Stuff #1: August 2011

Moved here, due to repurposing of this blog for purely-professional concerns.

Ever note? Or; what's up [with] Docs?

CPD23 catch-up week is upon us: it's spooky how they knew I would fall behind at this point... I'm not sure that it's wise to try to start up again on the part where I got stuck, but I'm going to plough ahead anyway and see what happens.

I had always planned to post the Evernote Thing a little later than usual, as I had never used Evernote and wanted to have some time to play with it before writing. Unfortunately, I never got around to registering and using the product; still haven't in fact! [goes off to correct this and read cpd23 briefing]. First thing: don't talk down to me, Evernote. If I want patronising, I'll use an Apple product. Don't pass off fairly common technology as 'magic'.

I may not get the full experience of Evernote, as I cannot install the client on my work PC (not without a great deal of hassle involving Information Systems colleagues, forms to evidence why I need said software and sacrificing a sentient mammal to Quetzalcoatl anyway). For this same reason, I cannot use the 'web clipper' either. I could install these on my home PC, and on my Android handset and maybe my iPod if I was really ambitious, but the web version would still be where I spent 90% of my time using Evernote, so I'll base my appraisal solely on this. I'm not sure how much I'd really use the 'on-the-go' versions of Evernote, as I'm largely sedentary and detest typing anything longer than txtspk on my phone; I see the value when out and about at events, but I don't attend that many, and my current strategy of frantic scribbling and later access to slides/resources covers 95% of sources/notes I want to capture.

I can see the usefulness of keeping notes from several sources (web, email, twitter, real life posters/whiteboards/business cards [via photo]) in one place. I've tried to do much the same thing in the past using Google Docs (scraps of data as text documents, often with little content in the doc aside from the title), but obviously this is a very different experience, with a more pleasant GUI and functionality more suited to notetaking. I doubt I would make much use of the photograph-manipulation features, as I'm rarely in that kind of context, but appreciate its existence.

Overall, I can see the merits of Evernote as a tool to answer lots of problems; they're just not problems which I particularly have. I can get by fine note-taking in Google Docs (as long as it doesn't keep seizing up as it has for the last week or so...) and, if I desperately have to make a note whilst I'm in the field, I can either jot it in my phone and sync it as a note later or just scribble it on my hand. It may be something of a snap judgement, but Evernote isn't for me.

A Day in the Life: #libday7

I wrote this a while ago, and have posted it as a separate page as it was a long post even by my standards. It has now been enhanced by the addition of semi-relevant pictures, making it around 9% more exciting!

**Click here!****Click here!****Click here!****Click here!****Click here!****Click here!****Click here!****Click here!****Click here!**

Don't you miss the the way the web was in the old days?!

[Some form of pun on calendars]

I've been using Google Calendar for quite a while; I think I first started using it properly when I got my Android phone and realised I could keep all my appointments in one place, reducing the amount of haircuts I had to schedule four times (happened more than once). I've now got to the point where I add everything to it, and have made my calendar available to friends; indeed, I get annoyed when they text me asking where I'll be at a certain time instead of just looking!

I don't particularly use Calendar for work purposes: my day doesn't generally contain meetings etc, so I just block off the times I'm working - for this reason I've never worried about importing calendars from Outlook etc. I do use it to plan CPD activities and record job applications closing dates, however. I also have a separate calendar to record events in my dog's life; on depressing weeks, he can have more non-routine events than me!

This week's calendar; what an exciting life I lead...

Speaking of non-routine events, I have turned on functionality which is currently provided via Google Labs (and which I'm hoping will be integrated into the core options rather than disappearing when Labs closes) which dims recurring events such as 'work' to emphasise other activities. Other Labs functions include the ability to append Google Docs to an event (which I use for events programs and booking forms) and my snazzy background image of a Cybus-man.*

What else? I use 'all day event' to note the form which any day off takes (Annual Leave, Toil, or Professional Development Leave if I can wrangle it), as well as if I'm unsure of when an event will take place; I have pencilled-in events happening in June of next year already! I colour events according to their type, which allows me to glance back and forth for specific events. I do have a few external calendars (such as the CPD23 one), but I tend to leave these turned off unless I'm looking for something on them.

Overall, I find Google Calendar to be a useful tool, but it's not exactly the most exciting thing to write about. Any questions, please ask!

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* Cybermen come from Mondas, Earth's twin planet; Cybus-men are clunky buggers from a parallel dimension. I will not accept they are the same!

On-Off Networking

This week brings two Things, which I'm combining into an unwieldy 'twofer' post, partially because the subject matters entwine and partly because it's Friday and I don't want to go off for a long weekend with blogging still on my 'to-do' list.

