Putty. Putty. Putty.

Green Putty – Grutty Peen.

Grarmpitutty – Morning!

Pridsummer – Grorning Utty!

Discovery….. Oh.

Putty?….. Armpit?

Armpit….. Putty.

Not even a particularly

Nice shade of green

*Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy: Douglas Adams 1979

No more Vogon bureaucracy. Lets try this….see what happens!

I like her quote below and I think what I’ve just achieved adheres to it! Having chosen to walk away from my library role in order to love libraries, may seem a rash decision to some people. I’ve blogged before about taking risks and veering ever so slightly from my chosen ‘career’ path (children, transport etc), so really this is well within character for me. All I would say is that I eventually found myself in an impossible situation where I felt under pressure to not advocate libraries/library roles (etc etc) and not have any interest in the library/information sphere. So I have moved to a different administrative role outside of the education sector, in order to allow myself the liberty to advocate what I want!

‘Whenever I’m caught between two evils, I take the one I’ve never tried before’ Mae West

What positive thing can I take with me from all of this?

My CV looks good

I’ve had time to develop my twitter contacts – Library and ’40s: excellent time given over to networking

I’ve had a huge learning curve on knowing the sort of people I like to work with….and

I have a skills set:

• Problem solving
• Adaptable/flexibility in work environment
• Research and development
• Project management
• Leadership and team work
• Records management
• Evidence Based Practice foundation skills
• IT and Information management

Finally……the reflection!

This summer saw information professionals from all over the world take part in ’23 things for professional development’, an online programme hosted by several new professionals outlining 23 ‘Things’ that would be useful personal development for any information professional and as part of this, a few of us in the Plymouth area decided it would be nice to meet other’s in the profession for an informal get together.

This was a gathering intended to be not only for CPD23ers no matter what ‘Thing’ people were up to, but also for all or any librarians, library assistants or any conjugation or derivative of that.

The event was arranged by Annette Earl, Claire Beck and Venessa Harris, and despite the fact that we believed we may be the only three attendees, we actually had an ideal group of seven – a mixed ‘bunch’ from Cornwall and Plymouth. Represented were Looe Library, Marjons (University College Plymouth, St Mark & St John), Plymouth University, Plymouth Central Library, and Lipson Community College. The event was actually a casual meet up, so although work places were mentioned, we focused on our own perspectives of what was happening in the library and information sphere currently. It was an extremely useful bonding exercise to have a face to face meet up – a few of us use Twitter to communicate with other professionals, and the practical use of this social media tool in terms of information sharing was discussed in a positive way. We also talked about ‘Library’ qualifications. These are of course mostly information qualifications now, although they are still seen by some as de-valued due to impending Library closures. At the moment in this country, there are 400 Libraries under threat of closure, and all staff involved are actively having to prove their worth as adaptable and flexible personnel, who have a wide and useful skills set. We also discussed CILIP, and the specialised groups, in particular the Career Development Group, and Chartership. Those of us that are members of CILIP are trying to find ways to become more involved, but also to actually seek out what CILIP are doing for us! Around the table there were a few differences, but it was noted that CILIP should be opened up to other related professions within information and knowledge management. We all agreed we would like a progressive leadership but also that we would like it to remain professional.

On the whole, this was a great way to chew the library fat, have a bit of a rant, and also get some mutual support for what lies ahead. Several of us exchanged details so that we can do the whole thing all over again!

If you would be interested in coming along to our next meet-up please email venessaharris@gmail.com

We hope to see you there!

‘I don’t recruit a records manager, or legislation experts, or web content managers, I recruit information professionals. Understand that I am looking for people who are flexible, and agile, and prepared to USE the skills common to all these roles.’ Karen mcFarlane, Head of Profession, GCHQ

Passionate about CPD, Karen encourages her staff at GCHQ to charter and revalidate (CILIP). She says that many of the group are trained CILIP mentors. There are recruitment bonuses for people who charter and an hour a week for professional development. There is also a KIM ‘career stream’ at GCHQ. These are good incentives!

“There are many misconceptions about working at GCHQ. We know from experience that some people think we’re somehow a ‘secret’ business, where brainy ‘boffins’ work in darkened rooms, talk in hushed tones and avoid contact with the outside world. Others watch popular TV shows like ‘Spooks’ and take it at face value. The reality is of course rather different.” (Life at GCHQ)

So with this in mind, I wondered if we could talk about how CILIP responds to this type of progressive and broad skills set, which moves away from aiming at a specific role.

Currently, at CILIP, we cite the items below as essential LIS skills:

• develop the specialised subject knowledge of the sector you work in
• understand and use appropriate technology and systems to select, organise and find material relevant to your users
• keep up to date with advances in technology and social media
• develop the information literacy of your users
• produce information alerting services
• work as part of a team
• use effective communication and interpersonal skills
• deliver high levels of customer service skills

I think that ones outlined by Sue Myburgh, Susie Kay, and even Jennifer Marie Eustis are more relevant* Here’s what I think:

• Use effective communication and interpersonal skills
• Be familiar with at least one integrated library/information management system and  main types of classification schedules
• Understand and use appropriate technology and systems to select, organise and find material relevant to your users
• Keep up to date with advances in technology AND social media
• Knowledge of encoding of content designation (MARC21 and other schema) including knowledge of XML
• Knowledge of institutions ILS including maintenance, record loads, and other administrative database tasks
• Personal resilience
• Multi tasking
• Horizon scanning as well as reflective practice
• CPD passionate
• Professionalism

*Sue Myburgh (2005)  The New Information Professional. Chandos: England

Susie Kay (2010) Professionalism The ABC for success. Professionalism Books: England

Jennifer Marie Eustis (2010)  Conversations with Catalogers in the 21st Century. Libraries Unlimited: England

