Thing 23 – what next?

I certainly know that I didn’t really connect with anyone much on this program and that is such a shame.

I felt so rushed that I hardly ever read any other posts – my main aim was just to get through in the end!

I think that this is a great program for those starting our in the profession or thinking of even starting out….

This is what I said in post one – “I saw the CPD23 2012, and just thought – “this is for me!!” – so very happy to be involved. I like the international flavour of this particular program, the chance to try a few new *things?*, and the opportunity to connect, engage with even more library folk”

I admit that I didn’t get the international flavour that I hoped for, not the fault of the program at all, merely the way I approached it (and the fact I hardly ever read other blog posts ).

I have a fairly good idea about my gaps and my strengths. Life, librarianship! is is a road, a journey – and I love that there is always something to learn and engage with and in.

Thanks for a great program!

But I especially loved the early things- I looked at some of the tools and technologies that I have used before in a different light and that is good!!

Thing 22 – volunteering

I have never volunteered as part of my library career, but I would consider it if there was a need.

Hard for me for this one as I have a mortgage and financial commitments that mean I could only volunteer after normal work hours or on the weekend, so my choices I suspect would be limited.

I DO love the idea of retiring (or semi retiring) – possibly in about ten years- and I have always considered volunteering as part of my retirement…..have never especially thought of volunteering in a library capacity – but I actually quite like that idea…so a little different to what this post actually intended – I would consider volunteering to GIVE BACK (don’t mean to shout, just wanted to emphasize!) some skills to the library community…

And in a previous life as an employment counsellor I have seen numerous great results from people colunteering…experience, confident and sometimes even work!!

Thing 21 – Promoting myself: applying and at interview

This is a really hard one for me. I haven’t had a job interview in about 5 years and not sure when the next one will be….I have recently had a job reclassification which meant an increase in my HEW (Higher Education Worker) level,  this without interview or application.

But what are my strengths, how can I capitalise on my interests?

I have jokingly said before that if I could get a job listening to ABC Radio National all day I would be incredibly happy.

I also love the idea of combining librarianship with food – healthy cooking, food,  recipes – but how?

Strengths stem from interests. Definitely! 

I am good at organising and planning and detail and recording. I am loyal and very hard working. I love project work. I read widely. I come up with ideas. I am impatient when processes mean that I cannot act in a nimble, agile way.

I haven’t updated my CV in years….I know I should keep it current, and in fact- that should be something that I do. I DO have an updated PIQ- position information questionnaire that lists my job and what is involved…that IS a useful document as well as the position description statement. Both are useful and I would definitely use if I were to apply for a job. Will I apply for a job ever, not at all sure?

I love my workplace, but my career prospects are limited on this campus, and I cannot travel to other campuses. Most of the time I am happy in my work, my workplace, and very energised!

Interviews – I do generally perform fairly well at interview. My previous experience was helping people get interview ready, so that helps. I do know how to prepare for interview. I am well aware that I do tell people to go for interviews for practise. I am terribly out of interview practise 😦

Where does this all leave me?…I should update my CV. I feel a bit like a dinosaur…..not ten years yet as a librarian, but over 50…ssshhhhhhh! Happy at work.

Thing 20 – The Library Routes Project

I think this is a great project – The Library Routes. It is the sort of thing I think I would have been really interested in years ago when I first started studying my Library degree.

I love stories and the narratives around why people end up where they are.

I suppose I have been very lucky with my library career- things have kind of fallen into my lap and I been able to take advantage of situations and have been given many chances and opportunities which I am very grateful for.

I wanted to add my story to the Library Routes wiki – and although I tried to add my lines twice (and both times the preview showed my information with the correct link and everything) it didn’t ever show on the wiki- and I am a bit sad about that- and not at all sure why.

I haven’t had a lot to do with wikis- and don’t find them the easiest things to sue…so I am feeling like a great big fat fail with this one…

Anyway- here is my story, journey, pathway and I’ll try the Library Routes wiki again this week when I am not feeling quite so inadequate! Although that’s been an interesting learning experience as I am currently facilitating a 23Things program at my workplace – with 41 participants, and understand from doing this *thing* how inadequate you can feel when things don’t work out…..

argh, grrrr, insert expletive here……

**Update- 9 minutes later

I check my email- I haven’t confirmed my registration with the Library Routes wiki! Ah ha I think- that might be the problem.

