DMU visit

Last monday I visited one of our affiliated universities - De Montfort University - to find out more about their Library. I was amazed at the size of it and the amount of space available for students and can imagine its a great place to study.

One of the first things I noticed was the proliferation of self service machines in the Library - this seems to be the way forward for many libraries and especially those that are opened (but not staffed) 24hrs. When I enquired further I did deiscover that they are not particularly well used at the moment as student prefer to go to the issue desk and have a more personal experience (which I can understand as I do the same at the bank). So at least ther service users appreciate the value of a staffed library rather than a self service one.

I also got the opportunity to sit in on a Class (Centre for Learning and study skills) session - something I could have done with whilst I was at university as it exmplored reading and writing styles. We do some information skills sessions in our college and the most popular one seems to be on referencing, however I thinks sessions on essay writing could also be popular if targeted at the right audience.

I was suprised to find out that the university also struggles in encouraging student's to use e-books, this is something we have diffculty with at the college so it was a great opportunity to consider some marketing strategies, one method they use at DMU is to have an e-book roadshow that showcases the e-books on offer and gives students the opportunities to meet publishers. We also agreed that the best way to get students on board with books is to eduate teaching staff about them as they will recommned useful resources to thier students.

During the visit I got ot meet so many lovely people who do such varied but key jobs in order to keep the service running effectively and smoothly. I learned so much in just one day and I only saw a small sample of the work that goes on behind the scenes. I would definitley reccommend visiting a variety of Libraries as I have taken away something useful from each of my visits and it is an excellent way to netwrok and build relationships with others in the safe field of work.

William Harvey Library

Yesterday I spent the day at the William Harvey Library at George Eliot Hospital in Nuneaton. I really enjoyed my day as it gave me the opportunity to experience a different type of library. Prior to my visit I hadn't really ever considered working in a hospital library as I thought it may have been too specialised. However I was delighted to be proved wrong, whilst they do use a different classifying system (The Wessex Classification Scheme) it was still fairly easy to find my way around to re-shelve books and locate journals. I also had the chance to see how Inter Library Loans for articles worked (something we no longer do at the college as there isn't a demand for it) as whilst I was there we recieved some articles from the British Library and also copied some articles for another NHS library. It was also great to see how the SLRA had implemented some of the procedures she had seen art our library on her visit, such as texting library users when library books are due back.

In additon to getting the opportunity to seeing 'behind the scenes' of a hospital Library it was a great opportunity to network with other library staff and discovered that the SLRA had also done CPD23 and we compared our experiences and whoed each other the prezi's we had worked on from thing 17 she also very helpfully pointed out that she had to chase her certificate for CPD 23 and found out you have to have done all the 'things' to get it which has inspired me to check which ones I may not have done and speak to the CPD23 people about getting my certifica

I enjoyed the expereince of a day at a hospital library and has caused me to think about the different types of library work there are and not to be so closed minded about what library work I see myslef doing in the future.

Working across Multi-sites

This is a subject that has been on my mind recently as over the last couple of weeks I ahve been based only at one site. As it is I usually only work at one of our other sites one day a week due to staffing. Perosnally I think it is useful to work across at all sites as it give an interesting variation to the job with the different tasks that need to be carried out at each of the site and the type of visitors you get at the different libraries. I also think it is a good opportunity to work with, and as a result get to know your colleagues. Currently due to the way we work there a members of my team I only see for half an hour at our team meetings or for half  day when I'm at the other site.

I do enjoy being at thie site I work at mostly and I have a good gauge of the staff and students and therefore how to approach them if necesary, this is likely due to the fact that I am here for three days in a row at the begining of the week. On the other hand my time at our other site is much busier when I'm on the counter and there ore lots of tasks that need doing all the time and as a result the time flies by.

we do have a third site that is due to expand and I haven't had the opportunity to visit it as yet due to travel difficulties but would like to do so in the near future.

I think for good communication nd an understanding for other peoples job roles it is essential when workng at a multi-site Library that the team makes the most of the opportunity to work at all sites.

