Conferences and note-taking

In the past three months I have been to three library conferences, one big [approx 600 delegates], one medium [I think about 200 delegates] and one small [less than 100 delegates]. I got a lot out of each one as individual experiences, but I also found myself reflecting on them as a group and considering the ways in which my attitude to getting the best use out of them has altered.

In the past I would write copious notes, which I would then turn in to lengthy blog posts afterwards, generate numerous tweets during, and actually find myself having consumed so much information that I struggled to put it to some productive use. In fact I often found that once I had blogged about my experience, I rarely thought of it again.

I recently read this very interesting blog post on conferences and note taking, and as I'd just been to the CILIP Cymru Wales conference in Swansea [the medium sized one!] it really resonated. It advocates organising your notes into categories and assigning action points to them, this should then [hopefully!] translate into a 'to do' list and make your notes more useful.

I made very few notes during the sessions at the CILIP Wales conference, other than to jot down references to various articles or resources and a reminder to investigate them further. I barely tweeted at all, other than to comment on how much I liked the food and being by the beach! In short, I mainly listened, talked to other delegates, and generally absorbed the atmosphere, rather than trying to cram in loads of note taking. As a result I came away with what I felt was a more manageable list of ideas that I could explore later, instead of my more usual overwhelming pages and pages of notes that would probably just end up forgotten in a desk drawer because I didn't have time to go through them.

When I went to a big conference at the beginning of July (the CILIP conference in Liverpool) I felt it was important to continue this practice. I did take notes this time, there were so many sessions crammed in that I thought I might start to loose track of what I meant if I just jotted down keywords and to do lists. However I did still stand by the mantra of 'less is more', and tried to avoid copying everything down and attempting to quote speakers. This was made much easier because the speakers slides would be made available online, so we could access them at a later date.

In the past I have used my tweets as a form of note taking, I find that I am unable to listen properly to the speaker, take notes and compose tweets all at the same time, so combining the tweeting and note taking seemed to be a good solution. I would simply Storify my tweets after the event and then use them to compose my blog posts. However, as mentioned earlier, the notes I took this time were quite specific to me, things I wanted to try out, or explore further, or ideas they sparked. They weren't a record of what was said, and so would be pretty unintelligible to anyone else but me. It seemed pointless putting them out in public, and so I just took notes and didn't tweet very much.

And I actually felt more comfortable not tweeting. I've always been happy to tweet from conferences and believe in sharing what's happening, especially for events that can be prohibitively expensive to attend. But I did always feel a pressure to accurately convey the speakers intent and to provide enough context. There was a freedom to not feeling that responsibility, or having my attention split that I quite enjoyed.

Last week I attended the ARLIS conference in Cardiff. It was my first time at an ARLIS event, and it was also my first experience of being part of a conference working party. I found that being part of the organising team meant that I experienced the conference from a different perspective than if I had been a delegate (unsurprisingly!!).

One of my responsibilities was to blog about the conference afterwards, so I found that informed how I made notes. I didn't get to attend all the sessions, I spent some time manning the reception desk, but when I did I was no longer taking notes for myself, but instead for the blog. It meant the types of notes I took altered, because they had a specific purpose, and I adjusted what I recorded to suit that need.

So I guess what I mainly learnt was;

• For me, notes with a purpose, either because I've been asked to feedback on a session, or as a 'to do' list, seem to be more effective than simply trying to capture everything that happens.
• That it's hard to give my full attention to things if I have a competing obligation (like tweeting, or being an organiser) so if I want to do those things I need to make sure I factor it in.
• And that one of the things I like best about attending conferences is the networking (although I hate that term, and just think meeting people!) and that I find it a lot easier to do at the smaller conferences.

Hopefully, having the chance to reflect on what works best for me means that when I attend future events, I can bear it in mind and get the most out of the experience. I'd love to hear other peoples feelings about how they get value from attending them too!

Library Camp London part 2

I've all ready blogged about the morning sessions here, and after an amazing lunch (all provided by the attendees) it was time for the afternoon sessions.

Photo courtesy of Claire Black

First up was a speed networking session, based on the speed dating concept, we were partnered up and given two minutes to introduce ourselves before we swapped to the next partner, and so on till we'd met everyone. It was a great opportunity to meet people, but the two minutes weren't long enough. I wish it had been scheduled for before lunch so you could carry on the conversations that had been started.

