23 Things for Professional Development

So here is where this blog may start to get confusing...as well as Cam 23 2.0, I've decided to have a go at the 23 Things for Professional Development and put it all on the same blog. Will this work? I hope so!

I'm hoping to be able to keep up with both 23 things programmes. When doing last year's 23 Things, I found it very helpful to have set things to do and reflect on each week, and a deadline to work towards. Sometimes it can be difficult to fit CPD into the normal working week, so this structure is a great way of ensuring that it doesn't get put off! I'm looking forward to the wide mixture of things, including the less-technology focussed ones. Some of the things I know a bit about and some will be completely new to me (e.g. Jing). The reflection weeks will be useful as I'd like to improve on reflective practice, something which will be good practice for Chartership.

One of the aspects of CPD23 that is particularly interesting to me is that so many people all over the world can get involved. I'll be interested to have a look at some blogs from outside the Cambridge library sector as well as within. Thing 2, here we come!

Cam23 2.0

I'm pleased that 23 Things is back in 2011 as Cam23 2.0! I really enjoyed the programme last year and as well as learning a lot about web 2.0 and social media, I gained the confidence to blog. There were a few surprises, such as the discovery that I actually continued to use Twitter (something I had steered clear of prior to 23 Things!). While I'm by no means a prolific tweeter, I do find it useful as one way of helping me to keep up with what's going on in the library world. 23 Things was a way of getting more involved in the Cambridge libraries community and this was not just through meeting people at the launch and closing parties.

I've decided to stick with Blogger so that I can use my existing blog. As for what I want to get out of Cam23 2.0, I hope to refresh my skills and update my learning from last year. In this fast moving world, some things may be changed since last summer, and I'll be trying out some of the new things as well. 

iGoogle was one of my favourite things last time around, and I have continued to use it (although not every day). I have just taken the time to review my iGoogle page. Having investigated the current hottest gadgets, I decided to add the Google translate gadget to my home tab. Every now and then it is useful to have a translator to hand, so I will try this out next time I need one. My 'library stuff' tab is the one I use most. It's my preferred method of following blogs as I only follow a few, and contains the ever useful Copac and Worldcat gadgets. To prove I remember some of what I learnt last 23 Things, here's a pretty picture:

For the extra thing this week, I have added a search box and a labels word cloud to my blog. It's so easy to make changes in Blogger, which is one of the reasons I like it. As time goes on, some of the other gadgets may be useful too. I picked a very librarian-ish template this time around, rather than sticking to the default. I look forward to viewing some of the other Cam23 2.0 blogs, seeing which templates and gadgets people have used and of course reading the posts!