Stock take - The aftermath

I blogged before Christmas that I had done my first ever library stock take. Well for most of January I have been working through the data produced from this and trying to tidy-up our records so that our catalogue actually reflects our stock.

Thie first stage of this was to locate books that came up as "no accession" these are books that I scanned during the stock take (and are therefore on the shelves) but have no catalogue record. Secondly I had to check/ change the status and location of many of the books. I managed to work my way through this list of books quite quickly.

My current on-going task is to process our 'missing items' this is a rather large list of items that are currently listed as available at Hinckley but were not scaned during the stock take. Part A of this was to establish that none of the books had appeared back on the shelves, Luckily for me quite a few had been retruned at some point. Part B is to work down the list and either withdraw (for items that are over 10 years old/ haven't been borrowed recently) or change their status to missing.

If only it was this simple - I am also making a record of books that have been borrowed in the last couple of years as we need to establish how these have gone missing, it may have been during the move to the new site or they may have been transferred to another site.

At the moment this seems like an arduous and never ending task, I know that when I complete it I will feel a great sense of satisfaction and it will make my job so much easier as we won't be trying to locate books that aren't on the shelves or have students/ staff complaining as they can't find the book they want. It has made me realise that catalogue or systems management is probably not an area of Librarianship I would particularly enjoy as I find it doesn't hold my interest and I get bored easily. I am much happier being at front of house, interatcing with the students and helping them find resources or solve problems.

BETT 2012

Last Thursday I went down to London with some of my colleagues from e-services to attend the BETT 2012 exhibiton at Londons Olympia exhibiton centre. When I was originally asked if I wanted to go I declined as the thought of being the only member of the library team going was a bit daunting and I wasn't really sure what to look for. However as it turns out our line manager requested that both myself and our Senior Learning Resource Assistant for User Education both go.

I'm glad I did go though as it was a great experience it was initially a bit overwhelming as the venue was huge and there were an uncountable number of stands. I stuck with the SLRA and one of the e-services team to track down useful items for the library. One such item was a sanner mouse - this allows the user to scan a portion of text and transfer into a word document. This is a great idea - especially for use on our reference books however I can see it being problematic in realtion to copyright liscences and plagarism.

We also saw some multi purpose computer desks which work by storing the screen and accesories under the desk so it can be used as a study desk, or if you pop-up the scrren and take out the accesories you can use it as a computer table. This type of desk would be ideal in smaller libraries/ resource centres as it creates a more flexible workning environment.

I do wish we had more time there as we didn't get the oportunity to look around all the stalls, perhaps if i were to go again I would plan the stalls that I want to fit in a visit to.

New Year's Resolution (sort of)

As a rule I try not to make resolutions as I end up feeling like I've failed when I reach the end of the year and I haven't kept it up.

However earlier today I was thinking about blogs as a reflective tool and thought it would be worth looking over my old (personal) blog. It surprised (and concerned) me how easy it was to find my old blog and read the posts. I simply put my blog name into google blog search and there it was, a whole three years of my life laid out for anyone to read.

 It was interesting to read back through them as it was written partly during my time at uninveristy and then through my first couple of years of life post Uni.  It charts my first steps in the the world of being an adult and how I dealt with it including my first job after University, living away from home and general finacnial woes. I can see how much I have changed between then and now in the way I deal with situations and my life focus is completely different. This is the first time I have really seen the benefits of blogs as a reflective practice as before now I kept my personal one as an online diary and my professional one has only been going for a few months.

 But back to the point I opened up with - this year my aim is to try and blog at least either once a week on either here or my personal blog.

Stock Taking

Before we moved to our new Hinckley site in September we had to reduce our book stock by a large amount and as withdrawla were done in a bit of a rush before the move there have been some inconsitencies between our catalogue and our physical stock. So it was decided that this week whilst the students are out of college we would do a stock take. I have done stock checks before in previous job roles, but usually not on sucha  huge scal and in more of an inventory style. This time i got to use a hand held scanner to scan the accessions of all our books - now this was quite fun to begin with but by the end of day one (and 2164 books under my belt) the novelty had worn off, my arms were aching and I was dog tired.

