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?!

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

In my years as a librarian, I have had the opportunity to attend a number of professional events. The most recent one was for #RiLIES which I wrote about here. As with so much these days, attendance is linked to the financial situation and I was really lucky that this half day at CILIP was offered for free. JISCmail listings seem to be the best place for advertising conferences and I found out about #RiLIES from a posting at LIS-LINK@JISCMAIL.AC.UK.

As part of the CHILL CPD group, I am currently helping to organise a conference about social media which will be held at the Royal College of Psychiatrists. A major objective of this is to be able to offer it for minimal pricing, so people have been asking friends and colleagues to speak for free. Once we have organised the speakers, I will be involved in advertising the training and organising the attendees. So keep your eyes peeled for more details of that!

So far I have never spoken at an event. However, there is nothing scarier than speaking at school assemblies (how do they get their eyes so big?!) and since I have done so many of these I feel I would be able to stand up and speak professionally, Although I’m not sure how many librarians would want to listen to my witterings!

As a very tenuous link, here I am outside San Diego library. San Diego hosts Comic Con every year which looks amazing- and is surely one of the few conferences that could outgeek a library event (and I mean that in the best way possible!)

Thing 14: Zotero / Mendeley / CiteULike

I’ve been putting off writing this thing because I didn’t know how to relate it to my work. It has been ten years since I had to write my dissertation. Although at work we have a number of students using us, they have never asked (me) for any more information on the topic than confirming they had their citation in the correct order. However, I really liked how The Wandering Librarian was able to reference his library tour around London here http://thewanderinglibrarian.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/a-london-thing.html . It’s an imaginative way of looking at this Thing while also making me not feel quite as geeky for all my sad librarian photos!

Suitably inspired, here goes......

14a) Zotero. An application that needs to be downloaded and only works with Firefox, Chrome and Safari. Therefore can’t be used at work.

14b) Mendeley. Would also need to be downloaded and so can’t be used on staff PCs here- although at least it would work with our Internet Explorer.

14c) CiteULike. Yay! Something I don’t have to download and so can write about! However, after signing up to the website I was thoroughly confused. I looked at different areas but couldn’t see any instructions for what I was supposed to do. I then tried to import a journal article about Mary Seacole but it just came up as loads of gibberish (ok, computer language- see just part of it below) and crashed. Oh dear. Librarian fail.

I'm skipping whatever remains of this entry
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: ½/éêëºޞ­_+‹~dR«ÿÿÎè²yH†P™Œ â( ỵ„\ éz5´l ý?¸0xMÂu ‑ pd¦ÒJÒoJ®•ºu¯ý_߭oÿÈÄR3«:Ÿ¦?ÿ•´Ck›gF™A ¢Œæ``ç„

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The photo for today was taken outside a library that could easily be misunderstood. Here I am outside the Hemeroteca Library in Lisbon.

Thing 13: Google Docs, Wikis and Dropbox.

I have only really used Google Docs once. My friend and I were planning a holiday around California and he shared a spreadsheet so that we could figure out which town we were going to be in, when, what we were going to do, what hostel we had booked and transport. Other than that occasion I’ve never really worked on anything that needed to be shared in that way. At work we have a shared drive that we can access documents through. A good job because staff computers aren’t allowed to access sites which are deemed Personal Network Storage and Backup (see also my struggles to look at Storify, Evernote etc.)

I was inspired by one of the cpd blogs I read (I’m such a bad librarian for not noting which one!) where it was mentioned that this site could be used by library members who had forgotten their USB stick. I have just been out into our library and could access Google Docs from their PCs. However, unless said member already has a Google account (or is particularly on the ball!) then I think it could be too complicated to use in this situation.

Dropbox is also banned on work computers. I have been inspired to download the app onto my posh phone to have a go though. Now I just need to remember to turn on my home PC and put it on there and actually start sharing (my inability to do this is just one reason why this thing is so late being posted!)

I really like wikis. At my old job I set one up using WetPaint. The idea behind this was for all the children’s librarians to be able to post their ideas for events so that we weren’t having to think up new things (e.g. for Easter) each year. However, I couldn’t get any of the others interested so it quickly died a death.

In contrast, at my current work we have two wikis. One has all the procedures so that we can quickly double check what to do in a particular situation. However, this hasn’t recently come into some trouble as the wiki was linking to Google Docs until access was denied. The other wiki is a place for library staff to share news/ stories/ ideas that could be of interest to others. Looking at the associated word cloud now I can see that the most popular tags have been web2, Xmas, party and Google. I’m not sure what that says about us!

In honour of Google Docs, here is a photo taken on my tour of California.Here I am at Alamitos Library in Long Beach.

Thing 12: putting the social into social media

Thanks to cpd (and a new smart phone); I have been attempting to use twitter more. However, I find that a major problem is that big news stories often happen during the day while I’m working. Unless something happens while I’m checking my phone on my lunch break, then I’m commenting on a story or tweet hours after the fact.  I’m now signed up to LISPN and have befriended an old colleague but to be honest haven’t really looked at the conversations in the forums yet to offer my two pennies worth. I am trying to comment on blogs though as it seems weird that so many people have looked at mine but then not said anything (although I suppose if you can’t think of anything nice to say then you shouldn’t say it!)

So- are these statements true?

Social networking can lead to better communication. I think social networking can be invaluable in widening the horizons of people in the profession as well as alerting them to up and coming news stories. Coming from a public libraries background, the ongoing work of Voices for the Library is proof of how well social media can be used to unite people in a common cause.  But better communication? I’m sadly too old to use LOL or :) although people older than me (or those more grammatically correct ) would argue about my excessive use of exclamation marks!

