Thing 8



Confused Rope by Turbo.Beagle
on Flickr  (available for use under
 the Creative Commons Licence).



This latest Thing is all about Google Calendar and finally I have come to something that I not only know about but can honestly say that I use every day!

Google calendar saved my sanity in that my husband  (the complete star that he is in all other ways) is utterly hopeless when it comes to organising his life! 

After the failure of numerous paper diaries and PDA devices to keep him organised over the years (he never had the thing with him when needing to write down/check appointments) I had almost given up hope when quite by chance my husband decided to buy an android phone.

However the real “light bulb moment” came when I discovered that Google Calendar would work with android technology and since my husband’s new phone package included free internet access he now always had the phone with him. Simples!

So now rather than having to nag him repeatedly about forthcoming events all I have to do is add them to the appropriate calendar (we both have Google Calendars) and because I have shared access to both calendars they are always in sync and can be accessed from any pc or mobile device. Result!

Now all I have to do is to find a way to convince my line manager that we need to connect the LMS calendar to a Google Calendar…. 

Thing 7

When reflecting on my experiences with professional organisations for this Thing I have to confess that up to date my involvement with them in real life has been embarrassingly limited.



Chartered Instituation of Library
 and Information Professionals



I joined Cilip as a student member a couple of months before I started my degree course bacj in 2005. I found the Update and Gazette publications very informative about the topics that I studied. I also found the online resources particularly useful when searching for journal articles, which otherwise would have cost me lots of money to purchase / photocopy. 

In terms of real-life interaction I did attend one of the local branch meetings a few years ago but to be honest I felt a bit excluded and suspect that unlike the student representative present I wasn’t considered a “proper” student as I was studying by distance learning (while working as an assistant in a local public library). Perhaps now that I have qualified and got a job as a librarian I ought to be brave and try attending again.



International Federation of
Library Associations and Institutions



I am a great fan of the IFLA especially since it has sections that cover my particular areas of professional interest including  Library Services to People with Special Needs (Section 9) and Libraries Serving Persons with Print Disabilities (Section 31) . Hopefully I might get the chance to attend of of their conferences oe day they always seem to be in really exciting locations!

Now for some exiciting news (well I think it is anyway). Quite by chance I had the opprotunity to represent my library at the latest JISC Excellence in Learning Resources forum this week. Over the past four years I have attended a couple of these forums but not regularly enough to reallyy get to know anyone. 

Although quite confident as a person, because of my sight problems I often find it difficult to approach people face-to-face and start a conversation as I can’t always be sure that they are even looking at me! I also have problems with recognising people that I have already met across a crowded room (even my husband) and on occasions have been accused later of ignoring them.

However this time I was determined to take on board some of Bethan’s suggestions and try network more effectively.  I decided that I would aim to speak with at least three people that I didn’t know already during the course of the day and where possible would use existing contacts as a means to make new ones.

This sounded simple in theory but in reality did prove a bit more difficult. Some of the people that I already knew on the delegates list didn’t attend and because we were all issued with name badges no one introduced themselves!

Not to be deterred I ended up asking people for their names and explained about my sight problem (as I though that peering closely at their chests might seem a tad over-familiar on first acquaintance). Everyone I spoke to was really friendly and by the end of the day I had made four new contacts. Result!. 

And finally...

When thinking about why I am not a member of more LIS professional organisations I think that my answer has to be the cost. As a student the cost of being a member of Cilip was very reasonable at £38 and joining ASLIB was free. However because I am lucky enough to be in employment I now face fees of £194 and £220 respectively, and to be honest I am not sure that I can justify paying such large amounts.

Perhaps more realistic banding is the answer? .

Thing 6



Spider Web by Randradas in Flickr (available
for use under the Creative Commons Licence).

I found it took longer to finish  this Thing than expected as I got completely sidetracked by the really cool videos  on http://commoncraft.com/.

This time I only needed to set up an account on LinkedIn as I already have active accounts on Facebook and LISNPN (which I set up when doing "Thing 3"). I find that I use my Facebook account to keep in touch with family and friends who live away although I have to confess that I tend to lurk more that I post!

Since the concept of branding is still very fresh in my mind I have decided to continue to use the Facebook account for social interactions and as a part of my personal online presence. Whereas I plan to use my new LinkedIn and LISNPN accounts to promote my professional online presence. Which means that on reflection that I probably do agree with Reid Hoffman (founder of LinkedIn) that "Facebook is the backyard BBQ; LinkedIn is the office".

Finally regarding the Cilip communities, despite already having an active username and password (I used this site a lot to search for journal articles when studying) I still found it a bit cumbersome to navigate. However I am still convinced that there is some good stuff to discover and so feel that I might return to explore this online network in a bit more detail during catch-up week.

Thing 5



Lonely by the Water by Matthileo in Flickr
 (available for use under
the Creative Commons Licence)

When reflecting on why I chose to do the CPD23 course this year my main reason was sheer frustration at the fact that I had stagnated in terms of career development  since graduating last summer, mainly due to the acute lack of professional development opportunities in my workplace.

Things 1 and 2 were all about creating and exploring blogs. I have been following the blogs of several library professionals for a few years since I found them extremely useful when studying for my degree. However I had never considered writing my own blog as I felt that I hadn’t got anything interesting to say! I hope that working through the remaining “Things” will alter this self- perception and give me the confidence to continue blogging. I also hope that this experience will broaden my horizons in respect of reading, and commenting on, other blogs that I follow.

I found Thing 3 really interesting as it related to personal branding. As advised I spend many hours pondering on what exactly I wanted my branding to say about me, both in terms of wording and imagery used. I must confess that I am really pleased with the outcome and feel that it was well worth the time spent considering all aspects of my branding. I have now updated all my online presences with my new imagery and bio in order to establish consistency.   

Despite already having a Twitter account (albeit an inactive one) and knowing about RSS feeds I still found Thing 4 about current awareness really interesting. I used this activity as an opportunity to do an overhaul of my RSS feeds list (most of which I had set up while studying) and to add some of the recommended ones.  However as mentioned in my post about Thing 4 although I did register with Storify and found browsing others’ stories interesting I didn’t really get on with creating my own story (due to browser inconsistencies). 

As well as doing CDP23 I also resolved to try and attend more library-related events and activities, even if it meant attending in my own time and at my own expense! 

http://www.librarycamp.co.uk/

To this end I recently participated in Library Camp Leeds. I have to confess that that I did feel a bit nervous before the event as this was the first time I had participated in this more informal type of conference.

However I came away at the end of a really interesting day with a much more positive view of what this style of conference is all about and having met some really interesting and friendly people. I felt that as well as providing the usual opportunities to network and share ideas this event gave me a much better perspective on the current state of the library and information sector as a whole.  It also linked in nicely with CPD23 as I came away with a new list of interesting people to follow on Twitter!