Reader account that I usually access via my iGoogle page and I do find it useful. In order to keep it manageable I use it only for library and information related blogs and websites and only subscribe to a very limited number, otherwise I'd spend all my spare time reading through the unread items. Generally if I find that I am repeatedly visiting a particular blog or website several times and continually find it interesting, informative and useful then I will add it to my reader. As with Twitter, I worry that I rely too much on this and am losing out on the opportunity to view new sites and blogs, but at least it means I am guaranteed to read, mark and inwardly digest those I do subscribe to.

I have subscribed to the whole bundle of cpd23 blogs and am trying to resist the urge to sit in front of my computer all day reading each and every post, as this would simply be impossible! Instead I try to randomly click on a few posts each day to read.

Pushnote

I had never heard of Pushnote before reading the Thing 4 blog post but signed up to try it out. I was impressed by how quick and easy it was to sign up, and also that I was able to link my Twitter account, but less impressed that it didn’t seem to recognise and connect me with several of the people I follow on Twitter. I was slightly put off by the fact that I had to download a browser add-on. I prefer not to use these as I find they clutter up the browser. I normally use Chrome at home but decided to download the add-on for Firefox just in order to test Pushnote out. In fairness it was easy to download and use.

Though I have Firefox at work, I am not permitted to download browser add-ons so I won’t be able to use Pushnote here. This is a bit of an issue as I do most of my library-related reading at lunchtime and in order to use Pushnote I’ll have to be using my laptop at home. I feel this may really restrict my use of this tool.

I had a bit of a play around, looked at some comments and added a couple of my own. I’m not sure if this tool is something I’ll use regularly. I did come across some interesting pages but these weren’t library related – the shared pages concerning LIS issues seemed to be ones that I’d already seen.

I haven’t fallen in love with Pushnote, but will stick with it for a while and see if I can get any use out of it. Personally I don’t see it replacing the bookmarking tools Diigo and Delicious, both of which I use religiously (particularly Diigo), but I won’t write it off just yet.

Thing 3 - Consider your personal brand

2011-07-03T23:09:00.001+01:00

“Laura Steel's image is a bit severe and outdated, and there's a SLIGHT air of smuttiness about her…”

This isn’t me, in case you were wondering. It turns out that I share my name with several people, one of whom happens to be a pop singer-songwriter from Sheffield.

This is not me

I found when I Googled myself as part of the task for this Thing that most of the results thrown up were not of me, but people with my name. I feel that this makes creating some sort of coherent online identity even more important, so that any results relating to me personally are clearly identifiable.

Part of me distrusts the concept of branding, whether it’s used for products or people. I’m not a big fan of the term as it smacks of corporate-speak. I don’t want or intend to lie, and I want my online presence to reflect my real personality. However, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with wanting some sort of coherence to your online identity, and trying to make your online presence reflect the way you want to be portrayed. After all, we use our CVs to present us in the best possible light.

Things to consider:

Name used: I’ve always preferred frivolous usernames to my real name, mainly because they are more imaginative, although I can definitely see the advantages to using your real name on professional networks. I tend to use a different username for any sites that I’m a member of in a purely personal capacity. I am happy to display my real name on Twitter, LinkedIn and my blog, although my actual Twitter username only incorporates my first name. I originally had a different (and even sillier) username but when I started my blog I called it Palely Loitering, inspired by a poem by Keats, and wanted to change my Twitter name to reflect this. Sadly PalelyLoitering was already taken so I opted for PalelyLaura, which with hindsight I’m happy with as I think incorporating your real name into your username makes sense. Mind you, there are about 11359257 library and information professionals called Laura so I’m not sure how helpful this actually is. I like the name Palely Loitering as it makes me think of someone mooching dreamily around a library full of old books. I hope that my name conveys that I am interested in nineteenth-century literature. Of course, it could just imply that I am massively pretentious.

Photograph: I feel the same way as several other librarians who have already blogged about Thing 3 – I am massively vain and not photogenic in the slightest! The photo I use across all my platforms is the only photo of myself I actually like and it was taken three years ago. I’m not sure how appropriate it is for me to use a picture of myself at a house party in evening dress, but it’s staying until I can find a better one! I think it makes sense to have the same photo on everything so that I am easily identifiable.

Professional/personal identity: I do have accounts on several websites and forums which are nothing to do with librarianship and on which I don’t use my real name. The exception is Facebook, which I use purely as a way of keeping in touch with friends. An employer could find me on Facebook (if they could be bothered to wade through the list of Laura Steels) but they wouldn’t be able to access any part of my profile except my picture. I think LinkedIn is the only one of my accounts on which I take a purely professional approach. I love the word ‘profersonal’ and would apply it to my Twitter account and blog. While I made the decision that any post on my blog would concentrate on LIS and related issues, I do use an informal tone and bring personal elements into it. As far as Twitter is concerned, I use it for a mixture of personal and professional purposes. Almost everyone who follows me is a librarian, though the people I follow are a mixture of librarians, friends and other accounts such as theatres and news organisations. Since I have several friends on Twitter it would be a bit unnatural if I tried to make my account wholly professional, and I don’t see the need – I want to engage with people as a human being, not as a robot. Anyway, I get far too involved with the Eurovision Song Contest not to tweet wildly about it!

