Things revisited

Having promised to continue my blog after completing the 23 things I have not had chance to post until now. My excuses include an Ofsted inspection at work amongst other things.

I am continuing to work on things covered in the cpd23 course and have been following up on Thing 22 relating to gaps in my CV. As a result I have arranged to undertake some voluntary work at my local secondary school library which I am very much looking forward to. Hopefully I will be of some help to them whilst learning at the same time. Their LMS (Heritage) is not one I am familiar with, but I know is more common in the sector than those I am used to (AMLIB and Galaxy) so even having a working knowledge of that could prove useful when applying for jobs in the future, you never know! Having studied school libraries as part of my qualification it will be interesting to see the pratice and compare to the FE sector in which I currently work.

Further inspired by the "things" to get more involved, I am going to visit Worcestershire College of Technology Study Centres next week as arranged by my regional CILIP group so I will report on this in my next blog post.

Thing 23

The final thing!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, in a former life I was a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and still use their forms to record my training and development. The Development Record has the following headings:

1. What do I want/need to learn?


2. What will I do to achieve this?


3. What resources or support will I need?


4. What will my success criteria be?


5. Target dates for review or completion.

I also use it to inform the individual development plan (IDP) which I have to complete at work as part of the appraisal process. In fact my participation in CPD23 things was a result of something recorded on my IDP, as my line manager suggested it to me. This means I can now tick off one thing on my list. However, participating in the course has actually now lead to me adding a whole load more things to the list as it has invited much reflection and has reignited my passion for learning. (The completion of my PG dip earlier in the year had led to a brief lull and period of recovery - the house needed decorating, I needed to start speaking to my family again etc!)

I have enjoyed the CPD23 things immensely and will certainly be revisiting it many areas at my leisure over the coming months. The "things" came thick and fast and it was sometimes difficult to keep up. Despite the end of the course, I hope to continue blogging about my experiences as I think it is a useful way of recording and reflecting on what I am doing.

My reflections on Library Camp 2011

I was lucky enough to get a ticket to library camp 2011 at the eleventh hour as I had been on the waiting list. It was an interesting and enjoyable day for a number of reasons:

1. The discussion




2. Putting faces to names




3. The cake

1.Briefly, sessions I attended included:

Information literacy and the gap between what is taught in school/FE and what is expected at undergraduate level. The group were in agreement of the importance of this area. We discussed the need to embed information and literacy skills into the curriculum, liaising with teaching staff rather than having separate library sessions which students often fail to see the point of. The need to get students to understand that they are transferable skills and can be used across subject divides was also commented on. This session interested me as we are currently trying to increase our delivery of such sessions at my workplace.

Shared reading - I went to this one out of curiosity as it is new to me. The text used to illustrate how shared reading works stirred emotions within the group and certainly demonstrated the powerful effect it can have and how texts need to be selected with care.

Bringing the retail experience into the library/zoning and use of library space - this was an enjoyable session (partly due to the danger element introduced by throwing a ball around to those wanting to speak) and gave me much to reflect on in terms of how space could be better used in my workplace. Since my return I have reserved the books recommended by Jo Alcock as I wanted to learn more about this.

HE in FE. I learned that the library's experience of this seemed to vary partly because of different contracts with HE establishments concerning computer access etc. Institutions differentiate between FE and HE students and it seemed that the two groups were not always treated equally with either one or the other being dominant in terms of access, skill sessions and resources.

2. It can feel a bit daunting when you go somewhere not knowing anyone at all but there were lots of friendly library people to chat to. As we were such a diverse range of library people it was perhaps a little harder than when you go to a training course or a particular conference where you have at least the sector or topic in common as a starting point. It was good to meet people whose blogs and tweets I have been reading face to face.

3.The cake!!! Everyone had made a great effort and I enjoyed cupcakes and cookies. The display by SWETS was stunning it has to be said...

I look forward to more events and congratulate Jo McCausland and her team of organisers.

