Thing 19 & 23

Being waaaaay behind the schedule I took liberty to do cpd things in my own order and I decided to join together things 19 and 23 as they both require reflection on the program.

First a little bit about the tools:
Ones, that I use, but I want to use more:
- blog
- networking
- personal brand
- twitter
- national/regional groups
- chartership
- seminars and conferences
- Jing and podcasts

New to me, but will be used:
- personal brand
- online networks
- Dropbox
- Referencing
- updating and working on skills and CV

Ones, I'm not so sure about:
- Pushnote
- RSS
- Google calendar
- Evernote

What have I learnt from this program?
A lot of useful resources and tips. It showed me that there is plenty great people, ready to share, meet and learn from. It gave me better understanding of librarianship and made me even prouder that I am part of this great profession.
But also I learnt that: I NEED TO be more systematic. I NEED TO put what I learn in practice more. I NEED TO improve my reflective writing

SMART my objectives?
I tend to develop my objectives using urgent-important matrix. On one of the time management trainings I have noticed that things that are important, but not urgent are the ones that I neglect most. So I made this matrix and put in there all my objectives. I have a look in there once in a while and make sure that I haven't forgot about them and still (slowly but surely) move towards achieving them. Now I made them a little bit SMARTer and I hope this will help me to be more focused.

What next?
I have made my PDP for my chartership, in two weeks I'm meeting my mentor to discuss it with her. I guess next step will be putting together my portfolio and slowly going through my goals. Lots of things to read, to implement and to learn from. Exciting!:)

In 6 words: enjoyable journey that doesn't end here...

Thing 18

Jing and podcasts - I cannot say that those tools were new to me, but I'm not an expert and it was really good to get a reminder!


Jing - I have found it really useful, but I don't like the downloading bit. I have used screenr before, which doesn't require installation. My next project will be - "How to search catalogue" screen recording with subtitles and voiceover. In September I made a presentation, so more or less I have all material I need.
I also really like Instant Presenter and DimDim. They are online conferencing tools, that allow to share your screen with participants. Found them very useful, when taking part in JISC seminars online. It was absolutely amazing to be at work with my headphones and take part in the training. That's what I call well spent lunch break:) 


Podcasts - I went to the training about podcasts not so long ago and I had a go at creating one. I have found it quite easy, but unfortunately I haven't got time to actually use them in the library yet. There are some great ideas for podcasts, for example: virtual library tour, researching tips and book reviews (from Behind the bookshelves).
Even if I hadn't made one, I do use them and find them extremely useful for learning languages.

Thing 21

I like my job and I was really surprised, how many of my interests and education fits within my tasks. What I am good at - searching, ideas and helping others, what I like - busy environment and achievable challenges. So library seems ideal for me and I am not thinking about changing careers.

I must admit that my CV has not been updates since I've started my job. Prompted by CPD23 post I had a look at it and added all the thing I have done during those 2 years. I quite like the format of my CV - I still try to keep everything on one page - but I think it needs a tiny little bit of personalisation.

Very useful tips for people from outside UK and thank you very much for those three links on CPD23 post. Excellent piece on resume objectives - I've never had them in my CV and now I'm glad. Also excellent tips from the Wikiman - this is what can make a real difference on the interview. And, embarrassing to admit, I am really bad in writing cover letters, so the database will be much needed inspiration.

CV tip:

I think CV can really help illustrate what are you writing about. If someone says that they are creative but their CV is in the format that you can find on any website, well I wouldn't believe them. I always try to make an effort to make sure that my CV was a little bit different - even details that make you stand out, like filling an application form with different font - on the  last one I made it look like it's handwritten (and then saved as .pdf so it doesn't change on different PC:)). It may not get you a job, but maybe can help to get THE call

Have a look at those: (I love them...)

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/creative-designer-resume-curriculum-vitae/

http://creativenerds.co.uk/inspiration/20-creative-resume-designs-which-will-amaze-any-potential-employer/

Interview experience:

I am always very nervous about interviews - obviously I want to get job and I was filling like I have to fit into every expectation of interviewer. But, as Maria noticed in her post, sometimes it's better not to get the job. I went once on the interview, there were two interviewers, very confident, a bit arrogant, a bit annoying. After 10 min of interview I already knew that the way company works and what expects form employees is not for me. And I was never so happy to actually not get a job. That situation made me thinking and now I go to interview with an approach - be prepared but be yourself and if the job is for you, you will get it!