Visual brand: I have tried to think about how I want my blog and Twitter background to look. When I first joined Twitter I Googled to find a better background and spent a little time tweaking it to make it look good. I also did the same with my Blogger background. I’m really not a fan of the bland corporate look and I want both my blog and Twitter account to have a historical, old-fashioned and slightly vintage feel. I love the way Girl in the Moon has given her Twitter account and blog a unique look and I also really like StEvelin’s blog background incorporating a picture of Bolsover Castle floor. Joeyanne’s penguin is truly awesome and it would be brilliant to have a logo that could be used on everything from blogs to business cards – although I haven’t the faintest idea of what a logo of mine might consist of!

I would like to find some sort of background that I can use on both Twitter and my blog and this is definitely something that is going on my to-do list.

Activity

When I Googled my name I found out that there were several Laura Steels, including the aforementioned singer (not me), an Assistant Editor at the Kensington & Chelsea Review (definitely not me), and an actress, writer and theatre director (not me either, but I kind of wish it was). Nothing to do with me appears until the eighth page, and then it’s my Palely Loitering blog. Nothing else appears until page 15 where I can find my profile on the LISNPN forum.

When I Googled ‘Laura Steel library’, I got a bit of a shock, as my LinkedIn profile appears as result number one. I haven’t really paid much attention to LinkedIn beyond listing my jobs and qualifications and adding most of my Sheffield MA colleagues to my network. However, if this is the first thing an employer will see about me then this suggests I need to pay it a little more attention. Luckily LinkedIn is covered in Thing 6.

Later on the first page appears a Tweet that I posted last year about the fire alarm going off at work. Not my Twitter account – just this Tweet. I have no idea why this might be the case!

Right at the bottom of page 1 is a link to an article I had published last year in Relay on Digital asset management in university libraries and information services. On page 2, there is a link to the trainee visits page on the CATALOG website for Cambridge graduate trainee librarians which contains my write-ups of visits to the University Library and the Scott Polar Research Institute. Also on page 2 is the lanyrd page for the New Professionals Conference 2011. My Palely Loitering blog and Blogger user profile make page 3, while my Twitter account makes page 4.

Overall I'm happy with these results (though I remain slightly bewildered by the appearance of that fire alarm tweet) and there's nothing there I wouldn't want an employer to see.

Optional extra activity

Well, here goes... secretly hoping that everyone's already moved on to Thing 4, I'll ask... what do you think? What have I got right and what have I got wrong? What does my online presence say about me? All comments welcome!

Thing 1: Blogs and blogging and Thing 2: Investigate some other blogs

2011-06-23T17:47:00.002+01:00

I thought I'd kick start my own CPD23 experience by combining Things 1 and 2 into one blog post - purely so that I could reference Dr Seuss, of course. I'm not the only one who was so inspired: check missrachelsmith. I'll start, sensibly enough, with Thing 1 and talk about why I wanted to complete the programme.

"These things are good Things" - photo from las on Flickr

This time last year I was coming to the end of my MA Librarianship course at the University of Sheffield. There were parts that I loved about my MA and parts I wasn't so keen on, but one of the things I really liked was simply the fact that I had something to work towards and some goals to achieve. I work well with fixed projects and deadlines, because I feel like I am achieving something concrete. I also get a real kick out of completing lists, so I know I'll get a lot of satisfaction out of discovering each Thing.

I also want to learn more about the specific Things being covered, particularly Endnote (which I've tried before but never really got into), Google Docs which I've never quite got the hang of for some reason, and wikis which I'm slightly scared of.

As well as this I want to get into the habit of regular blogging, develop my own voice and start reflecting on what I've done, starting with the CPD23 programme of course. I've had this blog for over a year but I don't think it's been particularly successful - I'm a little bit scared of putting my thoughts out there on the Internet! I've had some lovely responses to my New Professionals Conference 2011 post and I hope this programme can help me keep up the momentum. I eventually want to charter and I hope this blog will be a helpful reflective record that I can look back on.

Finally, I want to engage with other programme participants, which will include commenting on the blogs of complete strangers as well as people I already know. Bad as I am at writing regular and thoughtful blog posts, I'm even worse at commenting intelligently and meaningfully on those of other people.

Which brings me to Thing 2: Investigating other blogs. I did start off by checking out the blogs of some people I already knew, just to familiarise myself with the process and get myself started. I also came across a number of posts via Twitter. After that I looked through the Delicious list of cpd23 blogs and picked out some at random. I found some really interesting posts - some from regular bloggers who were excited about the programme, others from those new to the idea of having a blog who were willing to give it a go. I found some blogs from people who weren't librarians but who felt the programme might have something to offer them. I must admit I was also drawn to the blogs with interesting names, such as Squirrel Library and The Trumpet Major (Thomas Hardy reference ftw). After that, I got more serious and checked out blogs relating to the areas in which I currently work, law and education, as well as areas of interest, like museum libraries. Thinking of comments was much more difficult, and to be honest most of the comments I made were along the lines of "Love your blog name!".

