#uklibcampuk11 session 5 – Challenges for academic libraries

This was the last session of the day and by now I think we were all starting to feel a bit weary! Some library campers had a break from the pitched sessions and had a knit/chat session at the end of the day. I carried on and went to this session about challenges that we’re facing in academic libraries and whether we can learn anything from other sectors.I’ve picked out some of the things that stood out for me, apologies if I’ve missed a load of stuff!

Fees, fees, fees
There is anxiety surrounding the increase in fees coming in for 2012/2013. I am anxious about it. I don’t think the incoming students will really know why the fees have been increased. I think they will see it that they are paying up to £9,000 a year and that they will want services, spaces and support that reflects what they are paying. I don’t think they will realise that we are having to cut services and jiggle staff to meet budget requirements and why would they?
This presents a challenge for us. This year we’ve taken more students onto courses in the school I look after and I imagine that’s the same across the university, but from a library perspective we haven’t had an extension to the library or installed more PCs or anything that might help us accommodate more students.  We are working within our parameters and trying to improve things where we can to create more study space, but will that be enough? Only time will tell I suppose.

Should we be working more collaboratively?
We had discussions about the pros and cons of collaborative working. For a lot of places there is an institutional objective to be more involved with the communities that they are based in, so there seems a lean towards collaborative working to meet those sorts of objective and there are advantages to service provision in some instances. However, the general feeling seemed to be that while we can learn a lot, share resources and provide services collaboratively with other information services or libraries from other sectors, we need to concentrate resources in our departments or across our sites (if we are multi site) as sometimes we don’t know which bits of our own department are doing what. Certainly at Brighton there’s a lot of collaborative work we could be doing across the central support departments and that seems to be taking shape more and more.

What about shared services from one place?
A couple of people from Worcester in the group Alison Taylor @allieblogging and Sarah Oxford @sarahbrarian spoke about what’s happening in Worcester with a library shared by the university and public. It will encompass all library services for all those different users. Logistical and operational nightmare? Who knows, but I’ve invited myself for a visit when it’s all up and running which is set for Summer 2012. I wonder if something like this could work in Brighton…

That sums up my final library camp session.

Next post will be a very behind #cpd23 things one hopefully!

#libcampuk11 session 4 – The embedded librarian – cross sector discussion

Another busy session with a range of people from across the sectors. I was keen to go along to this to see how things work outside of HE in terms of embedding a librarian. Hearing how things work in corporate law firms and management consultancy was defo an interesting one. I went away with some questions to consider and some ideas to take back to work and here they are:

1. Does a library service need a brand/identity or is it more important that our users identify with their librarian/link person?
I hadn’t thought about this before, yet it seems such an obvious thing! For me though when I am speaking to academics or students in my school, I am first and foremost representing the library and how we can support them, but also the department, Information Services, as a whole. I’ve blogged before about my concerns about our lack of a marketing strategy for the department and what message we’re trying to get across to our users. After all that, does it matter? Yes, I think it does matter, I do think we need a co-ordinated approach to marketing our services and a strong visual identity should go with that. However, after these discussions wonder if people in the school I look after think of me as the library. I’m going to ask them.

2. Should a subject/link librarian be based in the library or in the school/department/ that they work with/support/are responsible for?
Oooh an interesting one. From what I gathered from those working in corporate libraries – law, consultancy there’s a mix up of how the library/information service  is incorporated into the practice. In a time when services are being cut across sectors, it’s more important than ever that we embed ourselves in our organisations, providing a good service and supporting the aims and objectives of the organisation.
So, as  link librarian should I be based in the library or would it better if I was based in the school along with the lecturers? It’s something that I want to explore further as I think there are legs in this, not only for the students, but for the lecturers as well. I wonder if part of my time in the library and part of my time in the department could work. One to explore further. Are any other academic librarians doing this?

3. Do our job titles matter?
This came up briefly as Laura Woods @Woodsiegirl mentioned that the people she works with in the law firm have started calling her a business analyst. Does that matter? Does this mean that they don’t know what her role involves or is just how they interpret it?
I had a similar situation when I was doing a joint session with a lecturer the other day, it seemed like they didn’t really know what job title to give me. I think I was introduced to the students as their library person. That works, I am their library person, but I also consider myself to be their representative of the department Information Services.

For me that sort of sums things up about this session.

Final session looked at the Challenges face in HE at the moment facilitated by Liz Jolly @liz_jolly and is coming next…

#libcampuk11 session 3 – mobile information literacy

I had a clash at this point in the day as I wanted to go to this session on mobile information literacy stuff facilitated by Andy Walsh @andywalsh999 but I was also keen to go to the session pitched by Jo Alcock @joeyanne and Anna Martin @annalmartin about what we can learn from the retail sector to improve our customer experience. I spoke to Andy and Jo before the sessions saying I couldn’t decide which one I wanted to go to and Andy suggested in the spirit of a true unconference I dip in and out of both. Good idea, but it didn’t happen! I got too into the mobile stuff one and to follow is a summary of that session.