I re-enter my details for the Library Routes wiki- I am in such a rush- but then I spy the info at the top- please enter blah blah blah so we know you are not a robot.

So much for my attention to detail you say….

Success – at last.  Huzzah!!!

Meant to also say – this is a great post – New professionals – get hold of a Library organisational chart and start plotting your path

Thing 19 – catchup/reflect

It’s interesting as I read the *thing 19* post and think about this particular 23 Things journey (my first program as such although I have facilitated four 23 things programs at my workplace over the years!).

I think one of my slight problems with this program – which is great – I like the emphasis on PD – is that I don’t see myself in a strategic position moving jobs and seeking a career as such.

Late to librarianship – I have been a librarian for approx 9 years, and at 51 – anticipate that I’ll be working for at least another 10 years. I love my workplace. I have had heaps of opportunities, and hope I have a heap more. I do keep an eye out for other jobs, but it’s more to see what sorts of jobs are around. I haven’t been for an interview for six or seven years – which does worry me a little as I worry that if I was to need an interview I would not be very competitive?

But I digress a little….

I used to be a much more prolific Tweeter – but find whole days just pass without me really engaging in Twitter. An d so many of my PLN are there….have I just lost my mojo momentarily??

I do want to explore Prezi more as I am sure I could use it more (and not depend on the kindness of others).

I am quite aware of my online presence and my online community and am still exploring – (in a small way) some way to get a local group happening (and not step on other very established groups…).

I am certainly getting more involved in presenting at conferences, and certainly being more strategic in this regard – ie – a lot of the projects I now work on are linked directly with a view to publishing or presenting.

I am very aware that I have not really engaged with this program. I don’t feel I have time to read other participant blogs- and I know that that is an important part.

Thing 18 – Jing / screen capture / podcasts (making and following them)

I haven’t tried Jing or Screencast-o-matic or Camtasia or Lightshot – but I do know that there are several great open source products out there that do screen captures . At my workplace we have a license for Adobe Captivate, so this is the software we use to produce tutorials such as the ones you can see on our ACU Library YouTube channel.

It’s great to be able to know about freely available alternatives as these are great options.

I love podcasts – and subscribe to quite a lot of podcasts that I listen to on an (almost) daily basis. I have created a podcast previously using Audacity and found it quite god to use.

Thing 17 – Prezi, Slideshare

I really like Prezi.

I recognise the limitations and the fact that you can get quite dizzy from it- but it’s a wonderful, wonderful tool to use for presentations!

I have given presentations at conferences using Prezi- although it has been my wonderful co-presenter who has designed the Prezi (with input from me- but I am not great at using Prezi).

Having said that I think it’s really because when I first started using Prezi I was thinking of it just as an alternative to PPT and not as a different type of present a story – so I think the words in this post –

“The main thing to bear in mind when experimenting with Prezi is to step away from a linear presentation style, this will allow you to dance around your subject, drawing commonalities and contrasts from different elements of your topic. There are some great online guides which will help you, and I suggest you have a look a these, but there is no better way to get a grip on Prezi than to get your hands dirty”.

I was definitely thinking linear and I do need to dirty my hands more with this! Definitely. And they kep adding nice cool features like a fade in and some nice icons, like Twitter 🙂

so, I’m a fan!!

And I’m also a fan of Slideshare 🙂

I recommend Slideshare to colleagues as a great place to get ideas.

I have never thought about it as a place to put a visual resume, but I do like the idea…there are just key points, key details and a lot of nice pictures, and a way to contact the person – so all up, simplistic? but effective?

Would I use? Perhaps…..

I also like ‘infographics’ and I do like the idea of using infographics to get key points or ideas across …

Thing 16 – Getting involved cont’d…

Thing 16 – advocacy, speaking up for the profession and getting published…

It IS unfortunate the These Economic Times have necessitated a push, a rise in advocacy. In Australia we have been less affected by the GFC etc, but libraries can be seen as soft targets – so there is always time and room for advocacy. I have followed quite a few campaigns, both in the UK and in the US to save libraries from closure or radical budget cuts.

ALIA – my professional association has advocacy information, and the latest public campaign is taking place in the state of Queensland, where the ‘dumb idea’ campaign is being waged against the Queensland government (a newly elected government) that is closing some government libraries.

