Learning from the elders - Thing 11

I've received so much valuable advice over the years from more experienced colleagues and I hope I've offered similar support to others in turn, all largely on an informal basis.  My formal experiences of being mentored came with chartership and again more recently with the PgCLT, luckily my line manager is an excellent mentor and very generous with her time, and she didn't even have to pay me to say that ;)

I'm heartened to see this included in cpd23 because I've felt recently that there is a distinct and growing gap between older and younger people - not just in librarianship - which I think is sad and unfortunate and not at all beneficial. Perhaps my sensitivity to this is because I'm somewhere in the middle, but the problem seems more acute than ever and I worry for the future if this generational segregation continues.

Finding Your Wings or Floating Dead Yankee

I think that when I finish the PgCLT I may continue with mentoring, both as a mentee and perhaps now acting as a mentor.  The university where I work has a mentoring scheme and it also takes part in the Women in Universities Mentoring Scheme so there are lots of opportunities available.

You don't need a qualification to work in a library do you? - Thing 10

Wow!  Well I've worked in libraries since 1993 so that's a lot of experiences!

Why I chose librarianship as a career can be found here: Library Routes Project 

Where I am now: I'm librarian for Law, Accounting and Finance at a University library.  

 Photo credit: Dead Yankee

I've been in this role since 2001 albeit with changes to subject areas, in the past Law was combined with Computing and now, I've only just taken on Accounting and Finance - things are constantly changing and with mergers within higher education in Wales on the cards they are not going to stop changing any time soon.  I've observed changes in the needs of students and academic staff, changes in library services offered to students and staff, changes in the amount of funding available to provide those services, changes in library and academic staffing, changes in technology, changes in the locations of collections, changes in the location of my desk, you get the idea...

I got here via a Humanities degree, a PgC in Social Science Research Methods, an MSc in Library and Information Management from Bristol, and then I chartered.  I've recently gained FHEA status and I'm currently working towards a PgC in Learning and Teaching.

Next?  I'm planning on winning the lottery so I can go to that beach again...

Lest we forget, anything, ever again - Thing 9

Ah, Evernote, how I love thee, let me count the ways...

I have a terrible memory and I use Evernote quite a bit, I find it especially useful because it is in the cloud and I can access it from my phone, iPad, laptop or various work PCs. I only use it in a fairly basic way, as with all these things, I learn how to use it enough to do what I need to do at the time and then I don't tend to have more time to investigate all the bells and whistles. I have my notes tagged so haven't needed to sort things into folders and I haven't felt the need to connect it to Facebook, Google or Twitter yet.

So how do I make use of it? I use the web clipper to clip web pages, I use it to make notes at meetings and at training events, and recently whilst studying on the train. I make little notes about spending, personal goals and things to do, recipes, you get the idea - I use it for work and personal purposes. I've also taken photos of things while shopping for present ideas, photos of things I want to make, of books I want to read etc

Love that little grey elephant! I think students might find Evernote quite useful too.

I love, I love, I love my Calendar Girl - Thing 8

Oh come on, how can you not remember that Neil Sedaka song?  Or are you a new professional whose musical knowledge only goes back to the 1980s? ;)

Not Neil Sedaka*

I can completely identify with the cartoon juggler in Thing 8 and I am behind with this whole cpd23 thing as I have been juggling eleventy million other priorities.

It took me a while to follow the instructions for making my Google Calendar public because it looked a little different on my screen, not sure why, browser difference maybe? Then after all that, I decided I didn't want to make it public as I don't really use it.  I did add it to my iGoogle homepage though and I added the little weather icons because I thought they were cute, probably not very accurate, but cute.

Our students use Google calendar so I am interested in reading the articles about how libraries are using this to good effect, off to do that now. BTW you can stop singing that song now...

Yeah, yeah, my heart's in a whirl I love, I love, I love my little calendar girl Every day (every day), every day (every day) of the year

*Photo credit Dead Yankee of Rob Halford, Judas Priest

Three is the Magic Number - Thing 7

I'm a member of three professional organisations:

CILIP - I am a Chartered member. Sub-groups I am a member of are UC&R and CDG.
BIALL - My organisation is a member. I am a Committee member of the Legal Information Group.
HEA - I am a Fellow of the HEA.

I like the sound of The Library Society of the World, I will have to investigate that further :)

Tangled Web - Thing 6

I seem to have overlapped my last Thing with this one somewhat, so this will be brief, it's my fault entirely for not looking ahead.

