Thing Nine: Evernote

Evernote is another website that is banned by work as I am unable to access sites that store personal files on Internet servers for backup or exchange.

I have been reading lots of cpd23 blogs extolling the virtues of Evernote but it didn’t really appeal to me. Librarians seem to find out interesting information and email it to themselves. I had decided that I would have to file this trait away in the brain under ‘things that mean that I’m not a true librarian’ (along with not liking cats and being incapable of knitting.) However, then I read about ‘I Done This’ in ‘So Many Books, So Little Time.’

That’s a really useful idea I thought to myself. But how will I remember it?

Oh.......!

On the theme of not really understanding things, here is a photograph of me outside a library in Budapest. Who would have been able to guess that könyvtár is library in Hungarian?!

Thing Eight: Google Calendar

I’m unsure what to make of using Google calendar for cpd23. Every organisation I’ve ever worked in has used Microsoft Outlook and its calendar function. This is useful when trying to figure out where colleagues are and when to book meetings for as well as reminding me when I’m supposed to be on a desk. Last week a friend in another organisation was able to invite me to Museums Showoff through Outlook, which has widened the possibilities of its use.

I’m not sure how Google Calendar could help me more. I would be able to add it to my smartphone but try not to add too much information to that as I’m paranoid about it being stolen. I am yet to lead the hardcore, pressurised job that needs me to be aware of deadlines (says the person doing writing this blog three weeks late!) and so don’t think I would need to be aware of appointments 24 hours a day. I’m also slightly wary of having everything with one company. However, I do like the weather function with Google and found it easy to use, so if I was moved to a company without Outlook, I would probably start using this in its place.

On the (sort of) theme of flapping about- here is a picture of me outside Tooting Library.( I was involved with the teenage participation project which ensured it gained National Lottery Funding y’know…….)

In my first blog post, I mentioned that I used to volunteer with The Women’s Library who are currently under threat after the London Metropolitan University said that they would withdraw funding at the end of the year. If you are reading this and live in/ near London, there is a meeting to discuss ideas for saving this library this Friday (6^th July from 7pm) at The Rocket on Holloway Road (N7 8DB.)  Of course, if you attend this you can talk about it for your Thing Seven….! And no matter where you live, you can all sign this petition or follow their twitter account to appreciate online networks (Thing Six!) Find out more about the campaign here……

Thing 7: Real Life Networking.

As previously stated, I recently moved out of public libraries to experience more avenues of the profession.  Throwing myself into real life networking will be one of the ways that I will build up my awareness of what other people (with similar job titles) are doing.

 Ironically, you really need to be good at virtual networking in order to discover many of the opportunities available for real life networking. In a few weeks I’m going to be going to CILIP HQ for a free session run by LIRG about Research Into Practice. I found out about this after it was advertised on LIS-LINK JISC email. Since registering with this email list I have been able to see a number of interesting opportunities and ideas. I was also able to ask (and receive) advice from other libraries about member privileges and communication for the RCN’s upcoming refurbishment.

I have joined LIKE through LinkedIn. Although I’m unable to attend either of their upcoming events, they both look promisingly interesting.

In real life I am now also the RCN representative for the CHILL (for independent health libraries in London) CPD group. At the moment I’ve only been to one meeting and their upcoming planned training has been postponed, but the potential is there!  

August is traditionally a quiet time for the RCN Library, Archives and Information Services. Nurses are either on placement, finishing their course or looking after their children (or just on tenterhooks waiting for the sunshine!) As a result, I’m going to be allowed to go on a number of library visits around London during this month. The main focus will obviously be healthcare and medical libraries but does anyone have any others they would recommend?

In honour of the tennis (not that I’m a fan but it’s always good to have a reason behind each photo!) Here I am outside Wimbledon Library (just the public one not the tennis library talked about here in the cpd blogpost by the Wandering Librarian. )

Thing 6: Virtual Networking

Linked In.

I joined LinkedIn a few years ago but have never been very good at using it professionally. Most of my connections are friends and even former colleagues insisted on referring to themselves as friends (despite my best attempts at being nasty to them all the time to stop this happening!) However, thanks to my time recently spent playing around with the website I have discovered that these relationships can be re-edited to make my profile more professional.  I have now also edited the URL to my name and changed my headline so it is no longer just a repeat of my current job title.

I have always been unsure about how LinkedIn could help my career. I have yet to hear of a librarian being headhunted or any examples of high level nepotism (please let me know if you’ve heard differently!)  However, as librarians have to justify themselves more and more to an economically minded world, you never know when our industry will be become as cut throat as businesses in the City. It is not thinking optimistically, but in such a climate I can see LinkedIn being a positive statement about my career.  I therefore asked a former colleague for a recommendation in order to make my profile stand out and show some of my personality. She wrote lovely words so even if her recommendation is never needed professionally; it has been a great confidence boost!

LISPN

Sadly, in September it will be ten years since I became a librarian so the description of ‘new professional’ would have to be extremely loose to be applied to me!  I was interested in going undercover and looking at the downloadable resources on offer. However LISPN had obviously sussed me out as, despite two attempts, the confirmation code was miraculously never emailed to me!