On day two I thought I wuld learn from my expereince on day one and try it differently - this time instead fo trying to hold heavy artbooks in my hands whilst scanning I utilised the trolley - this was slighlty more comfortable although still gave my arms a work out.

Today I completed the stock take of 6000 items and was vey please with my achivement. Admittedly this is not something I would relsih doing on a regular basis but I enjoyed getting up close and personal with our book stock - I have never really taken the time to really look at what we have and this was the ideal opportunity to look at what we have to offer the students and also at what books haven't been taken out in years I know feel I have a better knowledge of our books and feel I could reccomened books or at least a sleection of books for students if they had a query rather then just relying on the catalogue.

It has felt like a long three days but it is great too look around now and have a sense of achievement that I have scanned just about everything in our Library, as well as feeling confident about advising our students about our books and as an extra bonus I will have wonderfuly toned arms.

It's beena while!

I realise it has been over a month since I last posted. I think with CPD23 coming to an end I got a bit lazy about posting regularly but I am going to try and blog more and hopefully I will have plenty to blog about.

So over the last month I have been up to various activities. The Library is as busy as ever and I have lots of requests for help with referencing which I am happy to oblige with and it is quite nice that I have carved out a  reputation as being some-one the students know they can speak to for help with referencing. I have also been working on my Prezi for blogging and it is nearly complete if you want to see how it is going so far take a look here. All comments are welcome I am still tweaking and trying to add links and images so any helpful hints will also be grratefully recieved. In additon to both of these I have now been given responsibiltiy for the AV equipment at our Hinckley site - including withdrawing all the old stock from Heritage, this was mammoth task but I really enjoyed the challenge and being an organised person I love that I now have a neat spreadsheet that outlines our current stock.

I have had a visit and half day shadowing at King Edward VI College in Nuneaton. This is a sixth form college that does only A-Level subjects, it was great to see a different kind of Library (and study centre) and see the similarities and differences between our Libraries. I picked up some great tips including SurveyMonkey (which I have already put to good use in our Reprographic department) and creating subject lists on the catalogue. I was also able to share what we do in our Library inclduing e-books.

More recently I went to a seminar at the Univerity of Leicester's Media Zoo about i-tunes u and You-Tube Edu - educational resources provided by both sites. They have thier advantages and disadvantages but overall it seems like a great way to share resources amongs educational institutions. Terese Bird who ran the session put her powerpoint on Slideshare so click here if you want to have a look, she also recorded the seminar which you can watch here.

Well thats you all caught up with where I am at currently. I'm enjoying my role in the Library and starting to feel that my contribution to the team is of value and look forward to taking on more challenges, which I will of course keep you updated with.

Volunteering

Whilst I have not volunteered within Libraries, the experiences I have had of Volunteering have always had a positive outcome.

All my volunteering took place whilst I was still at school - At primary school I volunteered with the assisted reading scheme listening and helping younger pupils with thier reading skills (as mentioned in my previous post I was a quick learner and my reading age was higher than my actual age) and I think this was when I had decided I would quite like to be a teacher.  Then when I went to High school I was involved in peer mentoring - this wasn't necessarily volunteering as we were all given a new pupil to mentor but I made the most of the opportunity to offer help to my mentee.

However once we had to do work experience at high school and I was placed at a Primary school as requested and I had an awful time - the teachers were lovely and the kids were - well kids but I found them to be quite clingy, all of them wanting my attention all at the same time (on relfection I guess this is becuase I was new in thier environment and so they wanted to get to know me). As a result I was really put off persuing a career in education.