Next up was the 'Sweary Session' pitched by Richard Veevers, on dealing with library users swearing at you. I really enjoyed this session, even though I now work in a closed access library and so don't anticipate experiencing this particular problem. It was however, pretty surreal sitting in a session discussing the origin of certain swear words while hearing 'The Wheels on the Bus' from the Rhymetime session behind us!

To start with we made the distinction that there is a difference between swearing and being sworn at. Often it's not the language which is unacceptable, but the manner of communication.

With this clarified we shared our own related experiences, and discussed the various ways we'd dealt with them (or would have preferred to deal with them!), ending with a list of points that people found useful.

• Strong support from management staff - backing you up, particularly in front of library users
• Clear guidelines on what is and isn't considered acceptable, and procedures to deal with them - although not so inflexible that some personal discretion can't sometimes be used
• A consistent message across all frontline staff - if you are all saying the same thing then situations created due to confusion will be less likely
• Confidence to call in back up if required - sometimes just a change of face can help to defuse a situation
• The understanding that there won't always be a happy resolution - you can do everything in your power to resolve the situation and still end up with an unsatisfactory result, that isn't a failure, it's just how it is sometimes!

The final session I attended was run by Steve Bowman called Vacate the Library! I was particularly keen to attend because I missed the excellent Librarians Awake! presentation he did at the CDG/New Professionals Conference last year, so I was hoping he'd cover similar themes in the session.

Steve began by telling us about some of the outreach work he's been doing at the University of Chichester, and how as a result it's allowed his department to become more visible both in the local area and within his institution. He pointed out that getting out of the library can be of benefit to you professionally and also to your institution. He also suggested that to get on as a library or a librarian it is 30% skills and 70% visibility!

There followed a discussion which allowed people to swap stories of the outreach activities they've been involved in, some of the suggestions included;

Internal

• Interact more with like-minded departments, such as e-learning for example
• Volunteer for things at work - committees, projects
• Send out regular newsletters informing staff/students/library users of your activities
• Have a strong presence on your institutions intranet
• Have pop up libraries - strategically placed by canteen/coffee machines etc.

External

• Go out to local schools, colleges, or organised groups
• Present at conferences or write for professional publications - handy if your institution is keen on raising its research profile
• Use social media - it can have a greater potential reach

I found the session really interesting, even if we did feel a bit outnumbered by the Librarians and Personality session next to us!

Thing 4 - current awareness

This post primarily focuses on Twitter, inspired in part by a number of conversations I've had lately. I’ve only been using it for about a year (I joined as part of Thing 4 last year) but I thought I would share my experience of using it so far, which may be helpful to people getting started.

Like a lot of people I had a perception of Twitter, as something mainly used by celebrities and people tweeting about what they had for breakfast, so I wasn't that interested in it.

But really I couldn’t have been more wrong, as was pointed out in a recent event we held on Social Media “Twitter is what you make of it”. I tend to use it for work, 90% of the people or organisations I follow are in the museum or library sector. Most of those people tend to tweet a mixture of personal and professional (the ‘profersonal’ approach). They share links to blogs and articles, recommend tools and resources, report from conferences and discuss issues in the profession.

There is a bit of personal thrown in there too, so they come across as real humans rather than crazed, workaholic robots, but primarily I use Twitter as an information resource, and to create and strengthen links with others in the library sector.

Whenever I talk to people about using Twitter there seem to be three main questions/problems that arise; “how do you know who to follow”; “I’m not sure I have anything to say”; and “how do you fit it all in/keep on top of it?”.

So here's how I tackled those areas.

Who to follow;

It can be difficult to know who to follow, thankfully you can usually check out a person's profile first, looking at their tweets can help you decide (plus you can always ‘unfollow’ if you change your mind!).

As I joined as part of CPD23, I of course followed @CPD23 and some of the contributors such as @Girlinthe or @Annie_Bob

I also followed organisations and institutions like @CILIPinfo (plus the CILIP sub groups @CILIPRareBooks  and @CILIPCIG); @AmgueddfaCymru; @NLWales; @HVCats; @LISNPN; @LibraryCamp and of course @CLICLibraries!

There were a number of ‘uberlibrarians’ I thought worth following, as you can count on them to draw your attention to useful blogs and online tools. People such as @Philbradley; @theREALwikiman (author of the Library Marketing Toolkit); @librarianbyday (responsible for the Library Day in the Life project) and  @bethanar (author of the LIS New Professionals Toolkit), they are of course many more, but I can't list everyone!