Andy set out the agenda for the discussion – questions. Lots of questions, which got me thinking but only generating more questions rather than any solutions or suggestions. So, what I’ll start with a question – what did we discuss?

This is probably not in the right order, but you’ll get the idea.

What information do people want via their mobile?

We discussed what people actually use mobiles for in terms of finding information. For example, database providers like Science Direct and Ebsco have released apps for their databases as well as professional organisations like the Royal Society of Chemistry. At the University of Brighton, as well as other HEIs, we’ve released an app for our VLE, Studentcentral which is a Blackboard product. I tell my students about these tools, but wonder if they are keen to and will ever use them. Do people want to access and search databases from their mobile or is that a task better suited to the desktop?

We also have a mobile friendly version of our library catalogue, which I can see being used more on a mobile than a database like Science Direct for example. If students have a specific title they want then this sort of short search task to find a piece of information, in this instance, the shelfmark, which they can have on the screen in front of them to go and locate the book. Job done.

Our Online Library website and the Information Services website look ok mobile too so finding opening hours, locations information on a mobile is another example of the sort of information we think people would tend to use their mobile for.

In relation to that, reminders, calendars and all that sort of information can be accessed on a mobile which means we don’t have to remember dates, times, phone numbers, email addresses etc as our mobile will do all that for us. Andy asked if we don’t need to use our headspace for that sort of information, then what are we doing with it? Who knows!

24/7 access

We did discuss the nature of 24/7 access and the constant connectivity and expectations related to that. Sarah Nicholas @SarahNicholas mentioned a service at Cardiff they have a Library Chat Service
http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/insrv/libraries/index.html which students could use from their mobile and although it clearly states the times that Library Chat is available and it’s obvious when someone is online, is this the sort of service that people will come to expect out of normal working hours?

In addition to this there is the issue of our own balance with being connected and work and all that. Paul Stainthorp @pstainthorp made a point that he could get into work on a Monday morning and people ask him if he’s read their email. As I’ve got all my inboxes set up on my iphone I have got into the habit of checking my work inbox either last thing at night or first thing in the morning before I even get to work. Added to that Twitter, which I check pretty regularly and the RSS feeds I’m pretty much connected all the time. Both Sarah and Paul made a good point about having your own boundaries/limits about this, for me and this sounds silly, but it’s knowing that is ok to do and people aren’t going to think I’m lazy or not interested or not committed or whatever.

Perception and attitude

There was also discussion around how others perceive use of mobiles. There was all that hoo ha a while ago about tweeting at events and people around not getting what was happening and thinking tweeters were being a bit rude, playing with their phones. How widespread is ?

What do people want?

Can we have a mobile technology strategy and still move quickly enough to respond to wants/needs for apps, mobile friendly sites  or do we take so long to produce an app for example that by the time it gets out there things have moved on? Do people actually want these things? How do we find out what people want? I wonder how may places do have a strategy for this sort of thing. At Brighton I don’t think we do, but one might be in the making. We do have ace people developing tools for mobiles, which is great, but, me being a bit impatient sometimes feels like it’s taking too long! It’d be good to be more involved with this sort of thing, but I don’t know how I could contribute, I defo can’t develop an app, I wouldn’t know where to start, but user testing, seeing if our students/staff would make use of apps like the Studentcentral one that we have library staff could do.

Teaching mobile information literacy – tools, cloud stuff

So we teach people how to search for information with the tools available to them, do we need to do the same with mobile stuff or should there be a seamless move from desktop to mobile and vice versa. Like we discussed in session 1 about the transition from school to college to uni to work are young people growing up around technology really digital natives? Do they really know how to make the most of the tools available to them? In my limited experience probably not, so maybe there is room for getting people to learn by doing and using stuff for specific tasks. Lots of things to think about there.

A mix up of discussion and no real, concrete way forward it seems. People should just carry on being creative and forward thinking and develop mobile friendly sites or apps and throw caution to the wind if a mobile technology and learning strategy exists!

Next up, session 4 – the embedded librarian – a cross sector discussion facilitated by Laura Woods @Woodsiegirl, Samantha Halford @samanthahalf and  with Sian Blake @funktious as chief note taker.

#libcampuk11 session 2 – Librarians for social change

The second session I participated in at #libcampuk11 was facilitated by Maria Cotera @mariacotera the main theme of the session – librarians for social change. Maria started the session explaining  a bit about the work that she is involved in with IFLA and other organisations, working in developing countries like Uganda, to empower citizens by helping them with sometimes basic information skills, like reading to accessing trustworthy and reliable information about health, welfare, rights and more.

Maria encouraged us to think about our own roles and that of the profession as a whole as facilitators of social change. There was discussion around what sort of information we provide now that makes a difference and empowers people. We also discussed how we communicate what we do to different groups of people and why that’s important. Maria asked us if those closest to us, friends and family know what we do, I’d never really thought about this, it’d be an interesting vox-pop, although I think I know what the general response would be! One of the participants, Marianne, thinks that word of mouth is one of the most powerful ways of getting our message ‘out there’ in terms of what we do and what we stand for. I think there is something in that, but really depends on the people we want to get our message out to. If we want to influence politicians, the people with the power then it may well take more than word of mouth.

