Thing 23 - What next?

Have finally reached thing 23 and the end of the CPD23 programme. I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself for sticking to it, and having got an awful lot out of it, would recommend it to anyone who wants to expand their horizons and get a bit excited again about library work. Not that I don't find it exciting (!), but as I mentioned in my first blog, way back in June, I think that I felt a little stuck in a rut, and this has been just the refresher I needed.

Thing 23's challenge was to reflect upon the whole process, and come up with some goals based upon it. I took a look at the suggested PDP template, and may think of using something like this in the future.  Though it may sound odd, I found it interesting to consider a personal development plan for personal goals! My employer has an appraisal scheme which includes goal-setting, but these are generally very workplace orientated. It would be good to try one just for myself that is 'employer-neutral', and really focuses on my priorities for personal development.

So, what are my priorities? For now, I have come up with a list of things I would like to pursue further:

• Finish a CV - so that I don't feel this is a barrier to my taking on new challenges. I like the idea of having an ongoing CV bank that I can dip into and adapt for the situation as appropriate
• Look into voluntary work - I need to establish just how much time I have to spare, and then identify what opportunities are out there that would suit my skills and interests, and finally approach some organizations
• Continue to use and explore the tools that I have discovered and found worthwhile during CDP23- the exploring bit is just as important here, so that I really get the best out of them, and make most efficient use of my time
• Finally, keep more up to date with future web tools - perhaps I need to find some blogs to follow that keep up to date with these things for me! Then I can spend my time using those that will really make a difference to my online life

As to whether my blog will continue, we shall see. I have enjoyed the experience, but it is quite time-consuming. I will try to keep posting if I'm feeling inspired - hopefully the next goals I have set myself should provide plenty of inspiration!

Thing 22 - Volunteering

I have been thinking a lot about volunteering lately - perhaps it is the talk of the big society that has brought it to mind. There are lots of ideas about the rights and wrongs of having professional librarians and experienced paid library staff in public libraries replaced by volunteers, and really this just makes me very sad and worried for the future of library provision in Britain, as it seems to me an indicator not just of the lack of value placed on librarianship skills, but also ambivalence towards the existence of libraries at all, as I cannot see that the models suggested are sustainable in the long-term.  But I have considered volunteering for private organizations/charities that may otherwise not be able to have a library service, as this would be a good way of gaining valuable experience of a different type of environment/work to that which I am paid to do. It might also be a way for me to keep up some practical cataloguing skills, which is a thing I love doing, but get less time to do in my day job now. Or alternatively, voluntary work outside the profession, to just help broaden my horizons and gain new skills.
I recently missed out on investigating a voluntary work position, as it asked for a CV to be sent, and I was so far off being able to put anything together that I couldn't apply in time. But as thing 21 has made me think afresh about this, I hope to have something in place soon that I can use, and am also thinking of approaching local organizations to see what opportunities they might have.  A short post, for this penultimate thing, but lots to think about and plan!

Thing 21 - Promoting yourself in job applications/interviews

It's been a long time since I dipped my toe in the job market, even within my current organization. Throughout this course, though, I've developed a growing awareness that I should be doing things like getting my CV up to date, even if I have no current plans to move on.
Whilst I may not have moved from my post, I know that my skills have moved on a lot since I last applied for a job, so I have to address this - an up to date CV 'bank' can be useful for personal development issues in general, to identify areas that I'm doing well in and those I need to work on a little more. This involves reviewing the work I have done and enjoyed, as this is probably where my skills are strongest.
When I look back at my work, and think about what I like to do, a few things stand out - I like best those projects which involve investigating and resolving a problem, and anything which involves codes, precision and logic! For example, I really loved working on the data conversion from our old LMS to the new one - researching and relentlessly logging detail, with the knowledge that it was the quality of this detail that would make the project a success, as well as thinking around the area to anticipate problems, therefore either avoiding them altogether, or already being on the way to solving them when they occurred. It was nice to have the feeling of presenting the converted data as a fait accompli to the system users; the large majority of data checking after the move didn't raise much that we didn't already know about.
I also like helping people, which sounds a little trite, but there is great feeling of satisfaction from showing people something they didn't know already which can really help them in the future. This applies to staff as well as library users - it's great to share knowledge to enable people to have the confidence to work more independently too. For me, I think that this can come from skills built up through long experience of working with MARC, AACR and an attention to detail that, e.g.,  makes me really want to 'know' a system rather than just being a basic user of it. I think that I have pretty good implementation skills - I like sorting out the nitty gritty from the strategic ideas and getting working on something that will have an outcome. I suppose if I have any dislikes, it is being held back from reaching this stage in a project.
This has definitely been a useful exercise. On the back of this task, I have started to create a new CV, which is still a work in progress, but a start at least! Finally - my interview tip - make sure you sit comfortably and don't freeze like a musical statue - I had a great interview once which was marred only by my standing to shake hands at the end followed by a John Cleese funny walk from the office as I tried to get my pins and needles filled foot to work again!

