Thing 13 - Professional Organisations

I am a member of CILIP and am also on the committee of  the Yorkshire branch of YLG and have been for about 10 years  I have had a stint of both vice-chair and Chair. 

The benefits are great in that you meet a lot of like minded people from different professional backgrounds.  You can share ideas, gain a lot of advice and it's a wonderful chance to Network.  We have at least one day school a year and if we have the funds 2 a year - although that doesn't happen as often these days.  At the day schools you get another chance of networking & meeting lots of new people.

Being a member of CILIP means I am kept up to date with all things Library related.  It looks good on your CV! CILIP also offer some really good training, the only problem with it is most takes place in London and is expensive, so those of us up North miss out quite a lot.  But I have been to CILIP headquarters a couple of times. 

I would recommend joining the committee of whichever interest group is suitable for you, as I'm sure you will gain much from it.

The twitter feed for YLG is @youthlibraries and for the Yorkshire branch it's @YLGYorksHumber.

Thing 12 - Attending Conferences

The last conference I attended was on 9th July 2015, so it's fairly fresh in my mind.  It was A Meg-Lib Conference organised by JISC.  Mainly it was looking at Digital Literacy

When we want to attend something like this we have to fill in a form called an SD1, on this we have to say what is is we wish to attend, who it's organised by, where it is, how much it is, any travel costs that are likely to be incurred - or if you're going on the train you have to say which train you went to get as the College buy the tickets for you in advance, we also have to say how the event meets with the Colleges strategic objectives and finally, what the college will gain by you going.  I have to say this can be quite off putting, but I haven't yet not attended an event because of this form.  This then goes to our line Manager who approves it (you hope!), then it goes to their Line Manager for final approval, before being passed to HR for them to book your place & get your train tickets.  It's your Line Manager who decides if there is enough funding available for you to go.

Anyway, obviously I got the go ahead to go to the above conference at Bradford College.  Networking was done before it started, during coffee break and at lunchtime.  Not afterwards as everyone dashes for their train!  I just tend to chat to anyone who will talk to me.  Usually I ask where they work and how things are there and other conversations just develop from there, depending on replies.  I am a shy person at heart, & sometimes people need to approach me first to build my confidence. 

I always use a notebook to take notes as I just find it quicker, I've tried using my IPad, but I seem to miss too much.  I always try to type up my notes within 24 hours, because that way it stays fresh in my mind & I always have a copy I can read!  I try to make notes of nearly everything, then I can filter out what isn't relevant at a later date.

What would I do different next time?  I think I need to work on my Networking skills, because although I will talk to anyone, I find it hard to approach people.

Just as an after-note, my favourite conference I went to was in Colombo in Sri Lanka.  I was invited to give a paper on Children's librarianship.  Now that was an amazing experience!

Thing 11 - Reflective Practice

Time Management 

I have to say I'm quite big on time management, I don't know why, but I'm always early to work so that I don't get caught in traffic.  I would rather be sat at my desk getting on with things than sit in my car waiting for the queue to move. 

It is the busiest time of year for us getting ready for the students to come back, and preparing all the research skills modules and getting book lists from tutors.  Because of this I try to make sure I get at least an hour away from that in a week to work on this, sometime in 2 half hour bits.  The main reason is that I can see some of it being very useful  and am incorporating it into my planning.  I have also passed some of it onto my colleagues so they can use it too - mainly the screenomatic, I really love that.  It maybe means some of my blogs aren't very long, but it's getting me into the habit of blogging regularly, so that when this is over I will continue to blog.

I'm a bit strange in that I work better under pressure & if I know something has to be done & time is running out I can seem to work better & quicker!!!  But I know that's not for everyone.  So I would just suggest looking at what you have to do in a week & making sure you make at least two 30 minute slots within the week & stick to them.  If it takes longer than that - add another 30 minutes somewhere. 

It is going to be well worth it I think, so I'm going to continue on this strategy - I hope! - if it starts to break down when the students return, I'll rethink it!

Thing 10 - Live Streaming

What can I say?  - Gutted!  I was all ready for the Rudai 23 Hangout, I'd opened up & checked everything was ok.  I'd looked through the proposed questions & jotted down possible answers, I'd re-read all my blogs.  Everything seemed fine, so I sat & waited & ................ nothing!  I can't work out what I did wrong.  I use Skype a lot, so it's not like I'd never used that type of thing before.  I kept re-reading the Thing 10 about Google hangouts to see if I'd missed something.  In the end all I could do was watch the YouTube live feed.  I was so cross with myself!

Anyway rant over  It was interesting to hear what the others were saying, although the audio feed was quite poor, & it kept freezing a bit.  Although it was the first time I'd "used" Hangouts, I wasn't as inpressed with it as Skype, it was a bit jumpy, & hard to hear, & that can't have been totally my machine, as it's the same one I use with Skype.

However, I can see the usefulness of it for work purposes.  Because of the Feltag Report, we have to deliver some modules on line and if the students have any difficulties, then we could use this for mini workshops, especially with work based learners.

 

Why have a stuck a picture of Daleks in my blog?  I've just re-read it & it's a bit negative, so I thought I'd cheer it up a bit.

 

I'm not going to give up on Hangouts, & if someone can please let me know where I went wrong, I'll be eternally grateful.

 

Onwards and upwards to thing 11 ........

Thing 9 - Video

Well I'm back from my holidays & raring to go and ....... it actually worked!!  I was convinced it wouldn't work on my machine & then suddenly pow!  There it was.  I can't do audio on here, but this is a start & I'm really impressed with it.  Not with my attempt, but with what it does!

Here is my attempt  I used my Animal care Libguide.  I know it needs smartening up, but I can really see a use for this, and am quite excited at this new piece of technology (to me it's new), that I can use in the new modules we are preparing for our students.  Hopefully I'll get access to audio too at some point.

I will definately practice with this, and hopefully get chance to use it quite a bit.

All I have to say at this point is thank you so much for teaching me about this!!!

Thing 8 - Curation Tools

Hi again

I really enjoyed this.  I've briefly used Pinterest before & I quite like it.  We have one set up for the LRC at work for the students to know what is going on, however in my view it hasn't been advertised enough, so when the new term starts in September I'm going to push it more.  I love the visual aspect of it & the ease of use.  My only problem - which isn't totally Pinterests fault is, it doesn't work properly on the Colleges Internet Explorer & I have to remember to open Crome, but that's not a big issue.

Flipboard is new to me & I really like it.  There are so many interesting articles on there I could have sat reading all day - but work won't let me!!  I have made a start on flipping a magazine together, but will spend more time later & have a good read at lunchtime, I'll download it to my IPad later too.  I may even set up a personal account to keep private just for me.  I'm also going to bring this up at our next team meeting as I feel we can get a lot out of this.

Storify - not quite as excited by this, although I think that could be that I haven't got my head round it properly yet.  I have set up an account, but will have a closer look at it at a later date.

This was a very useful Thing 8 for me.  Thank you.