Wednesday 30 November 2011

Reflection and what next? #cpd23

Well here we are at thing 23! I've enjoyed the 23 things for professional development programme, and all the learning and reflecting that has come out of it, even if it has been a bit of a rush to the finish! There has been a nice mixture of new technology and tools to learn about, with other aspects of development covered too. I have appreciated the reflection weeks as a chance to reinforce learning, think about how things are going, and remind myself of what I have learnt so far.

Several months ago I put together a Personal Development Plan for chartership. This built on the personal development plan that my manager and I had discussed at work, which included goals that were directly relevant to my job. I then expanded this by thinking about what I would like to do that wasn't directly relevant to that role, and some areas that I thought I would need to develop in the future. I shared this with my chartership mentor, who was very good at getting me to think in terms of measurable and time-limited goals. My PDP has recently expanded since I started my second part-time library job almost three months ago, with new short-term achievable goals and learning outcomes added. I find a PDP a very useful exercise as it provides a structure for measuring progress against, and makes me step back and think about where I need to develop and what I want to do next.

So what next? I'll be working through the action points on my PDP, collecting evidence and reflecting as I go, and then eventually trying to put together my portfolio for chartership. I will put some of the things I have learnt from this programme into practice at work - perhaps a screencast will be next on the agenda. I aim to carry on with this blog for cpd to record some of my learning and reflections (although probably not quite as frequently as I have done over the last month!)

Before I end this post, I would just like to say thanks so much to the cpd23 team for all their hard work putting the programme together, answering questions, providing encouragement and everything else they have done.

Sunday 27 November 2011

Volunteering #cpd23

Careers advisers often recommend volunteering as a way of gaining experience, filling in gaps in your experience, learning new skills, demonstrating an interest in the field, and getting started in a career. While at university, I did some volunteering in the student-run history duplicates library, later becoming a committee member with responsibility for publicity to attract new volunteers and increase library usage, as well as supervising two volunteers. This gave me useful experience to talk about in my first interview for a library position, as well as showing an interest in and commitment to the profession when I hadn't yet had any employment in libraries. So for me volunteering at the beginning of my career was a positive way of gaining experience, skills, getting my foot in the door and all the benefits that careers advisers are always talking about!

My first job post-qualifying was part time, and there were no other part time library positions around at the time to make up full time hours, so I did consider volunteering. However instead I successfully applied for an interesting part time job in an HR department outside of the library sector. I enjoyed this position and gained an awareness of people management issues, plus useful transferable skills, such as minute taking and budget administration. I was about to write that I haven't done any volunteering since gaining my library qualification, but then I realised that I have! My position as a committee member on my regional branch of the Career Development Group is unpaid, and done mostly in my own time. I only joined recently, but so far it has given me the chance to meet new people in other library sectors and I'm sure it will be a beneficial experience for me, as well as being a chance to contribute to the profession.

Volunteering can benefit the profession by providing volunteers with experience of new sectors, and opportunities to learn, which can help them further their careers as information professionals. The question of whether volunteering devalues the profession is an interesting and tricky one. A friend of mine who is studying law recently did an unpaid internship, and competed with other talented people for the opportunity. While I have little knowledge of the legal profession, it seems to me that volunteering of this sort is quite common, without devaluing the profession. Could volunteering in libraries be carried out in the same way, with people applying to volunteer for a set period of time, perhaps to work on a specific project or to gain all-round experience of a particular library sector? Maybe not, I don't know. Many of us just can't afford to work for free, but volunteering can be mutually beneficial for the volunteer and the library.

Promoting yourself in job applications and at interview #cpd23

Part 1: Identifying your strengths; capitalising on your interests
I feel very lucky to have two part time jobs that I love in the same library, one in the mornings and the other in the afternoons. It may not be for everyone, but it suits me very well. I like variety in my work, and that is exactly what I get! I really enjoy enquiry work, both face to face and via email, and I get to do a lot of that. I enjoy the satisfaction of successfully troubleshooting an electronic resource, the detective work involved in tracking down that obscure book that someone wants to obtain on inter-library loan, or the government report that a user is having difficulty finding, and my jobs involve all these aspects. But it's also nice to have a break from dealing directly with customers to do some cataloguing, check ebook availability for ordering, or update the website and I get to do that too. I think two of my strengths are customer service and prioritising while dealing with multiple tasks, and I love to tick things off a to-do list!

40+251 Done-ish by bark, on Flickr
Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License  by  bark 

Part 2: Applying for a job
One of the most useful pieces of advice that my university careers centre gave me was to be very clear when demonstrating that you meet all the criteria when applying for a job. Employers may have lots of applications to sift through, so clearly spelling out that you meet each criteria rather than leaving it up to the employer to read between the lines will be helpful for them (and your application!). Also, if there is a criteria that you don't quite meet, you can at least show how you partially meet it or are working towards it, instead of just not mentioning it at all.