Thing 22

I am a big fan of volunteering and have volunteered in different places and for different proposes. Although when it comes to libraries this topic obviously gets a little bit more sensitive. Not paying people for their job is a very dangerous idea that has huge implications. What I don't understand is why working in library doesn't require any special skills or experience and everything else does. I am sure that there is more jobs that could be done by volunteers, so why not go further - I always liked idea of politics 'pro bono' ;)

During my studies I have volunteered to gain experience in various recruitment companies and HR departments and I think only thanks to that experience I was able to get my firs job after studies. Therefore I must say it was most useful and gave me a lot of opportunities to develop my skills. I was "lucky" that I was being quite used -I have heard the stories about how you only photocopy and make coffee during the placement - but it was nothing like it. I was thrown into projects, had contact with customers and did what other members of staff.
Now there is another danger in that - temptation to constantly hire apprenticeships to save on staff costs.

I think you can also say that I 'volunteer' in my organisation - I am happy to take part in any project that will give me more skills and knowledge.

Apart from professional purposes I currently volunteer to develop my interests outside of library, so I work in Oxfam charity shop reworking donations nobody wants to buy into unique things that may sell.

Thing 15

I certainly haven't attended as much conferences I would like to. Online information looks always very interesting, but I've never had a chance to participate. I was lucky though, to take part in a lot of trainings and courses, which offered me the most important thing - opportunity for networking in maybe less formal and intimidating (I'm not great in small talk) atmosphere.

That just reminded me - I kept getting those e-mails inviting me to conference in Brazil, I wonder what would HR say for that...:)

Speaking on conference is my big dream, without SMART objectives, so far. And mainly because i don't know what I could talk about. I'm sure that you have to have much more experience to make it worthwhile for others to listen to you, and you need much more confidence. It is a huge achievement for me to run sessions for staff and it makes me nervous before I start. But to stand in front of lots of people I don't know - well that's terrifying.

Strangely, the biggest experience I have in organising conferences. In my previous job in training, advertising and event agency I was responsible for coordination of big PR conference. It was my first so important task and I was really nervous, especially that I was told that the customer is a bit difficult... Anyway it all went really well and I have discovered that 'small crisis managemet' is what I like most an gives me the biggest satisfaction.

To summarise - attending: yes, but I don't mind, if not prefer, smaller events; speaking: need more confidence and expertise in something; organising: well, that's something that I really could get involved in!

PS. Somehow this post is not in a place it was supposed to be...

Thing 20

I have already written about my librarian rootes. I think my way to becoming a librarian was very simmilar to Laura's - I had no idea that I would ever work in the library and that it will be so close to what I actually studied and wanted to do. Now I would recommend working in library to anybody. 

What is the most amazing thing when I look at the roots/routes project is the variety of roles that people have - I really don't know how on earth did we get this 'boring job' label.

Library in a day, let's see...

It's been my 'late day' today - once a week I start in the afternoon and close library at 8pm. I had to came earlier today to cover one person that couldn't come. Before I started I went to collect free CD that we will add to collection. I started on the issue desk - half serving students, half dealing with new orders and invoices. Then I renewed our subscription to one magazine and dealt with some other financial things (like why our budget was charged with things we didn't order). Later BIG mystery of missing key was solved and I had some time to take down 11/11 display. I came back on the desk till the end of day and started dealing with e-mails and had a go at putting together LRC sessions plan. Liaised with IT to install some new programs we found/bought (JISC My study bar - looks really interesting). Enrolled for interesting e-safety training and added information about new books in the library. Finally and most importantly I finished LRC Skills section on our portal. Oh, and catalogued couple books and checked lots of new additions to put them on the shelf.

I love that not 2 days in the library are the same

Thing 17

I love both of those tools and had used them for quite a long time. This year I have changed our main presentation on the LRC portal to Prezi and it definitely had created much more interest than previous presentation (in Slideshare), especially embedding movie in it.

Thing 16

Local advocacy
I think we do quite well when it comes to advocacy in our own organisation. And without really realising or plan I had an input in that. Being the person that always likes doing things, I got in touch with some tutors and started doing small sessions during tutorials. Tutors and students liked them and they got mentioned during course reviews (by students!) and this way management learnt what we are doing. Also, we always try to follow up enquires, if we cannot find anything in the library, and recommend alternative sources of information.
Two difficult things that I am encountering now, in new role as a manager is, first of all, how to keep the good publicity. Second thing is, as I'm being quite critical towards myself and my work, so it is hard for me to speak about it in positive way.

