Sunday 30 December 2012

Musings of 2012

It's the end of a year once more, and I've taken a few minutes to look back over my blog posts, specifically Fingers crossed. When I review my aims for 2012, I see that life hasn't necessarily taken me in those directions, but I've still learnt a lot this year. You can make plans til the cows come home, but despite all your best intentions, sometimes you just end up on a different path. Not knowing what was to happen in life used to be a source of concern for me, but nowadays I find it one of the great joys of life; things happen which are out of your control, you roll with the punches and come out of it better for the experience. You never know what's around the corner and there is always a positive to be found, even in the darkest of times.


2012 saw me start the revalidation ball rolling by registering as a candidate in August and attending a day course in November. I've now got a mentor too, which I'm very excited about, and this leads me to my main aim for 2013: to complete my chartership revalidation.

I wanted to become fully conversant with Heriatge, the library's LMS, in 2012 and... I think I've more or less achieved this aim. I am no longer scared to dabble or intimdated by the sheer quantity of functions it can do. I have travelled full circle and now rather enjoy pushing the boundaries of my Heritage knowledge to explore new functions. I'm currently having fun revamping the online catalogue!

Attending a study visit abroad back in May was a steep learning curve for me. I'll admit to suffering a lack of confidence at the time, but I learnt so much about myself and would love to repeat the experience. I've recently attended Pacific Institute, a self-awareness psychology course pioneered in the USA, and this has also helped me learn much about myself and what I am capable of.  

Looking back at the Current reads page of this blog, I can see that in 2012 my reading habits changed somewhat. Instead of always reading paperback (I am most definitely NOT a fan of bulkly hardbacks!), I've migrated to reading on my Kindle. I find it slick, easily portable and being able to change the font size allows me the luxury of removing my glasses when reading in bed. The decision to buy an e-reader was one which I did not take lightly, until I realised that owning a Kindle does not mean I can never again experience the joy of reading a printed book. The Kindle and paperbacks happily co-exist in my life!

Is there anything that didn't go well in 2012? I didn't enjoy the management course I attended, but I can see my knowledge has improved because of it. Also, this year I'd like to be more 'on the ball' with my CILIP WM branch role than I was last year. I would have liked to have joined the workplace first aid rota; unfortunately it was not to be for reasons I am not entirely comfortable with, but fingers crossed it may happen this year. I will not give up!

Anyhow, will bring my musings to an end for now and wish you all a happy new year.

1 comment:

  1. Good luck for 2013 Cara - it's been a busy year for you and it seems like you've had to step up to lots of tasks by yourself that you should have had support with (apologies if I'm completely wrong on this!). Your study visit abroad sounds like it was a great experience - I look forward to reading more of your blogs next year.

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