When I was doing my GCSE's a friend of mine was doing a summer playcheme with Menphys and recommended it to me, I was unsure as I had been put off working with children intially and I was wary of the added challenge that all the children had either behavioural, mental or physical issues. I went along to observe and meet a few ofthe children involved and relaised it wwa a really worthy cause and the children were getting so much out of the experience. I volunteered to work on the scheme with 7-11 year olds and had a great time, so when they asked the following year if I would like to volunteer full time for the summer and do both the younger and older age groups I jumped at the chance.

Thos two years restored my faith in my career of wanting to work with children, but not necessarily in teaching and instead I had decided I wanted to work with children and young adult with learning and health difficulties. I was able to use this experience when applying for my first role after leaving Uiniversity (working with adults with health issues) and my first role in a school (Learning Support Assitant) and i will always be grateful the time I spent on the playcheme as I got a lot out of it interms of idenifying my own career goals and in gaining valuable experience in the areas I want to work in,

applications and interviews

I hate having to fill in application forms! I think many of us do - firstly there is the tedious job of filling in all your jobs to date and why you left, then your education, then any training - all of whaich takes ages even if you do know it all by heart. After that you have the complicated task of selling yourself as to why you should get the job, this is the bit that takes me the longest, usually because I write far too much and need to cut down and be more precise. Things are becoming much easier now that there are online application forms as they can be saved and re-used especially for somewhere like a county council where unless you are a teacher the basic application is the same. This has saved me a lot of time and efffort in the past as all the inital details are there you just need to change the "why should YOU get the job" part.

Although I hate them, because I am a perfectioist I do tend to write a good application because I ensure that my "sell yourself bit" covers every bit of criteria on the job description but also make it clear and concise and give plenty of examples of how I meet those criteria.I also always  get someone else to proof read it, because no matter how many times I read it I always miss something and also it helps to get an objectove opinion of how the application comes across. Finally A covering letter is a muct - it is the best way to express why you want the job.

Interviews are even worse for me as I get incredibily nervous. I always prep well before hand so can impress them with my knowledge of the company/ school/ colllege and it shows that I am interested in the job as I made the effort to research it. It seems to me all the jobs that I think I did rubbish at I get but the ones I feel went well tend to be the ones I don't get.

 Recently I was interviewed for a learning mentor post and I thought it wnet great - I got on with the students and thought I wals friendly to the pupil panel and professional with the deputy head - but I didn't get the job. In my feedback the deputy head said I interviewed well and I was their first choice but the students thought I was too authoritarian so on balance they couldn't offer me the job. similaly a few years ago I applied for an administration post in London, my intial interview was a telephone interview and having done my research I had decided I didn't really want to move to London so during the interview I wasn't particulalry enthusiastic - I answered the questions honestly but didn't really sell myself like I would do normally. Imagine my suprise when two days letter I had an invite to a second face to face interview, I respectfully declined the offer as I thought it unfair to waste thier time if  I wasn't really interested in moving to London. It just goes to show that you don't always come across the way you intend to.

Overall I find the whole process of applying and being interviewed for jobs quite exhausting especially the interview part as once I've accepted the invite to interview I'm anxioux until I hear the result (a bit like exams all over again) but the more expereince  I get the better I am at calming myself down and getting through the interview without to many errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrmmmmmmmmmmmm or welllllllllllllllllllllllllll moments wheere i'm racking my brains for an answer.

Library routes/ roots

Well this should be a relativley short post as I have only just lain down my roots so to speak. I got into Library work through determination and passion. I always loved books and Libraries as a child - there's nothing like the excitement of being able to go and pick as many books as you like (well that the card will allow) and take them home for free! and as I was a big reader I quickly out grew the books in our primary school ( and the teacher had started to bring books in for me to read!) so joining the library as a child was magical. Then at upper school it became my sancturary I worked after school so liked to crack on with my homework during Lunchtime and I alway retreated to the Library to either use the computers or the books needed for my lessons. It is also where I first discovered Sherlock Holmes so again it holds fond memories.

