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.
Friday 22 July 2011
Tuesday 19 July 2011
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:
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.
- 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!
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!
Wednesday 13 July 2011
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...
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...
Friday 1 July 2011
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...
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...
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