Discovering public library collections

I was pleased to read in a recent Update that OCLC are planning a national union catalogue for UK public libraries. Anything that increases the public's awareness of public library resources has to be a good thing, especially at a time when some libraries are under threat.

On a personal note, as part of my job involves working in inter-library loans, it will be useful to be able to quickly and easily see holdings of multiple public libraries. We rarely obtain inter-library loans from UK public libraries at the moment and rely heavily on COPAC and worldcat but we may find that some of our readers requests can be found in a UK public library.

Hello from LibRhi! (Previously known as Newbie Blogger)

I have been very quiet on the blogging front for some months now since the end of 23 Things, but with the spring comes new enthusiasm. I found during 23 Things that keeping a blog really helped me reflect and evaluate my learning so here's hoping I can keep it up on this new blog! I decided to start a new blog as I don't feel like such a Newbie Blogger any more.

It was a while ago now, but back in January I attended the Libraries@Cambridge 2011 conference, which was inspiring. Unfortunately I couldn't make it to the first two sessions, and was disappointed to miss Ned Potter's talk, especially as this seemed to generate a lot of discussion throughout the day. I plan to catch up with the slides though, to find out what escaping the Echo Chamber is all about.

Lesley Noblett's session on redesigning the library was very interesting, especially thinking about how by removing counters and moving towards self-service, the focus can switch from library processes to users. It was particularly interesting to hear about new ways of working in Cambridgeshire public libraries, such as floor-walking/roving, the skills staff needed for this and how they adapted to the change. It was good to get a different perspective on ways of working in libraries as this is quite different to how we currently work.

The afternoon sessions celebrated working together in Cambridge libraries. It's always nice to hear about what is going on. One of the sessions was about the Cambridge Librarians TeachMeet in September, which I attended as an 'enthusiastic lurker'. The short presentations and informal atmosphere of the TeachMeet made for an enjoyable evening and I was disappointed to miss TeachMeet 2 earlier this week. My favourite thing from TeachMeet was Prezi, which seemed quite popular with other attendees judging by those who used it at the Libraries@Cambridge conference. Prezi presentations are visually appealing and make ideas so easy to follow. I don't have any presentations lined up, but I would consider using Prezi as an alternative to Powerpoint for future presentations.

All in all, it was a good day at the Libaries@Cambridge conference!