Evolving CPD needs

Attendees at #hugsm15. Image by @HeritageUsers

Back in June I attended the Heritage User Group (HUG) meeting. These meetings are twice-yearly - this year’s Winter Meeting was held in March and the Summer Meeting held in June. I started attending meetings in 2011 and haven’t missed one until this year. (Previous HUG blog posts are here.) Due to changing jobs, I was unable to attend the March meeting. I was really disappointed by this and was glad to attend the next meeting in June.

Looking back, I can see that over the years the meetings have been of benefit to me in various ways. When I first started using Heritage the meetings were an incredibly useful source of information on how to use the software. I was thirsty for knowledge and the HUG meetings satisfied this need. Over the years, my knowledge of the software increased considerably and as a result my development needs changed also. Last year, I presented at a number of external events for the first time, one of which was a HUG meeting. I felt confident enough to deliver presentations exploring Heritage usage. By accepting the opportunity to present at HUG, the meeting met my development needs but in a slightly different way to how it usually did. I really enjoyed presenting and would like to continue doing this on occasions.

Six Book Challenge

My completion certificate

This year, I completed the Six Book Challenge (6BC) for the first time. I am already a regular reader, so why did I take part?

The 6BC is a well-established project, supported by the Reading Agency. It promotes reading for pleasure amongst adults, particularly those who may have low reading levels. The 6BC is offered in various types of establishments, including colleges, and generally works pretty well. It involves reading 6 books and writing a short review of each one in a reading diary. Small rewards are encouraged to emphasise the fun elements of reading.

I attempted the 6BC last year, having signed up in the college in which I work. This was the first time we had offered the scheme and I think we learned a lot. We were embedded into the scheme of work for foundation learners, but they didn’t manage to progress through 6 books within the allotted timeframe. As much as I wanted the project to succeed, even I failed to complete 6 books. There was a lack of ownership and none of us really had the time to dedicate to it. The momentum ran out pretty soon, unfortunately. So much so that this year, the library hasn’t offered the 6BC at all.

Brighton, baby! ARLG 2014 conference

Earlier this year I was successful in applying for the 2014 AlisonNorthover Bursary, awarded by ARLG. I used the award to fund my attendance at the 2014 ARLG conference, entitled ‘The final frontier: to boldly go where youhave never gone before’. This was the second CILIP ARLG study conference and was held at the University of Sussex, near Brighton, between 23^rd-25^th June.

I have pondered long and hard how to best record and reflect upon my attendance at the conference, and even now – several months later – I’m still not sure of the best way to approach it. The conference offered a very full schedule of talks and workshops, and I came away with a wealth of knowledge. I met new people, learned new things about myself and had an amazing time. Attempting to put the entire experience into words is a tall order! It may not be the most innovative method, but I shall tackle it in the form of a daily diary, leading to a final post summarising my overall thoughts. I make no promises, but shall attempt to keep the entries relatively short, to prevent them from becoming overly descriptive, tedious reads.

And so, dear reader, settle down on the sofa with a warm drink as I take you back to the summer of 2014…

@VoicesLibrary curation

Last month I was luckily enough to be a weekly curator of the @Voices Library Twitter account. This is a project allows different library staff to take over the account for a week and post library-related tweets to approximately 1000 followers. I’ve followed it for a while and when I saw an invitation to apply I jumped at the chance!

I used my week to tweet about the role of a Systems Librarian and what it’s like to work in a further education college library. Initially, I was quite nervous apprehensive that none of the followers would interact with my curation. If I’m honest, I feared my tweets would bore people to sleep! I need not have worried – it was a great experience.

Tweets-ahoy!



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I recently heard the word ‘profersonal’, and I think this is the perfect description for my Twitter feed; partly work related comments, partly non-work related comments. Not too heavy, not too light. I tend to follow library-type folks on Twitter and my tweets usually make mention of library bits and bobs.

I’ve found it actually quite valuable for keeping up to date with the latest info in library-land. For example, it’s how I first heard of Library Camp, and how blog posts of note come to my attention. It’s nice to follow people and see how they get on in projects they’re working on, or perhaps feel that I am not alone in my library-related frustrations.

CILIP WM AGM day

On Thursday 7^th February I attended a day event held by CILIP West Midlands branch. It was entitled ‘Promoting your service and the profession’ and was held at the Mary Seacole Library, Birmingham City University.