Like most other blogs I have read I had no idea that there was an option to do a degree in Library or Information studies otherwise I would have been there straight away, as it was I didn't know and so happily did a degree in Sociology and again made extensive use of the Library facilities. My friend worked as a shelf tidier and even though she reccommended me any time a vacancy came up I was never lucky enough to get interviewed, which was just as well really as I already worked in the student shop so would have had very little time to spare.

After University I applied for many jobs and I have been lucky in that all the jobs I have had I have enjoyed and always gained from them and during this time I regularly applied for weekend work in my local Library with no luck so when I finally got the job as graduate trainee at my local collge library I was amased as I thought my lack of experience may have gone against me, however it seems my passion for Libraries was enough to see me through.

My route from now is somewhat undecided - as I have blogged previously I doubt I will pursue a masters degree as I just can't afford it so I think I will just enjoy being a Library Assistant unless someone happens to offer me some funding for the masters.

practiticing with Prezi

So for thing 17 we were to give Prezi a try. I read the article and looked at a few Prezi's and thought they were great. After that thought I sort of filed it away in my head and didn't actually try it out.

However last week I did my first blogging session which went quite well and I did an accompanying powerpoint - which really was just a bigger verion of cue cards for me and held no real useful information. I mentioned to our Librarian that I wanted to do a "how to" guide to pot on our blog/ website for students to look at after the session if they wanted to recap but felt that a powerpoint was a bit boring. The Librarian suggested I try Prezi as it's a bit different, you can still get across all the same information but in a slightly less mundane way. Moreover I had seen the Libray Indution Prezi that our User Education Senior Learning Resources Assistant (UESLRA) put together and was impressed with how much more visual and entertaining it was.

So yesterday I re-read the CPD23 post about Prezi, looked at the tips and watched the 'intro to prezi' video about 5 times but still really struggled to get started. I was sat next to our UESLRA and asked lots of questions and her advice (as was on many a blog) was just have a go and a play around until you feel comfortable. I spent a lot of time on it and by the end of yesterday felt a bit more comfortable about the whole thing, It is hard no to try and follow the power point format of slide after slide but I do like the variation in frames and that I can put my information anywhere then put a path in to link it to the next bit of info.

I still think I need to play a bit more to understand it a bit better - a user guide would have been useful, but I suppose it's difficult to produce a user guide when the way people would use Prezi would vary depending on thier creativity and what they want it for. As my post may suggest I'm still unsure as to whether I like Prezi or not - I certainly like what other people have managed to do with it - I'm just not sure If i'm creative enough to make it work for me.

Evaluating Events

Thing 15 is something I can comment on for quite some time but I will try and keep it short and to the point.

Attending events

I have always been a fan of attending events to help with your own professional development, increasing knowledge and networking. In all my jobs up to now I have kept an eye out for releveant, useful events that I can attend, the free ones especially as I knew that my employers would happily send me off to a free event. Those which required funding I made sure I put together a good argument as to why I should attend and how my attending the event would benefit them as well as me and so far I have never not got to go an event that I think is worthwhile. Even from my first day at the Library our librarian made it clear that he expected me to attend as many events and courses as possible and would ensure that the time was avaialble for me to do that and he has been true to his word. So far in the 4 months I have been here I have attended; The CULN Conference, The RSC Learning resources forum, The East Midlands Information Skills Forum, The RSC e-fair, A visit to Northampton College's new Library and the IS oxford Heritage Open day. So far all of these have been free events and I have always walked away armed with more knowledge and useful advice to pass on to my colleagues.

Speaking at events

As I am only just starting out in my career I don't think there will be anyone knocking down my door to speak at any events anytime soon. However to help with my public speaking I have been asked by the Librarian to do some staff straining on the use of our printers, just the basics such as how to enlarge/reduce documents,scan etc as I do one day a week in our reprogrpahics department I am well equiped to give this training. Further to this I volunteered to put together an Information Skills session on Blogging for our HE students which I have been asked to dleiver by their Tutor. Whilst I am delighted to be asked I am also slightly nervous as the last time I had to stand up and present was at Uiniversity, but I will take onboard some of Ned Potters advice to make sure I don't give an annoyng or boring presentation.