Thing 20 - Library routes

Like many others, I feel like I have already addressed this thing in thing 10, so took the advice of the CPD blog and took a look at other's pages which describe people's paths into librarianship, to compare to my own. I suspected I probably was fairly typical and indeed found a number of posts which described someone with a background of liking books, visiting libraries as a child and occasionally an English Lit degree, who had somehow 'fallen' into librarianship - hmm, sounds vaguely familiar... So, yes, typical maybe, but it was heartening to find that I'm not alone! Of course, that doesn't mean that everyone who seeks to work in libraries is the same, but it is great that a group of people with these similar interests can find an aspect of work to appeal to their particular talent - there are a wide and varied range of skills that fall under the umbrella 'librarian'.
As I said before, though, I'm not too sure where my route takes me from here. There are lots of things that I would like to do - when I finished my Masters, I would have loved to continue to a PhD, but it wasn't to be at the time. Perhaps one day, but the longer that I have stayed away from academia, the harder it feels to consider returning. I liked the idea on someone's blog (can't remember who, sorry!) that cataloguing is a 'gift' that you either have or you don't. I knew from early on in my library career that this would be my preferred area - I think it comes from having a very logical way of thinking. It's this love of logic that makes me wonder if I were to move that I might enjoy expanding into the IT side of things, though it is hard to know how to develop these skills independently in order to make that move. I suppose that one thing I really took from reading other people's stories is not to be afraid of making a move into a different style of library work (sometimes completely away from the 'back-room' work)- if you can get past other people pigeon-holing you, you may find that you flourish in other areas as well.

Thing 19 - Integrating the things

I have been picking up speed with the posts, so it's probably about time for a breather, with this catch-up task. The task this week is to think of what I have encountered so far, and which 'things' have applications going forward. I have done so much that to be honest, I can hardly remember all of the tools and software I have looked at, so this was a good opportunity to look back over past posts and pick out some highlights.
I think that I will really need to put some effort into identifying and evaluating which will actually be of benefit, as when work time is limited, I don't want to be adopting new technologies just for the sake of it (though it's nice to have the opportunity to try things out).
Some 'things' I have taken on board already, and am trying to keep in mind on a day to day basis, e.g. personal branding, reflective practice etc. I've also confirmed the importance of keeping in touch/up to date with the library world at large. I already did this to a certain extent, through RSS feeds etc, but I probably should interact more too.
In practical terms, a few of the tools I've tried have stood out for me. Google Docs has already become a part of my daily routine, and has transformed my paper to do lists, making them much easier to handle in an integrated online form. Prezi also seems a valuable tool - I will need to work hard to get to grips with it, but I think it would be worth it in the long-run. Recent changes to Delicious will make me look again at Evernote and Pushnote and evaluate them to see if it would be worth making the move to a new bookmarking system, although the new owners of Delicious  do seem to gradually be working their way through the long list of faults they have created, so I'll keep an eye of their progress too!
There are probably lots more things I'll revisit in the future, too, but these are the stand-outs for me.

Jing, Screen capture and Podcasts

Thing 18 was a relatively quick task for me - really more just a peek to see what is possible!

Jing is interesting. I didn't realize that you could do something like create a screen capture video on your PC - I thought you needed all kinds of specialist bits and pieces for this.  I downloaded Jing fine at work; the screen capturing was really easy and I liked the fact that you can switch the yellow icon on and off quite easily - I thought it was going to be yet another thing that would be there in perpetuity on my screen.  I like the idea of videos for internal training, such as LMS systems instruction, particularly for when you have to train to a range of people on different sites/locations. I can see it would also be great for user training - perhaps a series of   short videos with tips for searching or something similar.
I'm already a Podcast addict, and do most of my radio listening via my iPod rather than live streaming. I'm not too sure about making a podcast myself, though - first I would have to have something I thought worth broadcasting! However, I will take a look for some library related ones to download, as this hadn't really occurred to me before.

Thing 16 - Advocacy

Whoops, have stepped a little out of order here, and got my posts mixed up, so I'm going back in time to thing 16 before moving on.
Advocacy is becoming increasingly high profile in UK libraries at the moment, and rightly so. These are worrying times. I must admit that I find the idea of a lot of the things involved in advocacy a little scary and in the public eye, but I would hope that on a smaller, more personal scale, I advocate for libraries when I can. One area I would like to work on, though, is to do more to let people (at a personal, organizational or professional level) know the value of the professional area I am involved in - cataloguing and knowledge organization.
It is an area whose results can be taken for granted, and the skills that are involved are not always recognized. This is definitely one of the areas that I'm most passionate about, which seems to be a good starting point for advocacy. The added value that good quality metadata can provide in information retrieval is crucial to the user experience - it's just not always that obvious to the user that behind their search success lies a well-structured set of consistently applied data.  I think one of the keys to advocacy is having a good range of examples to hand, so this is something I need to arm myself with - it's all very well saying and knowing that your work is important, but you need to be able to demonstrate it persuasively in order to really make an impact.