Following the #marketingyourselfonline session delivered by Suzanne Wheatley at NPC2011, I have a pretty-much populated LinkedIn profile; however, I have next-to-no connections; people I do know aren't on there, and people on there who I recognise don't easily fit with LinkedIn's prescribed categories - neither colleagues nor classmates, and to call them friends feels somehow presumptive. Whilst I can kind of see how it's a useful tool, and the groups have been a little more interesting that I'd expected, the USP of LinkedIn remains to be found for myself.

Whilst I keep Facebook for friends and old schoolchums (yes, I am from the 1930s), several of those friends are themselves library folk, so library-related networking does pop up from time to time. I don't tend to follow organisation or group pages, as they resulted in so much spam when I used Facebook regularly that I 'un-liked' them. Nowadays, I tend to interact with Facebook almost exclusively via the Android app, mostly reading friends' statuses, occasionally chipping in but mostly lurking - my last status update was 12th June ("the lesson of Jonah Hex: everything in the Old West was 1000% more combustible", posted via Xbox). As the people I found interesting increasingly migrate away, I find myself less drawn to Facebook, and may even close my account if it's nascent competitor takes off...

Even when I'm an early-adopter, I still lag a little behind - I joined G+ at around the 8-million person mark, and have populated circles mainly with library folk and institutions/organisations (who will be vaporised by the Google Death Star for their disobeyal of the 'individuals only' beta edict). So far, it has shown promise largely by being an endearing social-media hodge-podge, with many of the desirable features of other networks (notably Facebook and Twitter) - however, it does also have some of the drawbacks. I'm enjoying G+, but feel there are still features to be added: plug in calendars and docs and I'll be a happy bunny (as long as there's the option to keep them private; I don't want everyone knowing that my big Friday-night plans are to worm the dog). I like the social-professional mix of streams, and suspect that it will remain just as manageable when I have a lot more people added - something which Twitter and Facebook have on occasion proved problematic for. As it is, however, I have very few IRL people in my G+ streams as yet.

Slightly to my shame, I haven't used the LIS networks. I joined LISNPN a while back, but never really did anything with it; having had a scan through the forum and resources just now, I'm unsure why as it seems pretty useful. LAT is... very green. As I don't do much teaching in my current role, this is a network I'm planning to put on a back-burner until I am in a position to up-skill in pedagogical practice. CILIP Communities was something I was aware of, and had glanced through on occasion, but had never really grabbed me as current or thriving; again, it is on a list of things to check into when I have more time, particularly as I ramp up Chartership thinking.

Has online networking via these media made me better known, connected, and equipped? Yes, probably all three, but I would say that currently it is Twitter that has been most influential (though, as I have suggested, G+ may supplant this in the future): Facebook is something I'm almost thinking about in the past tense already (like Myspace before it), and LinkedIn feels a little too much like a business tool to fit with my personal preferences for professional networking, placing order and organisations over serendipitous discovery and individuals.

Serendipity plays a part in my face-to-face networking skills too - however, some may term this haphazard blundering from faux pas to faux pas. I've never been at my most comfortable in a room of strangers (who is?), and find it very difficult to 'cold' start a conversation. I'll confess, it is getting easier, partially through practice and partly because I have been to enough events that I'm starting to meet people for the second time, which can provide an 'in' to join a conversation and get to know more people. Face-to-face networking has also added considerably to my online networks, allowing me to add interesting attendees and speakers to Twitter for instance; in turn, I can now meet known tweeters in person and have several potential conversation starters (although this can be a bit weird if it is not a reciprocal-following arrangement; otherwise, you can easily verge on '@s27wighorn345, silent, invisible lurker' territory). I feel more comfortable networking with perceived peers, of a similar age or professional level to myself, as I feel it leads to easier conversation due to shared points of reference - being the most junior person in a conversation about stock review policies across multiple site libraries was slightly intimidating! I didn't get along to any of the CPD23 networking events this week as my dog has acute abandonment issues if I leave him alone for too long (and I missed the online alternative networking due to setting fire to a calzone - but that's another story). Overall, though, I definitely feel more comfortable 'working a room' than I did this time last year.