Organising Events

Again this is not something I see myself being heavily involved in at the begining of my career but is certainly an area in which I feel I would do well. I was Social Secretary at my Halls fo Residence at University, a role I enjoyed to the full. I am a rather organised (and according to my brother also rather bossy) and so would love the challenge of putting together a big event including contacting speakers,sponsors etc.

In my view participating in events (especially the free ones) are a great way to share knowledge and experice be it as an organiser, speaker or attendee and I will certainly be keeping my eyes peeled for any upcming events I can attend.

Learning more everyday

I have been learning a lot over the last week or so and thought now would be a good time to comment on it.

Last Thursday I attended a rather wet Heritage Open Day in Oxford with our Systems Librarian. As most of what I have learnt about Heritage has been self taught I was looking forward to learning a bit more about the system. I enjoyed being shown all the variants for different parts of the system. We also got given a Handy Heritage user guide which will help me in the areas I don't know as much about.

Once they got on to reports and global chnage/ delete it took a while but I actually started to understand just how much useful information Hertitage actually stores. This week I ran a report to see how many books we have at our Hinckley site and I was really quite proud  of myself that I managed to do it (albeit with guidance from our Librarian) I think I could confidently run reports if I knew all the codes (of whcih there are thousands) and as I am a bit of a data lover I would actaully delight in all the different reports I could produce.

This week we have had 'training' on how to use the new RF system for the Hinckley Library. I do like the look of the alarm gates much more than those used for the electromagnetic system we used to use, however the procdeure to issue books is a bit old fashioned. We have a large plastic wallet in which we put in an issue card to block the Radio Frequency when issuing books. What I don't like about this system is it makes it very clear where the secutiry tag is as well as how easy it will be to lose the issue card as it stick out of the top of the wallet.

I have enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about the equipment we use everyday and feel a bit knowledgeab;e aboutt he systems Libraries use - both for security and for catalouging.

13.2

Now that I have had a couple of days to play with google docs and dropbox I can give some proper feedback.

Dropbox - My new best friend :)
I managed to download it at home with no problems. I've been able to add things to dropbox in two ways. Firstly by simply copy and pasting ( if I don't need a copy I can just drag across) a document from my computer into my dropbox. The other way I have put documents in there is by uploading from a different computer. At first this came up with and error message but once I changed to simple upload mode I had no problems. I have also been able to succesfully download from dropbox - I tested this out by uploading a photo from home and dowloading it at work to add to my Blog profile so now all my lovely readers can see what I look like. So far I am quite impressed with dropbox. Later I may try and see what access from a mobile phone is like just to get an idea of how user friendly it is.

Google Docs - not so friendly
 I like the fact that I don't have to remember to save the document as google docs does it automatically, which comes in handy as I am quite bad at saving I go from one extreme to the other (either saving after every line I type or not saving for ages then losing lots of work). However the problems arise when two people are viewing the document at the same time, well there isn't a problem if you are just viewing but if you are both editing it is frustrating. Myself and our systems librarian decided to give it a try earlier today - we are both at different sites so a great opprotunity to test it out. Whilst I was editing, my colleague started to write to say she could see me editing, the issue here is there is only one cursor so her message appeared in the middle of the text as I was trying to edit. We both agreed it wasn't great  if more than one person is editing at the same time but would make for a good immediate communications tool (much like a "chat" facility) if it wasn't for the one cursor issue.

On the whole if you know you aren't likely to be accessing the document at the same time it is a really simple and easy way to share documents with a group, but if more than one person is editing at a time it becomes confusing (especially as you have to fight for control of the cursor and therefore the ability to edit anything) I think it would be better if there was a faciltiy to "lock" the document whilst you edit - still allow others to view the document but not edit until you exit. This where wiki's have the advantage to a degree as each person has to take thier turn in adding to the document (or thats how it comes acroos oin the video on the Thing 13 blog).