I would love to read everyone's blogs but with over 500 participants this just isn't practical, so Thing 2 was a great way to track down some new people, though I hope to make more discoveries as the programme continues.

New Professionals Conference 2011 - Professionalism and Activism in a Time of Downturn

2011-06-21T13:56:00.004+01:00

I got back late last night from the New Professionals Conference 2011, after a great day in Manchester.
I attended the 2010 conference while I was still a student at the University of Sheffield. I didn't automatically assume that I would be attending this year's conference, but since beginning my first professional post I've realised that it's so easy to feel isolated in your role, particularly after the collaborative work of library school, and I hoped that NPC 2011 would help to provide the inspiration and enthusiasm that I felt was missing since my graduation.

I also wanted to attend the conference for personal reasons. Several of the presenters are or were personal friends of mine, and I really wanted to see them again!

I'm incredibly bad at talking to new people, in fact I even find it difficult to talk to people I already know when there are loads of people around me. So I decided to follow some advice tweeted by Bethan Ruddock, who quoted a suggestion from Stephen Abram that wearing a statement piece was a useful thing to do as it means people will approach you. So I took the teapot handbag that I'd recently managed to win on eBay:

It seems the reputation of my bag preceded me, as several people did actually comment on it!

I'd gone up the day before with friend and fellow London-based librarian Becky Broadley in order to avoid an insanely early start. I really liked Manchester and thought it was a shame that I didn't get more of a chance to look around. I really enjoyed catching up with the people I knew over coffee in the morning - for some reason I hadn't slept much the night before so was running on adrenalin for most of the day!

The conference was opened by Franko Kowalczuk who introduced the first round of presenters. First up was Helen Murphy who in Supercharging Your CPD: 23 Things for Professional Development spoke about cpd23, a programme of professional development run by a bunch of librarians in Cambridge inspired by the success of another Cambridge-based programme last year. Helen asked who was taking part and it was interesting to see that a lot of people had already signed up, and many more seemed as though they were planning to judging by the comments I heard after the session. Helen stated that professional development opportunities are even more important now that they are scarcer and more difficult to establish. She discussed the many benefits of the CPD23 programme including the fact that it is completely free, flexible, informal and a way to connect with loads of different people and share everyone's expertise. Helen also gets bonus points for including a picture of Benedict Cumberbatch! I'd already signed up to the programme and I'm really looking forward to it, but I think I need to get cracking as some incredibly organised people have already completed Thing 1!

Next up was Rachel Bickley who spoke on Establishing a dialogue between new and experienced professionals. She ran a survey of experienced professionals to try and find out what they thought of new LIS professionals in general. Rachel displayed her responses in a word cloud (as did many of the presenters throughout the day) and some of the positive points that stood out were that new professionals are thought of as being enthusiastic, professional, self-motivated, dedicated and knowledgeable particularly in their use of social media. However she also stated that some experienced professionals thought that new professionals were not particularly good at practical skills such as cataloguing, managing their time and were restricted by the limitations of the library school curriculum (mentioning one library school in particular which always seems to postpone their cataloguing classes!). She did point out that several respondents stated that new professionals seemed to be willing to learn, even if they were lacking in skills to begin with.

Rachel also asked her respondents why they would consider employing a new professional. Among the responses were enthusiasm, experience, a willingness to learn and leadership potential. I found this really encouraging. Rachel also discussed ways in which new professionals could get involved and establish a dialogue with older professionals, such as via Twitter, LinkedIn, or even informally via a coffee in the staffroom. I think out of all the presentations, Rachel's was the most directly relevant to me. I felt it gave me a lot to think about and more confidence when applying for jobs in the future, so long as I can demonstrate my enthusiasm and willingness to learn.

The final presentation of the morning came from Samuel Wiggins and Laura Williams, current students at the University of Sheffield's newly renamed iSchool, who spoke on What makes an information 'professional'?. I must admit I was rather in awe of them, as when I was in their position as an MA student last year there's no way I would have considered presenting at a conference! I thought their presentation was very timely, as in the current climate it's likely that many library school graduates won't be able to find a professional post straight away. Initially they discussed their previous perceptions of what makes an information professional. Laura said that she originally thought that an information professional was anyone who works in a library. Sam by contrast thought that experience and qualifications were important.

Their survey asked respondents whether they considered themselves to be information professionals. 90% said yes. 45% of those surveyed had worked in libraries for ten years or more, while only 4% had worked in libraries for less than a year. Four fifths had a CILIP accredited qualification. Laura and Sam displayed a Wordle cloud indicating the different ways in which respondents defined information professionals: some of the words that stood out included working, qualification, managing and knowledge. A professional level job was variously seen as one involving management, a qualification, responsibility and, interestingly, cataloguing skills. It was notable that no mention of Chartership was mentioned by respondents.