 

The event filled up within two days of the booking opening and there were approximately 50 delegates present. The agenda included the various activities:

• Staff from Mary Seacole gave an introduction to the university library service
• Gill Colbourne from Warwickshire library services spoke about how to promote a service which is part of a larger entity.
• Barbara Band gave her first official presentation as CILIP Vice President. It focussed on how she uses her role as a school librarian to promote the profession to a wider audience.  
• There was an overview of the changes being discussed relating to CILIP professional qualifications, given by Simon Edwards (Director of Professional Services at CILIP).
• CILIP West Midlands Chair Roger Fairman gave a brief overview of what’s next for the branch.
• There were also AGMs from CILIP West Midlands branch and two SIGs – CDG West Midlands and ARLG West Midlands.
• A tour of the Mary Seacole library.

There was a lively Twitter conversation surrounding the day’s hashtag #cwmagm13. In the absence of a marketing officer, I tweeted on behalf of the branch and an archive of related tweets can be found here. I found this to be quite fun and hope to soon post about the experience of live tweeting from events.

I found the day really interesting, and - as always – it was nice to hear people speak who are passionate about the profession. In my current role, I find it frustrating that we are bound by ‘one-size-fits-all’ guidelines established by the college’s marketing department. In my previous role in a school I had much more freedom to whatever was best for the library, without having to get it ‘okay-ed’ by a separate department. However, despite this I understand the college must protect it's brand. It was interesting to realise that although we all work in different library sectors, we still face many similar issues regarding promotion of the service.

HUG WM 2013

HUG venue - Friends Meeting House, London

Earlier this week I attended the Heritage User Group(HUG) winter meeting. It was held at the Quakers’ Friends Meeting House,directly opposite Euston train station. I’ve been here for previous HUG eventsand I’m always struck by the excellence of the venue. It’s in a prime locationand has a beautiful little garden in front of the entrance – a tiny havenamidst the noise that is London.

Heritage is the LMS used by our library, but HUG is completely independent ofIS Oxford (the developers of Heritage). It is run by a committee of Heritageusers from throughout the country, and now that I am on a committee myself, Iappreciate the job they do organising sterling events such as this.

#UKLibChat

Two nights ago I took part in my first ever #uklibchat. It clashes with my evening shift at work and I’m usually too busy to check in at that time but Thursday night I was able to join in and I must say, I really enjoyed it. Questions are posted on Twitter and discussion is then generated by people’s responses. This session focused on libraries in the new year. The next chat on 26 January will centre around professional bodies.

I only hooked up for about 20 minutes or so, but flexibility is one of the strong points of #uklibchat in my point of view, especially the way you can dip in and out without missing anything. It’s a great example of using Twitter to facilitate professional discussions. And with replies limited to 140 characters I didn’t feel intimidated into thinking the conversation would be too high brow to be enjoyable.

It’s the first time I’ve really taken part in an organised Twitter conversation. Talking to people miles away and not knowing who’d reply next was exciting. A sub-conversation about chartership sprung up and became an impromptu sharing of basic info.

It’s nice to bounce ideas around with other library folk. I shall definitely find time to check in for the next #uklibchat. A big pat on the back for the @uklibchat team for such a simple yet genius brainwave!

Day in the Life (R7) part 2

Tuesday 26 July
Began the day with my usual practice of reading emails and catching up with the latest CPD23 Thing(s). The rest of the morning was spent re-designing the date labels with the head librarian and generating SMS-linked QR Codes to feature on them, offering another option for renewals and enquiries.

I’d like to post the codes to our OPAC too, but I’m new to the software and can’t see an immediately obvious way of doing it. I post my first-ever forum message to Marvin, asking other Heritage users if they know of a way to do it. I eagerly check my emails throughout the day but nobody replies. I guess it isn’t possible.

I’m at the Nuneaton campus today and our other campus (Hinckley) is in the middle of a move to a new-build library. With the help of another member of staff, I learn how to run the overdues for one location from a different location. Will tackle this again Thursday morning to make sure I’ve got the hang of it properly.

After lunch there’s an impromptu meeting with the boss to discuss the job specification for a vacant post (should funding be agreed for it) and then I registered for Library Camp UK 11 (which I’d heard about on Twitter over lunch). The majority of the afternoon is spent on the second draft of the annual report and Heritage housekeeping tasks, before I finish the day with 30 minutes of classification.

Wednesday is annual leave so my next Library Day in the Life entry will be posted Thursday.

