Thing 16 - Advocacy, speaking up for the profession and getting published

As a child I was a regular visitor to both static and mobile libraries in the three counties I grew up nearest to. Certain childhood interests of mine (Tin Tin and BBC Basic programming being examples) were fantastically catered for by these services.  It took me a long time to realise that not every child has similar experiences - and I still find it difficult to remember that the 16 year olds in front of me each September may have no idea about what a library is or does.  That's sad, and in a world where far too many libraries are closing I think we all need to make sure people understand what they might lose before they lose it.
I loved Annie's jigsaw and Katie's pattern as oh-so-subtle ways of making people think about libraries.  They remind me that advocacy doesn't have to be about marching down the street or lecturing people.
I do feel the whole thing can be a bit of a challenge - I work with a captive audience of teachers and students, but know that a lot of them are ignorant of the services the library can offer.  With that in mind, I work quite hard to publicise what we do and how we can help (I am only too willing to help, really, please, let me help you!).  Whilst the internet has made access to information much easier, there is still a place for librarians in helping users to find that information, even if it's no longer by looking in the back of a book.
I previously worked in a public library, just before the enormous publicity surrounding library cuts.  The county I worked for was not the county I lived in, and the service was under severe threat of complete decimation.  Whilst the situation now is more positive than it looked like it might be, I have felt bad that I didn't do more to show my support to a service that I knew from experience benefited so many people in so many ways.
Our local public library is coming into college in January to promote their services, and I will make sure to try and retain those links and publicise the service as another useful place for students to visit.

Thing 15 - Attending, presenting at and organising seminars, conferences and other events

What?  Present at a conference? Me?
Or at least my reaction was something like that!  Basically, I don't feel I'm anywhere near being able to do such a thing.  Whilst I'm not about to speak at a conference, I do still run training sessions at work and the presentation tips are as useful for that.  I can definitely relate to Katie's advice about learning to embed fonts in a presentation since I've learnt the hard way that there's no point in making a presentation look nice only to find it doesn't load the same on the computer you are presenting on!

I have attended relatively few work-related events in my years in this job, mainly down to a lack of motivation, confidence, funding and/or anyone at work who would understand why I'd want to.  However, when I have attended I have felt it was worthwhile.  The only advice I can give to those in a similar situation is that coming out of a professional event having met even one person who agreed with one thing you said can give you such a boost!

As for organising events - I hate even ordering lunch for meetings we host!, although I hope that as I start to make new contacts within the library world I might one day get to the point of helping organise some sort of informal meet!

Thing 14 - Zotero/Mendeley/CiteULike

Having not looked at any of the three sites mentioned in this Thing I had a try with Zotero using the Chrome plugin and Mendeley and after a brief comparison would choose Mendeley to investigate further, despite it being a separately installed program.  I felt the organisation options when adding articles were better.

However, I have a RefWorks account provided through our university, so that is what I've had more training on and that is what I can teach our students to use (although they are given the option of using any other tool that they choose instead).  For this reason (and the fact that I don't personally have a need for a reference manager at the moment) I'm not keen on spending too much time looking at other tools since I will just get confused!

Thing 13 - Google Docs, Wikis and Dropbox

For years, I have stored some documents with my web-based email provider if I thought I might need quick access to them. The new breed of cloud services is an extension of this, and the sharing options allow obvious advantages. The university my college is part of positively promotes the use of Google Docs/Drive for online storage and collaboration. Within the library we use a shared Google account to share resources such as poster templates since we lost our shared drive. I've also filled in a lot of registration forms/questionnaires which have been powered by a Google form.

I have Dropbox installed on my home and work computers and iPad. I don't use it routinely, but have found it useful for sharing photos between devices, and it does work. I don't like that others have to have an account to share some things though.

Of course the problem with these services is reliance on the Internet, and I can't always guarantee getting a connection when needed. If I go to meetings with my iPad, I'll make sure I've got the documents I need before I go, rather than assuming I can sync/download them when there. With the number of lost memory sticks we have at work - and the upset students who've lost them- I'm all for using online services as an extra backup, but I'd never (yet) rely on such a service constantly.

My only real experience of wikis is Wikipedia and various sites for computer games :-). I think I've spent so much time warning students about the downside of Wikipedia having anyone contribute, that I've lost sight of how they can be useful! Whilst I can't see any obvious reason to use one at work, I might pay a bit more attention to how others use them.

Things 12 - Putting the social into social media

Whilst trying not to repeat things I've said previously, I'm all for social media within limits. Even in the last few months I've noticed Facebook has become more and more integrated e.g. it's almost expected that a phone app will link to Facebook in some way. Whilst I still only use it on a personal level to interact with people I have actually met, it has allowed contact with past friends that I might not otherwise have had.

Recently by following the threads on a new community forum, I've discovered a possible book group to attend - something I've previously searched in vain for.

I still haven't managed to be a regular poster on Twitter, but am definitely now positive about its ability to spread the word having learnt about a lot of things I would otherwise have remained ignorant of. We've also been setting ourselves reminders at work to tweet as the library- which I've been partly successful at, although it tends to be a lot or nothing.

I have always been a lurker (!) and will probably remain so for some time, as much as I psyche myself up occasionally to post a comment or response. But I think as myself as proof that even thought you might not realise it, people are watching/listening - which is both an encouragement and warning!

Thing 11 - Mentoring

This is where I have to get my act together: I have read the arguments for having a mentor and would like to find one when I register for my ACLIP, but I am a bit scared! I'm not good a talking to people I don't know and certainly not at instigating contact. Informally, I don't work in a large enough institution to have a senior member of staff I can discuss library issues with: My colleagues and I talk together of course, but there is no-one with significant extra experience to advise. Senior managers may be willing to talk, but don't have the sector knowledge. I find myself drawing on past experience enough to know that the more experience you can draw from, the better!

 

 

Oh dear!

I had thought that come the summer holidays, I would be able to schedule time to do CPD23 more easily. As is was, that didn't happen and the term has been busy enough for me to have gone four months without posting. I've done some drafts though, so will be making an effort to post up the rest of the Things.