Global advocacy
In terms of speaking for profession in general I probably do it on a very small scale. However I think all of my friends who had pretty set stereotype of librarianship are now fully aware, that it doesn't involve sitting and reading books for 8 hours a day.

Thing 14

Today I was looking at tools for referencing, I must admit this is the first time I've ever used them. I have tried all of these programmes, to have fair comparison and to see what each of them offers. The most important thing here is that they are free, so there is no excuse why students (and teachers and librarians) should not use them to enhance their work. A lot of our students struggles with referencing, so tools like that could really make their life easier.

Zotero – this citation manager is available as Firefox extension. I downloaded it and in just few minutes it was ready to be used. The tool helps designing, storing and organising bibliographic references- really interesting.

Mendeley - accessible through Facebook account however, the installation took few minutes to be completed. The program opens in new window and works independently. It is possible to attach it to our web browser, so anytime we come across interesting article or review   we can simply add it to our Mendeley database. It is great for organising references in accordance to title, date of publication, author etc.

CiteULike - again, it accesses the information through Facebook account so it is very easy to log in. In seconds, we can find many interested articles from the database and connect with users interested in similar research field.

It is a great idea. With these tools, you can quickly add the article to our databases to be able to go through it again and have a complete reference ready to go to the bibliography. It saves time and most importantly, the tools are easy to use. Definitely something to share with my collegues and students!

E-learning

Reading my friend's thesis on history and development of e-learning - everybody seem to think: blended learning is the future. I really do agree with that, it helps overcome the biggest problem of e-learning - lack of human interaction and, in consequence, motivation and persistence.

Thing 12

• are there any other advantages to social networking in the context of professional development than those already outlined above?

 Meeting people I wouldn't had chance to meet in real life and sharing, would be two most important aspects of social networking for professional development. Almost immediate access to vast amount of knowledge, reflections from conferences I cannot attend, ideas that could be implemented is absolutely priceless.

• can you think of any disadvantages?

No, not in professional sense. You have to be able to assess and filter, so you don't spend too much time networking, but the same can be said generally about Internet.

• has CPD23 helped you to make contact with others that you would not have had contact with normally?

Yes, it has helped me, but I definitely should do more. I am going to put more pressure on networking, although I must say that it already had been great experience. Knowing that there are so many professionals, eager to learn and share their experience, knowledge and expertise is simply amazing.

• did you already use social media for your career development before starting CPD23? Will you keep using it after the programme has finished?

Before I was using it only in a passive way - reading blogs or wikis, now I really appreciate role of dialogue in professional development 

• in your opinion does social networking really help to foster a sense of community?

That is a difficult question, but I think in context of professional development my answer would be - YES! It definitely gives you a sense of participation in the professional community of specialists - global community.

Thing 13

Google Docs -I am using google docs quite regularly and I really like the collaboration that it enables. I have recommended it to various pepole as a way of getting students together and allowing them working on one document. For that purpose there is also an excellent collaboration tool - iEtherPad http://ietherpad.com/. It allows many people edit the same document in real-time - great for gathering feedback, opinions, brainstorming.

Wikis - I have run some staff development sessions last year on using wikis, blogs and social networking in education. I prepared myself with materials from very basic to quite advanced and I remember being quite surprised how many people didn't know what wikis are (in plain English series was as always extremely useful here - I love it). In my own practice - I have created our department wiki to put our ideas and rules and it got really positive feedback. Will it be used? So far so good:)

Dropbox - it's the first time I have come across this tool and I really like it. I think it has huge potential for students' collaboration and gives great opportunity to work together with others on projects, conference papers, etc. Definitely something to use!

Thing 11

Since I've started my job I had nothing but wonderful mentors. I would say my first mentor was my manager, as I was really looking up to her. Now that she retired, very often I find myself thinking - 'What would she do in this situation?' Also in my organisation every new employee has his buddy - a person from different department to help with any questions or issues. Mine buddy was our careers advisor and she is absolutely great person. She was very supportive and always had time for coffee and small chat. Now with my new role I got different mentor, a person who has a similar level of responsibility and is really able to help me with mysterious things like service standards, appraisals, self assessments, business plans... Since starting charterchip process I have another mentor - for the first time it was my choice, and I must say it wasn’t easy. I had a look at CILIP list and I have seen so many interesting people that I felt I could learn a lot from. Finally I decided to approach person who was college LRC manager – just a role that I was taking on from September. It occurred to be a great choice and I am very grateful for all her advice.

I guess I have been really lucky when it comes to formal/informal mentors/buddies.