Thing 22

Volunteering

The only voluntary work I have ever undertaken was on the Adult Basic Education scheme in Warwickshire many years ago. This consisted of helping adults who struggled with reading. I was not working in libraries at the time but my interest in literacy and the acquisition and application of reading skills was there even then. It is still a useful example to mention in interviews along with more recent work in this area. It was a good and rewarding experience and I only ended it when I got a job which involved a long commute and some evening hours so could no longer manage it.

At the moment my main role is in FE but I am also interested in school libraries as I find the areas of my work which interest me most are the ones which would feature highly in a school setting. I also studied an optional module on school libraries as part of my PG Dip. As I work part time I am considering approaching local schools for some voluntary work on my day off - voluntary work or work shadowing. Obviously I do not want to be a hindrance and a librarian could see it as a chore and unwanted extra burden. However hopefully it could also be seen as an opportunity to engage with a fellow professional and a fresh pair of eyes.

The question of whether we should work for free and it endangering the profession - I would say that voluntary work should never be done if it is at the expense of someone's job. I see it more as undertaking a project that otherwise may never get done or for someone to gain a some experience in the short term not anything sustainable or long term.

Thing 21

Having been working for 20 years now, I think I finally know what I like and don't like doing. I had recently started to list my qualifications, achievements and experience in preparation for updating my CV as I have not done this since I qualified. I do find that there is a lot of information about writing CVs out there but more often than not it is aimed at those just starting out, straight from school or college rather than those of us who must sift through quite a number of years of work experience to produce something no longer than 2 sides of A4. I think I may use my CILIP membership and get some advice on this in the near future. I have to say that it is at least 10-15 years since I applied for anything that asked for a CV. All posts nowadays seem to require the completion of an application form which is a time consuming task to say the least.

The interviews I have been successful at are the ones where I have been prepared, confident and above all enthusiastic. I have been to some where I have had some doubts about aspects of the job (eg the hours) and I think this comes across as it is in the back of your mind and you therefore do not get as far as discussing any concerns. I am not sure about the solution to this - sometimes a telephone conversation prior to interview may be helpful. Incidentally, do many people do this? I would be interested in comments back. I once worked with someone in HR who said she wouldn't consider applicants who hadn't rung up for a discussion in advance. (This was not in a library environment I have to say). Have you done this? What did you discuss? Did you get the job?

In addition to the areas to prepare posted by the wikiman in his blogpost http://thewikiman.org/blog/?p=1561 I would also suggest:

• partnership working

and for those applying to schools or FE especially,

• equality and diversity



• safeguarding.

Thing 20

Library routes and roots

I did blog about this for thing 10 so won't repeat it all here but will link my thing 10 blog post to the Library routes site. To answer the questions posed by thing 20 about whether my own path ws typical or unusual compared to others, having read some of the other posts on the Library Routes site, one realises that there is probably no such thing as a typical path into library and information work. In the same way there are many different roles within many different institutions/companies etc. Having said that I have gone around the houses a bit before finally realising my ambition of qualifying as a librarian so have not followed the straight out of college and into the profession route but this means I have lived outside the echo chamber and have other experience and skills to offer the profession.

Do I have advice for people in the early stages of their career? Well I am in the early stages of my career in one sense having qualified this year although in another sense I am mid way through (or maybe less if the government keep on raising the retirement age?!). Having realised my ambitions somewhat late perhaps, I would say follow your dream and don't give up - its never too late to get back into education, I started my library postgrad at 40. Take any opportunities to gain relevant work experience and keep a record of all the transferable skills gathered along the way you never know when they may come in handy to get you a post.

Thing 17

I have jumped the gun somewhat on this one. Although I knew it was coming up in the things, I wanted to do something different for induction. I felt like a change from boring myself (never mind the audience) with Powerpoint so having read the Wikiman's blog post http://thewikiman.org/blog/?p=1690&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thewikiman+%28thewikiman.org%29 a while back, I had a go. I must admit that it is a first attempt and done under time pressure so there is a lot that could be better but for a first attempt to present to an audience who has probably never seen Prezi before it is OK. The difficulty has been that as our inductions are normally delivered in Powerpoint in a linear fashion it was hard to get out of that mindset and be more creative. This is especially challenging for me a person who comes out as a definite "square" when using Myers-Briggs personality types. My colleagues were impressed however and thought that despite its rough edges it looked "arty" so I ran with it. I must admit I didn't fully understand what I was doing in terms of zooming in and out and sometimes things just happened randomly! Given more thinking and planning time though I think I will definitely be using it again.

