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.

Thing #7

Thing #7

The task is to write about my experiences with professional
organisations, what involvement have I had, how it has affected my career, what
I learned, why I am not a member or why I am, and which group am I now
interested in.

I am and have been a member of the Cilip since 1988, and have used various
parts of the organisation and its groups over the years. No matter what else I
have done over the years I have kept my membership and kept up with the information
they are sending out. I also have kept
informal track of what is going on and even done some evening classes and open
learning courses, to help me as well as following my own interests for work and
have been lucky enough to have the right skills at the right time.

The main issue with face to face networks is where I am. I
live in the far north of Scotland
and Inverness is nearly 3 hours south of us. When the council deleted the Principle
Librarian's job several years ago, us school librarians decide we would
organise a meeting every term and chose the third week back, we also set an Inverness
and outside Inverness groups so one term it was one and the next term it was
the other. Nobody got to all meetings and every meeting was in a new library or
location, which made for an interesting visit too. This helped us support each
other, share good practice and help develop a sense of community. We did this
as there is no other thing organised just for us.

I have explored the links in the blog post for Thing
#7 and while some are USA based and a few UK there are none this far north.
I am part of other professional groups for my craft work and the CANSCDG of
which I am chair. I am also part of a Nesta supported group called Northern Loops. I am also
very interested in the Library MASHUPS
which I learnt more about at the Umbrella Conference, and hope to bring to the
Highlands. I must confess I didn't feel any need to add to any of my groups I
am part of and I didn't find anything new to go to or enjoy up here, but I am planning
to change that and will be passing the info about when I have it sorted out.

Think #6

Thing #6

Social
network sites, which I had been looking forward to, like most of the things hasn't
been what I thought it would be. I have checked all the ones suggested and found very differing reactions and results to them.

LinkedIn;

I did like
this and it had loads of info but it also scared me at this time, very full of work and networking, almost a CV online in many cases, and I am sure that is
its function but while I will check it and may join one day I chose not to at
the moment, as I have enough in my life with work and world changes and
currently have no need of more work or a new job, one for my future bit not
now.

Facebook;

This one I
have been on for years and I love the games and keeping a gentle touch on lives
of distant friends and family, I also keep a closer link to friends and colleagues
closer and to relax, less of a social network as a social need for me :-) I did
add the pages to my likes that I didn't have yet, but I also have others already and in my twitter. Due to work constraints I can only access all of facebook at
home but can use RSS feeds like netvibes.com to access the main info.

LISNPN;

This one
was new to me and I have joined to see more, I like the idea of sharing news
and ideas and while I graduated 20 years ago that only means I have to work harder to keep relevant, and tools like this will help me. I also left my forum comment for the Hi section, with my blog in, I must confess I have a blog and
blog often but rarely tell anyone about it :-)

LATnetwork;

Being in
education and knowing that every librarian is a teacher either formally or informally, I joined this one automatically, I am also planning my library
skills at the moment and making it much more hands on...

CILIP
Communities;

I knew this
existed but haven't been on it until now, I had some time to wander and amazingly found a long lost friend on it and we have linked up again after 10
years gap and it is nice to find she too has work in this world of fewer jobs,
and is doing well. For all that this one seems like it needs some love or a
push as there wasn't much there beyond people search!

Over all I
have enjoyed doing the social network thing for CPD23, I have picked up new
ideas and joined a few new groups, I have also worked out how I can track my RSS from last week (yeh late I know) and I am getting more out of each thing
than I expected, It helps to have it laid out and one at a time, but now of
course I am off to check on thing 7 :-D.

Thing #5

I am here:

Spent a morning cooking and washing, Laughing at my kittens discovering how wet the rain is and not going out :-). Also got my self a blank book and started a reflective journal last night to round up my day and made a list of what to do to help me sleep, and it did so I shall be keeping it up when I can. Work is so close to change and the new job is already filling my inbox, but I am coping and looking forward to it.

Where I have been:

Trying to sort my life and work out, I had big plans at the start of the summer and I have fulfilled some of them, I went to the umbrella conference and came away all fired up! I have contacted some and have others to contact, I have set some ideas in motion and have others held for when I need them.

What I think:

I am making changes and seem to be able to keep them as long as I stay small and doable, I would love to make great big ones but I wont keep them going! I am more aware of my own style, I seem to be RIA more than ROA, I need to continue my Reflection in action but I must start also reflecting on actions and looking at good as well as bad, I often see what didn't work, but forget to acknowledge what did work and to celebrate this, and help set success in my work and life.

Plan for the rest of the CPD23:

Keep doing the tasks/things in order, to use the new skills I am learning and to help pass them on which helps me to reinforce them in my own life, I find doing and then stopping things easy, but if I have shared others will ask how is it going and I have to keep going rather than give up :-) peer pressure is a very big incentive in my life.