Demonstrating our value and communicating that was something that Maria was keen to explore, but for me, this comes back to who we want to get our message out to. As our professional body CILIP do work to lobby government and influence decision makers, getting libraries, librarians on the agenda, showing how important we are to society. There are many advocates for the profession and tools are available through the CILIP website like the advocacy toolkit to help people get going with their advocacy activities.
As well as activities from CILIP, we have seen examples of activism from groups like the Voices for the Libraries, defending and promoting the value and need for libraries to benefit society as a whole. They have challenged and resisted the proposed cuts across the public library services across the country, showing resilience and commitment.

Bit of a tangent there, sorry, but getting back to the session, it was interesting to hear the views of those from across the sectors. As an academic librarian it’s difficult to see my role as a facilitator of social change. I understand that education and development side of being at university. A lot of graduates do want to contribute to the development of society in some way, but in order to achieve real social change it has to come from everyone rather than a government or librarians or social workers. Everyone needs to agree that there should be more equality across the board, not just with information provision and access. However, I guess if we’re going to start anywhere then this is a good a place as any!
It was an eye opener hearing the experiences of those working in public libraries or citizens advice bureaus or charities or prisons, working with vulnerable people with specific information needs that getting that key piece of information will not only answer a question or resolve an issue, but improve their quality of life in some way.

This session certainly made me think, social change is such a massive thing, Maria gave us some examples of the kind of information work happening overseas and in the UK improving the information provision, literacy skills of people having a positive impact on their lives. There are lots of ‘haves’ in the UK, but increasingly there seem to be more of the ‘have-nots’. For me it’s difficult to know where to put the focus.

There was also some discussion around whether library courses are teaching future librarians the right skills to take this agenda forward – advocacy? collaboration? communication?

So, do I think librarians can facilitate social change?
As ever I don’t have a clear cut answer to this question. On the one hand I do think librarians can facilitate social change, but not on our own. Like I said earlier, it’s such a massive thing that in order for there to be a real, positive change in society making things more equal, making information and services more accessible then it has to be a joint effort, which for the UK, has to have the support of those in power. The majority have to be in favour and support change. If things aren’t as we think they should be then we should resist and stand up for what we believe in and there are many ways that we can do this.  Finally, social change will mean different things across the world. In some cases it could be a small change implemented, supported and sustained that makes a huge difference to people. Where do we focus our time, energy and resources, our local communities or internationally?
This brings me onto my other hand – there are so many different agendas which are worthy and deserving of support, not just the library and information one, how do we fit into those agendas to strengthen them and our own?

To conclude then, a very thought provoking session with interesting contribution from across the sectors. Rather than answering any of the questions Maria raised it’s made me ask more questions about whether we, as a profession really can facilitate social change in the UK and overseas.

Library camp #libcampuk11 Intro and session 1 – Transitions

Library Camp has happened and what a day it was. I’m really glad I got the opportunity to participate in what was a great event. This blog post is a summary of my experience of Library Camp UK 2011.

I’ve never been to an un-conference before but since getting a ticket I’d been following the developments of Library camp on the website www.librarycamp.co.uk and on the  Library Camp wiki so I had an idea of how things would work, people had been posting pitches for sessions on the wiki and then they had circa 30 seconds to do their pitch in real life at the start of the day – we, as participants could set the programme for the day, how cool is that?!

I arrived at the venue at around 9.30, bumping into Richards Hawkins (@usernametaken10) to find the place already buzzing with conversation. After receiving a warm welcome from members of the organising team, I got myself a name sticky on the go and went to join in the chat. I was however distracted by the millions of different sweet treats on offer! Cakes, flapjack, brownies, tablet, biscuits of all kinds, the #cakecamp really deserves a post of it’s own! Needless to say I’d gone into a room full of library and info pros on sugar and caffeine highs!

The day started proper at around 10 with @pigsonthewing directing us into a room for the introduction of the day. Here Jo McCausland @libraryjmac welcomed us and explained a bit about how the day would work. Before people started their pitches for sessions, our poet for the day Mark Niel performed a couple of poems, one based on words that participants had contributed through the wiki. We were asked to give 3 words about libraries. Mark was around the whole day dipping in and out of different sessions so he could write another few poems about the day, which he did and performed in the closing comments.

We went round the whole room and each of us introduced ourselves, finding out who people were, where they had come from and why they were at Library Camp. There were lots of people that I follow on Twitter there, it was ace to meet them in real life, some I didn’t get to talk to properly, but next time. Anyway, introductions done it was time for the pitching. Lots of people came forward with suggestions for sessions, giving us an idea of what they would like to discuss, writing them on a post it and sticking them into a slot of the programme which was drawn up on a white board.
Once all the pitches were in, participants went for a cake break while the organisers put the pitches into themes creating the programme for the day. The programme board was then brought out into the refreshment area and we could have a look at which sessions we wanted to go to. There were 7 sessions for each time slot.We had a paper version so we could fill in the sessions we wanted to go to.