Thing 17 - Prezi and Slideshare

I have been looking forward to this thing, as I have seen Prezi presentations in the past and liked them but never got round to looking at Prezi for my own use, so this is the perfect excuse. It's common knowledge that using presentation software such as Powerpoint is not the key to a good presentation - the technology is just an aid to the main event. I have definitely fallen into the Powerpoint trap of too many slides and too many bullet points in the past, though I am conscious of this danger, and try to avoid it.

Prezi is very different to Powerpoint, full of whizzy graphics that can shoot round the screen. But I would think that there is still the same danger of relying too much on what the technology lets you do, rather than creating a great presentation that's enhanced by, rather than taken over by, the graphics. I have seen Prezi presentations that have the same effect on me as some 3D cinema - a slight feeling of dizziness and the beginnings of a migraine, from all those images and objects zooming in and out, and jumping around the screen while my eyes and brain try to keep up. I think there is probably an art to doing it well, and I love the idea of being able to 'dance around your subject' as the CPD blog suggests. I think that the style of the presentations can really capture the presenter's enthusiasm and the audience's interest much more than a linear Powerpoint might.
I spent quite a lot of time in the 'learn' section of Prezi trying to figure it out, and have started to have a go putting together a very short presentation for use at work. But I think it's going to take some getting used to - the basics seem easy to master, but I have a feeling that anything more sophisticated might be a lot harder! The added benefit of reading around other blog posts on Prezi was the list of other useful tools that I found - Zamzar for free file conversion, Picnik for free photo editing, Photofunia for special effects for photos and Stock.xchng for images.

A brief mention too of Slideshare - I've heard of this before, and used it to take a look at presentations from others. It seems useful, but I don't think I really have enough presentations to make it worthwhile. But was interesting to consider it in terms of being a good place to 'advertise' yourself and your presentations - I loved the visual CV example.

Thing 15 - Attending, presenting and organizing seminars and conferences

I have never attended a big 'annual conference'. When I was at the stage in my career that I might have accompanied e.g. a manager/experienced colleague to see how conferences 'work', I didn't really have a manager who was involved enough with cataloguing to take this on. The cost for big events can also be prohibitive (plus I always seem to be on my holidays when the annual CIG conference is held!). However... I would still like to attend one, though it may have to be self-funded - I had better start saving.
All that said, I do attend a fair number of one-day events; this year I have gone to various Cilip seminars - the executive briefing on RDA, a reclassification day, and my next one is coming in December on shelf-ready books. These can be invaluable - not just in terms of practical applications for work, but also for networking with those in similar posts, and increasing confidence in keeping up to date with current issues. Online events can also be good - for example, the Cilip reclassification day was followed by a 2 day CIG eForum on reclassification within the same month, which was great to take part in.
I have never presented formally either. I have at a university staff conference taken part in a poster as part of our I.R. advocacy (which was a good way to introduce the service to academic staff) but that was mostly demonstration and conversation. I have also done internal presentations and training. So I read and appreciated the tips on presenting via the CPD23 website (particularly Bethan's information professional blog's reassurance that you can script a presentation!), but I'm not sure when I will have the opportunity to put the tips into practice.
As far as organizing an event like this, I assume that one would have to join a committee somewhere to get involved in this? But perhaps I should think of a local cataloguing librarian's event to get started. I haven't met my equivalents from libraries within my geographical area. Maybe now would be a good time to - or at least to contact my local Cilip group to make sure that it's not happening already.

Thing 14 - Zotero / Mendeley / citeulike

Ah, referencing – I have always enjoyed this! I was obviously born to be a librarian…

The library I work in uses RefWorks, but my post doesn’t involve using it regularly, so I have really only a basic knowledge of it. I became more aware of it recently when we had issues regarding the changing of display of bib records in our Primo discovery system – we made some changes which had rather unintended effects on the references it exported via RefWorks, so then had to work to get a compromise between the two systems’ requirements.

I had an awareness that other referencing software is available, e.g. End Note, Reference Manager etc, but not much experience of using them, other than a very little at University. I hadn’t heard of any of the three free ones on trial in this week’s 23 things. I had a brief look at all three, to decide which to try:

Zotero – this looks very simple to use on the training video, and would be helpful for storing more than just references – it could be used for keeping track of your research in general.