Part 3: Interviews
The CAR (context, action, results) structure for answering competency-based questions is a good one to remember, thanks cpd23! I often get nervous at interviews, so I try to remember that an interview can be a two-way thing - a chance for employers to find out if the candidate is suitable for the job, and for the candidate to find out if they would enjoy the job and working for that employer. Of course, preparation is key, so you can usually find out answers to most of your questions about the job and the employer before the interview (from their website or by speaking informally to the recruiting manager), but thinking of it as a two-way interview makes it much less nerve-wracking!

Saturday 26 November 2011

Library routes project

Library day in the life project is great if there's a library/information sector that you want to learn more about as you can discover what people in that sector actually do. It's interesting to found out what other people do day to day in their jobs. I've never been involved before, but I notice that it seems to happen every January and July so watch this space next January!

Library routes project is a site where information professionals record why they chose to work in libraries and how they got to where they are today. I've had a look at some of the posts, and it's interesting to compare routes that people have taken, their experiences and thoughts on what they have done, as well as hearing about all the different kinds of information work that many people have done. My post for thing 10 is duly added to the Library Routes Project wiki.

Friday 25 November 2011

cpd23 reflections #cpd23

Ah, time out for a breather and some reflecting (but not too long a breather with the deadline fast approaching!) So, here are some quick reflections...

What have I learnt from the programme so far?
  • I benefitted from thing 3 branding, as I have now given some thought to my online identity.
  • I've gained from exploring new networks, meeting some new people and discovering new blogs, where it is great to see other people's views on the cpd23 things (as well as the other things they are blogging about).
  • It has also been useful to reflect on things such as mentoring, and actually put something in writing about them. In the future, looking back at this sort of thing can be a reminder of what I was thinking at the time, and it might be helpful when it comes to putting together my portfolio.
  • This programme and the Cam23 things programme have both given me things to blog about, which has helped me get over my initial nervousness about blogging. I doubt that I would have a blog if I hadn't undertaken these programmes. However, now that I do have a blog, I hope to carry it on after the end of the programme.

What will I integrate into my working routine?
Some things I just have no need for at the moment, but others are useful right now.
  • I use Twitter for current awareness, but still don't engage in conversations with others as much as I could.
  • I now make more use of RSS feeds as I follow more blogs than before, although I still look at my blogger dashboard more regularly than my feed reader.
  • Zotero is the reference management tool that I have started using for possible chartership references.
  • Lightshot is now my tool of choice for screenshots.

Here comes the obligatory reflection photo - any excuse to pretend it's still summer!

Thursday 24 November 2011

Jing, screen capture and podcasts

I've already tried out and blogged about screencast-o-matic for Cam23 things, so was keen to test out Jing to see how it compares. I liked Jing's sun tool, and found it easy to use for both screenshots and screencasting. However I was a bit put off by the fact that you seemed to need to sign up for screencast.com for sharing a link to your capture (even if you didn't want to share, it seemed there wasn't an option to continue without it), and to edit the capture needed another tool to be downloaded.

Screenshots - Jing vs Lightshot
I will probably stick to Lightshot for screen capture, as this offers the same facility to share your capture via a generated link, but without the need the register with another product. Lightshot can also be edited without having to download or sign up for another product. Both Jing and Lightshot were equally slow to upload screen captures for sharing.

Screencasting - Jing vs Screencast-o-matic
There isn't much to choose between Screencast-o-matic and Jing in terms of features or ease of use. The main difference seemed to me to be whether you prefer the cursor to be shown (Jing) or replaced by a yellow circle (Screencast-o-matic) when viewing your screencast.

For my thoughts on podcasts, see my earlier post. Thanks to cpd23 for pointing out the arcadia@cambridge podcasts and Careers Group University of London podcasts – both look interesting and useful.

Tuesday 22 November 2011

I like to move it move it #cpd23

I had a go at a Prezi earlier for Cam23 things, and you can see my first attempt here. Being a visual person, I like the look and movement of Prezi (as long as there isn't overuse of movement to avoid inducing motion sickness!) I hadn't realised that it was possible to upload and enhance Powerpoint slides in Prezi - this could be a useful time-saver if you don't want to start from scratch. I could perhaps see myself using Prezi to create an introduction or induction to the area of the library that I work in.

Slideshare is something I've also previously explored in the same post as Prezi. Although I haven't used it since as I haven't done any presentations, I'll remember it for future reference. Personally, I'm not convinced about putting my CV on slideshare. I prefer to share it only when needed e.g. when applying for a job, in which case it can be tailored to demonstrate how I meet the criteria and requirements for that particular job.