Online Storage - the way forward
I can see all three online tools  having thier uses especially as more and more content is going online. I think its useful to use things like google docs and Drop box almost as online storage as they accessible form anywhere. This would have beeen handy when we had a powecut a couple of weeks ago, we couldn't use computers and we thought "aha we can use the laptops because they are battery powered" - but then came the realisation that no electricty = no servers too so we couldn't access any of our work. Dropbox would have been an ideal alternaive because as it is online it doesn't matter how or where you access it and the only electricty needed is that to power the device through which you access it (be that plugged in battery run).

Thing 13.1

Well so far I have created a document in google docs and just waiting to see how it works (I have added a colleague with editing rights so we will see if she can indeed edit). I have used something similar call Sky Drive in hotmail as myself and two firends are trying to plan a hen do for another friend and it seemed the easiest way in which we could all access and edit the documents. BUT we have had a few issues with it 1) if one person is in the document then no one else can view it 2) after editing it creates a new draft which does get rather confusing. If I have any success with google docs I may suggest we switch to it as will make things a lot easier.

I can also see how this could come in handy in the work environment too. Currently we have two methods of sharing documents 1) via our college extranet, which means all college staff can have access to and edit our documents and 2)we have a shared network space. Both of these have similar problems to the skydrive so google docs could be a useful alterntive.

I haven't been able to set up dropbox at work as I need administration rights to dowload it, however I have registered and will try again later at home. I heard about dropbox at the RSC-em e-fair and think it is great. I think it will be really handy for documents that I need to access both at home and at work for example the other day I wanted to add my CV to Linked-In but that is on my computer at home so will need to either do it at home or forward it myself via attachment in an email that I can open at work. So it will be very handy to have certain documnets always available. In addition to this I think that dropbox is mobile device freindly so if you take a picture on your mobile that you might want to use later it can simply be put into the drop-box.

I watched the clip on Wiki's and undertand how they work (this would have been a handy video to show to students when I tried to explain why Wikipedia is not a reliable source for info). However if everyone has to sign up simply to view and edit the page then it would be just as simple to use google docs.

Thats my views for now but will write again when I've made some progress with google docs and dropbox.

Library Love

whilst browsing the new LIS New professionals Network I came across the follwing question in one of the forums "How far would you travel for a job opportunity?" my inital thoughts have always been that I would be reluctant to move for a job, mainly because I have to consider my husband who works in outdoor education so I can't just up sticks for a job and either a) leave him behind or b)expect him to find a new job.

Having said that my coleagues and I went to visit Northampton College's new Library and I fell in love with it! it is a great space and learning environment, but then a 5 million investment was a big help, as is the fact that they have a prinipal who understands that the library is key to a successful college. Our new Hinckley library is half the size of our current one (which is already small as libraries go) and I think we are all somewhat reserved about how the new library is going to wok out. Furthermore they seem to be really on top of what they want their Library to offer and push to make sure thier facilities are used and are user firendly.

The later in the day I was doing job searches as I like to keep an eye on what vacacnies are available, salaries and what skills are in he job description (to make sure I get plenty of the right experience during my traineeship) and came across a full time position at Northamptonshire central Library (a rare thing indeed) I seriously considered applying for the position. The biggest issue for me was that I can't drive - I have tried and failed 3 times and just need to pluck up the courage to try again - but this means relying on public transport. Up to now I have never really had a problem with using public transport, however it would mean a train + bus commute of around and hr and a half a day, which I felt was just a bit too much on top of a full days work.

Having looked around since then I realise that full time Library positions are rare and some compromises are going to have to be made. I would comfortably be able to travel and hour each way everyday without it impacting too much on my work or home life and to be quite honest I will gladly travel for that amount of time if I knew I was going into a job I loved, and additonaly its time that I can spend reading :)

Thing 11 Mentors and Mentees

I have done some mentoring as part of a previous role as a Learning Support Assistant. The mentoring role varied dependent on the student some students needed support with homework whereas others needed help with behavioural problems. It was a great way to have a rapport with the students and I felt good knowing that I was providing support to someone.

