Differences and similarities

I am a day or so late as I had the pleasure of being considered as a person to be job shadowed, I was flattered and scared, and I ended up enjoying it but making some realizations of my own. The point was to allow my colleague an overview of the differing jobs that all come under the same job heading!

My own desk is not a great example of all the tasks but is a good example of working with the different staff and their needs. Also due to a prearranged visit I got to take her to another venue and another library visit. Which allowed me to think about how we are all individuals and while we all do the same job the actual on the ground things done varies so much! I can't think of another profession where so much of what we do is not outlined or pinned down, where the person and their own strengths and weaknesses makes such a difference.

We are due a new school build in the not too distant future, I would like to say a date but they have changed it and I fear that may yet occur again. Current plans are for summer 2016, and the plans are getting shaped and knocked together so fast now. The changes and differences in my own work life will be immense, I have no idea how it will be once I am there and I could worry about it but I have learnt to only worry about what I can change. In hope to keep a handle on my worry and stress I go to a regular Yoga class for Hatha Yoga where the emphasis is on meditation and relaxation, and gentle stretching, 'only as far as you feel comfortable'. The teacher is a retired school Librarian from Edinburgh way and is a very calming lady, sadly for my rather generous body she can get her nose to her knee or both hands flat on the floor, while I 'only go as far as you feel comfortable' quite often!

The email call went out this week from the Cilip Scotland for a request for shared practice. The plan is to make a database of shared practice for us all to tap into when we need and to hold a record of our own shared practice for when we want to promote an idea or an event that worked. The page asks for either a detailed return or a form to fill in, which ever is the most successful for you. I will be looking over my own work and seeing what I can put up and hopefully once it is running I can go and find ideas to bring back to my own library world.

The difference between my fairly neat desk and my home work space was illuminated by the kitten when she flopped over my desk and I took a picture, then I looked at it and realised it was a mess! but the kitten looks so good!

She was on my lap but found my hot water bottle on the top and just curled up, her tail end was on the keyboard, while her head is propped on my Mouse! her belly is being warmed and I just hadn't got the heart to move her. Another difference, at work the kids think I am a scary lady who makes them follow the school rules, at home my own teens just roll over the top of me, and the cats.

Smudged days

I am late and turned round, the lack of bells and the peaks and troughs of the last 2 weeks have left me not sure what day it is, I had a few high points of which one was today. I had the joy of meeting a gentleman by the name of Bob Pegg who came and did a music and story workshop for me, only a few there but everyone of us enjoyed it. We got to ask questions and to handle the different musical instruments, he played everyone of them for us and gave us a history and wove stories around them, truly mesmerizing!

The day was so nice, the beach below us so inviting, but the time with Bob flew by and I can recommend seeing him if you get a chance, my youngest said as we drove home that he was a 'real story teller!' which was a great recommendation from a geeky mine crafter like him. I may also be tempted by an Ocarina for myself! Also I have a new website to drool over and not buy the very pretty expensive things on but to dream :-) with early musical instruments.

The world of Cilip seems to be calm at the moment but I am following a thread in the mentors list about how much training costs when we give our time for free and often pay costs ourselves, but then get asked to pay more. I realise that they have costs and I know that Cilip can't just give for nothing, but with all the changes this is the time to raise the issue. I hope the restructure takes some of the thoughts on board and we have had another survey monkey asking about our thoughts.

In a different vein I am also getting ready for my Holidays, which are still in the air in places, like the last few weeks there are some unmovables, a flight to meet, a dinner booked, and some venues we must get too, as well and plans to make sandwiches and take lunches (even if we need help lifting enough food for four teenagers!) and walks on the moors, the beaches and the lanes of the west country. Other than that we shall see and go with the flow.

The cool lanes and walks near where I grew up and will be staying are calling!

I am also thrilled to see a piece of my writing is up online, I put in a piece about my favourite treasure. It is being run by the Scottish Book Trust, and it is up under my name. The piece is called Alexandra and the details are in the work, I took a couple of weeks to write it as I kept getting too emotional and far to close to it! but it is done, and up, I am so proud! Feel free to go and read, and if you want the date for submission of your own treasure is not until the end of the month! up to 1000 words, and has to be a thing not a place or person or time.

I plan to blog as and when while I am away, so forgive if the next few are less work orientated, and more 'oh look where I have been!'

Portfolio Building Feedback

I was lucky enough to get to the portfolio building day in Aberdeen at the start of the month, due to many factors including a cold and unexpected work problems/issues I didn't get the write up finished until now :-).
I wont put it all up as the finished document with references is eight pages long! but I shall share what I got out of it the most. I also have copies of some of the power points which has helped me keep on track when writing my notes :-).