I also created a network of local librarians; including the CILIP Wales officer @Minimorticia, and a Cardiff list featuring @Darklecat; @helbader; @Ceridwen339; @Gemma_DS; @alisonharvey_; @MathomHouser; @glambuslib; @glamlaflib to name but a few!

Also look out for #ff (Follow Fridays) when people tweet their 'follow' recommendations.

What to tweet

I had no idea what to say for my first tweets and 'lurked' for a while, until I had the courage to say something. Another option is to start by retweeting things that are of interest to you.

Alternatively you could take part in a scheduled conversation, such as @uklibchat (Tuesdays 6.30-8.30pm GMT). The agenda is always on their blog in advance, giving you a chance to see the questions and start composing your replies. All replies need to contain the hashtag #uklibchat, meaning they can be grouped together and afterwards a summary of the discussions is posted. It’s a really great way to start taking part in conversations on Twitter, without the pressure of trying to compose tweets off the top of your head.

Or there are the chartership chats for people doing (or thinking of doing) chartership, or those already chartered who would like to give advice and support to others. Chartership chats happen on Twitter on Thursdays and are organised by Jo Alcock (@joeyanne) using the #chartership hashtag.

How to avoid becoming overwhelmed with tweets

This can be a tricky one. I'm lucky that I can access Twitter on my phone, as it means I can check it when I'm waiting for the bus or while I'm watching TV. I often save hashtags as columns, allowing me to see any tweets containing that hashtag, which can be very helpful if you are following a conference.

You can also divide up the people you follow in to lists, and just view what people from a particular list are tweeting. That way if you are a bit pressed for time you can pick and choose what type of tweets you want to look at that day, for example I might choose only to look at tweets from my list of CLIC librarians one day, and tweets from people about their #cpd23 progress the next.

Another good tip is to save things and come back to them. If tweets contain links to interesting blog posts or online articles, but I don't have time to read them immediately, I'll often bookmark them on my phone. Jen Gallagher (@medievaljenga) recommends using Pocket, and Evernote is another handy alternative, and you can log in to your account on any PC to view what you've saved.

I think the main thing though is not to worry to much about it. It's impossible to catch everything, and if something is really important/useful it will be retweeted so much that you'll catch it eventually. A lot of people archive tweets, or use Storify, meaning even if you're not aware of the conversation initially, you can still catch what was said at a later date.

Wow this post contains a lot of hyper links!

Thing 3 - consider your personal brand

Thing 3 is all about building your personal brand, a hot topic in library circles at the moment.

Like a number of people who took part in CPD23 last year, I was initially quite reluctant to engage with the idea of creating a personal brand. I had the perception that it was a bit cynical, and wasn’t too keen on the idea of ‘selling’ myself. I wonder if it is the terminology that is off putting, it’s difficult to get past the impression the word ‘brand’ tends to conjure up. Perhaps referring to it more as building or directing your reputation would be easier to engage with?

I think the most important thing I’ve learnt since then is that there are many different ways to develop a brand, many approaches will seem not appropriate or relevant, but it’s actually quite easy to find one that sits more comfortably with you. At the recent CILIP New Professionals Day Ned Potter discussed the 5 ways you could influence your brand. The thing that stood out for me most from his talk was that creating a brand should not be your end goal; it should be more a happy result of pursuing the interests that are important to you.

I think this method allows you to create a brand in a more organic, natural way, rather than as something you’ve ‘constructed’. It also allows for flexibility, as you pursue your interests and ambitions it’s likely that they will change and develop. Hopefully that means that your ‘brand’ will also develop, rather than feeling like a rigid thing you have to stick to.

So with this in mind I had a look at some of the ways in which I manage my ‘brand’, and to be honest I don't do much and it hardly takes up any time.

• I use the same profile picture for all my online accounts, it's a photo of me, which helps when meeting people face-to-face.
• I try and keep the design of my blog and Twitter account relatively consistent, I use the same background image for example. Although I regret not using matching names for them when I first set them up.
• My full name does appear somewhere on my online accounts, and a small bio. While I don't want all my personal details 'out there', I'm also not comfortable with the idea of being totally anonymous either, I think people will connect with you better if they know something about you.
• I'm not keen on the idea of merging my professional and private lives, so Twitter, LinkedIn and my blog are for work-related stuff, Facebook is for social.