Monday 21 November 2011

Advocacy and getting published

Advocacy is a big topic in libraries at the moment, particularly for public libraries. So far I haven't been involved except in a very small and informal way by using word of mouth to recommend visits to the local public library to my friends and family, especially if they mention a book that they want to read. Save Our Libraries Day is an example of advocacy that I think is particularly effective, as it involved a number of different activities on the same day across the country and drew a lot of media attention.

For this thing I have had a look at some of the resources linked to from the cpd23 blog. I hadn't seen That's Not Online! before, and was pleased to see a mention of the colonial blue books. I also looked at the CILIP advocacy resources. There are quite a lot of resources there, including templates and links to facts and figures about libraries, which are useful for putting together a presentation or to back up a campaign.

I work in the higher education library sector, which has had less focus in the news. However in this time of shrinking budgets, it is important to demonstrate the value of the university library and its staff, both to students and academics, to senior members of the university, and to potential donors. Information professionals adapt services to meet users needs, so we need to let people know this and what the service can offer.

As for getting published, I am always interested to read about what other professionals are thinking or have been doing, but find it harder to think of things I could write. At least blogging is getting me used to writing things that may get read by other people, and 23 things is providing me with topics to write about - a step along the way!

Friday 18 November 2011

Events - attending, presenting and organising

Well, mostly attending anyway as that's what I've had more experience at! Events that combine a variety of sessions and plenty of time to network or otherwise engage with other participants get my vote. Discussions and activities in small groups are useful for making you reflect on what is being taught/presented. I feel lucky that my university has a library conference every year. This usually has a great mix of guest speakers and of presentations from library staff, so it's great for keeping up to date with projects and developments that are happening in other libraries within the university.

I would like to attend a national conference like the New Professionals Conference or Umbrella, as I've never been to one before, and think they would be great opportunity to meet other information professionals and hear about what others are doing. One day I think it would be beneficial to attend an IFLA conference to get more of an international perspective.

Small informal events such as Teachmeets may be just as inspiring and useful for attendees, and probably cheaper and involve less travelling. I'm not a confident public speaker, so informal events like this would be the most likely way to get me to start presenting. I was sorry to miss Library Camp, as it sounded like a fun and interesting day.
So far the only experience I've had at organising events has been organising social trips for library staff, but now I've joined the CDG East of England committee, I may be getting some experience of organising an event with a committee in the near future!

Tuesday 15 November 2011

Exciting citing #cpd23

I've been using Zotero to manage references that might be useful for my professional development. More about this is in a previous post and here is my updated zotero library (growing very slowly but surely!)


In the interests of exploring other reference management tools for the purposes of being able to help and advise library users about them, let's take a quick look at Mendeley.

One thing I like about Mendeley is the feature to drag and drop pdfs into your Mendeley library, to generate a citation. I tested this with a couple and found that the journal title was wrong both times, but I may have just been unlucky with my choices! At least any incorrect details can be manually amended, and Google Scholar searched for the correct details. The ability to retrospectively organise an existing pdf library sounds like a real bonus to those who aren't at the beginning of the research process. The collaboration side of Mendeley looks useful too, with the ability to share documents and folders with colleagues, and join relevant Groups.

I haven't really got to know all the things Mendeley does, as I haven't used it extensively, but at least now I am not completely clueless if a library user asks me about it! In general I think it's useful for librarians to know a bit about reference management tools, particularly for those in user education type roles in academic libraries, where many library users are likely to use them and may want advice about them.

Monday 14 November 2011

Google Docs, wikis and Dropbox #cpd23

I've written about Google Docs here a few months ago, and have to admit I haven't actually used it since, although I still love its potential for embedding forms such as book recommendations onto library websites.

With nothing really to add to my previous post about wikis, I will skip over that and get straight on to exploring Dropbox.

Dropbox is such a useful application for sharing documents between computers, and acts as a great back up for those documents you are currently working on. What I love about it is that you have a Dropbox folder on your computer where the files are stored, so that you don't have to log in to the website every time you want to access a file. And when you want to access the file from a different computer, you can login to the Dropbox website to see whatever is in your Dropbox folder. A friend gave me a handy tip about using Synctoy to synchronise folders for Dropbox. For example, if you are working on multiple documents for a project that are saved in the same folder, you can use Synctoy to synchronise that folder with your Dropbox folder. You can either set it up to synchronise automatically, or click 'run' every time you want it to synchronise. This saves having to remember exactly which files you want to update to Dropbox. You can control whether it synchronises both ways, or just the one way, and whether or not deleted files are included in this.

Friday 11 November 2011

Thing 12 - Putting the social into social media #cpd23

The cpd23 things blog post gave some great advantages of using social networking in the context of professional development, which I won’t repeat here. I started using social media for professional development during the Cam23 things programme in summer 2010, and will definitely carry on using it after the end of this programme.