First Thing that came across was that the whole exercise is a measurement of your professional ability, and how it compares and contrasts to others at the same level. This means that it is less about your particular job than your own skills and abilities, you can see that a solo school librarian in the wilds of Scotland is using the same processes and ideas as an assistant librarian in a large research library in a major city. This was a relief as I worried that some bit we don't have up here may make us less likely to get our chartership but no as long as you meet the criteria your fine.

That's is my second thing, the criteria are all they can measure you against. As long as you meet them and show you have met them your fine, allot of recommendations was to use the 4 criteria as your organisation layout for the portfolio. I found myself looking at the Criteria again with fresh eyes and am happy to say I don't feel half as inadequate as I used to.
Criteria

1, An ability to reflect on personal performance and to evaluate service performance. Reflect critically on personal and service. Needs to be made as an ‘I’ statement and opinionated.
2, Active commitment to continuing professional development. Active commitment to CPD, follow blogs, twitter and networking.
3, An Ability to analyse personal and professional development and progression with reference to experiential and developmental activities. Learning on the job, what worked and what didn’t.
4, Breadth of professional Knowledge and understanding of the wider professional context. Not just good at your own job but part of the profession, go to AGM’s etc.
See also http://www.cilip.org.uk/filedownloadslibrary/qualifications/chartershiphandbook10.pdf
The CPD23 actually helps with so many areas and helps to get you thinking why and what next so much better.

The biggest area that could cause problems is being a reflective practitioner, this is one of the things that CPD23 covers in great detail by making you do a little of it at a time and then by the end your doing all of it, and in detail. best help for this is Thing #5 which gets you all the links to teach you more and how to get going. Librarians are very good at knowing that something needs doing, sorting, weeding or changing something which needs it but we don't go through the process of what we have done and why and what needs doing next. Most of us 'know' that something needs doing this just makes a more rigorous case for our own work. I did apply this to my Day to day things and it showed up a few things I like that should have been much lower in priority than I had them but there was nothing extra or missing just different order.

Most other problems seem to stem from either not following the criteria or not being ruthless with evidence, again its a 'what' and 'why' and 'what next' all the time. Why do I need two pieces showing the same thing, why do I have nothing showing this area. The nice gentleman from Cilip Michael Martin came and gave us a fab overview of what is needed and showed us some online tools that help, and audit sheet and PPDP which can be great start points and also end points. You need to start with a PPDP and then do one as you finish which will show development and change, also you can use the audit on the 4 criteria to work out if you have the right info in as your evidence.

They also spoke of the support of a mentor and I realised I haven't been as good as I could be, I have done some but I need to do more and soon. According to the wonderful Val Walker who is the Scottish Mentor Support Officer we are there to - Enable - Encourage - Enthuse which is quite a challenge! I after a wonderful session with some fabulous people full of enthusiasm and positive views, I came away determined to do as much as I can to to enjoy it too.

I hope my thoughts have helped, if you want more feel free to ask :-) I do have a many page feedback as well, but I must also mention Celia Jenkins Scottish Candidate Support Officer who organised it and spoke, David Main from Aberdeen Libraries who set up the venue. Jan Dawson and Julie McCue who gave us thoughts on their recent chartership. Ian Stringer from lots of different committees who encouraged us to keep on going after we pass and to stay involved as Cilip is us and we make it what we want. and Finally my favourite speaker of the day was Anna Herron, an assessor who has made me sit up and think 'I could do that', and given me a whole new idea of things to do.

Mentor hat

Today I had the joy of helping a pupil apply for an external post which will (if he gets it) make him think and grow! There are differing stages and I am supporting him through them! He had to answer a question about whether he would like to mentor or not! and he was putting no! I asked why and he said he didn't want someone following him round seeing what he did all day! When I stopped giggling I explained that mentoring came in many ways, me helping him by just chatting each week, his guidance making sure hes understanding, the guys in the cadets helping him pass things, all of these are mentoring and if someone asked him to have a person following him round they would make sure he could first! Explained it was more a way of sharing experience and helping others full fill their potential which can be so much fun.

Helping him is as rewarding to me as my official chartership mentees, as good as seeing a friend get her degree in the paper today! as all of these I have had some small hand in helping, but at the end of the day I may have helped but its their work and their attitudes that got them through. I have come to realise I love my mentor hat and seem to wear it much more often than I thought. So thank you to all those who helped me get here, and thank you to all those unsung people who may not have realised how much help has meant to me. I hope to help many others and not for thanks, or kudos, not to be feted or even mentioned. But to just know that they have done their best and done well.