Now this is going to sound either cheesy or very arrogant by I also consider myself as a mentor to my friends (I even earnt the name 'Grandma' amongst my small group of friends). I am currently providing wedding advice to a couple of my friends getting marrried next year, who are having a tough time with it. I am always available to listen to their troubles and offer advice, and they all do the same for me. As I have said in a previous post I like to know that what I do makes a difference which is why a mentoring position is one I comit to whole-heartedly.

I am also quite happy to be the mentee and often turn to my colleagues for advice and support especially when satrting a new job or later on when taking on a new task. I am quite a self-sufficient person and see no shame in asking for help, in my experience its much better to admit you don't have a clue and ask for tips than the awful feeling of struggling and not being quite sure about what you are doing. I've never really had a proper mentor but have had quite a few accidental or unofficial mentors usually someone I connect with and they unintentially influence the choices I make in the workplace.

I think it is a great idea to ask someone to be and official mentor, and not something that would naturally occur to me to do, however I don't think that you should depend soley on one mentor but be willing to learn from everyone you cross paths with, whether it be a good experience or not. To me life is one big learning curve.

Its been a While

I'm surprised at how long it has been since I last posted! but work has been mega busy with withdrawing, reclassifying, packing ready for a move to a new Library as well as spending half my time helping out with our reprographics department.

I have got so much to catch up on, I am aware that I have still not got round to adding a photo of myself (all the ones I have are a bit outdated) or sorting out my LinkedIn profile or even managing my twitter account. However hoepfully all that will change once I get my new phone with internet access (yep thats how behind the times I am) as I will be able to keep on top of things when travelling around rather than trying to remember to do it when I get home.

For now I am going to bypass blogging Google calendar I have added it to my account but Iam not yet using it (again hopefully this will change with the new phone) and Evernote as although I read the entry on the CPD23 blog I didn't really get how to use it. Which brings me to thing 10!

I have given a lot of thought as to what I want to do. My ideal role would be either a school Librarian or a Librarian in a Public Library. Both of these positions are few and far between in my local area and so considering this  the costs of doing a Masters in Library management woouldn't benefit me for quite some time (unless I chose to move which is a whole other post altogether), I do see the merits of it and if I was in a position in which I could afford to do a long distance course I would jump at the chance but at the moment I don't think it is essential for what I would like to do. having read the CPD23blog and being a frequesnt visitor to the CILIP site I think the route that would best suit me would be to work towards a slightly more senior role such as that of Senior Learning Resource Assistant and then work towards certification as this is something that I feel I can achieve alongside my other life goals.

Social Networking

Well I have got quite a bit of catching up to do after some well earned time off. I'm well seasoned in the art of soical networking and have done it from quite a young age begining with MSN and Yahoo Chat where I chatted with freinds from school and got to know other poeple. Then at Univeristy the Facebook phenomena was taking of so I have been using it for many years as a way to stay in touch with friends and organise social events. I am also an administrator for our college facebook page - although so far I havent done anything with that yet. I did sign up with twitter but must admit I have negelcted it somewhat as I don't usually feel there is anything worth stating but I do enjoy following others and one benefit of joinging was that my husband also decided to join and its a great space for him to advertise his storytelling business.

I did join LinkedIn a while ago but have still to work on my profile and get that up to scratch and it was good to look at the examples shown on the blog to give an idea how professional it can look. I also joined LISNPN earlier this year when it was pointed out to me by a colleague and I quite like it as a fourm it is good to read some of the discussion boards and see other peoples views, I do contribute to some discussions.

As a way to meet new people I am a big fan of social networking - in fact it is how I met my husband. I realised that once I graduated from univeristy and was settled into a job I didn't meet so many new people and that social networking is a great way to conect to people that you might not ever meet. Similarly it is a great way to get your name out there and get to know others that have shared your expericences.