Library Day in the Life (R8)

Logged in to my Hotmail account last night and the inbox was home to several emails informing me of updates to the PBWorks wiki. This could mean only one thing….

The next round of Library Day in the Life has been announced! First thing I did this morning when I got to work – logged on and signed up! WooHoo! Yeah, baby! (Can you tell I’m excited?! Maybe if I use a few more exclamation marks? !!!!!) My details are number 13 in the participant list.

I'm a big fan of this initiative – it’s so interesting being able to nosy into what people do every day at work, and it’s lovely when people take the time to comment on your own working week. Some of the comments BtB received during the previous round were from people employed in different library sectors, and it helped me to think about my job from different perspectives.

So, yup, I will be blogging about work from 30th Jan – 3rd Feb. May even post the occasional tweet too. Can’t wait to start reading about aspects of library work I’ve yet to experience, as well as those I can already relate to…

Bring it on!!!!!!

Fingers Crossed

Image by Discoodoni

Well, it seems that bloggers all over the universe are posting about what they hope to achieve in 2012. I’ve read several posts like this and have enjoyed them all (I’m far too nosey for my own good!). So, with this in mind, I’m taking a running jump on the bandwagon and doing the same.

1. Kindle: I had the new Kindle model for my birthday a few weeks ago. I’ve only used it to read fiction on, but would really like to utilise the other features it offers. I find it handy, portable and convenient, and by the end of the year I hope to be fully conversant with all aspects of the Kindle. Not a major resolution, but it takes me ages to get be comfy with new gadgets.

2. The work-related aim: As Systems Librarian, I administer and maintain Heritage LMS. However, at the moment I am unfamiliar with the majority of the modules. I’d really like to get to grips with the reports and stocktaking options. I’d feel much more confident with my Heritage knowledge (and performance at work) once I’ve got these nailed.

Time to reflect

Image by Irargerich

It’s December now, which means I’ve hit the six month mark in my new job. Thought I’d have a little ponder and reflect on my time here so far.

Initially, I wasn’t sure how long I’d stay in this role as it entails a 65 mile round trip to one campus and an 80 mile round trip to the other campus. I find the drive draining, and although I try to use it as ‘down time’ I’m not really succeeding with that just yet. I live in hope that one day I’ll find the commute relaxing.

Looking back, I can see I’ve developed skills I didn’t make much use of in my previous role as a School Librarian. I spend a fair amount of my working week classifying new stock, although it is constantly a bottle neck in the book-processing procedure. It’s nice to get my teeth into Dewey again, I didn’t realise how much I missed it while I was at the school. There are some books for which I simply I can’t decide upon class numbers, and these tend to have extended stays on our classification shelf in the office; I know this is a weakness of mine, I shouldn’t pick and choose the books I classify, I’ll try to be more inclusive in the new year.

Study Visit Confirmation

It’s been a few weeks since my last post, so I thought I’d use this opportunity to share some good news.

Back in August, my line manager suggested I apply to attend an EU-funded study visit. I’ll admit to being quite dubious at the time – I thought only the best of the best were ever awarded places on these kinds of things. I was even more dubious when I saw the application form itself - it was solid! I brushed it under the carpet and ignored it for a while, and when the week of the deadline arrived I still hadn’t done anything about it. I was really in two minds – it’d be great to do but surely my chances were low, so why even bother. In a moment of madness, I posted my dilemma on Facebook. Usually, the majority of people just ignore my status updates but this one generated a huge response and everyone said I should go for it. So I did. I burned the midnight oil and with the help of my long-suffering boyfriend, put together the best damn application I could manage. Popped it in the post the day before the deadline and never expected to hear anything more of it.

CPD23 Thing 23

Image by Jcgoforth

…And so here we are: Thing 23. 'The End'.

CPD23 Things has finally come to a close and I’ve blogged my way through each Thing over the past few months. The final Thing is to produce a six-word story to sum up the experience, and I’ve wracked my brains for this. I can’t adequately condense it into so few words, but here is my attempt: ‘hectic but enjoyable; I learnt lots!’

What was good about CPD23 Things?
I really enjoyed this course, so so soooo much! I hadn’t heard of some the tools introduced to us, and others I was already familiar with. Highlights for me include Thing 2 browse other blogs. I felt this worked well with Thing 3, as it reinforced the ideals of personal brands. In the early days of CPD23, I decided to follow various blogs purely by their layout; at this stage blog content was low, so aesthetic first impressions played a part in deciding which to follow. It really made me think about the first impressions my blog created for readers and I was thrilled to have positive comments posted regarding it.