Better Balanced

Two posts in one week, this has been an odd one :-) and not even the end of the week yet...

I am knitting a Flat Footed Floogie for a gift for a new baby and having so much fun, I am dragging out the finishing as I don't have any excuse not to part with it when finished! but it is lovely and I will take a pic when I finish as a memory. I have made the Lamb but have wool for the rabbit too! may make that one for me but SHHH don't tell any one, I am far to old for a Lovey.

Blog post that I must mention is Letters to a young Librarian, which I find raises interesting issues that don't get covered in library school and often until you face it you never even hear about it! so more power to this blog. This weeks is about office supplies and if you should just lend/give out your stuff to be used and abused by the students on hand, The comments add to the whole debate.

After the weekends rattle and getting things sorted to replace the lost work possibly I am now much better balanced than Monday, the world is not falling over any more and the light heading my way, may not be an oncoming train! There are people dealing with so much more traumatic events that mine was just more of a ho hum moment. Last night there was a program about trains that had a lady talking about her job, she had come to work after her husband had died and was keeping a hold of her self well when a woman came up and lost it over the train being 3 minutes early/late The lady said she stood there thinking if only all I had to worry about was the trains being 3 minutes out! Makes you stop and think, and its true, a big problem for one person is not for another, so with some perspective this post should be much better balanced :-D.

I am looking forward to the Umbrella Conference in July, I had the good fortune to go to the last one and enjoyed myself so much! I can highly recommend it, my biggest problem was choosing what to go to each time and I am still referring back to things I did and got then. I also made so many contacts and found so many new ideas, my room is booked, my early bird ticket is ordered. I can't wait.

Reading and Partying

I have just been asked which blogs I read for my Library and thought that would be a good point to start on,  my faves are http://teenlibrarian.co.uk/  by @mattlibrarian and http://www.literatureforlads.com/  by @loveliterature andhttp://booksyalove.blogspot.co.uk/  this was my reply (in under 140 characters of course) my own twitter being @bibliosuk . I don't look for library blogs past these actively but realised afterwards I read an awful lot more than that!
I tend to read blogs I enjoy, either for the content or the style. Some are funny, some are useful, all tend to past semi regularly, I hate getting a post and realising I have no idea who or what they are as they haven't posted in ages! or my pet hate which is many many posts a day! my most prolific at the moment is the history girls which is done by a group of history writers all female who blog every day about things that interest them.  While I may never have wondered about 18th century wigs, or letter writing in the Victorian time or even the fate of women in the roman time, the writers have such passion you end up reading and enjoying all sorts of back ground stuff.

The party part of the title was an invite to a 70th party being thrown as a surprize party. He was very suprized, we were also asked to come in world war two work ware. which ended up being taken as 40's style so we had boiler clad flyers, land girls, spivs and some very nicely clad in minks and posh dancing shoes! over all it was a blast. Best of all was the live band who played and sang for hours! I wasn't going to stay all night but ended up staying for the end of the band! so much fun, danced, swayed and generally behaved in a disgraceful manner, so doing that again! The pictures that are trickling on to facebook have all made me laugh, especially ones of me, I went as a house wife based on my granny whose style didn't change form those days, so I was in florals and pinny, what I didn't realise was my lack of waist meant said pinny slipped down and looked very silly by the middle of the evening! The organiser looked amazing in her 1940's  matrons outfit, her hubby thought she looked very scary dressed like that but joked he'd take it off her later!

Things #17 and #19

I have just spent a morning making a prezi presentation which turned out to be harder than I first thought but ultimately easier than I feared, this was my first try and very bitty it looks now I am done but I didn't have a plan when I started it. HLH Libraries which was fun to make... So I can rate Thing #17 as a success, I will be making more and dragging it round to the teachers and other librarians as and when I can, I am so glad I did cpd23 and have been recommending it round when I can.
Thing #19 is more reflective, I haven't kept my diary as well as I had hoped but find myself doing the tasks even in my head most days and just adding them to paper if I have too much or if I start missing things, mostly I have sorted out my head with it and hope to keep reapplying it, I am not all efficent and organised but I am getting there. Some things I have tried and not found to my liking, I loved the idea of google documents but didn't find them good to use, the calendars managed to get others interested and now the ICT suites and the library in the school are all bookable through an online google calendar which means you can see the whole school provision at a glance (not my own work but I clami midwife rights) I am enjoying my CPD23 time and make a little bit most weeks for it, I don't always blog as sometimes it takes me a few days to get my head round an idea. It is harder to Blog when I don't see any use for a tool as I don't know if I should look closer or it just isn't for me!
I shall be catching up again this week but may not get blogged until the holidays next week when I should get more peace time.

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 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

Brave New World

I heard about the 23 things for professional development through a link from a new friend and thought I would have a go, I know I am behind but I have a lot of the early things already, complete with blog and other interests. I have become gradually aware how comfy and settled my world, work, family has become and how much I moan about changes. This is not how it should be! I used to love change and liked a challenge, I always kept me up to date but recently it has been a few home things and very little work stuff. Last year when the idea that things may change came up I was startled and shocked, my little world wasn't safe how dare they! 'face palm' It should have been how lucky I had been, still am to an extent.

I have shaken my myself, found new things to excite me and shook some of my new friends by jumping up on soap boxes and ranting at the drop of a hat! I have spread my fresh gaze across big chunks of my world and found my wardrobe boring, my house cluttered, and my job staid! so I am upgrading, Friends are helping me shake out my dress sense (esp before the next potential promotion comes up) my lovely husband (when not doing my head in) is making inroads into the house sort out (no longer hindered my me) and I am all fired up and excited again about libraries, and so I thought to keep this I would try the 23 things.

Enough Grandstanding I have spent part of my morning joining the write path and the 23 things, checking other sources and feeding my excitement, sadly I must also go and sort the paperwork and other things sat in boxes awaiting my time but I sort them with renewed vigour and hope that I can at least touch this state again even if there are lapses back to comfy now and then :-D

I will write about the Cilip Conference, but I am still trying to get the ideas round my head :-) #UB11