LibrariansAsTeachers Network

My work in public libraries included a lot of teaching (from computer skills to pensioners to local history to children. I always felt that it would be really useful to have somewhere to share ‘best practice’ information and methods so that fifty librarians around the country weren’t all trying to come up with an idea to link Easter to the Dewey Decimal Code (for example!) At the moment there isn’t much in the ‘resources’ section of this site but hopefully promoting this network through schemes such as cpd23 will encourage more librarians to share their worksheets, lesson plans and crazy ideas with others. Sadly all my resources stayed with Wandsworth when I left.

CILIP communities.

I actually left CILIP a couple of years ago in frustration with their lack of action about the library closures. While I am still slightly wary of the vagueness of some of their recent activities (such as the ongoing debate about volunteers in libraries ) it is clear that librarians do need a formal organisation to maintain their profession. Plus, it made me feel clever when they posted me materials because they used all my academic qualifications on my address label!  I am, therefore, thinking of rejoining.

While browsing through the CILIP communities website, it seemed as though their forums are not overly popular (three posts so far for June.) Their member’s blogs landscapes is a useful, focussed version of Google Reader gathering together…erm…..the blogs of their members?! I’m not sure how often I would check back here once I am a member but it is good to see the potential of this area.

As someone who is attempting to complete a career development course online, I can obviously see the positive effects of virtual working.  For me the power of online networking became clear a couple of years ago as Councils started announcing huge swathes of public library cuts. CILIP seemed mired in bureaucracy and (to me) it seemed that without disparate people joining forces as ‘Voices for the Library’  the campaign would not have been given the organised push needed to save some branches.

There is huge potential within these resources (not including LinkedIn) to really help those in the profession to spread ‘best practice’ but in order to achieve this more interaction in these networks is needed.

In honour of the ‘virtual’ theme of this week’s thing, today’s photo was taken outside Hiroshima Library- somewhere that had to be completely rebuilt and reorganised from scratch and where technology is incredibly advanced.

Thing 5: being reflective

Apologies for the late running of this blog post- I was rudely distracted by bank holidays and annual leave!

I have to admit that I’m really struggling with this thing. In my head I’ve decided that ‘reflective practice’ is a bit like when I was studying ‘knowledge management’ at university. Basically it’s common sense but written down. Or am I missing a major part?!

Reading the cpd blog and recommended reading, there seem to be a number of potential processes for doing reflective practice. The basic gist seems to be

1)      Think about something you’ve done

2)      Decide what you’ve learned/ experienced from this activity (positive and negative)

3)      Decide how this will impact on your future.

Isn’t this something that happens to people automatically as they are learning or experiencing life? Maybe everyone has been to more riveting training sessions but usually I’m thinking along these lines as I’m learning. I spend the time thinking “wow, I’ll be able to use that for....” “hmmm... interesting, in .........situation that could be useful” or even “what nonsense. Cretins.” Does anyone really not consider the impact on themselves until asked to do so as a reflective practice exercise?!

This blog is a form of reflective practice as it will explain what I’ve looked at/ learned, whether I think it could be useful to me or my work and if I’ve been able to apply it to myself/ my work. However, I don’t think a blog like this could really work if it didn’t automatically include this process- it would just be a list of links with no evaluation.

One of my (many) failings is that I’m quick to come to some sort of judgement about things – you might be able to spot this pattern in this blog. I find that thinking on a topic further doesn’t change my mind- the only thing that does is discovering more information. Hopefully now I’ve written this negative post about reflective practice, you’ll all be able to give me more information on the topic and show me the error of my ways!

The photo for this post was taken outside Cromer Library. It shows me holding a (library) copy of ‘Never Let Me Go’ by Kazuo Ishiguro.  I am looking very excited because while reading the book on the train to Cromer, the characters within it had also gone on a day trip to Cromer, a fact more amazing to me because I’d not even heard of the town until the day before!

Thing Four: Current Awareness.

Twitter.

As mentioned in my last fascinating posting, I already had a twitter account (@hipporebecca ) before starting cpd23.

I never used to understand the idea behind Twitter, I thought it was basically lots of Facebook statuses without any of the other information you get from that site. Then about three years ago my colleague alerted me to the fact that I could discover the inner workings of Z List celebrities’ minds and I became more interested! As the protests against library closures began in earnest last year I began to see the power and usefulness of those 140 characters.

I use Twitter in a really inconsistent way- from looking inquisitively through notices about CILIP’s stance on volunteers to congratulating welsh rugby players on the birth of their children. I wouldn’t say that I use Twitter in a very professional way but cpd has encouraged me to make contact with others doing the course.  I’m sure as I continue to browse blogs and see more postings in participant’s side bars then I will be able to continue my online networking skills accordingly. I have only recently started owning a smart phone and have not been able to take part in live tweeting at conferences and events yet but I can see the advantages. My friend did it through Boring 2011 and received a tweet from Simon from Going Live’s Trevor and Simon. And so the circle back round to my obsession with Z List celebrities closes!