1. Firstly, I already used several social media tools to gain a network of contacts.  I wanted to review why I want contacts and how I can use them.
2. I was hoping to find advice or suggestions to help me  build a feedback culture in my team
3. Also by discussion – how to embed professionalism in my team
4. To discuss the future and development of my role
5. To suggest tools for professional development and how they can work for me
6. I also wanted to participate in cpd23 for a review of tools for getting organised and for presenting information
7. I also wanted to develop my self-awareness – identify my strengths and using them, why and how
8. Finally, it was also an opportunity to work together with a small group of colleagues on something that none of us have done before

With hindsight, this was quite a large premis. Not everything was successful but that doesn’t mean that I’ve failed! Colleagues peeled away as time went on, and the face to face networking event that was more generic than my workplace was actually a really positive and useful ‘thing’ to do. New tools, or in reviewing the social media tools that I already use, has been an extremely useful exercise. This is ongoing, and with some discussion (online) with others, I feel that I am moving forwards with this. Embedding professionalism is hard. I think we have to understand our roles before we can do this. Professionalism for me, should start with a wider picture of your industry or trade, in other words for us, what is happening in the library sphere. Without this basic interest, what are we?

So, on a really positive note, self-awareness has been in abundance, so much so that I am now leaving my current role (forecasting using statistics) in order to write more about libraries, and do some library advocacy. A strange thing to have to do I hear you say, but given a choice (and I felt the time had come to make that choice), I choose Libraries! I’m looking forward to having the liberty to do this now……

One of the huge things I’ve got out of cpd23 is Reflective Practice! I’ve even capitalised it because thats how I feel about it. I’ve done a bit of this before, but will now keep it up, as I try to research and read more about library futures.

Information and knowledge management people are a hardy bunch. What I didn’t know was ahead of me when I embarked on this journey 10 years ago was this:

 Information management people have to be resilient in terms of skills and mindset. We are intrepid.

Get noticed. Be professional.

Express yourself. Engage and give feedback.

Try to be visible outside of your ‘echo chamber’.

You will always have to justify what you do to people both at work, and to your friends. Positive advocacy. Show everyone what you are worth!

Always remember your future is your responsibility.

Market yourself. This is now a necessary part of your job.

Share. Communicate your ideas and thoughts.

Motivate others. Lead. Promote positive thoughts.

Don’t panic, and don’t despair.

 Its a sure fact that we’re all having to promote ourselves and libraries (thank you government for devaluing librarianship), and its also a sure fact that we should start in our own institutions. With the announcement of further restructures due to changes in HEFCE funding (Universities), proving your worth is key.

1. Join a committee (and not necessarily a library based one) so that you can talk about the value of cataloguing/information design
2. Present a session on cataloguing to all interested staff
3. Use statistics to demonstrate how much cataloguing/description is done and put them on to the work Bulletin. You can also use these stats to show how your service has improved!
4. Have an open day at the cataloguing department
5. Write case’s for business processes reviews of certain work flows e.g identify and review wastage areas.  Be proactive!
6. Get involved with/engage with, Voices for the Library/Savelibraries – write a blog post about the reasons for having/saving your cataloguing department
7. Join CIG/CDG - USE the facilities and ADVOCATE them
8. Come over to HVCats and share your ideas with other cataloguers

A final note would be to engage with things like CPD23 Things for Professional Development and talk about cataloguing.

Thing 12: Putting the social into social media – I use Twitter, I feel as though I am part of a community. As part of High Visiblity Cataloguing, we have definitely used it to work together and promote cataloguing awareness

Thing 13: Google docs, wikis and dropbox – again google docs perfect for collaborative work, and myself and Celine started off HVCats using google docs working out how to present ‘our case’ etc. Dropbox is a relatively new tool to me (about 8 months) and is perfect for online back ups!

Thing 14: Zotero/mendeley/citeulike – I work in an academic library, I have access to Endnote

Thing 15: Attending, presenting at and organising events & conferences – Hmm difficult. Attending definite benefits to, but it does help if your employer supports this

Thing 16: Advocacy, speaking up for the profession – As part of HVCats we are an awareness initiative for cataloguers and metadata fairies. I have also shown support for Cilip on several occasions through my blog, and a lot more often than that at my place of work!

I am still working out what I am gaining from this programme so excuse the lack of in depth engagement.

If you are interested in starting any online advocacy, why not take a look at HVCats. We have a new guest page by Susie Kay, Professionalism guru. Come and take a look!

Many films have been made about switching roles, usually romantic comedies, but usually the person is thrust into a role they desire and then feel they have to behave as society expects or as a stereotype, but never within the boundaries of their own experience. Interesting.

 I have been inspired to write a follow up post to What constitutes ‘library’? after its slightly controversial reception, positive comments and appearance in the Cilip Information World Weekly e-Bulletin. I wonder how many people are lovers of books and without calling it something new that I heard in a slippery slope Daytime TV moment – ‘Objectum sexuality’ - who really appreciate the building blocks of the ingredients that go into a book, as well as the infinite outcomes/benefits as seen below:

I use Twitter. End of. Here are the 3 tweets that inspired this post:

randomhouse (@randomhouse)15/08/2011 19:15
Bibliophile porn – The Towering Book Stack

AbeBooks (@AbeBooks) 15/08/2011 19:29
A top video of a book being handmade. Warning: Kindle owners may become confused by some scenes.  #realbooks

Gary (@ggnewed) 12/08/2011 23:38
Photo: Alice in Wonderland: Read a book on the bus & be miles away. fairytalemood

So, in short, look at this!! An art installation of books (this could arguably be a library but I’ll leave it there), the art of a handmade book - a rare object, and the joys of how reading can transport you to distant lands (imaginary or otherwise).

‘Books are sexy’