You can see my first effort here.. http://prezi.com/faxzu8lasgii/lrc-induction/

Although I had heard the name Slideshare before I must admit I had never investigated it or realised what it was - I'm sure it would have and will be useful to me had I known and it will be another thing to add to my growing armoury of useful tools.

Thing 19

I have been really enjoying working my way through the 23 things although it has been quite difficult to keep up, with new things coming thick and fast.

There are definitely some things which are new to me which I will be using in the future. I am working on my social media sites and intend to further use and develop my knowledge and use of Twitter and Linkedin. ( A new phone I keep dropping hints about for Christmas will be of help here).

As I stated in my last post I am particularly pleased to discover free screencasting software and can see a lot of possibilities for using that in our LRC. I think that over time I will also come to appreciate other productivity tools included in the things such as dropbox and evernote but I haven't had much time to spend exploring these yet.

Keeping these posts brief at the moment as we are mid LRC inductions at the moment and so very busy!

Thing 18

Screencasts and podcasts are definitely "things" I/ my colleagues who I have impressed with a demonstration, will be making use of. They are ideal for putting demonstrations on Moodle our Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) eg of how to search the catalogue, how to find and use e-books and how to print all of which are common queries in the college library. I was going to attach a very basic quick effort done in a couple of minutes but uploading to the internet seems slightly beyond my capabilities at the moment (maybe I will try this later when I have more time). I had hoped for sound but was doing this on my home laptop so if doing it for real in work would also put sound on.

I used Screencast-o matic and it was very simple and straightforward. I also experimented at home with Jing but as the "thing" writer suggested was unable to download this at work. I have also looked at (listened to?) Podcasts/podcasting which could be useful for recording library guides and improving our accessibility.

Thing 16

Reading this week's thing has made me realise that I should probably do more in this area. I am always putting the case for libraries with family, friends and colleagues but have not really gone any further than that. Although my main job is in an FE college I also do some hours in the Public Library and I do try and promote the Public Library to our students too so I guess that counts. One of my areas of interest is accessibility and so I am keen to show the students with learning difficulties whom I work with in college that they can use the Public Library and what it can offer them. I have taken accompanied a group of college students on a visit to the Public Library which they enjoyed. I guess there is not a lot more I can say at the moment other than pledge to spend some time looking at the links in this "thing" and reflect on what else I could be doing.

Thing 15

I have attended various seminars, conferences and events over the years although not all whilst working in a library context. Many related to a previous Human Resources training role concerning commissioning training for social workers. I have also been involved in organising such events. In terms of library work, apart from training events, I have attended the LIS show a couple of years ago in Birmingham which I enjoyed and have networked with peers at study school at Aberystwyth. More recently I have asked my line manager if I can attend the New Professionals Conference in 2012 and this has been agreed and put in my development plan for the year. I found out about library camp too late unfortunately.

As for presenting I have done this on a small scale, mainly in a training context or sometimes to management. I am looking forward (!) to the next couple of weeks of non- stop inductions to new students (I have jumped the gun and made my first Prezi for this). I have not given any presentations to fellow professionals as yet.

I tend to use Powerpoint as a prompt rather than be totally scripted but I always have some notes as a back-up. I have often used file cards (tied together with a treasury tag in case I drop them) one for notes for each slide. I am not then tied to notes on Powerpoint and can move away from the screen. I am more confident if I believe I know my topic well, and even more confident if I think my audience don't! It is a bugbear of mine if people write wordy Powerpoint slides and proceed to read them out so I tend to summarise (in case anyone is visually impaired) and presume my audience are literate .

Another point which I think is important to mention for anyone about to give a presentation is to slow down and take your time - aim to speak slower than you think you need to. Everyone rushes when nervous and the audience need to digest what you are saying. Pause on a slide to give the audience time to read it before rushing to the next or pause to take a sip of water - what seems like a long pause or gap to you will not seem so to the audience.

