Thing 20 - The Library Roots of A 'Shy' Librarian

I’ve expanded my blog entry (Thing 10) and posted the link on The Library Routes Project wiki. Sharing my own personal/professional journey has enabled me to reflect on why I entered the profession, what I love about it, and how I could make more impact in terms of my personal contribution.

I’m going to wade into the debate on ‘stereotypes’ in the LIS profession. This is my opinion, for what it's worth.

Shy adj. not at ease in company; cautious or wary (Collins Gem English Dictionary, New Edition, 1992)

Modest adj. not vain or boastful; shy; (Collins Gem English Dictionary, New Edition, 1992)

Because a person is ‘shy’ doesn’t make them a ‘lightweight’ or leave our profession open to ridicule. Furthermore, being ‘shy’ about social media or even downright sceptical about it, doesn’t mean you are a dusty throwback. There is room in the LIS profession for all types of people and as the saying goes: “It takes all sorts”. The cool quirkiness of many CPD23 blogs is evidence of this.

As my story shows: you can be quiet…even ‘shy’.. and still flourish as a modern librarian. Here is another insight about shy people: blowing our own trumpet does not come naturally to us! We just need to improve our people skills and not hide our light under the proverbial ‘bushel’.

Thing 19 - Integrating The 23 Things

Creating a blog

The process of blog writing has enabled me to reflect on my learning journey. It has been useful to compare my experiences with my fellow CPD23 bloggers and to think critically about my core competencies and skills. I will continue this blog as a means of preparing myself for CILIP Chartership. I’m aware that my own personal contribution is rather low-key and I intend to engage more with social networking/social media in order to make more of an ‘impact’.

Twitter

I’ve not become an active Twitter user. I’ve been following others and lurking in order to observe how others use the medium. I aim to connect first with my work colleagues who are using Twitter and expand my comfort zone from there.

Facebook

I’ve been using Facebook to share library news and views with colleagues.

Evernote

I’ve used this for bookmarking articles and jotting down some thoughts and impressions. It’s great that I can use this on any web browser. I’ll continue to use Evernote as a research log.

In fact, I'll use it to log evidence for CILIP Chartership.

Feeds

I’m broadening my knowledge and maintaining current awareness through using blog feeds. I’m following bloggers from different library sectors in order to more fully engage with the issues affecting the whole of the profession.

Mentoring

I’ve discovered I very valuable mentoring opportunity. My colleague: a fellow CPD23 blogger, provided the spur for me to create an online profile as a platform for social networking. Furthermore, I feel have something to give back as part of the mentoring process. As someone who enjoys research, I hope to make a contribution to generating new ideas for service development.

Thing 18 - Jing has the Zing

Jing is an excellent little tool and I can envision using it in a number of ways. In order to test it out, I made a basic screenapture of a journeyplanner map and emailed it to myself.

I also produced a simple annotated screencapture. This would be ideal for creating handouts for the Beginner's ICT course in my library. I aim to explore Jing's features in more depth because, so far, I've just touched on the basics. However, I rate Jing as very user-friendly and for this reason I'm sure I could master it with a little more practice.

My knowledge of podcasting was quite limited and so I listened to one of the arcadia@cambridge podcasts in order to better understand the medium.

Bobbi Newman (LibrarianbyDay) has recommended two very informative library podcasts.

These contain a diverse range of news and views from the US - something for everyone! I've made this another addition to my reading list.

I can see myself as a podcast follower, but I won’t be diving in and creating my own. In order to feel confident with podcasting I’d probably need to sign up for the Podwhating?! course. However, I don’t see a sufficient payoff for this because I have no projects for which I need to create a podcast.

Thing 17: The Prezi Surprise

Prezi

Snazzy, jazzy, whizzy Prezi. The perfect medium to capture our ever shrinking attention span! Here are my thoughts on using Prezi and Slideshare and how I have or will integrate them into my professional practice.

The top tips on how to use Prezi as a teaching aid were very informative.
Adam Somlai-Fischer's guide (How To Create A Great Prezi) describes the medium as very ‘iterative’, i.e. you can pan back to reiterate key statements and ideas.   

This week's thing presented me with a hands on, creative challenge. However, on reflection, I would say that ‘challenge’ rather than ‘creative’ was the operative word!  I’ll definitely need to invest more time and effort in order to create an effective Prezi. I don’t give presentations as part of my job and lack practice. However, by mastering the basics of Prezi, I could utilise it in a number of contexts. Producing training notes/handouts for colleagues could be one such use.

I practised using the Prezi tools and was able to produce some very basic slides. I consider it to be a work in progress, and include the link as evidence only:
http://prezi.com/dsmmxaaarnyy/cpd-and-me/

I agree with Adam Somlai-Fischer’s (2011) observations: its common for a first Prezi attempt to appear ‘flat’ and not unlike your Powerpoint slides. This was certainly the case with mine! I haven’t got to grips with using the frames and adjusting the layout. However, importing links and images was very straightforward. I’ll be looking at few more Prezis for inspiration and referring back to the tutorials.