One part of Sam and Laura’s presentation really stood out for me. They discovered that LIS professionals who did not work in libraries and who did not have ‘library’ or ‘information’ in their job title had trouble feeling connected to the profession and tried to make up for this by getting involved outside work. This describes me exactly and is one of the reasons I really enjoyed the conference and am trying to look for opportunities outside work.

Sam and Laura displayed some interesting quotes from respondents. One stated that LIS professionals should be distinguished by their ethos and conduct. Another felt “There is too much emphasis on being a graduate based profession and not enough on practical experience”. A number of themes came out of the survey, suggesting that LIS professionals are defined by their qualifications, skills, experience and attitude. Sam and Laura came up with their own definition of a professional based on their findings: “Possession of qualifications, experience or skills, alongside an underlying professional attitude”. I really like this as I feel the attitude is so important, and is what distinguishes someone who comes home and switches off completely every day from someone who thinks about librarianship beyond their job.

After the morning presentations, I was able to attend my first workshop. I was pleased to have been given my first choice which was Getting involved: activism for new professionals run by Alice Halsey and Simon Barron from Voices for the Library. I think the work Voices for the Library do is fantastic and I’ve considered getting involved in library activism in some way, but I’ve been put off by the fact that a lot of the work involves giving presentations and speaking to the media – public speaking isn’t something I’m particularly good at, and while I understand that activism can be a good way of developing skills, I would probably do more harm than good to the cause if I tried to do something that I’m not particularly strong in. I was reassured there are lots of other opportunities to get involved in activism in some way: research, web design, organising petitions. I was also happy to realise that even small actions, like talking about libraries to your friends and family, count too: so by talking to friends about libraries in the pub and trying to convince my mam to join Newcastle Libraries in order to access ancestry.co.uk I’ve seemingly been doing it all along.

After lunch and more chatting came the second workshop I attended, #marketingyourselfonline run by Suzanne Wheatley from Sue Hill Recruitment. Suzanne talked about various networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and discussed how we present ourselves on these. She discussed the importance of using a relatively normal profile picture on LinkedIn (avoiding the three Cs – children, cleavage and pictures of you catching snowflakes!). A really good tip, I thought, was to change the generic LinkedIn message if you’re trying to connect with someone as it’s more personal and makes it more likely that they will agree to connect.

The workshop participants discussed Twitter and the difficulties of striking the right balance between personal and professional. A few admitted they’d been put off Twitter because of this. This kind of difficulty seems exclusive to Twitter – for many people, including me, Facebook is entirely personal and LinkedIn completely professional, while Twitter serves both functions.

Some participants said that they disliked people who posted personal stuff to excess on Twitter. Personally, I quite like reading personal tweets – partly because I’m nosy, but I do like the informality of Twitter and like to know that the people I follow are human. However I’m now aware that not everyone does like this and I do need to be careful of finding the right balance, although I’m afraid it’s not going to stop me from excessive tweeting during Eurovision! Suzanne stated that you shouldn’t talk about turning up late for work again on Twitter or how much you hate your job or your boss – this sounds like common sense to me, but obviously not to everybody as she said she had seen this behaviour from people she follows!

After a cup of tea we moved on to the afternoon session, starting with a presentation by University of Brighton students Ka-Ming Pang and Joseph Norwood on Can we play? Building opportunities for LIS student activism and why it matters. I found it really interesting to gain a perspective from a different library school. Ka-Ming and Joseph discussed advocacy and engagement among students and the ways in which they do this, including writing to their MPs, tweeting and petitions. They explored the need for an effective communication strategy and used a phrase I really liked – ‘be like an octopus’ and use a variety of different strategies. Ka-Ming and Joseph also discussed the pros and cons of joining CILIP as students and looked at the possibility of establishing a ‘hack library school’ forum or blog similar to the US version.

Next up was Megan Wiley’s presentation entitled For your eyes only? The need to develop professionalism in a careers information team. Megan talked about her role as a Careers Information Specialist, which I found really interesting. She emphasised the importance of making your colleagues aware of the work you do, particularly if they don’t share your job role or qualification. In these difficult times it’s important that everyone realises how valuable you are in case they decide to get rid of you. In other words, your work should not be for your eyes only – it’s important to make others aware of it. I thought Megan's presentation was really useful and it gave me lots to think about.