My desk this afternoon, during my classification challenge

CPD23 Thing 6



Image taken by Rosmary



Thing 6: Social Networks

I use Facebook on a daily basis to keep in touch with friends. It works well for me and suits my needs. However, when I worked at the school library, it would regularly be at the centre of cyber-bullying issues and the police were often involved. I am a Facebook admin for NWHC library page, which we use mainly to promote the library blog. I‘m not sure how to maximise it yet, but I feel this is an under-developed marketing tool for the library. My personal account follows several library initiatives on Facebook and I’ve learnt quite a bit through it.

Twitter. Hmmm. I’ve checked in daily since Thing 4 recommended it, but we’ve still not really gelled. I use it to raise my current awareness of professional issues, but I don’t like the barrage of useless tweets which come along with that. I’m persevering with it but will see what happens.

I really ought to have a LinkedIn account. When recruiting for the job, my new line manager Googled me to see if I had an online presence, and I’d probably have scored a little higher if he’d been able to find me on LinkedIn. I’ll try to find time for it during the week.

I use Cilip Communities fairly often. BtB is part of the Blog Landscape and my role on Update with Gazette’s editorial panel involves using the forums.

I’ve recently compiled a training plan for our graduate trainee and part of it was to explore relevant social networking sites. Generally, I’m quite a fan of social networking and get a lot from it. I find it valuable and easy using my iPhone apps, though that’s not to say I want a million different accounts dotted about all over the place. I social networking sites convenient and useful but must admit they are definitely a double-edged sword.
 

CPD23 Thing 5

Image taken by Rosmary

Thing 5: Reflective Practice

I quite enjoyed the reflective chapter of my dissertation a few years ago, which was my first real attempt at reflective writing. I started this blog a few years later when I was going though the chartership process, thinking it’d help me record my thoughts and impressions whilst also giving me a greater web presence. Earlier this year BtB was accepted as part of the Cilip Landscape. I applied for this with the intention that it’d help to keep me on the reflective straight and narrow.

Regarding CPD23, I feel it’s really encouraged me to ponder things that would never have occurred to me before. It has raised my awareness of certain tools, spurred me on the get to grips with Twitter and think seriously about my personal brand. I’m really appreciative that so many CPD23 blogs have been created – I love browsing them. I haven’t looked at RSS feeds yet but I’m hoping to do so when I have a bit more time.

A large part of CPD23, for me, is helping the other members of the library team find their feet with blogging. Several were unfamiliar with Blogger as a platform or wary of the idea of blogging altogether so I sit down and talk them through it. I hope they find it helpful! It’s also helping me get to know the other members of the team, which I’m thankful for as breaking the ice with new people is something I struggle with on a personal basis. So thank you CPD23!

CPD23 Thing 4 Part 2

Thing 4 Part 2 RSS Feeds, Twitter and Pushnote

Last night I spent 90 minutes playing around with Twitter. Have had an account for a few years but never used it. It all looks a bit confusing to me and as clear as mud. So, deep breath...

With Thing 3 in mind, I used the settings to alter the look of my profile so that the colour scheme now matches that of my blog. I also changed my profile picture to the same photo shown on BtB's 'about me' tab. I re-jigged my followers list so that it’s mostly ‘key library tweeters’ and posted a few tweets myself. Before I knew it, a handful of people had replied, which was quite exciting! I even managed to join a hash-tag conversation!

I feel a bit better about the whole Twitter experience now. It still looks a little confusing, but hopefully it’ll become clearer with perseverance.

Due to time constraints, I’m afraid RSS Feeds and Pushnote are on the backburner for now.

CPD23 Thing 4 Part 1

Thing 4: RSS feeds, Twitter, Pushnote

Phew! Is it just me, or does Thing 4 seem like a pretty B-I-G Thing?! By the looks of it, it'll take me longer than a week to get to grips with these, so I'm quite glad that Thing 5 is reflective practice.

Have never used RSS feeds but it's something that I've long been meaning to explore. Infact, I'm quite ashamed that I've not dabbled with them before.

Pushnote. No idea.

Twitter. I've had an account for a few years but rarely use it (ie never!). Like RSS feeds, Twitter is something I know I ought to be familiar with but I've lacked the inclinatin to learn the mechanics of yet another social site. Being on the list of Things will finally make me get around to Tweeting properly.

Thing 4 Part 2 to follow....