Session 1 – Transitions

The first session was at 11 and I chose to go along to one facilitated by Jo Alcock @joeyanne and Jean Allen, a school librarian. The theme: transitions. I have been following and where possible contributing to Jo’s work which looks at the transition from school to college to university and was keen to discuss with others their experiences, ideas surrounding this theme of transition. It was a lively session, with plenty of discussion as people were keen to contribute. There were varying perspectives from participants as we went round the room saying what we wanted to discuss. Jo managed to identify the key topics:

• The expectations and assumptions we make of the information skills of the students coming into university
• Inductions
• Skills levels
• Professional library staff in schools – the role of the school library service
• The expectations the academics have
• Use of e-resources in school and at university
• Digital natives – is this true? Are the children growing up around technology really digital natives?
• Public library collaboration – how do we all fit together?

Everyone had an opinion to contribute, it was great to have a range of librarians from schools, HE, FE and public. All of us clear that information skills of our young people need attention and development and they should be treated as skills for life.

Assumptions – digital natives?
A lot of reports exist around the subject of digital natives. Are those born into a world where technology is the norm and the cloud is common really digitally native? This is something that came up briefly during the transitions discussion. In my own experience, and this seems similar to others in the room, just because those coming into university now have grown up with access to and using technology doesn’t necessarily mean that they are digitally native. Certainly in my sessions when I ask students if they have used a database or a library catalogue or social media other than Facebook and for used it for learning, I get a lot of blank looks and generally speaking the majority do not know what I’m talking about. This was confirmed by Jean Parris @ShirazSmiley, a HE Librarian and a mum to 2 teenagers she shared this view – also that not all young people have access to a PC at home. It seems then we need to challenge this assumption that all our students are digital natives, au fait with the technology and tools available for learning, socialising and both.

Information literacy skills development
There were some good suggestions of how to address this, as well as more collaboration between schools, colleges and universities, there was discussion around teaching teachers, academics about information literacy skills so that they can include them in assignments and assessments, looking at ways that they can develop them in their students. This is something that we’re working on at Brighton with the development of an information literacy module for staff. It’s in the making and has been developed by academics in the Centre for Learning and Teaching and the Information Studies department and librarians from across the university libraries. The plan is that we will also deliver some of the sessions on the module. Jean Parris @ShirazSmiley mentioned that they had a similar thing in place at UWE with mixed take up from the academics.

Johanna Anderson @jo_bo_anderson looks after education students in her job and made a good point about incorporating information literacy skills into their training, whether they are doing a PGCE or a degree with QTS.

Jean Allen gave us an insight to how she works with the teachers at her school with comments from other school librarians in the group. The school librarians confirmed what @joeyanne has found from her research, that they would like to know what is needed when the students get to university in terms of information skills.

It seems that whatever level we’re working at, school, FE, HE, we’re all trying to get more collaboration on the go with the teachers/academics.

Jo @joeyanne mentioned a research project that Jane Secker @jsecker and Emma Coonan @libgoddess had done looking at information literacy from a HE perspective, an Arcadia project: The Cambridge Curriculum for Information Literacy, this is work that Katy Wrathall @katywrathall is going to continue with.

Related to this was our own skills as teachers. If we have to deliver information literacy skills training then we need to know how to plan, deliver and assess the sessions. I have done a short course; Teaching in Higher Education, other had done the full PGCert, something that I might like to do next year as part of my continuing professional development.

Inductions
The dreaded inductions came up, I’ve mixed views on inductions. I’m not sure how useful they are to the students, particularly for the undergraduates and this related to the information skills we were talking about. For me inductions are about information, rather than skills.
Samantha Halford @samanthahalf suggested that there needs to be continuation of contact with the students once the induction session has been done. An idea of getting a regular slot in the timetable for a module to highlight key resources, workshops to students could be a good way of doing this, but like Samantha said this really depends on the relationship with the academics.

The role of the public library

It was felt that the public library underpinned the literacy activities of younger children with rhyme time, book challenges etc and those at school, with homework clubs and stuff. The issue of the lack of professionally qualified library staff came up here again and concerns raised that if the schools library service was being cut and the public library service being cut then there’s even less chance for children and young people to have a good start with developing their information skills.

To conclude

In short there seemed to be a consensus that:

• information skills awareness and development, like everything has to start in the early years and go from there.
• there is  a real need for professional library staff to facilitate this learning and each stage, early year, school, FE, HE and beyondFor me this was a dynamic and fluid opening session to #libcampuk11 confirming some of my own thoughts and giving me more to think about and act on in my own role. Ace facilitation from @joeyanne and Jean Allen.

Next post will be about session 2, which for me was Librarians for social change, facilitated by @mariacotera

#cpd23 Thing 10: Graduate traineeships, Masters Degrees, Chartership, Accreditation

I’m starting out this thing thinking it’ll be short and sweet, I just want to say a bit about my experience of two things in this thing Masters Degrees and Chartership.

I think it’s ace that there are different routes into the profession and I’m sure I’m not the first one to mention The Library Routes Project is a great place to find out how information professionals across the sector have come into the profession. I realise that the qualifications from CILIP have been revised over the years and there are discussions going on about the relevance of Chartership, Certification and the like I’ll touch on this, but the bulk post reflects on my route into the profession and where I see myself going.