What I think is interesting (and I am not involved in public libraries really, but I have read about) is that public libraries are so incredibly important in a community and I think some of the campaigns and studies have been quite successful in showing this. Studies such as ‘Enriching communities: the value of public libraries in NSW’ are really important publications. This two page summary of some Victorian research is also really useful; ‘Dollars, sense and public libraries‘.

Traditionally libraries are not good at advocacy, but it is a necessary and vital skill – to be able to articulate and promote and advocate for your library service.

I was recently involved in a ‘Value of Libraries Symposium’  (was on the planning group) held in my local area. A great day, but in some ways we are left with – what now – who will take this further? Where do we go from here?

And yes…a blog is a great way of keeping record of all of your involvement – in whatever you do.

Thing 15 – Getting involved

Thing 15: Attending, presenting at and organising seminars, conferences and other events.

I have a training background. In another life I was a staff trainer in the public service (civil service in the UK) for a few years. I prepared and delivered training. Since working as a librarian (8 years now) I have again been involved in training – completing a Certificate IV in Workplace Training and Assessment  and have been involved in preparing and organising training and presenting in a variety of forums. But writing papers and delivering at conferences is a bit of a new ball game for me.  But I have done it this year!!

I decided that I wanted to get more involved in this sort of thing – good for my development, and this year presented at the ALIA Biennial– http://conferences.alia.org.au/alia2012/Papers/14_Kate.Bunker.pdf

This was a great experience – I was able to present the paper with a graduate of the program utilizing Prezi, Xtranormal, some polling and it was very well received. What I didn’t do was present a peer-reviewed paper – and this is something I would like to work on in the future.

I do a lot of project work in my library role, and our underlying goal in all of our projects now is to have a one of the results – that we sub,it a paper for publication or present findings at a conference. I think this is a really useful aspiration!

I am also presenting a poster, with a 7  minute presentation at the next ALIA conference in Brisbane, Australia in February 2012 – Information Online .

And yes- there is that dilemma about what to talk about…but I do agree with:
“You may well be wondering what on earth you could speak about. I’m strongly of the opinion that if you’re working in a professional way – evaluating your services and modifying them in the hopes of improving them, you’ve probably got something to speak to others about..”

That is a great start! How often do you go to talks and conferences and think…’we do that’ or ‘we do that differently and it would be useful to tell people about it…’

It’s partly a mindset.

We are actually looking at this whole area as a project at work…sort of doing a 23Things on writing abstracts, writing papers, presenting at conferences, writing grants.

And I love Ned Potter- and pretty much anything he writes about!!

And if you cannot get to conferences, get onto twitter and follow the hashtag….Twitter is just great for conferences, talks, events!!

*26 October postscript – also meant to say- a Twitter lib friend has a bit of a mantra – she only goes to conferences that she has been successful in presenting at…which is a good way to look at it (although for some of us it would mean a long time between conferences  😦  )

Thing 14 – Zotero/ Mendeley/citeulike

(I started this post in August!!) It’s interesting isn’t it. I work in an academic library that pays for EndNote and RefWorks and there are so many great free products that do a fantastic job of managing references etc.

So I am going to look at Mendeley.

I am preparing a proposal for some green initiatives at my workplace for 2013, so will use Mendeley to store them.

22 October – well things got the better of me and I am very far behind in all of this. It’s worrying to say that I haven’t wanted to blog about Mendeley because I haven’t spent a whole lot of time on it. Certainly I have been storing my references for this particular project – but that’s all. I haven’t been very sophisticated in my discovery of this at all.

The one thing I have noticed about Mendeley is that it IS desktop based, and I am not always at my desktop! Sounds obvious, but it’s been learning for me!

And it has been worthwhile seeing another bibliographic management resource – and there are several that people can use if they don’t have access to EndNote and RefWorks. In fact, even if people can access EndNote or RefWorks – these are all good options.

The difference is in support. My workplace does support EndNote and RefWorks which means if staff/students have queries – we do help out. Not sure how much support we can offer if someone has a Mendeley query, although I am confident in helping out a little and knowing that there are probably heaps of online forums and support to help.

I don’t offer EndNote/RefWorks support in my job – I only do a 3 hour desk shift in the Library a week, but we have a great EndNote guide and a RefWorks guide as well (RefWorks is new and hasn’t been rolled out officially at my workplace).

So realistically all I am doing here is ticking this one off. But I do know about it!!