Mendeley – this put me off as a desktop installation – I really don’t want any more desktop clutter unless I absolutely need it!

citeulike – this appealed more as it was online, but I wasn’t sure from a brief look that you could actually ‘cite while you write’ using this tool, so it’s usefulness might be limited. It was more of a sharing/organizational tool.  So, this is the one I decided to explore further. It took me a couple of attempts to realize that importing from the toolbar add-on only works if you use sites which support citeulike! Which is a shame. But you can do things manually if not. I found that this works well as yet another resource discovery/sharing tool – it was really useful to see what others who had tagged the same article as me had also read.

So, yt was interesting to explore these tools to get an idea of what students might be using if they’re not using RefWorks, and to realize that they may also have application for me in terms of storing references to articles/work for personal research. Currently any links to research I store tends to be in delicious, all bundled in with my other ‘stored web stuff’, but I wonder if I might get more usage from it if I separated it out a little. Picking the best online tool for the job can be tricky when there are so many out there!

Thing 13 - online collaboration

Two whole months since the last blog - oops. Meant to keep this going but outside life took over for a while. However, am getting back into the 23 things and will make a regular date with my PC to add to the blog.

Task 13 was all about online collaboration tools, including Google Docs, Wikis and Dropbox. My first thought about collaborative working in my current environment was "shared drive"! Our work shared drive can be pretty useful, but has all sorts of problems such as version control and tracking changes, so I really like the idea of online sharing as an alternative.

Google Docs was incredibly easy to get started with, which I like! And especially good if not everyone you want to share with is accessing the same organizational network (so long as everyone is happy to sign up for a Google account, of course). It also seemed to be a great tool for solo working too, and I suspect it is for this that I will continue to use it. As with so many of the tools I have tried for this programme, there is almost too much to explore within it, and I doubt I will ever find time to get round to most of it. The free templates were nice, such as a to-do list that I have started using in an attempt to replace the endless post-it notes which cover my desk. I was disappointed that I couldn't easily see a way to move docs to and from Microsoft Office however (though that might be my lack of techno-wizardry rather than a fault with Google Docs). Overall, I can definitely see myself using this for daily work in the future, and perhaps as a way of sharing docs when I need to as well.

After falling for Google Docs, I tried DropBox next and was impressed with that too. I liked that you can install it on more than one PC and have your files synchronized between them, which helps to make up for the fact that it is not online, anywhere access. But it does still clutter up your desktop, where the last thing I need is any more icons. You can have 2GB storage free with DropBox and then you need to pay. The advantage of DropBox seems to be that you can use your own Word docs etc - it is not just a proprietary format. It's also good that a colleague doesn't have to be a member of DropBox to access your files - you can just choose to share an individual file with them if not.

The final thing to try was a wiki - we do in fact already use wikis as part of our VLE intranet for shared projects, which we have found a good place to bring together group documents and comments with a nicer format than just a file and folder structure. What I don't like about our current wikis is that I need to go to them to find out about updates - an RSS feed/email notification would be really useful. But that might just be our VLE - I haven't really explored other wikis (apart from Wikipedia, scourge of the library universe!). I was interested to see that PBwiki is free for librarians to use, but I didn't try it out as I have already signed up for so many things that I need to start getting choosy now! This task has at least made me realize that I ought to go back and examine our internal wikis in more detail to figure out how to get the best from them, and also to consider moving our current cataloguing procedures to this format, which I have heard of several other libraries doing.

Thing 12 - Putting the 'social' into social media

I'm still not entirely sure what the point of thing 11 is, given that it seems to replicate some of the questions that I have been trying to answer already. However, perhaps it is meant to be another pause and time for reflection about my use of social media. This is probably a useful thing, as I already feel the need to rejuvenate my motivation for the social networking aspect of the program. I have found it just too time consuming to try and keep up with some things like Twitter. It is not yet a natural part of my working/social life, and although it seems the 'worliday' will soon be upon us all (as the BBC reports), I like to keep some of my spare time switched off from both work and the Internet. And I still find it hard to justify to myself work-time spent on Twitter etc - there always seems to be plenty of other things that need doing first.
That's not to say that I can't see the benefits - I have discovered that there are so many professional networks out there -both formal and informal, and for current awareness, the immediacy of social media is astounding. The ease of approachability/connecting with people is also appealing, although as someone who doesn't automatically strike up conversations with strangers, this has also lead to me sometimes feeling strangely over-familiar in on-line conversations with others to whom I have no 'real' connection.
Before these Things, I probably did have a professional online presence but in just a static web 1.0 way - no interactivity, mainly just following blogs. I probably need to find more time to pursue the social side of things further. In the spirit of this, the one thing I did was to explore some of the Twitter accounts of other people who also follow tweeters that I do, and followed a few of those too. I deliberately chose a couple from non-cataloguing areas, just to see what happens in the rest of the (library) world too! Now I just need to join in a few more conversations and get things going again...