CPD Thing #11

Thing #11 is Mentoring.
Last year I was asked to be a mentor for the first time and worried for hours over helping or hindering, putting too much me in or not being there enough! I had a charteship candidate who had submitted and failed the first time, so in many ways I had the hard work done for me :-). The candidate had all the work needed with a few gaps, so we just had to re organise the current stuff and fill the gaps in. They worked well with me, I made comments and suggestions and always added that they only did what felt right! some things they did were above and beyond what they needed but they enjoyed it, others were so different from how I had envisaged it but was right for them. The finished portfolio was all their own work and showed them to be an effective and progressive librarian. I learnt so much! and so did they.
Now I have bitten off a bit more to chew! I have 3 chartership candidates and 1 Acilip candidate, one should be chartered well within the year, they have so much already in place, just need gaps filling and a bit of confidence. One has some in place but needs to get up to speed, they need less hands on and more pointing to get more done. The third candidate has the biggest amount of work to do, I am not sure they have yet understood all that's needed, but we shall get there. And  the Acilip candidate has both me as formal and a recently passed acilip person as an informal help so should be fine :-) (but is the one I am most worried about how to support).
I also have an informal mentor, who is a star. I have rung up about the oddest things and if she has time she will always chat and help. I know she is often busy so I also do the 'what would she do here' thing, and I have a wide group of support network, both face to face and virtual, you can never have enough network support, I have and am learning so much both of myself and of my work.
I agree that mentoring is a two way thing and also I would suggest it is also an individual thing, I can only help my way, if I don't suit a candidate I would rather they found another mentor and did well than struggled on with me. I will be keeping that in mind as I help the current group to grow and spread their own wings. I also live in hope than one will fly far enough to completely eclipse me and I can sit back in the future and go 'I helped them charter you know' :-) what every mentor hopes.

Things #8 to #11

Things #8, #9, #10, and #11

I have been working away in the back ground and getting things finished and sorted but not always blogged about. I did Thing 8 which is the Google calendar which set me off thinking about making one for the library to allow staff to book the library and see when things are busy etc., but that needs to be separate from me as I need the calendar to keep track of me!

I am still keeping my reflective diary from thing #5 and week 4 and I have filled in where I have been, what I have done, how good it was and what I plan to do. This was fine when I was at home more days than work but now I am back to work full time I find I need somewhere to put my plan notes and calendar helps me keep track and mark off I have done or not!

When I first read the 23 things I knew I may get lots out of this option and have been looking forward to it, I was right it has opened new vistas for me and I am working much more efficiently. If I stopped now I am already showing the benefits of this CPD and must thank you for it, and the chance to participate.

I did like thing #9 Evernote and will be using it on-going but I also can’t download it to my work computer and so can’t use at work, I am hoping if it is good and very useful to make a business case for its inclusion in our software bundles. Here’s hoping.

Thing #10 and #11 are Training options, #10 is the courses and accreditations you could do, I looked into an MA/PG course distant learning, which is done by one of the university’s up here, which would fit in round my work, I would love the chance to do a PG and being a bit of a student again would be fun, sadly the cost was very high at over 7k for the 3 year course, current family circumstances means that my children are just off to college etc. now and in the next 3 or 4 years, after that I may go and get an MA of my own J But currently being a mentor for chartership is fulfilling my need to keep active along with cpd23.

Thing #11 is a good one for me as I have been doing this without planning it for years, I tend to find people who I can ask questions of and share that with others newer than me, I am currently just starting buddying a new network librarian who is taking on a big post not far from me (in highland terms) and am just getting my first mentee ready to submit! I have a semi-formal mentor who has been a great help to me for nearly 20 years and as I have moved up and on so she has ahead of me which makes our connection very strong. I also have had informal mentors over the years in many areas, some over lapping but all have been who and what I needed at the time. I have never had a formal mentor, even my chartership mentor was very hands off, so I may have not always gained here but my semi-formal one has always been there and has taken an active interest in my work even when I worked for other companies and places.

Other issues have been back to school which is a big thing, but staffing changes meant the library timetable is torn up and I shall have to start again. Sadly we also lost a dear friend and colleague last night, while driving home with another colleague they were hit by an oncoming campervan on the wrong side of the road and he was killed outright and declared dead at the scene, the driver who had to be cut out is not being sent to a bigger hospital to get her arm put back together and this is all very sad to us.

My thoughts are with his wife and sons.