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.

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!

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.