Things 10&11 Routes/roots and mentoring

This week's things are a bit more open ended - how I got to where I am and where I am going next is a huge thing to try to address in a blog post, but I will try!
I wanted to work in a library since I was about 12 years old, when I would like to say I was thrilled by the magical escape and adventure that a book could give and wanted to be surrounded by them all day long. That is partly true, but mostly I was seduced by the complex system of cards and tickets at the huge circulation desk. I was fascinated by the filing that allowed staff to find me and the books I had borrowed in amongst all those little cardboard pockets. 
But it was always a dream rather than a career plan. I did an English Literature degree at Cardiff University and managed not to think about a job until I found myself graduated and unemployed. Amongst others I applied for (a few in libraries and lots more not), I got an evening job in the University's Senghennydd Library, which at the time was served Maths and Education students. The post was very general - loans duties and shelving mostly. I also got a temporary post at the Welsh Office, which became National Assembly for Wales whilst I was there. This was the job that both gave me my first cataloguing experience (as well as periodicals clerking, looseleaf filing and other things), and also showed me that not all libraries are like academic ones!
A move down to the South coast led to lots more job applications and I joined Southampton Institute as was, as a journals assistant. But I still had my eye on the cataloguing work and when an opportunity came up a year later, moved over to an assistant cataloguer post. 
I have progressed since then, gaining promotion to my current position of Cataloguing and Metadata Librarian, with a Library and Information Studies Masters from UCL along the way. I enjoy my current post, but am in a slightly despondent dip regarding the profile of cataloguing work in general, and always looking for ways to show how the skills can continue to be applied in the changing library environment.
As for the future, I'm not too sure. I can't really predit post-wise where I will be in a few years' time, but in the meantime am hoping to build up my skill set and expand my areas of work accordingly.

Thing 11 was a post on mentoring. This is something I have mixed feelings about. I can see there are obviously benefits if you enter into a good mentoring relationship. When I first started out in library work, I had a more experienced colleague who, looking back, was probably an informal mentor to me (not sure that she would have seen herself as a mentor, though). I really valued having someone who was approachable and that I could learn from. We have remained friends, although professional discussion has lapsed.
I don't know what point in your career you should feel that you are no longer in need of a mentor. I get the feeling that it would be difficult to find someone who considered me suitable for mentoring now, although I also don't feel that I am at the stage where I should be mentoring someone else... I suppose as you move through different career stages it is always useful to find someone who has been there before and can help you with the issues that arise. I'm not sure that in my current organization there are senior colleagues with an interest in cataloguing - perhaps I should be looking into a professional group such as the Cilip Cataloguing and Indexing Group instead and see what options lie there.
Yet again, lots more to think about. It's a good job that next week is a holiday, both for me personally and for the 23 things schedule.

Catch up time - Things 8&9

Well, for Things that are supposed to be about organizing yourself, I've done a fine job of being disorganized. Have finally found the time to take a look at two new (to me) tools - Google Calendar and Evernote.

Up first is Google calendar. My first thought was - yet another Google tool. I do worry about how much of my life I share with Google, but it also seems that unless you share the reams of personal data, you won't get the most out of a tool like the calendar. So, my calendar is currently very bare, without the added bonuses of tailored weather maps and news updates, as I won't give them my location amongst other things. 
I was most interested to see how libraries use this as a sharing tool, for advertising things like opening hours and meetings of groups. Users can then choose to download the library's calendar into their own, if they want to have updated information. There were also some really innovative users, such as the Hong Kong Institute of Education (mentioned on the Musings about Librarianship blog), who link the calendar into their LMS to generate overdue date reminders (depending on their users also having signed up to google calendar, of course). If you don't have the capacity for sms messaging from within your LMS, this is a great way of communicating with your users.
I already tend to use my work based Lotus Notes calendar a lot, and I can access this from any pc/laptop, so didn't feel in much need of another. However, other library blog posts on it have got me thinking about mobile access and so I'm going to look at loading it onto my android phone (or investigating whether it is already lurking there, waiting for me to see the light and discover it!).

Secondly, Evernote. I was also a little dubious about this, when I read the CPD23 blog introduction to it:

The problem:

You want to be able to make comments on webpages and archive them along with your own notes so that everything is all in the one place and easy to access.  

My first thought here was, I don't have that problem, so what use will this be to me! But I do love tools which organize things, so signed up anyway... 

I did really like the look of this once I got started. I like clipping just text rather than having to bookmark a whole web page, and it looks like there are lots of possibilities with Evernote. I am also the official queen of 'to do' lists, so the added functionality that allows you to create your own notes is handy. 