Out of interest I also decided to Google myself, I did this last year, and was not particularly surprised to discover I didn’t rank very highly in the search results. Well, what a difference a year makes!

My Twitter account (@KrisWJ) is second in the listings, and I suspect I am one of those 15 professionals listed in LinkedIn. I haven’t done much with my LinkedIn account, perhaps if I did I could get it working a little harder for me!

Thing 2 - investigate other blogs

I'm always on the look out for blogs by other people working in special libraries, and particularly museum libraries, so the first thing I did was have a scan through to see if I could find any. As usual there weren't that many, but perhaps as the course goes on more will feel inclined to take part.

As I'm organising a CPD23 meet up in Cardiff I also went through looking for any participants in my area. I've already started to put together a list using Delicious to find any tagged with Wales, which will hopefully grow as people start setting up their blogs.

However the best ways I've found to keep up to date with who is taking part in CPD23 is to subscribe to the CPD23 single feed on their website, and to save the #cpd23 hashtag as a column in TweetDeck on my phone.

CLIC Social Media Event: CPD23: Learning about tools for professional development

The final presentation was by Karen Pierce (@Darklecat) on CPD23, also known as 23 Things for Professional Development, and she also used a Prezi.

She started by introducing the course and the benefits that taking part in it could provide.  She stressed that as it was an online course, which you work through independently, everyone goes at their own pace.

23 Things for Professional Development, also known as cpd23, is a self-directed, self-paced, inclusive, practical and free online programme open to librarians and information professionals at all stages of their career, in any type of role, any sector, and from any part of the world.  It encourages information professionals to explore and discover social media 'Things', including Twitter, RSS feeds and file-sharing, as well as other 'traditional' CPD routes, such as gaining qualifications, presenting skills and getting published.  Participants will be asked to assess how each Thing can assist them in their professional development, and then to blog about each Thing and share their thoughts, views and expertise.  The programme is completely informal and no prior knowledge or experience is expected or assumed.

Helen Murphy

It was advertised to start in June 2011 and run throughout the summer, ending in October/November, but as it was an independent course new people could enroll at any point during the course.  At one point there were over 787 people taking part.

In order to take part students had to set up their own blogs (or use an existing one) to record their progress.  Karen said she decided to go with Wordpress rather than the recommended Blogger to set up her's as it seemed a little more user-friendly.  One of the most enjoyable aspects of taking part in CPD23 was checking other people’s blogs.  Because there were so many participants Karen's method of deciding which to look at was to narrow it down to other cataloguers, people based in Wales or any with intriguing blog titles.

Some of Karen's highlights from the course included;

Thing 3 (which Emma also mentioned in her talk) which looked at branding (sounded off putting, but once you looked in to it actually made sense) and particularly the interconnectivity of all your online profiles.  It lead her to decide to choose an avatar picture of a woman reading that she'd seen on a Greek vase as it linked her library life to her previous role as an ancient historian.

Thing 4 which introduced Twitter, Karen mentioned finding Twitter very scary to begin with, but as she joined with loads of other CPD23 newbies that helped, and she found herself learning a lot about cake, knitting and kittens!

“Twitter is what you make of it”

Primarily she follows library people and library conferences, and has found it very useful for networking, as was demonstrated when part way through the course a CPD23 real life meet up took place at Milgis in Cardiff and led to its own hashtag #yurtup and some yurt up envy happening on Twitter.

Karen giving her presentation

Karen also pointed out that CPD23 is not just about new media but also about working on your continuing professional development in a number of areas.

As part of her presentation Karen discussed some of the pros and cons of taking part in the course;
Cons

Time - the biggest issue is finding time to fit it in around work/life, particularly during busy periods, so it's easy to slip behind

Lack of interest in some aspects – either because not all the 'things' were really applicable to her role as a cataloguer or because she was already happier using alternatives versions

Too much info - there were so many blogs and tweets to read, so much information to absorb about the 'things' that it was a bit of an overload

Pros

Setting up a blog and Twitter account

Making new contacts and networks

Gaining practice in reflective writing

Updating knowledge in a number of different areas

The encouragement you receive from others doing the course

Karen rounded up by listing her CPD23 goals for the future as;

-Maintaining her blog

-Going back over some of the 'things'

-Continuing her professional development

She ended by telling everyone that the CPD23 course was likely to run again in the New Year, and encouraged anyone who hadn't tried it before to 'have a go'.