LinkedIn - Yes, I've spent some time this evening fleshing out my profile, I need to update it more regularly and indeed 'optimise' it as suggested by the resources on the cpd23 blog! I'm a member of the BIALL, CILIP and the 23 Things groups there, but have yet to find time to engage with them properly

Facebook - Yes, I have just adjusted this to personal friends and family only, I am a 'fan' of some professional groups there e.g. the HEA. Although I've currently deactivated my account as I'm having a break from it.

I've previously looked at the LISNPN and the LATnetwork and get email updates from CILIP Communities, but once again I rarely find time to make it a priority to visit these online networks because if I am hanging out there, I can't be somewhere else, and that somewhere else usually involves doing some actual work. How to make room for new ones like Google+ is a big challenge and I now wonder what happens to more traditional means of communication such as newsletters and jiscmail mailing lists? They still exist, do they still have value?  What do we give up in order to be able to engage with what is new?

Photo credit: Dead Yankee

...through a glass, darkly.* Thing 5

Reflecting - what have I learned so far from cpd23?
In essence: be selective, there are not enough hours in the day!

Thing One, Two and Four

Through my earlier blogging experience I've learned that I am not an avid or consistent diary keeper/list maker/recorder of details unlike some who appear to be natural cataloguers/record managers.  I like to be more spontaneous and creative, although I do have a terrible memory so recording details may be a habit I should try to cultivate.  I seem to think there are many more hours in the day than I have the energy to make use of.  I have a butterfly mind and want to have a go at what I can see everyone else is doing, I am learning to be more selective! I have been tardy in applying my blogging skills to work, but I've never been able to make it a priority in a busy work week. I am observing how others are doing this successfully however, so there may be a change here in time. I've learned I can write reasonably well and try to have a creative approach to this so that readers hopefully find something of interest to read.  I've also learned that I know quite a bit about blogging and have enjoyed helping colleagues to get to grips with all the jargon.

I've been on Blogger since January 2006, when I joined the crafting blog community and posted there until April 2010 when I dipped out. I still follow other craft blogs but just don't have time to actually craft at any speed in order to have something fresh to write about regularly, to take decent photographs of each project, upload and edit them and write interesting blog posts about the projects and read others' blogs and leave comments on them, so I decided to let my craft blog go.  I'm now writing this blog and following other work related blogs instead, the balance has shifted.  I used to use bloglines and then switched to iGoogle to manage my RSS feeds.

I've been on Twitter since Feb 2009, firstly using it as a personal tool, now leaning more towards a professional approach for connecting with other librarians, lawyers and academic staff and students. As a result of the cpd23 programme I'm in the process of reviewing who I follow, to regain some quality control and focus. I still don't feel I'm using Twitter to best advantage, although this may be due more to my dislike of the cult of self-promotion and simply finding the time in hectic work days.

Other social media channels:

I've been on Facebook since 2010, but I've currently deactivated my account and am having a break from it, I've also made it just personal friends and family, in an effort to regain some privacy.

I'm not yet on Google+ my strategic approach to this is that I prefer others to investigate first, then I learn from their tips and tricks.

I've learned I have a serious love/hate relationship with all social media, I go through phases of communicating and then being quiet.

Thing Three

Still find this rather abhorrent, so probably the less said about it the better.

Since previous posts - I haven't had time to investigate Pushnote and I didn't need IS help to download and install Chrome at work - hurrah!

Photo credits: Dead Yankee

Reflective Practice Generally

It's a constant challenge to find the time to reflect on practice, but we've always been encouraged to do it as a natural part of a professional approach.  We have an internal newsletter where we are encouraged to reflect upon and write about cpd events, but it seems to have lost focus over the years and so this seems to be a chore now rather than being beneficial.  The newsletter has largely been superceded by email which is quicker to inform staff of changes to procedure etc and blogging which offers a more interesting and personal platform for reflection.  We also discuss cpd events at meetings and at appraisal too. An example of taking action following a cpd event is that I set up a 'Reflecting on Teaching' meeting for me and my colleagues following 'Librarians as Teachers' held at Warwick. Finally - I do try to ask myself this question at work  - how can we apply this here?

To do: follow some of the links to the reflective practice resources, would be interested to know how you make the time for RP?

*1 Corinthians 13:12 and many other works.