It creates a more collaborative working space where people are encouraged to share their ideas. As mentioned before I’m a huge believer in good/ best practice and sharing ideas. There are some networks at the moment (e.g. librarians as teachers) which have massive potential for enabling this although there don’t seem to be enough people collaborating so far.......

It aids in building online communities. I’m a bit confused by this one- surely all online communities are examples of social media?

Social networking can also provide easy access to other areas of the profession. Very true- by following certain people on twitter and reading the cpd blogs I am able to stay aware of what is [depressingly] happening in public libraries as well as getting some sort of idea of what it is like to work in other aspects of librarianship that I have no experience in.

Today’s photograph was chosen for how the name of the library fits with my attitude to social media. Here I am outside the library in the Wellcome Collection

Thing 11- mentoring

I’m running a little behind with these posts again-oops! However, I think I should be able to answer the next few things pretty quickly to catch up (famous last words!)

The only official mentor I’ve had was for my chartership when the Yorkshire and Humberside representative organised a meeting of prospective candidates and later sent us examples of other submissions. However, once I moved down to London I just continued under my own steam (admittedly a lot slower than if I’d had a set programme to follow!)

I’m very lucky because I’ve always had really supportive bosses. The main reason that I finished my chartership at all was because my boss in Wandsworth kept putting it as a target for my annual appraisal. She was also always enthusiastic and interested in my career. Also in Wandsworth, I was really lucky to work alongside Ferelith Horden who is a children’s librarian extraordinaire and a real inspiration (ignore the fact that I’m no longer a children’s librarian!)

Maybe it is because I have always worked alongside brilliant colleagues but I have never needed a formal mentoring programme. People work in different ways and I think it is good that there is this scheme out there if people need it. I just haven’t!

However, if anyone would like me to check over their chartership or any other library related materials, I’m more than happy to.

I suppose I should be getting excited about the Olympics now. I’m not really but let’s pretend while looking at a picture of Stratford Library!

Things 6 and 7 revisited: #RiLIES

On Tuesday morning I attended Research into Practice: LIS Research Resources Briefing. This was a free course held at CILIP HQ. I chose to attend this training to give me a broader understanding of issues facing nursing researchers while at the same time increasing my knowledge of research in the LIS field. It also gave me an opportunity to practice real life networking (thing 7) and I even tweeted to include online networking (thing 6.)

I thought the morning was a fascinating opportunity to discover more about the resources that are already out there for librarians as well as offering a tantalizing look at the opportunities for building an online community that can have a real impact on the profession (and other researchers.)

Here are some notes I made about the day..........

LIS RiLIES aims to facilitate a co-ordinated and strategic approach to LIS research across the UK by:

a)    Creating a network of LIS researchers

b)    1)  exploring the extent LIS research influences LIS practitioners

b)   2) creating outputs to support the use and execution of research.

Investment in research should deliver a socio-economic impact. Those applying for funding need to be able to provide an evidence base. The new system for assessing the quality of research will be the Research Excellence Framework (2014.) RiLIES have printed a handout with advice for writing applications for funding, including free examples of sentences that could be used. These sentences also cunningly commit the research into making an impact with their results!  One of LIS research’s web pages also lists possible places that researchers can apply for funding. 

Practitioners need to move from ‘heard of it’ to ‘tried it.’ Research should aim to lead to organisational change and progress.

Once you have completed the research you should disseminate it to all audiences- academic peer reviewed journals but also the literature read by practitioners. (If the people on the ground do not know what you have learned they will be unable to put it into practice.)

The best way of disseminating information is face to face because what you’re saying is tailored to your audience and you can explain further if there is confusion.

If publishing the information, this should be in an accessible language. Teaching and community support materials are the most effective [e.g. the RCN’s The Learning Zone]  Put a ‘creative commons’ mark on your materials to make it copyright free so others can also use the research in their work.

Social media is a key tool for informing people about the results of your research. People are also more likely to exploit research if they have been involved in its creation e.g The DREaM project has a large profile because people have attended its events and then blogged/ talked about them.

Prof. Hall said at this juncture that their research had shown that social media works best if people have already met in real life. However, I think that this is already starting to change and so tweeted....

 ‏@hipporebecca 10 Jul

Didn't voices4the library show that now lib profs don't have to meet before building social media networks. ‪#rilies ‪#changingtimes

Medical/ healthcare librarians are “ahead of the game” when it comes to successfully disseminating research information which is lovely information to learn when you work in a healthcare library!

There are a number of different platforms that can be used for sharing information. It should always be remembered that, if the platform belongs to another organisation, the company could make changes in the future e.g. start charging.  The platforms include:

·         wikis

·         RSS tagging e.g. Delicious, DeGo

·         Google Drive (formerly Google Docs)

·         ALISS (it looks like this platform for Scottish people with long term conditions will also be effectively used by RiLIES)

Information is often needed in two ways: Facts – need quality assurance

                                                                       Support- information is that is personal/ local

The most appreciated resources for LIS professionals are:

·         JISC mailing lists

·         LIRG

·         Evidence Based Library and Information Journal

·         Blogs (Jo Alcock’s list of UK library blogs and bloggers)  and twitter

·         DReAM resources.

There are other online resources that are available but people don’t know about  them(e.g. Knowledge Hub for the UK public sector.) These are all listed at www.lisresearch.org/links/

For no linked reason- today’s sad librarian photo was taken on the island of Aegina, Greece.