#cpd23

[skimmingtomes]

Current awareness

I recently taught a class on current awareness (well, I helped out as a last-minute replacement - let's just say I was more comfortable with the subject matter than with the teaching material) and it was a useful reminder that I should be more judicious in my use of RSS feeds. I have a tendency to oversubscribe and end up drowning in information - weeding is key.

I don't have the same problem with Twitter, despite following far more people than I can reasonably hope to keep up with. Once I'd resigned myself to the idea that I can't read every tweet - just as I won't read every book on my to-read list - I realised that I was getting the majority of my news from Twitter - local, national, international and most particularly from the library world. It keeps me informed with developments and best practice (and wonderful library tweeps) - and I get to be my nosily helpful self by answering virtual queries too. As an info pro, I wouldn't be without it.

Twitter is also my main online professional networking tool. I am a member of several groups on LinkedIn and I do poke my nose in to discussions and posts and event adverts on LISNPN, LAT Network, and CILIP, but my main librarian hangout is Twitter (even when things are so busy I'm mostly lurking). I imagine that's because it's a meeting point for the other networks too - I follow them on Twitter, so I find them all there together (or they find me) - and I keep up with the most important developments that way.

[skimmingtomes]

Consider your online brand

I couldn't remember the last time I'd Googled my own name, but I did remember that the combination of unusual first name and common surname had filled the first page or so of results with American "me"s with unusual hobbies.

This time, I was pleased to see more results that were actually me (and I wasn't signed in - no filter bubble!). It made me realise the prominence of my Twitter profile and so I rewrote that to be a little more informative; I also added a photo to LinkedIn as that also appears on the first page of results.

I'll try this exercise again once I've added more to this blog to see if anything changes.

[too-many-books]

23 Things: Thing 13

Filesharing/Collaboration: Google Docs, Wikis & Dropbox

I have been filesharing with my friends for a while, but I tend not to use it in a professional capacity at work because I can save my documents to the "Library" drive, which can be accessed by my colleagues in different branches. Occasionally external websites such as Dropbox are blocked on our school system so it makes life easier if I know I can rely on our drives rather than taking the risk that the external provider is mysteriously blocked the day that I need it. 

I did set up a wiki on WikiSpaces when I was trying to improve our catalogue. The wiki can be edited by any of my colleagues and it aims to streamline the cataloguing process when adding different resources such as textbooks. This was due to the fact that the catalogue is updated by four different people and the process did not seem to be set. Over the years a variety of different cataloguing processes has left us with a catalogue which is all over the place! I am hoping that the wiki will be updated and amended by others in the future to prevent this from getting worse.

As I have already mentioned, Google Docs and Dropbox is extremely useful for planning and filesharing in my personal life. I organised a hen weekend using spreadsheets on Google docs with the other bridesmaids and a friend has recently shared his wedding photos on Dropbox meaning that everyone who signs up can share their own photos without having to all be friends on Facebook.To be honest, I am not that keen on Dropbox because I am not able to access it at work and would probably only use it occasionally.

I have started to use Google Docs Drive quite a bit more when I have been preparing to do my Chartership. It is useful as it means I can access my documents without using a memory stick. I also didn't have Microsoft Office on my laptop until recently so it meant I could word process documents at home and still access them at work. A colleague who is currently Chartering pointed out that Jo Alcock has shared useful documents about Chartering reading on Google Docs too which I intend to look at and amend where relevant. 

Overall, I can see benefits of all of the filesharing options, but I prefer Google Docs because it is the easiest to use and access.

[too-many-books]

23 Things: Thing 12

Reflections: Putting the social into social media

So how do I use social media? I will admit that I am a "lurker". I do like to listen in and get the lie of the land before I throw in my opinions. I am definitely more comfortable sticking to what I know and don't tend to look outside my sector for information. I suppose this is because I feel that it won't be relevant and as I have mentioned in previous posts, I do feel I am on quite a few social networks and it can be difficult to keep up with everything that is going on. Perhaps I don't feel the need to be looking at different sectors as well!

One thing I will say is that I love being on Twitter and I think that I actually prefer it to Facebook these days. I am extremely proud of my work Twitter account as I often get retweets from online colleagues and it reassuring to know that I am saying something useful! I like speaking to people and offering advice. I also love sharing links and seeing it when people share things I have put online. Perhaps I am destined to become a sharer rather than a lurker!?!

[too-many-books]

23 Things: Thing 11

Librarianship training options continued: Mentoring

Oh dear, I'm behind on my CPD23. Perhaps if I had a mentor I would have kept on track.

I have never had an official mentor but I consider a few people who I worked with at the start of my career as my kind of informal mentors. They gave me lots of advice and support at the start of my career and I doubt I'd be where I am now without them.