The final presentation of the day came from Katie Birkwood and Naomi Herbert on Teaching old books new tricks: how special collections outreach can help you, your career, and your library. Katie and Naomi work in University of Cambridge libraries and spoke about projects they were involved in while they were working at St John's College. Naomi spoke about the Hocus Pocus Junior project, based on a book from 1638, and talked about how she worked with local schools to provide learning opportunities for the pupils. It was lovely to see the thank you letters written by some of the children, who obviously thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Katie talked about the Hoyle Project, which involved cataloguing the personal papers of astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle, and a particular event which enabled participants to build their own astrolabe. They also spoke more generally about the benefits of outreach for participants, librarians and the organisations involved. Outreach creates learning opportunities for those taking part as well as being great fun. Organising outreach helps to develop skills including project management, handling a budget, staff supervision, teaching and creativity. I loved this presentation and hope to attempt to make an astrolabe myself in the near future!

The day’s closing remarks from Biddy Fisher, CILIP Past President, who seemed really impressed with the day’s presentations and workshops and referenced them in her speech, as well as reiterating how important libraries are to society (not the ‘Big’ Society!). As we did last year, we then had to vote on the best paper which is something I found incredibly difficult. Congratulations to Katie and Naomi who carried off the prize! After the conference a number of us went off to the pub where I got to catch up with people I hadn’t seen for ages, and meet new people too.

Final thoughts:

Last year I believe there was some sort of poll on LISNPN asking if people thought the New Professionals Conference should be over one day or two. I think that keeping it over one day was a really good idea as I imagine a lot of new professionals would really struggle meeting the costs of a two-day conference and also getting the time off work.
Last year the workshops ran at the same time as the presentations so you had to make a choice about what you were going to attend and what you were going to miss. I was really pleased that this year the workshops ran separately so it was possible to attend two workshops AND all of the presentations.
I wish the venue had had more than two female toilets - although this did create more opportunities for chatting to people while standing in the queue!
A number of venues and cities have been suggested for next year's conference. I hope to attend wherever it is, but I'd really like to see it take place in Newcastle or Durham as some people have suggested on Twitter. Well, we're not getting the RSC this year thanks to the cuts - it would be nice to have something to look forward to!

The conference was full of optimistic, original and exciting ideas and I had a brilliant time. To be honest I tend to be a rather pessimistic person and I really need things like this to keep me engaged and enthused. I came away feeling inspired and as though I was part of a community which is something I haven’t felt since I was studying for my MA. Thank you to all the organisers, presenters and attendees for making it so worthwhile!

23 Things for Professional Development

2011-05-31T13:54:00.000+01:00

I've just signed up for 23 Things for Professional Development. It's a free programme running this summer aimed at anyone working in the library and information profession. The programme will cover web 2.0, social media and other ways to develop your career.

The programme looks really good and I'm looking forward to getting involved. Since finishing my MA last year I've missed having concrete goals to work towards as well as interaction with other information professionals. Hopefully this will provide me with both!

Is a Masters worth it?

2011-04-30T22:47:00.000+01:00

I've been in my first professional post for about two months now, and it's seven months since I finished my Librarianship course at Sheffield. I thought it was a good time to think about my Masters and how it has benefited me personally and professionally.

I must admit that before I started the course, I saw it simply as a hoop I had to jump through in order to qualify. I was excited at the prospect of living in a new city, being a student again, and meeting new people, but less so at the prospect of having to actually do work. How could you learn a vocational subject like librarianship in an academic context anyway? I must admit I started to change my opinion during the course, and my experience after qualifying has led me to believe it was definitely worth it.

The first thing I should point out is that a library or information qualification was a prerequisite for my current post (in a higher/professional education college): I couldn’t even have contemplated applying without having studied my MA. In addition, I only found out about the post via an email from the course leader – an example of how knowing the right people can help you.

It wasn’t just the course in a general sense that got me the job. In my interview for the post (which involves building courses on the College’s VLE, or Virtual Learning Environment), I was able to talk about a particular module I’d studied, Educational Informatics, which looked at e-learning and the ways in which use of electronic learning platforms such as Blackboard (the one we use at the College) can facilitate learning, particularly in a higher education context. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have got the job without being able to discuss these issues, and in the job, the knowledge and experience I gained from this module are certainly helping me to perform my role more effectively.

What about the course as a whole? I studied several topics throughout my MA, including archives and records management, information literacy, information retrieval, and of course management. I’ve been able to apply some of it, though not all, in my work. Immediately after leaving Sheffield, I got a temporary job as a Senior Information Assistant at a university which involved working with the institutional repository. Though I didn’t need a librarianship qualification (or indeed any degree) for the job, studying the Academic and Research Libraries module and completing an assignment on institutional repositories and digital collections definitely helped me understand the wider context behind my role.

It’s not just about the modules I studied though. I met lots of people on the course, many of whom I now count as friends. I hate the term ‘networking’, but I the course did help me to do this, pointing me in the direction of the New Professionals Network and meet other librarians and information professionals. More particularly, I felt that the course helped me understand what it is to be a professional librarian, as opposed to someone who just works in a library. It enabled me to develop a wider awareness of the profession as a whole. I gained confidence from the course that I didn’t have before. This was partly down to the pastoral aspect of the course – all the staff were lovely, and the relatively small group of students were very supportive.