I'm looking forward to seeing what other cpd23 participants have to say on this "thing".

Thing 14 - Zotero, Mendeley and Citulike

Again, these tools look interesting and very useful. I have not used any of them before - it almost makes me wish I had carried on past the PG Dip to write a dissertation - maybe one day! They are probably beyond the needs of most of our FE students, but could be of interest to our growing number of HE students. I will aim to familiarise myself further and promote them in skills sessions.

Thing 13

Keeping it very brief as the busiest weeks of the year approach. I have scratched the surface of Thing13 to get an idea of what the software offers I can see potential for google docs and Dropbox although currently we tend to rely on sharing files via a shared drive as none of us work remotely.

I have attended a course previously on blogs and Wikis and am pleased to be able to put my basic blogging knowledge into practice on the CPD23 things. I haven't as yet exploited my knowledge of Wikis....at the moment my feelings are so many "things" so little time but I think it is just that time of year and once the new term gets off the ground I will be able to revisit some of the 23 things at a more leisurely pace.

Thing 12

Suddenly I feel a bit behind with CPD23 things having been on holiday and come back to the pre-term frenzy. I will try and blog a few times over the next couple of weeks to catch up before term starts, after which who knows when I will get the chance!

Briefly Thing 12 then...

I definitely think there are more advantages than disadvantages to social networking in a professional capacity and hope to become more involved as time goes on. Prior to CPD23 I had dabbled a little using Facebook in a personal rather than professional capacity and followed a few blogs.

Since starting CPD I have had a look at Twitter although I feel I am not able to get the full benefit at the moment as it is blocked at work and my phone is not yet of the 21st century... soon be Christmas! Since finishing my studies at Aberystwyth I had missed the sense of community offered by Moodle discussion threads to distance learners, so I am enjoying reading, writing and commenting within the library blogging community since starting CPD23. When working in libraries such as those in schools and colleges where library staff may be lone working or in a very small minority it is good to be able to network with others in similar situations and share best practice.

Things 10 and 11

I have taken a rather circuitous route into library work. It was something I always wanted to do but when I graduated in French Studies (back in 1990) I wanted to be out earning money. I was young and in love(!) and didn't want to commit to 9 months as a graduate trainee before going back into studying which was, as far as I knew, the only option at the time. I was also keen to use my language skills. I acquired my first job as a result of temping - I happened to be working at the English headquarters of an Anglo French company who on discovering I was fluent in French offered me a post as bilingual PA to the the finance director. Despite my bosses attempts to interest me in the financial markets, finance wasn't really my thing however. My second and much more "me" job was at a multimedia language centre at Loughborough University, this was followed by LA and SLA at library headquarters in British Forces Germany. After starting a family and returning to the UK, due to circumstances I left library work for a while and spent 7 years working my way up in local government HR. This gave me many transferable skills and experience including training, project management, budget management and partnership working. However I missed library work and then I found out about Aberystwyth's distance learning course and applied and was accepted onto the course. I felt I would be better off working in a library environment whilst studying, so took a large cut in salary (money isn't everything I learnt since 1990!) and applied for my current post as part-time LA in FE and later also in the public library. Having recently qualified I am now starting to think about chartership and looking to move to a professional post where I can put my both library knowledge and experience and skills gained in libraries and elsewhere into practice.

Reading some of the other CPD blogs about this thing has reminded me that I too used to put library tickets into my Enid Blyton collection and was a librarian at my junior school. It is definitely a vocation ;)

Things 8 and 9

The weeks seem to be flying by and it is quite difficult to keep up with the "things" thank heavens there's a catch up week soon. As far as Thing 8 Google calendar is concerned I have decided that one is not for me because I use Outlook at work. Going back to one of my early posts I am still a bit nervous as to what information I put out in cyberspace and so don't quite like the idea of saying I am on holiday in Timbuktu in a calendar so someone can hack in and go burgle my house - call me old fashioned but I only write that on my kitchen calendar! Current revelations of hacking scandals have done nothing to reassure me I have to say. So I think I will stick with my work calendar for now which is just shared between colleagues, and my kitchen calendar without which my life and the lives of my family would fall apart.