[the following paragraph goes a bit rant-y]

I am a member of CILIP, and special-interest groups CDG and UC&R as part of this membership; however, whilst I have attended events organised by my local branch (EMBoC) and the SIGs I still can't, hand-on-heart, say that I feel particularly involved with the organisation. I'm not exactly sure what CILIP achieves. Yes, of course, there's accreditation of library-schools, and Chartership, and being a (sometimes-timid) voice for libraries on the national stage, and the aqueduct, and facilitating the organisation of large-scale (expensive) events which bring librarians together - but apart from that, what has CILIP ever done for us? In all honesty, it feels costly to be a member of CILIP - I ummed and ahed about renewing my membership when  the cost jumped from the student rate to nearly £200 - and to be charged again to attend the majority of events which it organises (and which are held almost exclusively in London on weekdays, which adds at least £50-£60 to the cost of attendance) feels a little frustrating. I had hoped that the recent re-organisation would lead to greater clarity of mission, and would make clearer exactly what I was investing in - however, I remain unconvinced and suspect that if I wasn't going for Chartership I may have decided to save my money and invest it in CPD opportunities elsewhere. Overall, I like lots of small parts of CILIP, but cannot transmogrify this into appreciating the whole.

[/rant]

Despite all of this, I think professional organisations are important for all of the reasons Bethan discusses in the Thing briefing. Perhaps organisations focused around particular areas of librarianship, such as SLA (UK) and BIALL, offer a more focused level of professional support for your buy-in. However, I can't help but feel [turns out that /rant was premature!] that the amount of professional organisations for LIS exacerbates the 'echo chamber' effect; that's how it feels with my nose pressed up against the glass, too cheap to buy a ticket to enter, anyway. Feel free to correct me, readers!

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Social network images from iniwoo.

Reflecting on Reflection on Role

Wigglesweets doesn’t really set a task for this Thing as such, instead asking for a consideration of one’s personal approach to reflective practice. So, my first thought on reading the blog post: “urgh - reflective practice!”. Let’s start with a confession; I pretty much hate reflecting on myself, assessing my achievements and setting targets. I was forced to do it in school from about the age of seven, and I’ve never been able to shake going into an immediate juvenile ‘no, I hate this, it’s rubbish’ paddy every time someone suggests reviewing performance and progress. My first instinct when asked to reflect to write a pat response which has little or no value or meaning to me; this, obviously, limits the resultant document’s helpfulness.

I’ve got to become better at reflective practice, because it forms a key part of writing a successful Chartership portfolio. I’m currently working on developing my PPDP for the next 12-18 months, which I suspect would be more effective/useful if I first identify which areas I could do with development in. I can’t usefully use my work PDR to inform this, as it refers to local targets and (as a non-professional position) focuses on moulding me to their needs rather than facilitating personal growth. I think that my problem is that I... am self-obsessed? Far too many personal pronouns there! I don’t like thinking about my positive qualities, because it feels self-congratulatory, and when considering my failings I tend to begin equivocating and justifying why this is the case. I externalise blame and internalise success, but cannot sufficiently get outside myself to consider myself - what a horrible sentence. This is like pulling teeth.

Bottom line: I need to get better at reflective practice. To the books!

Returning to Current Awareness...

A Thing 4 addendum, as I’m burying my head in the sand regarding Thing 5. My 'current awareness' has gone to pot somewhat this week, as I've not been on Twitter at all prior to about an hour ago (some may claim that I envy those who are at #ub11 and excitedly tweeting about it; those people are silly poo-poo heads if they think I'm that immature).

A week on, I’m still using Pushnote to make note of interesting half-read sites which I may want to return to. However, it’s not grabbed me that well, and I probably will stop using it once I’ve caught up on the linked sites I currently have.

In similar thematic area to Thing 4, I have Google/Scholar alerts on my particular areas of interest (‘academic* liais*’ and ‘subject librarian*’), which I’ll periodically go through. These were set up to support the lit review for my dissertation in this area. Whilst they generally result in junk, occasionally something valuable turns up. I currently have over 100 alerts emails to read - they remain firmly stuck to the bottom of my to-do-list.

Finally, flicking through a Google Doc of half-baked thoughts which might one day become blogs, I came across a rambling rhetorical question. My RSS feeds featured several US librarians, as well as aggregated blog-feeds from some US academic librarians (email updates such as LJ Academic Newswire could also be lumped into a wider ‘US library landscape awareness’ blob), leading me to wonder thus:

Do [US librarians] have it better or worse than us; they are equally vocal, if not more so, but whilst they share common themes (budget cuts, risk of closure for public libraries, identity crises) they also have very different concerns (faculty/teacher status, state politics, guns on campus) which resonate less. Is it worthwhile to continue to maintain an international focus, or is this taking time which could be spent drilling down into local issues? Is it merely a pretence that LIS is the same beast worldwide, with fundamentally the same concerns and aims?

I remain undecided about this issue; I have found some blogs from US librarians to offer useful concepts which translate well, but others never really speak to my personal experiences. In practice, I now have less RSS feeds from US-library-centric sources. Have I narrowed my world-view, or made a conscious decision to focus on my own back yard?