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