This sort of thing is difficult to translate into anything concrete like exam results or defined skills, so I understand why some people might not find it useful, but for me it made all the difference. Although I should point out that I was lucky enough to get AHRC funding for my Masters course: someone who had to pay the full whack might feel differently. For me, though, completing the MA was completely worth it.

March for the Alternative

2011-03-31T10:06:00.000+01:00

Last Saturday I was in Central London taking part in the March for the Alternative. This was a last-minute decision. I already had plans for that weekend. I'm not the sort of person who goes on marches, or even gets involved in anything relating to politics.

I went because I am angry about the prospective cuts, to libraries of course but also to the other public services I've always taken for granted. I was relieved to find so many people on the march who clearly felt the same way. There was a great atmosphere all the way from Embankment to Hyde Park, with people of all ages and from all walks of life. I didn't see any evidence of violence.

I wish I'd made plans to go earlier, because I might have been able to meet up with some of the other librarians who were going - I decided not to try on the day because I only know them through Twitter and there were so many people there I was sure I wouldn't be able to find them! If any of you are reading this - maybe next time! I found the day really rewarding and worthwhile and if there's another march any time soon, I'll be there.

CILIP in London & Career Development Group AGM

2011-03-14T10:56:00.000Z

The 2011 Annual General Meeting for the CILIP in London group and the Career Development Group (London & South East Division) was held on Wednesday 9th March. As I've recently moved to London and found myself on the CDG London & SE committee, I decided to attend. I'd never been to a CILIP AGM before, and I didn't know anyone else going, so I was rather nervous as I went in, particularly as walking into a room full of strangers is right up at the top of the list of 'My Least Favourite Things to Do'. I hadn't been there long, however, when one lady came over to me to start a conversation and when she learned I'd only been in London for three weeks, she gave me her card and asked me to get in touch and go for a coffee. Librarians really are lovely people! I managed to speak to a couple of other people too which really put me at my ease.

The CILIP in London AGM kicked off the evening, followed by the CDG London & South East AGM. I found it really interesting to hear about the past year's activities as I hope to get involved in some during the coming year. Both committees seem to be having difficulties recruiting members: the CILIP in London group more so than the CDG. It was suggested that the two groups could unite and organise joint events in the future. From my limited observation of the evening I feel as though this would be a good idea, and it might allow a chance for younger enthusiastic professionals and older experienced librarians to share experiences and learn from each other (and I'm aware these are massive generalisations!).

Once the main business of the evening was concluded, it was time for the guest speaker, CILIP Chief Executive Annie Mauger, who spoke on 'Partners & Partnerships: Building the Future CILIP', or, as her talk was renamed, 'CILIP, The Universe and Everything'.

I didn't make notes at the event, as I would have found it too distracting while trying to listen, so I'll just mention some of the things that stuck out for me. One of the first things Annie talked about was that networking helps to give you confidence as you move up in your career - something which made me feel happy about coming along to the AGM. I'm not the most confident person in the world but I hoped that getting more involved in CILIP would be beneficial in this respect and it's nice to know it's worked for others.

CILIP is to undergo a lot of changes over the coming year. There is a move to unite the organisation under a set of values rather than skills, because of the widely different nature of the skills that different librarians and information professionals possess. Having said this, there is to be a new LIS skills map and a review of CILIP qualifications and the various branches and groups. In these difficult economic times there is a need to justify members' money and recruit new members to CILIP.

I felt that attending the AGM was really worthwhile as it helped me feel part of the profession and remain engaged with the wider issues. I've found that since completing my MA and entering full-time work that it's easy to get stuck in that one post and lose sight of the bigger picture, which really isn't something I want to do. I hope to go to more events like this in the future and I'm looking forward to getting involved with the CDG London & South East committee.

First Professional Post

2011-02-28T21:59:00.000Z

Further to my last post, in which I wrote about my 'Library Day in the Life' experiences, I've moved to London to take up my first professional post. I'm still working in higher education, but my role is very different to any I've had before. I'm helping to manage Blackboard, the Virtual Learning Environment, which is important as the place I work has several sites across the country and many students are part time or distance learners. I also work on the helpdesk, which involves answering student and staff queries about VLE issues via email. The job is very different from any I've had before, but I'm happy to be using the skills I picked up during my Librarianship MA - I know I'm very lucky to have got any kind of LIS job.

My first week was a challenge, but as I begin my second I feel I'm beginning to get the hang of things and I think I'm going to enjoy it. I also hope I'll be able to begin the chartership process soon. I've had an ambition to live in London for several years so it's nice to finally be here!

Library Day in the Life - Round 6

2011-01-30T17:27:00.001Z

Last week I decided to participate in the Library Day in the Life project for the first time, but decided to write up my week and post it at the end, rather than blogging on a daily basis.

I completed the MA Librarianship at the University of Sheffield last September, and as I had not yet secured a job I returned to the North East of England to live with my parents for what I hoped would be a short time! I was very lucky to get a temporary job in an academic library almost immediately – I registered with a recruitment agency and the job request came through on the very day on which I was having my initial interview.

