Thing 1 - Getting Started

Here is a little bit about me..


I'm a library assistant working in a busy London library. I've worked in public libraries for seven years and can say from experience that they are diverse, interesting and challenging places to work. I always felt drawn to librarianship and feel I have made the right career choice. I am embarking on CPD23 in order to fully utilise social media in my professional practice. This is a wonderful opportunity to come together with LIS professionals from all sectors and share our knowledge and experience.

I am a keen lifelong learner, albeit, one who has gained much of their skills and knowledge on the job. Since graduating in September 2010, my aim is to progress to a management role within public libraries. I aim to use social networking to become more actively involved in library advocacy. This is, I feel, I vitally important issue for all LIS professionals as we face cutbacks in our services and the need to justify our existence/shout about what we do.


This blog is a very personal, reflective online journal which I fear might become a boring series of ramblings. I'll admit that I'm very new to blogging and social media in general. My first foray into online social networking was setting up a Facebook account last year.


My aim is to chart this steep learning curve and to become a tech savvy, 21st Century librarian. The first step was to set up this blog, which I have achieved without too much blundering. I am not sure whether blogger.com is the best tool for me and will look into the alternatives over the next few days.


The process of blog writing is clunky and laboured: a result of my rusty report writing skills and poorly developed self-reflective practice! I intend to learn from my peers and have read through some of the blogs on the 23 Things Delicious page. With hundreds of blogs to choose, I click on the those with the quirky titles first. I am very impressed by how slick and professional, interesting and informative most of these blogs are. Later on I do some more systematic reading.  It is inspiring to see how many highly intelligent, creative and dynamic individuals are contributing to our profession.