After initial scepticism, I've grown to like using Twitter for seeing what other information professionals are sharing, and spotting useful links. However I only follow 40-something people and each time I log in there are so many updates to scan through, that I’m sure I have missed some interesting things. It would be easy to spend a lot of time on Twitter, so this could be considered a disadvantage! Although I don't tweet very often from my personal account, I use one of my library's Twitter accounts and Facebook pages to share relevant information, so hopefully this is helping and adding to the online community in some way. 

For me, the tricky thing is the blurring of professional and personal boundaries. I initially used Facebook for personal social networking, Twitter for professional social networking and kept the two as separate online identities, but I'm finding that distinction harder to keep up, as more and more of my personal friends are on Twitter and colleagues are on Facebook. While there’s nothing on my Facebook profile that I would want to hide, I choose different profile pictures to reflect my professional side and my personal side, as my Facebook profile picture often includes a family member or friend. I wonder what other people’s experiences are here?

I do feel that social networking helps foster a sense of community, however it’s worth remembering that not all information professionals are involved in social networking and there are other communities out there too. If we are part of an online community as well as a face-to-face one, we can benefit from both and the balance this gives.

Tuesday 8 November 2011

Thoughts on mentoring #cpd23

Firstly, thanks to all the mentors out there - your support is much appreciated!

I'm glad that mentoring is part of the chartership process, as without a mentor, it would be so much harder to keep on track. My mentor and I agreed to email once a month and meet quarterly. As a person who quite likes structure, having these 'deadlines' to work to helps me set myself targets so that I have something to say in each email and meeting! Opinions vary on which is better: to have a mentor who you already know and get on well with, or somone you don't know. I deliberately contacted someone who I didn't know at all, and who worked in a different sector to me, so I could benefit from their different perspective. 6 months into the mentoring relationship, and I really appreciate the advice from my mentor and the questions asked that I wouldn't necessarily have thought of asking. It was interesting to visit my mentor's library, and see how completely different it is from the one I work in!

Mentor meetings usually involve something like this:

I've also been lucky with my jobs in that those in more senior positions have been very supportive and I've learnt a lot from their experience and advice in more informal ways, about my career path and personal/professional development as well as more directly relating to my roles.

When I am more senior and experienced, I hope I'll be able to help someone by mentoring them, either formally or informally.

Routes into librarianship

The beginning
I'm one of those people who has always loved libraries. You know the sort. I volunteered as a library prefect at my school library while I was in sixth form. During my undergraduate degree in History and French, I was on the committee for the student-run history duplicates library. The experience gained from these voluntary positions helped me obtain holiday work as an Archive Administration Assistant at a local government agency library, where I helped out with a project to reclassify some of the library stock. This involved a lot of fetching, relabelling and reshelving, but I also got to do some work on the thesaurus.

Graduate trainee year, but no formal graduate trainee scheme
After finishing my undergraduate degree, I was lucky enough to find work as a Library and Enquiries Administrator in the same government agency library for 12 months. The librarian there was very supportive and since I was working in a small team of 4, I got to do a bit of everything and learnt a great deal about different aspects of a library service. It was here I learnt that I really enjoyed enquiry work, although I found it daunting at first! While it wasn't possible to follow a programme of visits, like a formal graduate traineeship, I did meet people at training courses and events. Since the agency I worked for was about to merge with another agency, it was an interesting time. I was involved in some of the preparation work before the merger, such as creating FAQs and other documentation that could be shared between the two agencies. Graduate traineeships can be very competitive, but other experience is useful too and I'd also recommend small libraries for gaining a broad experience.

Masters course
I enjoyed my time at Loughborough University, doing the full-time MA in Information and Library Management. The modules covered a wide range of topics and skills, including marketing for information professions and cataloguing and classification. One of my favourite modules was the web design course, and my interest in this led me to a dissertation on public library websites.

Next steps
After this, I worked part-time for a year as Library Assistant in the Digital Resources Area of a university library, supporting users with electronic resources and computers. Then I successfully applied for the part-time position of Senior Library Assistant. This is another user-focused role, supervising a reading room, dealing with enquiries about official publications, inter-library loans and microfilms, and maintaining the department's website amongst other things.

Full-time library work
I recently started an additional part-time post as eBooks Assistant based in the same library, but providing a university-wide service. This is a great opportunity to meet new people, and new developments make ebooks an exciting area to work in. Four years after graduating, I am finally full time in library work, albeit in two different jobs. I love the variety of experience this gives me, and the opportunity to use different skills.

Chartership and the future
I started working towards chartership nearly 6 months ago, so one future aim is to become chartered. I will probably write more about my chartership experiences on this blog in future, so watch this space! I aim to continue developing professionally and learning new things, and am looking forward to the new challenges and opportunities that I'm sure the future will bring.