First up ; Masters Degrees….

I graduated with an MA Information Studies from the University of Brighton in July 2008. I studied part-time, starting it in September 2005. I still consider that I was very lucky to have the opportunity to complete the MA. I was working at the University of Brighton as a Careers Information Officer and my manager was very keen for me to ‘get qualified’ as an information professional. They were very keen on professional development and during one of my staff development reviews we discussed how I could progress and develop a career as an information professional. I expressed an interest in getting a job as an academic librarian. Working in a Careers Centre, I was in a great place to find out about routes into the role, case studies and all that.

As I was already working at the University, I had the opportunity to apply for a course as a staff member, which meant that if the course was related to my job, my manager was in favour of it, me doing the course would help develop the service and crucially, me being accepted onto the course then I could be granted a place with the fees waived. Amazing. I got accepted on to the course, my manager was super supportive and I embarked on the MA Information Studies at the University of Brighton. I continued to work full-time, with a day a week doing the course. I came to an agreement with my manager and they allowed me to take half of the days as work time and the other half I had to make up my hours or use annual leave.
There’s no doubt that this was hard work over the three years that it took me to complete the course, but a fantastic developmental opportunity and I still feel that it would have been foolish not to pursue it.
I graduated in 2008 and during the time doing the course I did not actively engage with CILIP in terms of taking on committee roles at Branch level or with any of the special interest groups. If I could go back in time I wonder if I would do things differently, I probably would. I’ve mentioned in a previous post that I was so focused on the MA, that I was working full time, that I had lots of outside interests and at that time in my life I couldn’t imagine doing even more! Anyway, that’s changed now.
I’d applied for a couple of jobs before graduation and was not successful at even getting an interview. I got the usual sort of feedback; lots of applications, many with more relevant experience than me etc.  I was set on getting a job as an academic librarian and I did limit my geographic area as I like living in Brighton, I like the lifestyle I have and didn’t want to compromise on that. The job that I’m doing now came up and I put in my application. A postgraduate qualification in Information Studies/Science was part of the essential criteria, so without having the MA, I wouldn’t have been in a good position to apply for the job. Following the interview, I got the offer and started in this post in January 2009.

I like structure and the MA provided that for me, my professional development taking a clear path. I realise this way of working isn’t for everyone. While I did learn a lot from the MA, there’s nothing better than practical experience for some stuff. There are things in my job that I don’t feel the MA prepared me for, like teaching. I’m not a qualified teacher and there were no modules in the MA which covered user education or anything like that, since though I have completed ‘Train the Trainer’ training and a two day short course called Teaching in Higher Education. The focus is on new academics at the University, but it was really useful for me to go on and I’d like to do the full PGCert. I’m thinking maybe next year for this I did get a lot out of it though, I particularly enjoyed my dissertation and certainly gained a better understanding and awareness of working collaboratively across sectors.
On the whole, I’m glad that I took the MA route into the profession. Shamefully I’ve been working towards Chartership on and off since graduating, oh dear. More on that to follow…

Chartership

Ok, so I’m working towards being chartered. It’s been a work in progress being in my job for a year. I got myself registered, got a Personal Professional Development Plan (PPDP) on the go, got myself a mentor and off I went on a chartership journey. Nearly two years later I’m still on it, which, I know, is rubbish. The worst thing is, I’m so nearly there. I’ve ticked off much of the criteria and really it’s a case of putting it all together and writing my 1,000 words reflective statement thing. So, I’ve booked a week off work in September and the plan is to get this portfolio done and dusted, or at least, done with maybe some dusting at later date.

Why am I doing Chartership? I know there are discussions about the value of Chartership and what it means for those entering the profession now, what employers think of it etc. I’m doing it because, like I said before, I like structure and Chartership, for me, provides me with a vehicle to go on a CPD adventure. Some activities I’ve got involved in because people said to me ‘oh that’ll be great for Chartership.’ What I’ve discovered though is that these activities are great for me Chartership or not.

So, I’ve booked myself a week of leave in September so I can get together all the bits required for my portfolio and by the end of that week I’m hoping to have a portfolio. I know there are going to be things that I need to tweak, change, add etc, but I think that having something put together will be ace. I hope I’m not the only one that’s got all this evidence and found the difficult bit putting it all together.

No doubt I’ll blog about how it all goes. I’ve a lot to get done in that week!

Next up Thing 11, mentoring.

Librarian Emma

#cpd23 things for professional development: Problem solvers: Thing 8 Google Calendar and Thing 9 Evernote

A double post! I’m attempting to get thing 8 and thing 9 in one post, so here we go…

Thing 8 – Google Calendar

I don’t use Google Calendar for work or personal stuff. We have used it at work for specific projects, like IS for You Week, which was a week of events across our sites to raise the profile of Information Services, what we offer etc. For other stuff we use calendar facility in Outlook. On our staff intranet, Staff Central there is also a calendar that is central to the university. I can see how something like this would be useful for libraries across the sites here. A shared calendar to see what’s going on where, opening hours etc. At the moment we have this information on our central, departmental website. I like the way @CILIPLndn use Google Calendar and would like to see if we (the South East branch) could do a similar thing. We need to see how we use the CILIP events calendar first and where else we add our events and go from there.