Will it be useful for work?

The RCN already has a twitter account which is run by our communications team but the library has been talking about getting one for itself. We are going to be refurbished next year and I thought this account from the perspective of a  US school library was a brilliant way of explaining what is happening and why. I have suggested us having a similar account here so watch this space!  

(I found out about the Mary Idema Pew Library from one of the many blogs and websites I was directed to through cpd23. If anyone can let me know which one I would really appreciate the information so I can cite it like a true librarian!)

RSS Feeds.

My interest in Google Reader had been piqued by the number of blogs mentioning it when I was doing Thing Two. I set myself up with an account and initially added cpd blogs that I enjoyed. However, I realised that there wasn’t really a point to this as the cpd website already has its blog feed. So I stopped doing this and instead added my favoured websites from cpd’s recommended reading (Phil Bradley and Wikiman (which in turn led me to The Library Marketing Toolkit.) As cpd continues, I’m hoping my use of Google Reader will ensure that the sites that I’m finding most informative won’t be forgotten about as I move onto the next thing.

Will it be useful for work?

The Library, Archive and information Services have a wiki where staff can add information that they have found out relating to our jobs. Hopefully, the information discovered after the web has been filtered through Google Reader, will make me a regular contributor to this.

Storify.

I was interested in this resource but unfortunately it can not be supported on Internet Explorer. This means that I can’t access it at work (and presumably neither can any school or public librarians doing this?) I could have used it to show how the recent RCN Congress was reported across different medias. At the RCN we already have a communications team who are doing this.  I think Storify could be a useful tool for libraries in smaller organisations to illustrate the information they can access and integrate themselves further into their company. I also liked the look of Scoop It for this potential purpose.

This week’s photo has been inspired by the sunny weather here in London. Here is a photo of me outside Margate Library last year. Oh I do like to be beside the seaside.....!

Thing 3 Proper: Considering my personal brand.

I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together

I have chosen to link cpd23 to my work account and have included it in my objectives for 2012-13. This was because I thought it would be beneficial to focus on the new area of librarianship that I am currently exploring. Having seen the number of blogs of people who had to drop out of last year’s course then I think it is probably a good idea to have the impetus of my end of year review to finish this myself! However, this does mean that I could be slightly limited by what I can say.

In the last blog post I mentioned that I would try to have my twitter account rolling alongside this blog but I have decided that that would not be a good idea. As an evangelical librarian many of my tweets are about libraries, but they also include random conversations with friends as well as retweets of remarkably mundane things that celebrities have said. I also have a fondness for retweeting @librarianclock who enjoys exclaiming statements such as “by jove, it’s gin o’clock’ at 5.30pm everyday. This is sadly something which jars with the RCN’s policy on alcohol (they are correct- it is very bad for your liver!)

I am quite lucky in a way when it comes to having an online presence because I have such a boring name. I keep my facebook account strictly personal (although seeing as my personality is as a librarian I am a member of certain related groups on there) and the improbability of tracking me down (linked with high privacy settings) means that prospective employers should never be able to find too many photographs of me enjoying gin o’clock!

When I Google “’Rebecca Jones’ library’ my linked in account  is the fourth option but there are more hits for a Dr Rebecca Jones who is an award winning school librarian and (understandably) far more important to search engines than me!

My usual name online is hipporebecca (you’ll never guess what I collect!) Searching for this online takes you straight to my twitter account but you also see much more of my personality- from my ebay. Google Plus and Amnesty accounts through to my obsession with music. Although I have done this before, I was surprised to see just how often random jokes between friends on twitter are popping up as a search result.  Worryingly, the result at the bottom of page one links to a page where I’m rated on ‘Hot Tweeters.’ I guess another advantage of using my work account to do CPD23 is that I don’t dare click through and see how I’m rated!

I decided to call this blog ‘Bex Without Spex’ rather than hipporebecca because I wanted it to be more professional (although I don’t know if I’ll be continuing this blog once I finish CPD) and, more importantly, my work colleagues thought that it was a better name. I suppose it shows my continuing interest in the image and stereotypes of the profession. It also makes me feel like a bad rapper when I ever I say my blog name in my head, but that’s by the by!

So should I be worried about not having a personal brand online? I’ve been very impressed, reading the cpd23 reading list and other blogs, how seriously some librarians are being- from having consistency in logos across all online platforms to printing business cards for conferences. I don’t think that approach would suit my real life personality or work ethic. I left my previous job because I didn’t want to be pigeonholed- either as someone who only worked in public libraries or only worked with children- and am using this course and the online resources to explore my transferable skills. I am happy to cross reference the different aspects of myself. Feel free to follow me on twitter- I’ve started to follow people on this course (although mostly I just copy what my friend @nicololosaurus does)  and I might refer people on twitter over here if there’s anything (perish the thought!) that can’t be expressed in 140 characters. I think I would like to use these platforms to gain skills and knowledge and then just force my personality on people who are [un]lucky enough to meet me in real life.

My one constant- here is another photo of myself outside a library – this time in Cozumel, Mexico.