However.... I already have a hugely established and organized Delicious page, and whilst I'm sure I can export these links to Evernote, I'm not sure that I want to, as I love the simplicity of Delicious. Evernote looks a whole lot more complicated, plus my Delicious page is actually a household endeavour and I'm not sure my other half would want to move everything just because I liked the look of playing with Evernote. Perhaps he will read this and tell me otherwise!

So, maybe I might use Evernote for different purposes if I continue with it. Like the Google Calendar, I think a lot will depend on whether I can get it to work on my phone or not, as I think the note/list function would be invaluable there.

Next post will be along soon, as I'm determined to catch right up to date.

Networking sociably pt 2 - Thing 7

Thing 7 was all about the face-to-face networking. I kind of missed the boat with activities last week in relation to in-person networking. I kept seeing mentions of it on Twitter, but just didn't have the time to look into it. I really liked the sound of the online 'meet-up' for those who didn't live near anywhere that had something organized, so will keep a look out for another one of those. 

But in general, I enjoy the face-to-face aspects of networking, although I have realized that I don't do it very much! 'Events' used to terrify me when I was starting out, through fear of having nothing intelligent to say about the subject of a presentation/meeting, but as I have progressed, I've found it's sometimes easier to just chat rather than having an agenda of points to be made, and that getting to know faces and people is the biggest benefit. I've found the Cataloguing and Classification Group Cilip events/visits I've attended both interesting for their subject and very useful for meeting others, and have developed contacts in this way.

This has also made me think about my local Cilip group, the South East Branch. Many of the cataloguing events of Cilip are either London based or at least not in my neck of the woods. So, one way to increase my networking might be to get a bit more involved in my local group. Having taken a look at their website, they seem to have a lot going on, so I may investigate further.

The CPD blog has a huge list of professional organizations that can be used for networking. I didn't get chance to look at most of them, but one that I liked was the Library Society of the World, who are 'a world-spanning group of library professionals and library advocates, dedicated to furthering the role of librarians, archivists, information professionals, and information educators through communication and collaboration'. Their most recent posting is the LSW colouring competition, which makes me think that I must join this group immediately.

Thinking about networking as a whole, both on- and offline, these tasks have definitely reminded me of the importance of getting and keeping in touch with people both within my profession and outside of it, who are interested in similar issues to myself. I suppose as with most things, the more you put into this, the more you get out of it, so my mid-year resolution is going to have to be more effort on this front, I think.

Networking sociably pt 1 - Thing 6

Just when I thought I was catching up, things 8 and 9 got published today! So, will get onto those post-haste.
But for now, things 6 and 7 were networking - online and face-to-face.

Online
I'm not a natural social networker, so the CPD program has really pushed me to address this. As already posted, I rejoined Twitter and am trying to pursue this. It has definitely reinvigorated my interest in new developments and let me find lots and lots of cataloguing people, which is great. I use Facebook, too, but as I've said before, keep this solely for personal use.
I also took a little tour of a few of the other networks mentioned on the CPD blog:

I joined up for this but after a short time clicking around, quickly lost the will to continue. I really liked the look of the exemplar profiles posted on the CPD blog, but they also made me feel a bit inadequate too! I didn't want to create a poor profile, so haven't added anything yet, to give myself time to think about it. I couldn't quite get to grips with the whole thing tbh, so obviously need to devote a bit more attention to it. I also got a little confused about registration - is it enough to just sign up without paying, or do you only really get the benefit if you subscribe?

I have dipped in and out of Cilip Communities in the past, making the odd posting. For some reason, I find the logging into and navigating round the Cilip site more of a chore than I do for most other sites. But for this 'thing' I followed the short cut to the Cilip Communities sub-site which is perhaps what I should do in the future. I like the scope of coverage in the communities - you never quite know what you are going to find a comment on. I probably should visit this more often than I do, or at least investigate the RSS possibilities to see if I can view it through my blog reader instead.

I also recently signed up for Google+ after receiving an invite from a work colleague. My first thought, particularly as I've been signing up for a lot lately was - another network?!?
I’m sure there’s a lot more to this than I've been able to explore yet, but even so, I don’t feel convinced it’s enough to make me want to switch from the networks I’m already using.  I like the idea of circles of types of contacts, but I have been developing a pattern of using different sites for different purposes in any case, which seems to have suited well enough. And I think the crucial ‘problem’ for me is that I can’t find that many people I know on Google+ yet.

I have a feeling that it may be one of those things that I make a jump to in the future but only when it reaches the tipping point and everyone is using it. It makes little sense to be trying to network alone on a different site to everyone else, after all - slightly defeats the purpose, doesn't it.  I believe that you no longer need an invite to join, which makes me feel slightly less special already, but might mean that some more people that I know join it. So, we will see…

Reflective practice - Thing 5

Finally getting round to Thing 5. Hopefully Things 6 and 7 from this week won't be too far behind.