Currently I am looking at starting the Chartership process (although this has been put on hold somewhat by life getting in the way). I have looked though the information regarding finding someone to be your mentor and I have found it slightly overwhelming. I mean, what if I pick the wrong person and I don't like them or we don't "click"? I admit that it is time I sat down and started to search properly for a mentor. After all, I'm not going to find one if I don't send out an email or two am I?

[too-many-books]

23 Things: Thing 10

Librarianship training options: Graduate traineeships, Masters degrees, Chartership, Accreditation Graduate Traineeships

I fell into my career kind of by accident. I had been travelling after I graduated my PGCE course in May 2006 and I didn't really know what to do next. I happened to look on the Prospects website for things to do with an English degree and lo and behold **LIBRARIAN** appeared. I followed the links and ended up looking at the CILIP graduate list. There was an advert for a traineeship in a school in Bristol (the post was being re-advertised as the previous applicant had pulled out), but the deadline was only a few days away. It seemed like the perfect job, I had the school experience and I needed to apply for something so I thought "why not". And the rest is history...

I cannot believe how luck I was to get my placement at John Cabot CTC (now Academy). I had a fantastic year and learnt everything there was to learn in a school library environment. I was considering starting a Masters and I was lucky enough to have the support of my employer through the university application process as well as my application for a grant from the Arts Council. I was amazed and delighted to discover that I had received the (very rare) full grant from the Arts Council which allowed me to study for a year without having to work. This is still one of my proudest achievements to date!

Masters Degree

I studied for my Masters in 2007-08 at UWE in Bristol. As I mentioned above, I was extremely lucky that I did not have to work to pay my way through my Masters course. I ended up going part-time to complete my dissertation while I worked in my first professional post. My dissertation was on book selection strategies of young people in school libraries. I think I knew from the moment that I started my course that School Librarianship was the correct route for me, although I never completely shut the door on the idea of working in public libraries or corporate libraries.

Chartership

So Chartership is my next step. I have been thinking about Chartering for a while, but this year is the first time I can honestly say I have felt "ready" for it. A friend from my Masters course recently contacted me to ask if I was interested in meeting up with a few people who were at various stages of the process and that was finally the kick I needed to get started.

I have found the 23Things really useful for getting in the habit of recording training or visits and reflecting back on things. I am finding it quite hard to write reflectively and evaluating at the moment and I am realising that I need to be much more organised and get a more effective filing system of handouts and flyers. I have already started a "CPD notebook" in which I record all my professional reading or any meetings or training that I attend. When I finally get myself organised and registered I will start using the CILIP audit sheets.

I think I am quite good at list writing and targeted to-do lists (things I need to do before I can go home and things I can delegate). I have discovered a brilliant online service to record what I do every day which was recommended by Nicola McNee at the SLA conference earlier in June. https://idonethis.com/ sends you an email every day at the allotted time and all you need to do is reply with a list of things you have done that day. Mine emails me at 3pm every weekday and it takes 30 seconds to reel off everything I have done that day. The service then records everything in a calender and emails you back to remind you what you were up to this time last year or yesterday in fact! I think this will be useful as it shows me that I do work hard and stuff does get done occasionally.

I am definitely going to remember to record CPD23 on my PPDP! Writing my C.V. at the start of this process has made me realise how badly I need to get involved with more professional activities TARGETS Get my Chartership started. Find a mentor!

[too-many-books]

23 Things: Thing 9

Organising yourself: Evernote

I have previously looked at Evernote in my professional life but must confess that I have never used it properly. I think part of the reason may have been that I am unable to download the software onto my work PC and that immediately stopped me in my tracks. My experiences of this "thing" has allowed me to take a look back and re-address its use. 

I have opened my own personal account and have had a good look around this time- I have even downloaded the "Web Clipper" for Firefox and added the app on my Android phone. I can see that this might be very helpful for my Chartership as I am currently saving quite a lot of information into Google Docs. I am willing to give the service a chance; I quite like the fact that you have an email address to email your articles to. I think that is very useful as I constantly find myself sending emails between my work/ home email to save important links or documents. I have allowed Evernote to access Facebook and Google so I will investigate whether this is useful over the next couple of weeks.

I'm not convinced that I will use this for group collaboration at work as I cannot currently imagine a circumstance where I would use this over Google Docs or another VLE-based platform.

Targets:

Trial Evernote at home and at work.

[too-many-books]

23 Things: Thing 8

Organising yourself : Google Calendar

Woah, back to something I know about!

My institution doesn't use Google Calenders, but I do use it to organise my personal life. I have an Android phone so I find it quite useful to use in terms of setting reminders for things like my train bookings (you can automatically upload bookings straight to Google Calenders). I have added the CPD23 calender to my calenders, but I don't see the need to share my calender with anyone else except maybe my partner (unlikely).

In terms of using Google Calenders to organise my professional life, I think it is unlikely but i wouldn't rule it out entirely. Our current system is a huge desk diary which is obviously fairly limited in terms of sharing but at least all four members of my team can access it without the need to log-in!