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)