Thing 9 – Evernote

I like Evernote. I only discovered it fairly recently so haven’t made extensive use of it. What I like about it is that I can sync it all so I can use it on my iphone and any PC and it will all sync together, but it’s also ace, because they’ve developed it to work on different mobile devices. I use it in a similar way that I use Delicious, interesting things I come across online I pop into Evernote. This has raised some questions for me, the main one; do I need both a Delicious and Evernote account or should I take one over the other? Having this topic for thing 9 is good because it’s made me have a look at both tools and consider the pros and cons. Evernote have written a blog post Making the transition from Delicious to Evernote, which was posted late in 2010 and it gives instructions about how to export your Delicious bookmarks to Evernote. Great. They acknowledge as well the differences between the two tools and one of the things I like about Delicious is the social and the networking bit, which is lacking with Evernote. However, I like all the features of Evernote, the web clippy bit, the ability to add notes and all that jazz. I haven’t yet shared any of my notes with anyone, I haven’t needed to, but I like it that I can if I want.

I wonder if I need to choose one over the other with Evernote and Delicious? More thought required, I’ll add it to my list of things to do. My week of annual leave is going to be busy

Up next Thing 10 – Graduate Traineeships, Masters Degrees, Chartership, Accreditation…..

Librarian Emma

Career Development Group London and South East Divisions – Committee meeting and Seaside Summer Social

Hey! This will be on the CDG London and South East division pages of the CILIP website tomorrow, but in the mean time, it’s here!

The Career Development Group (London and South East Divisions) would like to invite you to:

Our next COMMITTEE MEETING on Thursday 25^th August, 3pm-5pm.

The meeting will take place in Boardroom M2, Grand Parade Building, Grand Parade, University of Brighton, Brighton  

http://www.brighton.ac.uk/maps/grandparade/

This will be followed by:

Our SUMMER SOCIAL on Thursday 25^th August, 5.30pm – 7.30pm.

We will meet at the Fortune of War, 156-157 Kings Road Arches, Brighton, BN1 1NB.
http://www.drinkinbrighton.co.uk/fortune-of-war

This is the annual summer get together for both members and non-members. You will have the opportunity to network with other information professionals as well as take part in a photo scavenger hunt at the seaside! We will meet at 5.30pm and the scavenger hunt will start circa 6pm. Bring a digital camera or use your phone.

The event will be attended by members of the London and South East Divisions Committee including local Candidate Support Officers, if you have questions about Certification, Chartership or Revalidation.

Cost: Free or you can make a donation to the CDG International Fund. That’s always appreciated.

Refreshments not included but are available to buy.

Please complete the booking form http://tiny.cc/merrc

Any questions please get in touch eillingworth@googlemail.com

#cpd23 things for professional development: Thing 7 Face to Face networks and professional organisations

I started this post and then read what other people had written for their thing 7, then got scared and then thought bums to it, it’s staying at it is. What follows is my take on my own involvement in face to face networks and professional organisations.

I said in my post about Thing 6, Online Networks, that I have love/hate relationship with them. This extends to my face to face networks too. Absolutely not with the people I have met, but sometimes the awkwardness of trying to start a conversation, or keep a conversation going. This can be tricksy. We all have our bad days and I for one get in a right panic if conversation dries up. It’s much more comfortable to make a bee-line for the faces you recognise or people you’ve met and spoken with before. I definitely do this as a warm up and more often than not they will be with people I haven’t met before so I get into a conversation with new people that way. That’s not always an option though and it’s then that I need to think of some good conversation starters The love side of my online networks comes out again though because developing them is great for when you meet people that you ‘know’ from Twitter, LinkedIn etc. because you know what they are into, what they have been up to, what they are passionate about, what irks them, what their favourite cake is, what’s their favourite tipple,  so there’s a whole pot of potential conversations waiting to happen.

I mentioned in my last post that I’m really quite excited about Library Camp UK for several reasons:
1. Lots of people I ‘know’ from my online networks are going, some of them I’ve never met in a face to face situation. Exciting!
2. Lots of people that I don’t know at all are going.  Exciting and scary!
3. There will be so much experience, enthusiasm, innovation, dynamism, library/information love going on there that I may well explode. Potential for overload!
4. One of the sisters Illingworth lives in Birmingham so it means I get to see her too

So, the opportunity to go to Library Camp UK came through Twitter, perfect example of how my face to face and online networks overlap and feed into each other. It’s going to be a real adventure seeing how it all works out, more about what it is and how it might work can be found on Library Camp UK.

Excitement about Library Camp UK to one side for a bit, another example of this is overlap of face to face and online networks comes in a blog post I wrote about organising the first ever Brighton LibTeachMeet after a tweet from @TomRoper This event came from an online network, another great example of how my online networks have helped developed face to face ones.