I work in the Bibliographic Services department of a university library. My job title is officially Assistant Administrator, but the permanent member of staff for whom I am a temporary replacement has the title Senior Information Assistant and I think this more accurately reflects what I do. I am responsible for maintaining the institutional repository – the place where academics’ research outputs are listed and, where possible, made available to users. It is my job to add the metadata – information about each research output – to the Repository, obtain a copy of each output, and seek permission from publishers and/or other interested parties to establish whether we may upload the output (e.g. journal article, book chapter) to the Repository so that users may view it. I also need to keep the spreadsheet updated – this states what position we are in relation to each output, which is important as sometimes it can be months before a publisher gets back to us, so we need to know where we are up to! I also need to create the Repository’s statistical reports, which show how well we are doing, the most popular Schools, how many full texts have been uploaded as opposed to records only, and where the Repository’s viewers come from. No library qualifications or experience were actually required for my role – the temporary member of staff before me had neither – but I feel my experience has really helped me to not only perform my role effectively, but understand the whole concept and reasoning behind an institutional repository. I’m also pleased to be able to put some of the theory I learned on my MA into practice, particularly the Academic & Research Libraries module.

***Monday***

I normally arrive in work at about half past eight and begin by checking my emails. I rarely have a rush of emails as everyone who tends to email me – my managers, academics, other library and administration staff – works the same hours as me and I normally check my emails on a regular basis throughout the week. I do have a couple of replies to requests I made last week to order books. If an academic from the university has authored or edited a book, fully or in part, we will make a request to order the book for the Library normally depending on the relevance of the book and the cost. One book order has been approved and I forward it to another member of staff in my department who will order a copy. Another has been rejected because it isn’t particularly relevant to the Library’s collections. I file this away and update the spreadsheet.

I also check the main Repository inbox. Occasionally, an academic or member of the public will contact us using this address to ask a question about the Repository. This is rare though and the email address is most often used by administrative staff, called Guardians, who work in the different academic departments of the University and are responsible for collating and sending through their department’s outputs. These come in on a steady basis and, as they are usually the most recent outputs, they are my priority. There are a couple in the inbox and for each I add the metadata to the Repository, save and print a copy of the output (these are normally attached to the email), and find out if the publisher permits us to upload the output to our Repository. I have a handy list of publisher policies, but if a particular publisher is not on the list I need to find their contact details online, compose a letter to them and pass it to the member of staff in charge of copyright who will contact the publisher and let me know when we hear back from them.

There will be a Repository meeting this week so I was asked last week to ensure the statistical report was ready. A new Repository Manager has just started work, so at ten o’clock, as well as completing the statistical report, I need to show her how to do it. She won’t be responsible for doing this herself, as her responsibility is more strategic and managerial – the day-to-day administration of the Repository is done by me – but it will be useful for her to know so she knows what’s going on and can make changes if necessary.

Using statistics taken from the Repository itself and the spreadsheet we can see the number of records uploaded, both per month and the cumulative total, since the project was begun in early 2008, as well as the number of visits to the Repository and number of research outputs downloaded. We can also look at the percentage of records which belong to each School in the University, and which of those records have the research output attached. What I find most interesting are the charts and graphs showing who has viewed the Repository from different cities and countries around the world. Naturally, most viewers come from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and the UK as a whole, but users have viewed the Repository from as far afield as Wuhan, China, and Sydney, Australia. After finishing the report I email it to my manager for checking.

After lunch, I spend the afternoon working through a spreadsheet of research outputs from one of the University’s departments. While new outputs, such as those sent via the Repository inbox, take priority there is a backlog of outputs which have been entered onto the Repository but have had nothing further done to them. For each record I will try to find a copy online (or, in the case of a book chapter, in the Library in which case I will find the book and photocopy the chapter) and check publisher permissions. If a copy cannot be found online I contact the Guardian to see if they have one or can obtain one from the relevant academic. In some cases, we may have the full text of an output but the publisher will only allow us to upload a pre-print or a post-print (a version of the document created before or after refereeing, but before the document is formally published). In this case I will contact the Guardian to see if one is available.

***Tuesday***

After checking my emails as usual, I head to the library shelves to pick up a couple of books and print journals from which I need to photocopy chapters and articles. One of the articles is from a Library & Information Gazette from 2008 and as I search through these past editions I am taken aback by the sheer number of jobs advertised before the recession – the ads filled eight pages a fortnight. These days I feel lucky if there are eight jobs in any one issue, and feel extremely relieved that I have managed to secure even a temporary post in a library.

After photocopying and scanning these articles, I follow the usual procedure of checking publisher permissions and I make sure to update the spreadsheet each time.

I spend the rest of the day working through yesterday’s spreadsheet with the backlog of research outputs.

