CPD23 Thing 1

Image taken by drcorneilus

Well, today is the day that cpd23 kicks off, so here I am blogging about Thing 1:

Thing 1: Blog and blogging
I created Behind the Bookshelves back in 2009. I was going through chartership at the time felt I needed to be more proactive and have an online presence (other than Facebook!). The frequency of posting has been sporadic – sometimes several each week, other times nothing for months – but I’m not too fussed about that. BtB is an informal record of my musings and that’s how I like it – a casual, drop in place people can visit whenever the fancy takes them.

My line manager at work suggested cpd23 to the library team, and of the 12 of us I think there are about 8 taking part. I thought it looked a fun way of learning new things, rather than attending a rigid course. I’m looking forward to Thing 3 (personal brand), Thing 4 (RSS feeds) and Thing 13 (file sharing). These have all been on my ‘to do’ list for a while but I never seemed to get round to them. Hopefully cpd23 will be the kick up the backside I need!   

CPD23

23 Things has been around for a few years now, during which time it has grown massively in popularity. I've never followed it personally, but I do find it quite interesting. It's a fun example of self-directed learning, a way of increasing a person's online knowledge, profile and activity.

Found this rather fab blog today, 23 Things for Professional Development, which draws inspiration from the original 23 Things. I shall definitely enroll on it! CPD23 describes itself as....

23 Things for Professional Development is a free online programme open to information professionals at all stages of their career, in all types of role, and anywhere across the world.

Inspired by the 23 Things programmes for social media, this new programme will consist of a mixture of social media "Things" and "Things" to do with professional development. The programme starts on 20 June and will run until early October 2011.

Each week the CPD23 blog will be updated with details of the next thing to be explored. Catch up weeks and reflection weeks are built into the programme, so it's not a problem if you’re going to be away for a week or two!

If you’re on Twitter follow @cpd23 and tweet with the hashtag #cpd23.

SLS Closures

Just read an article on BBC News entitled 'Authors slam school library cuts'. When I worked in a school library I found the council's School Library Service (SLS) invaluable. When I was made redundant from the school back in April, the future of my local SLS was under discussion (the council building in which it is housed is to be closed and the SLS wasn't aware of this until it was leaked to the local newspaper!) and the neaby Birmingham SLS has been scrapped. The SLS co-ordinates activities, sources funding, provides resources, creates networking opportunities and provides training. Libraries are a vital part of schools and with the way SLS across the country are closing due to funding shortages, school libraries themselves will falter in terms of quality, however proactive a particular librarian happens to be - that it, of course, presuming an individual school employs a librarian in the first place.

Closing SLS is outrageous, and likewise reducing school library provisions is outrageous. There's no two ways about it. Yes, I know there are other priorities, but surely literacy is all-important in schools? I no longer work in a school library, but the situation still makes my blood boil with anger!
  
Rant over. Please take a look at the BBC article. It strongly echoes the excellent work of The Campaign for the Book.

Discover-e 2011

This week I took part in a two-day event organised by JISC Regional Support Centre (West Mids) entitled Discover-e 2011. It was a free, online event consisting of numerous webinars, based on the theme of ‘Supporting learning providers’ priorities’.

Approximately 135 delegates signed up to the event and we were able to individually select which sessions we’d prefer to attend.  This was my first time participating in a webinar / online conference so I was a little apprehensive, but I was genuinely surprised how simple and straight-forward it was. The sessions were delivered using Elluminate software which allows delegates in the room to view a PowerPoint presentation, whilst listening to the presentation being delivered live through headphones. There is also a chatbox visible, so delegates can raise questions or start a parallel discussion. In addition to this, there are function buttons allowing delegates to applaud, laugh or raise their hands.

The first session I attended was delivered by Steve Taylor of Mercia Management. It was entitled ‘Tablet PCs in remote / mobile learning’. There were 38 delegates in the room for this presentation, although the number was fluid as people were able to enter / leave the room as they wished. Steve told of his organisation’s experience of loaning out netbooks to engineering apprentice students. Overall, Steve said the initiative had been smooth-flowing with no acts of hardware / software misuse. Mercia Management found that loaning netbooks generated an excitement amongst the students who were keen to accept the responsibility of the equipment. There was an increase in IT literacy, faster assignment completions and increased achievements. I’m glad this was the first sessions I attended; I have experience of a similar initiative from my previous post in a school and therefore felt able to contribute to the session by discussing this in the chatbox.

Librarians with Lives

Dear Library Fans,

One of my favourite library-related blogs to read is Librarians with Lives.  It's an informal blog discussing ways of fitting CPD into busy lives, and often features guest posts. I've written a post for it which has been published today, entitled Cilip Update and CPD. As the title suggests, I discuss how to use Cilip's Update with Gazette publication as a CPD opportunity. I hope you enjoy it.