As a final reflection, I don’t agree with the statement that ‘the medium is the message’. The clarity and intelligence of the message is equally important. For this reason, its worth reiterating that the content and delivery of a presentation will always carry it. Otherwise, we’re in danger of succumbing to style over substance.

Slideshare

I was already using Slideshare as a way of maintaining current awareness and generating ideas. I have emailed/shared some useful Slideshare presentations for reference purposes. However, I won’t be using Slideshare to upload or disseminate any of my own work. As this blog post shows: I have yet to develop the necessary skills.

Somlai-Fischer, A. 'How To Create a Great Prezi'  2011,  Available at: http: //prezi.com/recyyolzxm3e/how-to-create-a-great-prezi/ [Accessed 5/11/11]

Thing 16 - Advocacy: A View From The Ground

Working in a public library makes me keenly aware of this issue. Every local authority is experiencing cutbacks to its library services and library closures/campaigns are a constant theme in the local and national news. I love my job and have always valued the public library service and so, of course, I will stand up for what we do.

I’m an advocate for public libraries because I observe that they still have value and relevance in our modern world. Day to day, I deal with customers who value our services and gain benefit from using them. We assist them by signposting council services, supporting their education and providing a ‘safe’ venue for community events.

My form of advocacy involves me being an active 'salesperson' for our services. To list a few examples:

·         Informing children about our online reference service: a very useful  homework resource!

·         Promoting Bookstart and RhymeTime to new mothers.

·         Guiding a novice user to a free Beginners IT taster session.

·         Telling an au pair about ‘Conversation Café’: a library run event for people learning English.

I keep up-to-date with Voices For The Library  and have blogged/Facebook linked the website. I’m not sure if my advocacy has ever merged with activism, however, I’ve signed and promoted a few library petitions if this counts.

I would hope that I am able to speak up my profession if called on to do so. To be an effective 21^st century public librarian requires that you be both a ‘problem solver’ and  an‘ideas person’. In fact, this is surely the case for LIS professionals from all sectors.

On the issue of writing and publishing. I enjoy the whole process of self-reflective writing and practice and even the tricky business of academic writing. Immersing myself in blogging and writing has given me the confidence to pursue this as a future goal.

Thing 15 - Attending Events: Get With The Programme!

I've never attended a LIS conference before, but was interested to read Jo Alcock's tips for making the most of the conference experience. I'm aware of the annual LILAC and Umbrella conferences and realise how important these are for sharing professional knowledge and best practice. One of my colleagues attended Umbrella 2011 and reported that it was a great opportunity for networking with LIS professionals from different sectors.

I am a Skills For Life champion and am passionate about information literacy. Attending a conference such as LILAC would be great opportunity to meet like-minded librarians and an gain an international, cross-sector perspective on information literacy education. I aim to draw up a list of the costs/benefits to both me and my employer of me attending a conference. There are many cost implications here!

I won't be organising or presenting at an event just yet: what a daunting prospect! I feel I should focus on further building up my skills and expeiences and most importantly: how to articulate my ideas and experiences to make them interesting and relevant to viewers and listeners.

Thing 14 - Online Referencing Tools

I work in a public library which is next door to an expanding university campus and this has resulted in increasing numbers of students using our services. Maintaining an awareness of online referencing tools
should enable me to better serve this group. Once again, thank-you CPD23.


I chose to focus on Mendeley and Cite U Like for this weeks review. I realised from the outset that it would involve a bit of a time investment and might be complicated. Unfortunately, I'm not a whizz with new technology and I expect to learn by trial and error.


Although I didn't explore Zotero, I found a useful screencast on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-55EyEWT61U) which covers the basic features.


According to product comparison and reviews: Mendeley (http://www.mendeley.com/) tops the list for referencing software. I found using it be reasonably straightforward, partly as a result of the excellent help pages. The interface is easy on the eye and above all easy to navigate. I experienced a few problems with the 'Import Web Pages' feature: my pop-up settings were the culprit. However, I've now added a few PDFs and managed to customise the styles and settings. I'll explore this a bit more later.


I can see why Cite U Like (http://www.citeulike.org/) could be named 'the Delcious for academics'. The main benefit is that you can access the service from any web browser - no timeconsuming software downloads! Furthermore, I found the CiteGeist feature (http://www.citeulike.org/citegeist?days=7) potentially useful for current awareness. This feature gives you a list of the most popular, current journal articles being read and circulated. I managed to retrieve this detailed report on Web 2.0 risks/benefits and libraries: http://opus.bath.ac.uk/15260/3/author-version.pdf