Reflective practice as a concept has always been fuzzy for me, and I think that I have maybe subconsciously put off starting this task as I had an idea in the back of my head that it was incredibly time-consuming and therefore a bit of a chore. So, I approached this hoping for a moment of clarity and a plan for the future.

What have I done?

I enjoyed reading the blog entry on the CPD23 website. It took away a lot of the aura surrounding the subject for me and left me feeling a bit more confident about how I could apply reflective practice to my professional life.

What have I learnt?
I liked iterative 'do-review-plan-do' cycle but recognize that it's probably a bit simplistic. I need to do further reading/exploration to really get to grips with the concept in a meaningful way. I have always kept a log of 'what I am doing' to help with appraisals and identify professional development needs, and have in my mind considered and analyzed and drawn conclusions, but have been missing the structure of writing and planning actions based upon this. I have already found with this blog that it is good practice in focussing the mind and trying to convey my thoughts succinctly (not altogether succeeded with this yet!). I'm not sure that I would want to use it for all future reflective writing though, as I don't know that it's necessary to publish my thoughts on everything I do at work to the world. But I definitely can see that the format is useful.

So, having reflected a little, how am I going to apply this in the future?

Plans
I hope to make more time for reflective writing and ways of working in the future, but will need to be pragmatic about this, of course. Having made time for the CPD program itself, I have learnt that time is there, but it takes discipline and self-motivation.

I'm going to investigate some online tools to help with reflective writing, and have also identified a few books on our library shelves from the CPD further reading list. Ideally, I may be able to develop my offline work log into something more reflective, building upon descriptions of what I have done, to include written evaluation and action points.

Current awareness and more networking - thing 4

I am on slightly more familiar ground with at least some of the tools up for discussion in Thing 4 - Twitter, RSS feeds and Pushnote. Well, 2 out of 3 anyway.

I had tried Twitter once before and given up on it, but have reregistered with the start of this course, and have already started following some interesting folks. I can see it will be beneficial for current awareness and networking, and it's great to see there are so many other cataloguing and metadata bods out there. However, in just a couple of weeks, I have already found that time is an issue for me. I think that following even a small number of people, assuming they are active twitterers (tweeters?), can mean a lot of mental interruptions if you keep twitter on in the background. Or trying to catch up with ongoing conversations becomes impossible too. I definitely need to start joining in a few more conversations, too, if I'm going to get the most benefit from it.

 I moved to Google reader last year, having previously used and loved Bloglines for organizing my RSS feeds. I made the move when Bloglines looked like it was about to be axed, although it got rescued at the last minute. I felt a pang of treachery at leaving Bloglines for evil Google, but once I had jumped ship, decided to stay put and give it a go, and found that google was actually just about as good as Bloglines was.
I am slightly addicted to my blog reader. I love the fact that I don't have to go seeking out updates to my favourite sites/blogs, and that it satisfies my inbuilt need for organization in all things I do. I don't currently do anything as social as sharing with it. I do suffer from too many RSS feeds, particularly as I combine professional and personal interests within the same account, but haven't found it too much of a problem. I think that long-term I may stick with the rss reader for general awareness, and keep Twitter for breaking news type events.

Before moving on, here are a few of my favourite feeds...
CPD23 (of course!)
Karen Coyle's InFormation
Lorcan Dempsey's Weblog
Everything is miscellaneous
and if the Well-dressed librarian ever comes back from their extended break, I will be most happy

Plus for good measure a few non-work related:
EPBOT - geekery, girliness and goofing off
Curious places (for when I'm dreaming of escaping)
The girl who ate everything (for when I am dreaming of food and my next trip to New York...)

So, on to Pushnote. I had never heard of Pushnote before this, and tbh, I wasn't all that impressed with it. Perhaps because I had trouble finding anyone else who is using it. Or maybe because I already use and am pretty happy with delicious for bookmarking. I gather it had Stephen Fry pushing it to everyone at its launch, which is exciting, I guess. I don't know that being able to see comments from others for websites is a huge attraction for me. I like being able to check out what else someone who shares similar interests to me has bookmarked, but I can do that on delicious already. And friends/colleagues already tend to share links to the good stuff via facebook/twitter, so that angle is covered too. Perhaps I am missing the point somewhere. Also, I am now stuck with an irritating star browser addon on my Firefox browser at work, and don't know how to uninstall it - any help would be much appreciated!

