Thing 16: Advocacy, activism for the profession

Well - after a career gap I'm back to finish what I started. That's gap as in I had paid work with associated hours commuting and a lot of other things going on in my life.

Advocacy activity: I need to do more to publicise and get my voluntary society library used. If I don't, there's not much point in having the library apart from ensuring preservation of our own journal and some out of print and hard to find books.

I need to review the (currently unworkable) lending policy and get something workable through a committee meeting or devise other ways that members can get better access to information we hold. I could also write some articles for our journal to promote the resources we have and encourage others to review books that we hold.

Advocacy is potentially a part of every librarian's role - as a public face of your own library to friends and others you meet outside the library.

Thing 15: seminars, conferences and other events

This is timely for me to reflect on since I got a lot out of going to the UKEIG AGM last week and hearing Charles Oppenheim talking about the Hargreaves copyright review. It is a little daunting going to an event where you don't know anyone, and starting up a conversation, but I met some of the people whose work I've read, and had interesting conversations with other people from different backgrounds.

I've been to LIANZA conferences and also the Australian Information Online and all have been great for learning and networking. It pays to get involved, go to the events like formal and impromptu dinners, meet the vendors, talk over lunch and go to smaller poster sessions. If you are in a large library, conferences are also good for getting to know other staff members you don't normally work with.

A few years ago I gave a mini presentation at a special interest group meeting held during a LIANZA conference. The preparation made me realise what I did know and specialised in that others might find useful. I also learnt from the questions and gained more confidence in speaking.

I was able to make use of a presentation technique I'd been taught. The method uses a kind of mindmap and I find it works really well for me. The diagram is used to plan the structure of the talk and is then used as the 'notes' as you give the talk. I wish I could remember who gave the course and whether the technique has a name.

I'd like to go to a major UK conference once I'm back into a permanent role. I'd like it to be relevant to developing or inspiring me further in the role, so I'm not choosing at the moment.

If I gave a presentation I could talk about topics related to my last permanent role but would like to look to my future role for inspiration.

Thing 14: Zotero / Mendeley / citeulike

During my MLIS, I remember the relief of discovering Endnote after spending several hours checking the position of commas and full stops in my references. Absolute magic in pulling my citations into the appropriate places in each paper! It was probably the best way to appreciate the value of reference management software, and it still pays to use knowledge of the target citation style to inspect the output for quality.

Since then, Endnote has gained an online version, which seems a little weaker to me in terms of managing the fields, but I have used it for sharing references.

I now have Zotero and find that the requirement for Firefox is a bit limiting. I've not yet experimented with Mendeley, am aware it does not have all citation styles that might be needed, although they can be edited. citeulike has a different use - for sharing references with colleagues.

To help researchers manage their references, I think libraries should offer information about these free tools rather than limiting information to those, such as Endnote, that are supplied by the institution.

Thing 13: Google Docs, Wikis and Dropbox

Some tools for sharing and collaboration that could be useful this week, but after assessing them I'm not going to use any immediately. I've recorded my impressions for future reference.

I've now tried Googledocs. I first became aware of collaborative tools a few years ago in relation to community ICT. I've also collaborated on documents at work within a document management system - all changes tracked and no need to let Google have your documents. If you are collaborating outside your organisation then Googledocs could be the answer provided the other people also have Googledocs.

I'm beginning to be a little spooked by Google, Yahoo or Facebook identifying me, knowing what I am doing and what they think I like (very broad interests, so probably wrong). Over-personalisation. I use another browser, not logged in, when I want a more anonymous, less tailored view/presence.

If I have no document management system and want access from multiple computers or to share files the Dropbox would work but I think I'll skip it for the moment. So many logins to remember...

A few years ago we set up a Wiki for LIANZA ITSIG - so that we and other librarians could experiment. I haven't uploaded to another Wiki but will remember the free PBWorks for library staff collaborative Wikis. The ITSIG Wiki had spam so whatever tool I use would have to allow password access for updates.

Thing 12: Social media

I discovered CPD23 fairly early, but through an email list, not social media. I've now started using social media for professional purposes, having previously used Facebook for family and friends.

Over the last week I've got going on LinkedIn, with 11 confirmed contacts and more under way. It'll be interesting to see how it goes, but it has enabled me to see what previous colleagues are now doing and assess any areas where current interests might overlap. It'll then be easy to contact them.

I've also joined some LinkedIn groups, but suspect they may feel too big and impersonal.

My Twitter page now tops Google search results for my name, but LinkedIn is only 10th, providing I use quotes around my name, otherwise it's ranked much lower. I'd prefer Twitter to be way down since it's experimental as part of this course. This looks like a disadvantage at the moment - especially when job-hunting!

Recently my family history society started using Facebook as a new channel for communicating between current and prospective members. I am the society's librarian so it's sort of a professional network. It does seem to be fostering a sense of community, but is not the best platform for answering research queries, which can be quite complex. The publicly archived email list is better, I think, as the answers can be found in Google searches by anyone with the same question in future.

While developing new networks and other sources, I still monitor my RSS feeds and email lists. With all these new channels to monitor, I will have to develop better techniques! I'll keep working at it.

Thing 11: Mentoring

Well I've left this one brewing for over a week and still don't have a lot to say.

I don't have a mentor and do not feel comfortable about approaching anyone to be a mentor for me at the moment. It's something that I will keep in mind for the future.

On the other side, I was asked a few years ago to mentor someone studying part time in an area of my expertise. I'm not sure how useful I was to her as the relationship did not continue beyond that particular course unit, but I did learn a little myself from her.

Thing 10: experiences as a librarian so far

I became a librarian in New Zealand after a career as a programmer. My first library role was as a volunteer in Playcentre, which I attended with my young children. I moved on to a bigger Playcentre regional library before becoming a library assistant in an intermediate school (years 7-8) - without a librarian, but with other library assistants. I had also become webspinner for a voluntary national organisation with a major sponsor, so had become HTML and writing-for-the-web literate.

I started the MLIS as a part time, mature student, face to face as I was in Wellington - the only MLIS course in New Zealand. I found that my hands on experience in 3 libraries and a website across a wide range of activities (plus general life skills), was excellent preparation for the seminars where I was able to make useful contributions to the discussions. I joined LIANZA as a student and paricipated in the Wellington activities.

After completing the MLIS I became Collection Development Librarian Electronic at the National Library of New Zealand, a senior librarian role that I hadn't thought to apply for until invited to do so. I really enjoyed the changing role for 5 years before returning to Britain for a while (still here). The National Library was an excellent place for professional development as it was at the cutting edge of electronic legal deposit, web archiving and other developments. Seminars, international visitors, courses etc help develop the potential of the large number of librarians and other staff.

In LIANZA we had meetings to discuss introducing professional registration, but it was finally set up after I left for Britain. Since arriving here I have taken a variety of temporary roles in two university libraries, a government organisation's portal and contract website work. My MLIS is recognised by CILIP but I would like to charter. However I feel I need to move into a permanent job to do this.

If anyone reads this and would like to help by offering me a job...