I have been enjoying blogging and while I do heaps online for fun I don't blog it, nor have I been using these skills for work very much. The CPD23 has made me more aware of what I can do. It has also helped me address issues that are new or now relevant due to work changes.

Life and Times

Life is strange as I have one week left as a school librarian, and the night terrors woke me too early today. The kittens who have been a constant source of fun get bigger.

Midnight the dark Torty and Smokey The odd torty/tabby. (Or more commonly called alien and monster)

My oldest got most of his results, good but didn't quite get the conditional offer but it was for next year, so we have a year to plan, and do the HNC instead. I also learnt to basket weave yesterday I shall finish my big project soon :-) see more at the castlehill website.

Thing 4

Well I have just spent a while doing thing 4 for the CPD23 and it was interesting, I use netvibes already and so didn't find this as a great new thing, I like being able to save RSS and I have been twittering for ages, and I liked the new suggestions and added a few as well as adding Shappi Khorsandi who I have come to really enjoy! With Netvibes I can see my twitter ongoing and even from work and miss so little that way, and one of my faves is the Scottish Book Trust! I am not so sure I will get as much out of the google reader but I haven't tried much on it. I don't know what I am doing with pushnote! I have joined it but don't know what more to do? I don't run the browsers that support the button and am not sure what I should be getting out of it? I shall ask on my fb and twitter.

I was visiting a colleague who I am mentoring through her portfolio last week and we had a wonderful time, she is my first mentee so I worry that she is getting what she needs. I am a fairly over bearing person, I take people with me in ideas, I wander off on tangents, and occasionally roll over people and don't always notice. One of the lessons I brought from the training many moons ago was I don't do the work I help facilitate them doing it, I bring a fresh eye and an open mind. How things get done may be different from how I would but that is because it isn't my work. I did tell her about the 23 things and other sites I was enjoying, and I left her all fired up and with some work to set out and to do a few sum ups and I hope our next visit will be the final polish, and to make the final form physically. I am so happy with her work, she has done all I could possibly have asked (even if I haven't) I hope her portfolio is as good to others as I think.

One week left of being a school librarian, found myself awake at 7.30am pondering the changes to come, worrying, turning it all over in my head, pointing out the rational and sensible aspects my awake mind knows but my sleeping mind ignores and forgets, a nightmare isn't right, it was fear just mind bothering. I just hope it is a glitch and a one off as a week of broken nights will just about shatter me.

Chatting to a friend doing a OU qualification last night and asking 'good' questions. Found out she missed the last deadline so asked her about the next one, confidently she named the 26th of September but she hadn't done any work yet! I asked again later (cause I am nosy) what her unit was and she pulled out her paperwork to find it is due the 6th! of September which gave her a shock, and sent her off to look over it then. So the moral of this tale is I have to leave 'work' at work, and she needs to write her deadlines on her calendar :-D.

Thing 3

Well I am in my second week of 23 things and I am enjoying the fresh look at my world. I am a great starter of things, as my craft friends can tell you I am happy to start a new project, idea, plan and run with it, I get all excited and wound up about new ideas and can motivate a rock into doing something if I really get going, but it starts to wane and I lose interest, and I have great ideas left round my house forgotten and unloved. I make lists to keep my head above water so to speak and I know that my biggest problem is finishing, I start to tidy and get distracted, I start to work and go off on a tangent, I start to blog and get on my soap box instead!

By following the weeks plan and may be a bit faster I can catch up and do with others, I plan to try the NANOWRIMO one year and will make a big song and dance so I am shamed to keep it up. I am also going to share this at our meet day and hope that by being ahead and having others catch me up I will keep motivated.

Thing 3 was this week and my brand, this had me thinking and I did do this a few days ago but it has been until now to get my head round it, I don't have a clear brand, I like open world and tend not to put me in the picture. I have now changed my picture to be me, a resent shot which I can live with, and shall slowly do for all my sites, I don't have a personal/professional sides apart. My children inspire my work and my work is part of my life. I try to be as professional in my life as I can be and that is across the board.

My vanity search was fun, I haven't been to rate my teacher for ages and I don't have a good rating, too bad, but they also don't play up in my library nor do they waste resources! Also threw up an old twitter account I must find and either change to current or remove, I did go to second pages etc and yes still me (I do have an odd name) and nothing I wouldn't want a boss to know and some I had forgotten and am proud of.

I think I shall be thinking about my brand and how to bring it all under a few simple images/icons I did spend a while on the web under various aliases I shall look over them and decide on who I am, as this is the way this 'thing' has taken my mind. I have found each thing taken alone is fine and I hope by doing each in turn I don't wander away...

I was reading a blog about hope from a friend and she was saying how hope is double edged, as when things go wrong you not only have to deal with the problem but also cope with loss of hope, and her final thoughts were to live in hope but plan for the worst. :-) I will finish these Things, but may be not as they were first planned ;-D