Thing 9 Evernote looks much more interesting though and I can see its potential. Amazingly network security at work allowed me to download it onto my PC. I have not yet had as much luck on my home laptop however - maybe because it is this week's "thing" there is a lot of traffic so I will keep trying. I have tentatively made a couple of notes. Previously I have just saved everything of potential use to my Delicious account.

As there have been quite a few new things for me to get to grips with so far it is going to take a while to get the benefits and realise the potential of some of them but at least keeping up with the course is making me have a go. One thing coming out of CPD23 is that I should really upgrade my phone to take advantage of what is out there.

Meanwhile I am catching up with many tasks in the LRC and preparing for the new term whilst the students are on holiday - no customers but lots of maintenance going on around me - trees being chopped down outside my window, roof, which was stolen over the weekend being replaced (yes that's right, stolen!) so not very peaceful - but there's never a dull moment.

Things 6 and 7

Online networks...well I have been a member of Facebook for quite some time and use this to contact friends and family rather than for professional purposes. I am not into adding friends to the list just for the sake of it and tend to limit my network to people I actually know and do want to interact with. On the other hand, I hadn't joined Linkedin and it was something I had been meaning to do for a while, especially since finishing my PG Dip... so now I have. This has probably made me realise that my professional network is actually quite limited at the moment (either that or no-one I know is on Linkedin!). One of the reasons for my lack of connections is that I only returned to the Library field when I started my current post in 2008 and have been studying during this time and have therefore had limited time to actively network either online or face to face.

These "Things" have made me realise it is probably something I need to make more effort to do now. I am signed up to the new professionals network and to this end I have my line manager's agreement that I can attend the LIS New Professionals Conference in 2012 assuming there is one. Looking at some of the topics discussed this year I feel that it would be something I could benefit from.

Now I no longer have access to university discussion forums and professional journals, I suspect I will be making more use of what CILIP has to offer on its website including its communities. I also intend to consider whether I have the time to become involved at committee level with one of the CILIP groups I belong to.

A summary of my involvement and experience of professional networks therefore is "could do better" and I intend to.

Thing 5- Reflective Practice

Having in the past been a student member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), reflective practice is not new to me. Members were encouraged to keep reflective logs as part of their CPD and I followed their suggested template for keeping a development record and still do. The template ensures I record the following details as to my learning experiences:

• date



• what did you do?



• why?



• what did you learn?



• how will you/have you used this?



• any further action?

As well as getting me to reflect on my experiences it is a useful document when it comes to job applications for remembering what I have done and also when it comes to filling in boxes at appraisal time (colleagues tend to rely on me and my records to tell them what training they did last year!).

However, as mentioned in the cpd23 things time is always a problem and I feel I do not perhaps spend as much time and effort reflecting as I should/could. Having completed my PGDip ILS in January it is only now that I can begin to look back and reflect on this and what I have learnt and make a concerted effort to start to apply more of it to my practice even though I am not as yet in a professional post.

As far as the 23 things go it has been a bit of a race through them these past few weeks - I must admit with two part time jobs and two children for whom I provide a hotel and taxi service, I need to be selective about which tools will be of benefit. I am in awe of those who seem to have all the social media options covered and have time to manage them all. Now the college term has ended I have a little more time to explore the tools and need to put some thought into which ones will ultimately be beneficial to me professionally for my own development as well as how the tools can be put to use for the benefit of the LRC.


So, to reflect on the CPD23 things so far...

I am enjoying writing blog posts and find it useful to put my thoughts down. It is also nice to know that I am sharing the experience with a large group of like minded people and it is interesting to read the blogs of others involved. In the coming months I hope to improve upon its design - perhaps some pictures to break up this long text? and use the skills I have developed to improve our LRC blog which is currently non-interactive and perhaps make more use of the forums on the VLE to engage students and LRC users.

I already have RSS feeds set up and I feel I now need to review them and make sure they are all still relevant to my current needs and perhaps add others from suggestions I have looked at on the cpd23 course. Having feeds is a good time saver and avoids having to go to individual websites meaning the useful items can be sifted out from the not so useful at a quicker rate.