Other routes to developing face to face networks include:

1. MA Information Studies
I did the MA Information Studies at the University of Brighton part time while I was working full time. During my time doing the course I didn’t develop my online presence at all and was reluctant to get involved in any local CILIP activities because I was a bit scared and I was completely consumed by getting the MA! A couple of our lecturers, Audrey Marshall and Juliet Eve are active in CILIP and have been for some time, but no amount of encouragement from them could convince me to get more involved. Sarah and I are invited to talk to the MA Info Studies students about our post qualification experience so far and I can see from the look on the majority of their faces and by the questions that they ask us that they find it all a bit overwhelming and can’t see how they can ‘fit it in’ to the rest of their life and  I was exactly the same. I began to engage with the wider profession when I was ready, it’s all a big adventure still and as I’m learning more and getting more experience the more confident in myself I am becoming. If I was doing it all over again I can see how both of those things would be super helpful, but at that time I couldn’t even consider them properley. Needless to say though I got to know other people on the course, I’m only in touch with a few of them now, but that was the start of developing my face to face networks.  In addition to this I attended my first big library event when I was a student  – Umbrella 2007 and I was terrified. I met some lovely, encouraging, tirelessy enthusiastic people though and thought I have something to contribute here, but wasn’t sure what and in some ways I’m still not sure. I haven’t got an area of experitse, I haven’t completed any ground breaking research, I don’t dedicate all of my time and energy to library related stuff.  I am enthusiastic though and whole heartedly believe in libraries, their value andbenefit to society, which is why I have tried to become more involved and active in the wider profession.

2. Work
When I started in my first post qualification job I became more responsive to the opportunities available to me. Presenting at the first New Professionals Conference in 2009 was a real eye opener and the start of something fantastic. Attending Umbrella in 2009 was another fantastic learning and networking experience. These last two years have been full of opportunities. While my employer is super supportive of professional development opportunities, cuts to our budget means that it has become more competitive to get funding for professional development activities.

3. CILIP
All of the professional action I’ve been involved with has in some way, shape or form been related to CILIP. My involvement with the Career Development Group and with the South East branch has opened up different face to face networks. More about this though in this next bit about professional organisations…

It’s clear that my face to face and online networks overlap, so what involvement have I had with professional organisations? Well, like I said above, pretty much all my professional action, including stuff outside of CILIP, has come through being involved with CILIP or the people I have met through being involved with CILIP activities.  In my previous post about Thing 6, I mentioned that I don’t make much use of CILIP’s online tools, like CILIP communities, there are other tools that I like more for online activity. For face to face networking though, my involvement with CILIP has definitely underpinned that.

Out of all the professional organisations Bethan mentions in the post CILIP is the only one that I am proper active with. It’s the one that is most relevant to me, now, in my current situation. I said before when I was doing my MA, I couldn’t even think about being more active in the wider profession for a number of reasons, but that changed as my situation changed and is likely to change again in the future. Why am I a member? In a me, me, me way, being a member of CILIP provides opportunities that I don’t currently get elsewhere,  like being able to contribute to publicity stuff for the South East branch, supporting the Candidate Support Officers for the Career Development Group (CDG) in London and the South East by helping to organise events to support chartership/certification candidates,  assisting the CDG web officer when necessary. In all of those things I’m developing skills and learning new ones, that should be beneficial at work to, being a better communicator, being just a little bit more assertive when necessary, being less afraid to say what I think about stuff and contributing ideas and all that.

Being a member of CILIP has also helped me get a wider view of the profession and out of what could have easily turned into my academic library bubble so? So I have a better knowledge and understanding of what is happening in other sectors, what is affecting library world and what CILIP is doing in response. There are other ways I keep up to date with this sort of stuff as I mentioned in post 6, but being a member of  CILP certainly contributes.

I also like the way that you can get involved with CILIP. You don’t need to have loads of experience in anything, but a willingness and commitment I think is important. It’s a chance to learn I know the structure of things is changing, I only hope that the new way of working for branches and groups still provides and encourages involvement. I’m well aware that branches and groups sometimes struggle to attract and keep members on their committees and maybe the new structure will improve this. What works for me and helped me get involved is that there opportunities whatever your interest. For me, the committee structure works, I like being part of a a group with different roles working to the same goal. I like having a clearly defined role, so I know what is expected of me and what skills I can use and develop.

I do think that you get out what you put into things and your face to face networks and involvement in professional organisations are no exception and as CILIP changes no doubt my involvement will to, but I’d still like a role, I’d still like to contribute, so hopefully, I will.

Next up Evernote and Google Calendar.

Librarian Emma

#cpd23 things for professional development Thing 6: Online Networks

It’s our 100th post! Whoo!!

This is our 100th post to go onto Librarians on the Loose. How about that. It’s looking at Online Networks as part of the #cpd23 things. I mentioned in a previous post about having a love/hate relationship with Twitter and this is true about my other online activity.  Having said that, for me the positives of online networking definitely outweigh the negatives, for sure and the negative stuff is more my own state of mind and perception than anything else.

So, why am I involved in online networks? Well, for the reasons that Helen gives us in her introduction; I want to be better connected and better equipped as a librarian and I’m getting there with the wanting to be better known side of things too. I hope that I’m contributing to the wider profession by making use of these online networks and being involved with them has certainly been beneficial for me and my organisation.

