Thing 23. This is the end -beautiful friend.

So- thing 23 is finally here! What have I learned and will I actually use any of it or just stick it to the back of my mind as I watch another repeat of The Big Bang Theory?

To me the course has been an interesting way of looking at what is going on the world of librarianship- the resources, the networking and the priorities of up and coming librarians. It has been fascinating to read the blogs and see what a disparate group we are. We are international, different ages, have done these Things for wildly different reasons and at different stages of our career. Admittedly we're mostly women and there is unhealthy obsession with knitting (something I am genuinely incapable of,)  but there are still enough interests to allow (hopefully!) librarianship to grow and develop over the next few years. Networking online is the best way of being able to share ideas, resources and band together against the cuts that are affecting libraries in all fields.

As for the personal development plan - I hope I am some way through completing this already. I was a qualified librarian at 22, chartered at 27, volunteering at 29 (slightly cheating- it was 3 days before my 30th birthday!) interning at 30 and employed outside public libraries from 31 years. If I am able to learn all I hope from my new job then I should hopefully have all the qualifications and experience needed to apply for any job I want. 

The scary thing of course is that the career of librarianship is so fragile. A few years ago I thought that I would be able to progress through the ranks as the managers around me retired. Instead, public libraries faced one of their worse crises and the fact that there is (faint) hope on the horizon is, worryingly, thanks to people banding together online rather than the people who were being paid to protect our profession.

And so, I need to continue some of what I have learned from 23Things. To me, the main thing has been raising my awareness of the number of resources that are out there to help librarians. In an ideal world I would like to continue this blog reporting on these (despite the fact that all my posts in this area have focussed on the fact that I am completely unable to work out how to use new technology!) Using Phil Bradley's blog (that I'm following on Google Reader thanks to Thing Four) as a benchmark it would be great to discover these new resources and how practically they can be used in my life (after all, if I can use them, anyone can!)

Of course, I have to ignore the fact that I am writing this blog because it is 2 days before the closing date and I am in competition with one of my friends to actually finish this Thing! 

Time will tell whether this blog continues. Until then, there can be only one message for whoever reads this. Taken from National Libraries Day this year (and as talked about in Thing 16)

Thing 16: advocacy

Another rant today I'm afraid.......!

Advocacy is a really important skill to have as a librarian for both personal (you can ‘sell’ yourself and show what a difference you have made to the library and the people you serve) and professional reasons (you can ‘sell’ what your library has achieved and (hopefully) ensure that no-one tries to close it down.)

As the image of librarians change, we are finding ourselves to be much better at doing this rather than being people who run away and hide in rooms of dusty books. However, it is still difficult sometimes to persuade people to put their heads above the parapet- especially if they’re worried that their jobs or professional reputations might suffer as a result. Some of the comments on this blog http://infoism.co.uk/blog/2012/06/what-would-it-take-to-make-you-a-library-activist/ are truly shocking (to me) in how people judge people who are willing to stand up for what they believe in. I think that people shouldn’t feel guilty about not having the time to take on campaigns, but if you can comment on a blog post surely you can also email your local MP to encourage them to support libraries?! You don’t need to be articulate, you don’t need to make yourself unemployable, you don’t need to know every detail about what you are supporting ("you mean you haven’t read the 1997 financial reports for a random library in Croydon? Shame on you!") and you don’t need to feel scared.

Here are some of my ideas of ways you could still advocate on behalf of libraries.

1)    Promote your profession in unexpected ways.

For National Libraries Day 2012, myself and a couple of friends did a pub crawl around library themed pubs and bars in London. We were wearing old school library badges and would ask people to pose for photos with my special library t-shirt (which features a large road sign with the large letters “use your f***ing library.”) While you may not want to wear such sartorially challenged clothing, it was heartening to see how many people came up to us to talk about the importance of books and libraries. By shouting about our love of libraries, we can show new & different people that the profession has moved on and their old fashioned image needs to change. World Book Night is another (and more professional!) example of this working.

2)    Get involved in campaigns that are not linked to your work. Library advocacy is not just about public libraries. There are sadly lots of issues affecting libraries all around the world and adding to the numbers supporting campaigns can have an impact while your name just provides a statistic.  Examples include:

·         Asking the Law Society to reconsider its decision to auction off parts of the Mendham Collection (a unique collection of Catholic and anti-Catholic literature including manuscripts and printed books ranging from the 15th to the 19th centuries”) despite an initial agreement with Canterbury Cathedral and the University of Kent that they could retain the collection until the end of 2013 https://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/the-law-society-of-england-and-wales-stop-the-break-up-and-sale-of-the-mendham-collection

·         Signing against the closure of public libraries by councils (e.g. Golcar Library in Kirklees http://epetition.kirklees.public-i.tv/epetition_core/community/petition/1818  or Upper Norwood Library http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/save-upper-norwood-library ) and I’ve already mentioned in previous posts The Women’s Library http://www.thepetitionsite.com/925/128/986/save-the-womens-library-at-london-metropolitan-university/

3)    Support the work of linked charities such as The Literacy Trust http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/campaigns ,  the British Library http://support.bl.uk/Page/Ways-you-can-help  or The Reading Agency http://readingagency.org.uk/about/support-us/  (I’m ignoring their current volunteering project for libraries- I can do that. If I don’t agree with the stance of a campaign or project that I’ve previously supported then as an advocate I have the right to walk away.)

4)    The beauty of the Internet is that it can be relatively anonymous. The downside of this is trolls harassing people online but librarians can use this to their benefit.  No-one needs to know who is behind the twitter account @SaveXXlibrary and you don’t have to show your id to get a new email address. While I’m not advising you to break the law, it is remarkable how much can be achieved by promoting your cause. Authors and other library advocates are more than willing to retweet information about your library, hopefully alerting other members of your community to what is under threat.  If you’ve got a good service, once the ball is rolling then other people will be more than happy to take up the baton. Remember, when Voices for the Library started it was often anonymous librarians who were quoted on their behalf until the organisation and activists became better known.

So basically- be creative, support what you believe in and love libraries!

For today’s photo: how could anyone not want to celebrate a library with as good a name as this?!