Personal brands

This week's task is about personal branding and image. I must admit, I didn't think about this too much when setting up the blog, and now I look back my blog name is a bit wordy rather than being short and snappy. I also have different names for my blog and the twitter account I set up, but I guess that they at least both have my real name attached to them, so I'm going to continue with that for now.  
In terms of a style, I think I have been quite honest, but I have always been pretty careful about what I post on the internet, and luckily the internet didn't properly exist for my 14 year old self to leave a trail of embarrassing stuff for the world to come across today.  My rule of thumb is that I don't post anything that I wouldn't want my boss or mother to see. Perhaps due to my mistrust, I don't really have much of a web presence right now. I am on facebook, but other than that had never done much online social stuff. I have recently joined twitter and might take a look at linked in. I really like the idea of a 'profersonal' style, as Jo suggests on the cpd23 blog.  
I haven't added a photo of myself. Perhaps I should consider this, but that would be a bigstep for me, so may just stick at the considering stage! I will also revisit the branding and look, as I set the whole thing up quite quickly, so didn't really give it the thought I maybe should have.  
So, what is already out there about me - well, I've recently changed my surname after getting married, so was interested to try a google search and see what came up. I have only quite recently (past couple of years) started using the web for much that I have put my name to, so wasn't expecting too much. My previous name is the same as an actress, so I had to add first 'library' and then 'solent' to get anything near me. There weren't many surprises - a link to a work portal with my contact details, a few postings of questions/comments to library related mailing lists, and that's about it.  
My new name is unique enough that there wasn't too much worry of mixing me up with other people. I first searched at the start of the week, but just did it again today and found that my new twitter account is now top of the list, which is great. But it did make me realize that I would need to be super careful for the future, as I am an easily google-able person and cannot hide amongst lots of other pages! 
Most of the first page related to me - other results included one related to a charity poster I bought via a Bluetones band blog, an institutional repository record I created for a journal article (just the one - presumably it was one that has done well for itself in the citation rankings), blog comments, and a couple of facebook 'likes'. This was pretty good - I can live with people knowing that I have a soft spot for 90s indie pop and give money to charity, and the rest were pretty innocuous, though was interesting to see the facebook likes. I verge on the obsessive of keeping my fb locked down as much as possible to my friends only, as I really view this as personal only, but obviously those sites I have liked share their data so something else for me to be aware of. 
I suppose that I now need to start thinking not just about what I don't want the world to see (not that there is lots to hide!), but what I want others to find online about me, and how that puts 'me' across as a person/potential employee/contact etc. So, lots more to think about, but a pretty positive experience all the same. Next week, keeping in 'the loop' and current awareness!

Thing 2

Hmm, must start thinking up better post titles...
Have been slightly overawed with the number of blogs available on the cpd23 delicious page. It's amazing that there are so many participants, should be an interesting community to be a part of. I've been browsing a few, trying not to get too addicted to the 'just click on one more link' nature of the list. So, what have I learnt?
1) other people have a lot of interesting things to say. I'm concerned that I might be a bit lacking in this department. I have never really tried writing before, outside of an academic context. Never kept a diary, or felt the need to share my opinions with the big wide world very often. So, I don't know how I'm going to adjust to the regular blog writing. But, we shall see.
2) chartership - it might be something to still consider. I finished my library degree some years ago (2004), and thought briefly about chartership straight after I finished, but never followed it up. As time has gone on, I have become less and less convinced of what value CILIP chartership holds, so was interested to see that for some, chartership is the impetus behind taking part in cdp23. Will wait for thing 10 with bated breath!
3) I need to learn to rein in my slightly obsessive personality, otherwise reading other people's blogs will take over my life.
Looking forward to Monday and Thing 3 already.

23 things - first thing!

My first 23 things blog post! I'm taking part in the 23 Things for Professional Development course, so am taking the plunge here.
A brief introduction, then. I'm a 'Cataloguing and Metadata Librarian', and have worked in my current library since 1999. Which seems a really long time now that I've put it down in black and white. I really enjoy the library I work in, which I suppose is one of the reasons I have been here so long. I work in higher education, and have previously worked in a government library and a different uni.
I really wanted to start the cpd23 as its the sort of thing that I always take a look at and think, wow, great idea, I wish I had the time/commitment/technological knowhow for that...., and then promptly forget about it. So this time, I put a note in my calendar and am following it through. Well, through to the first week anyway - but you have to start somewhere.
Also, I wanted to take the initiative with this. When you work somewhere for a number of years, its easy to become stuck in your way of doing things, even if you are constantly dealing with change to processes and technology in your day job. So, it's a chance to spend some time focussing on myself and my skills too.
I'm hoping to use this blog to reflect on what I learn over the coming weeks, and want to use the programme in general to become more familiar with some of the current techno tools that are out there. I am pretty familiar with the blogging world in general, as my rss reader will attest (!), but only ever on the lurking, looking-in side. It's quite exciting to actually be creating one. I'm not sure if I will continue long-term, but am looking forward to the journey of trying it out.