As I have said in my previous post earlier today, the jury is still out on Twitter as I am new to it so I am remaining open minded as to its usefulness/uses and will report on this later.

I found the information on branding useful and have tried to make links between my Twitter username and my blog name and I have become more aware of the professional image of myself I wish to portray. I intend to continue to work on this.

I also welcome feedback I have had and hopefully will continue to receive on my posts.

Thing 4 continued

Well I finally gave in and set up my Twitter account (@LouisafromtheRC) whilst at home, having had no success as yet at persuading the powers that be to give me access at work. I am unsure as to the value of it as yet as it is early days and reading comments from others it takes a while, so the jury is out. I think I may have signed up to follow too many people/groups to manage I will have to monitor the situation and fine tune things.

RSS feeds are something I have used for quite a while now and do find very useful for keeping up-to-date with my favourite blogs (these include Phil Bradley's weblog, thewikiman, joeyanne librarian) and other information of interest to me such as job vacancies and career opportunities and the humorous A librarian's guide to etiquette.

Pushnote is another tool which is not available to me at work so I will have to leave that for another time.

Meanwhile it is training week here at college so, as there was little of direct relevance that I haven't attended in previous years, I am taking the opportunity to catch up with CDP23 things as my own training - more posts to follow shortly!

Thing 4 - part one

It has been a while since my last post. This is for two reasons. Firstly, last week was the end of term for the majority of our students so consisted of a last minute rush for computers and printing, followed by students wanting to sign out and clear their library accounts. This obviously meant a busy week for staff.

The second reason is that staff are not automatically allowed access to Twitter so my line manager is now jumping through hoops on my behalf to explain why no I will not be spending the summer following the likes of Cheryl Cole, but simply would like to be able to network professionally etc. I am hoping that this will be resolved in the near future and I can continue on course with 23 things. Watch this space...

Thing 3

It was interesting to think about branding and presenting a professional image. Apart from this blog set up for CPD 23 I am only currently using Facebook. Although my Facebook account is a personal one I am very aware of what I say, with a view that any current or future employer may choose to look me up. The same applies to library customers or may be even burglars should I mention I'm going on holidays etc. I think I have privacy settings covered but am not sure I trust them!

Searching for myself brought up some interesting links and the difference between search engine results and how far they went back also proved interesting - in one my name popped up as a contact in relation to a post I held several years ago. We now leave an online trail of our lives.

I will think about my personal branding some more in time for joining Twitter and Linkedin which I intend to do during the 23 things process. Students are finishing their courses in the next week or so so the LRC will calm down and there will be time for some developmental work both for the LRC and myself having more time to consider the "things". However with some new staff starting over the summer I could be being optimistic about time...

Thing 2

Having looked at several other blogs of fellow CDP23 ers, I realise mine is definitely still a work in progress and I have a lot to learn! I will keep tweaking and hopefully make it more appealing and interesting. It is of course partly a question of finding the time amongst all the other daily demands. Today I finished my working week with an informal gathering to celebrate the achievements of students taking part in the Six Book Challenge - cake and drinks were enjoyed by all. Anyway, I hope people who visit my blog will not be put off by its somewhat early developmental stage and will perhaps pop back later.

What I hope to gain from CPD23

Following on from what I have outlined below as my reasons for engaging in the CPD23 things I think I will benefit from having a structure to follow and time set aside to get around to learning all the things I have been meaning to do for ages- you know how it is! I have previously been on a course about blogging but had not got around to setting one up, so I now have a purpose and intend to improve on the basic blog I have initially set up. I am also looking forward to networking with others with the same mission.

Welcome to my blog.

I am a newly qualified librarian currently working both as a learning resource centre assistant in an FE college, and as a library assistant in the Public Library which provides an interesting range of experience. I am embarking on the CPD23 things http://cpd23.blogspot.com/ for professional development and to stop me getting lazy now I have finished my postgraduate studies. I intend to use this blog to write about my experiences during the course and to share other gems about working in learning resource centres and libraries as I see fit. Not having blogged before, the focus may change as I progress through the course and I realise the value I can gain by writing it and what others would like to read.

Louisa