Tuesday 6 September 2011

Thing 16

Thing 16 is on advocacy, speaking up for the profession, and getting published. Advocacy is becoming more important than ever at a time when we are seeing significant cuts to libraries of all kinds. I have been heartened by the range of campaigns and the use of online platforms for this. I have also been particularly pleased to have seen more visible advocacy (online or otherwise) by CILIP, especially since Annie Mauger joined. I agree with the cpd23 post that blogs and the like can lead to other things. When setting up a Twitter account for my library I asked for some advice on the LIS-WEB-2 list. I received a wide range of replies and summarised for the list. A subscriber to the list asked me to write a guest blog about my experience of getting our library on Twitter which I was delighted to do. This then led to my being contacted by the editor of Refer, the journal of the Information Services Group. My brief article was published in volume 27, nos 2/3 of the journal. I have always enjoyed the academic/analytic side of librarianship, and as a librarian I am keen to share information and help others so advocacy, sharing online, and publication while not an everyday task, I do see them as a key part of the role.

Thing 15

Found the cpd23 post on attending, presenting at, and organising events very interesting. Working in a smallish team in a special voluntary sector library means that it can be particularly useful to get out there and meet people, and learn from those in the same and other sectors. Until recently we've been blessed with a reasonable training budget and my manager has always been very encouraging of us attending conferences. Now that cuts and hard times are biting a little it makes free or low cost training opportunities and events all the more important. I have recently attended a free tour of The London Library which is highly recommended. Of course the tours are not librarian specific but I find it is always interesting to attend another library, especially one as interesting, historic, and beautiful as this. Though it has a slightly corporate bent I would also recommend the Online Information conference and exhibition. There are usually a wide range of free seminars, exhibitors, and opportunities for networking and browsing. I wouldn't say networking is my strong point but I do see the value in it, if there is a genuine desire to share, and make connections. I have never spoken at or organised a conference but have been inspired by Thing 15 to perhaps look into developing tours of our library in the future. At present space and lack of meeting facilities make this difficult but an expected redesign of our office could make this possible in the future.

Thing 14

Summer hols in the team mean I have got behind with cpd23 so now for a quick catch up. Blocks on Firefox and downloads here mean that I can't fully explore the reference management tools covered by Thing 14. However having heard names like Endnote, Zotero, and Mendeley banded about on LIS-LISTS I am really grateful to cpd23 for the introduction. Now I have more of an idea what folks are talking about! Thanks again cpd23!