***Wednesday***

I get in to work to find some letters on my desk, put there by my colleague who is responsible for copyright in the Library. These are letters from publishers to whom requests to upload research outputs have been sent. One gives permission for us to upload a particular article. I upload the PDF that was previously saved on the shared drive, then file the paper record away. Another letter gives us permission to upload the paper provided a large fee is paid. The university has decided that it isn’t worth paying the fee, so I can’t upload the paper. I mark the spreadsheet to note this and file the record away in the ‘Complete’ folder.

I spend the rest of the day going through a folder containing details of research outputs that were entered onto the Repository before being published. I check and update those outputs which have been published since, and also upload outputs for which an embargo had been placed by the publisher, provided it has now run out. Every so often I check the Repository inbox to see if any new outputs have been sent.

In the afternoon my manager asks me to make a couple of changes to the statistical report, which I do ready for the meeting tomorrow. She also asks me for some figures relating to the forthcoming REF (Research Excellence Framework) assessment, which I am able to obtain from the spreadsheet. All research outputs which will form part of the REF are marked on the spreadsheet and the Repository is an excellent way to showcase these.

***Thursday***

In the morning I deal with some new research outputs which have come through via email. In the afternoon I attend the Repository meeting, at which I am responsible for taking the minutes. The new Repository manager has several suggestions for making the procedure of adding research outputs more straightforward. After the meeting I write up the minutes before heading home.

***Friday***

I make some corrections to the minutes before emailing my manager with the final version. I spend the rest of the morning working through the spreadsheet. In the afternoon I complete a couple of new outputs that have been sent to the Repository inbox, and spend the last couple of hours preparing for Monday. I’ve got a new job in London, so I’ll be leaving my job in a couple of weeks and will spend the next fortnight training my replacement.

That was my week. I’ve really enjoyed reading about other people’s experiences, and I hope to participate again in the future, when I’ll hopefully be blogging about my new job!

New Professionals Conference 2010

2010-07-07T19:43:00.000+01:00

It looks like everyone's writing about the New Professionals Conference held on Monday, but I'm going to write about it anyway, because it was a really good experience for me, and it was my first proper conference (I did go to the Libraries@Cambridge Open Day when I was a trainee, but that was exclusively for librarians in Cambridge, so I don't know if that counts). Handily, it was held in Sheffield, so to say I didn't have far to travel is an understatement. The event was held in the same building where I attended many of my lectures, and when Sheila Corrall stood up to give the opening presentation I did feel as though I had been transported back in time a few months - albeit surrounded by smart, alert librarians as opposed to sleepy students playing with their phones. The sense of déjà vu did disappear almost immediately, thankfully.

I was really impressed with Eleni Zazani's presentation on bridging the gap between employability and employment, and her bravery in moving from Greece to London to develop her career. I found the three months I spent in St Petersburg teaching English and trying to make my tentative Russian understandable to be difficult enough, so I have the utmost respect for anyone changing countries or tackling any sort of language barrier. I could also relate to Bronagh McCrudden's presentation on unpaid work in the library and information profession, Would You Work For Free? (complete with brilliant pictures). I have my own (rather strong) opinions on volunteer work, but her presentation was really positive and inspiring.

Laura Woods' presentation on Taking Charge of Your Continuing Professional Development was a timely reminder of how important CPD is, especially for us new professionals. So far I've always been encouraged to go on courses and learn new skills - my graduate traineeship was really excellent for this, and the course at Sheffield really encourages it too. Once I get my first professional post, though, there's no guarantee my employer will be so encouraging, so it's important I take responsibility for my own CPD.

I also enjoyed Bethan Ruddock's talk on Proving the Value of Peer Networks. I'm taking steps to extend my own peer network at the moment, by starting this blog and engaging with people on Twitter, and the presentation really made me realise how important this is.

The Broadening Your Skills presentation by Ann Donovan and Rachel Edwards was really interesting for me, as most of my experience has been gained in academic libraries, so it was fascinating to get an impression of the different skills you develop in a public library setting. Laura Cracknell and Lindsay Robinson's presentation on Traditional Skills in a Changing World made me feel very relieved that I did so much cataloguing during my graduate traineeship.

All of the presentations were excellent but I think my favourite was the very last one - Awen Clement's talk on Unleashing Your Professional Edge. The way she spoke about the different skills she gained from even non-library related jobs was something that made a lot of sense to me, as I've had similar thoughts about jobs I've done in the past - jobs as varied as working in a call centre, as an assistant in a stationery store (note stationEry not stationAry), and for my local council, which involved explaining just why we couldn't send somebody out to inspect the unidentified dead animal at the bottom of the caller's garden at 5.45 pm on a Friday afternoon (I was best off out of that one). I didn't realise it at the time but the skills I developed at all of these jobs and more have proved really useful.

The conference ended with a closing address from Biddy Fisher, the outgoing CILIP President, which was really positive and forward looking, and ended the whole thing on a high.

So my first conference was a success, I think, and I hope I can attend more in the future. I'm going to try and make more of an effort to network next time!