I’m part of a number of online networks; LinkedIn, Twitter, LISNPN, Librarians as Teachers (LAT) CILIP Communities but I’m not active on all of them for one reason or another. I also subscribe to lots of different JISC mail lists, does that count as a network? They are not so easy to discuss on, but people do. Anyway, I’m going to look at each one of these in turn…

LinkedIn
I’m getting there with LinkedIn and I share the view of Woodsiegirl (Laura Woods) in that I like having a purely professional online space. I mentioned my LinkedIn profile in a previous post about my online brand and that it is in need of an update. LinkedIn prompts me to add to my profile, things like specialist skills and I’m at a loss of what to put really. I don’t have any specialist skills, yet. It also prompts me to add more of my previous jobs, but they are not relevant to library and info stuff and that’s what I want to concentrate my professional profile on. Of course, they were jobs where I learnt a lot in terms of transferable skills which have certainly helped me in a profession where excellent communication skills are essential as well as the ability to connect with and help people find what they need. I don’t think it will come as a surprise that all of my previous jobs have had a people focus. Anyway, putting that to one side,  I want to keep this profile library/information job specific. I mentioned in the online brand post about having a bit of a profersonal attitude on Twitter and that there are some things that I do like to separate out from work stuff, so for me this is why I like LinkedIn. I know that everything I’ve put online builds up a profile of me, but I’d like to that it all those different facets make up a good whole
Woodsiegirl also mentioned the recommendations thing on LinkedIn. I haven’t asked anyone for a recommendation, yet, but I will, eventually. In theory I like the idea of it, in practice I’m yet to give it a try, but for me that all comes down to confidence.
What else do I like about LinkedIn? I’ve recently joined some more groups to see what discussions go on with them and if they are any different to those that come up on Twitter. I’ve already said in previous posts that Twitter is my main source of finding out stuff, not only about library/information, but news generally. So, I’ll see how I go on with the new groups I’ve joined. It’s a good job they send updates about all this, because if they didn’t, it would be easy for me to forget to check.
Like most stuff though you have to have your wits about you! I read an article (via a tweet from @jaffne) this morning about LinkedIn using your photo and actions in social advertising and that this is something you’re automatically opted into rather than having the choice. So a bit more transparency from LinkedIn would be preferred with stuff like this, but then it reminds me that when I’m setting up a profile using any online tool I should check account settings, privacy policy and all that, something that should be part of the process, but that easily gets overlooked.

Twitter
Twitter is by far my favourite online network and the one that I get the most out of probably because I put the most into it It’s amazing the conversations you can have in 140 characters! I blogged about my love/hate relationship with Twitter for thing 4, so I won’t say anymore here…

I’m going to group LISNPN, Librarians as Teachers (LAT) CILIP Communities together because these are all networks that I belong to, but that I’m not that active with. For LISNPN and LAT I’m afraid it comes down to time. Like I said before, Twitter is my preffered online network, then LinkedIn. I love LISNPN because it is full to bursting with innovative, enthusiastic, active professionals, which can be overwhelming and that feeling of inadequacy comes again, but it is also useful to see what topics are being discussed, where the next LISNPN meet up is happening, who is doing what and where. It’s great, but completely underused by me, at the moment.

LAT is another one that I love, because a chunk of my job is delivering information literacy skills training across the courses I look after. It’s really interesting to see what tools and techniques other academic librarians are using to deliver similar training, also how this is included in the course, whether it’s embedded in the module, whether it’s delivered in the library or in a lecture theatre, solo or collaboratively, all really useful stuff, but again something I’ve neglected as other things take priority. This is one that I will definitely revisit and try to make better use of.

CILIP communities I’ve given a try and probably have not used to it’s full potential and again time is a factor for me, as well as being a bit rubbish organisation wise at times, I’ve not invested as much in it as other networks mainly because I think I get to be connected to a wider range of information professionals using networks like Twitter and LinkedIn and therefore wider perspectives, different experiences, a range of expertise. It’s not high up on my list of priorities to look at this again in the near future as I’m happy with the networks I’m actively using at the moment. If I’m missing out on loads of really fantastic stuff though, someone please tell me and I’ll reconsider what I’m spending my time on!

You may have noticed that I haven’t mentioned Facebook yet and I’m not going to blog about my use of it in any great detail. I have a Facebook, I have mixed feelings about it. I use it predominantly for keeping in touch with friends that are dotted around here, there and everywhere. I do have librarian friends on there, but I don’t talk libraries on there. That’s all I have to say about it

The action points I’ve set myself in the online brand post I keep going on about sort of cover this thing as well because hopefully by addressing my online brand I will also be addressing what I’m doing with my online networks.

Wonderful. Next post will be thing 7 face to face networks and professional organisations. I have to say I’m super excited about #libcampuk11 Library Camp UK 2011 which I signed up for yesterday, so many people going that I’m really looking forward to either meeting in real life for the first time proper or meeting with again. It’s going to be ace!

Librarian Emma