CLIC Social Media Event: Cardiff Public Library blog and use of Twitter

"Fear and loathing on the trail to Web 2.0"

Rob Boddy's look at Cardiff Public Libraries use of social media, with an interactive component!

Rob started by giving us a little background into how Cardiff Public Libraries started getting involved in social media.  Which basically seemed to be that Swansea Public Libraries were using it and Cardiff decided to join (and beat) them!

"A public library always wants more users"
Social media was seen as a good way to connect with the users.

What did you tell them Rob? - “This social media lark is a Good Thing”

After going on a social media course, and discovering that all the tools to create a blog were freely available on the web and very straightforward to use, they decided to push ahead.

What happened next Rob?
They set up a dummy blog and Twitter account.  Institutional blogs can be quite middle of the road and lack personality, so they wanted to try and inject more humanity into theirs.  It was decided to be non-traditional, keep things informal, lively and amusing so as to create more of an identity.

Cardiff Council were very supportive of the idea, as they had been championing using social media for some time.  But they were also nervous about them going “rogue”, so they had to agree to abide by the social media policy and branding policy.

The Page 35 blog is used to discuss "books, libraries and related silliness".  It also includes a Twitter feed and a Shelfari virtual bookshelf.  Posts cover topics ranging from; linking films to books, book related furniture, and the very popular Dewey charades.

“Twitter is easy but full of strangeness”

They use their Twitter account (@cdflibraries) for advertising events and emergency information, such as library closures, and informing users of new stock and new services.  Not always easy in just 140 characters!  They also use it for answering queries, and “almost anything else not illegal”, they currently have approximately 700 followers.

Rob's Twitter nestkeeping strategies include;

-It is always on in background

-Check hourly for mentions and once a day do an advanced search

-Direct message all new followers a welcome, only people though, not organisations

"Web 2.0 blues – why so sad Rob?"

Some of the limits that Rob pointed out were;
The numbers – only 11% of  the UK population are on Twitter

Capacity – it can be very time consuming

“The guilt, the guilt, the terrible, terrible guilt”

Should I really be doing this?

Is it really part of my job?

Rob ended by pointing out that Cardiff Public Libraries social media involvement has been successful and can be seen as a worthwhile endeavour.

CLIC Social Media Event: How Cardiff University are managing their social media presence

Matt  Harvey discussed the number of ways Cardiff University Library Service were using social media with a very swish Prezi that you can see here.  

Cardiff University has a number of different online presences both internal (VLE, Portal) and external (web, blog, Twitter, Facebook).  Some of the Library's external sources include;

Web pages

Ask a librarian live

Library blog

Training videos on YouTube

Twitter

Facebook

The Library Technology Group was set up to look at new technologies and how they can be used by the library.  That lead to setting up the Social Media Group, which is made up not just of library staff, but is inter-departmental.  As part of that the Editorial Group sorts the day to day social media stuff, such as liaising with site managers and bloggers.


The core audience for their online activities are the students, but the general public, NHS users, alumni, distance and life long learners also benefit.


Although each library branch already had its own Twitter account, they decided there was also a need for a general one too.  When setting up that account there was a lot of discussion about what type of avatar to use, they decided to go with a professional picture, rather than using text or a logo.

The kinds of things @cardiffunilib tends to tweet about include;

Opening hours

Changes and disruptions to services

Promoting services

Emergency announcements, such as bad weather

Promoting information literacy and skills

Some external news, limited to what's relevant to the students

Specific information tends to be the domain of the various departmental social media tools, and staff notices are disseminated through the staff intranet and Portal.

@cardiffunilib has also created Twitter lists that it feels will be useful to their followers. Some of these lists include;
-Cardiff University departmental libraries

-Cardiff University schools and admin departments

-Bodies like UCAS, e-resources suppliers, funding bodies

-Cardiff Central Library, National Museum Wales, Chapter Arts Centre

They tend not to follow the accounts of students, as it might be considered invasive.  And although they follow the accounts of the various departmental libraries, they don't follow the individual librarians.


They also use Twitter as a form of two way communication with the students and to gain feedback, for example using the #yousaidwedid hashtag.

They have only recently started to use Facebook; they've set up their own Facebook page and are able to use it to organise events which students can RSVP to.

Finally, Matt ended by pointing out that all this activity on social media sites can be a good way to record things that the library is involved in.

CLIC Social Media Event: Using social media at Glamorgan Business School

"How I use social media for networking, current awareness and marketing: supporting staff and students in Glamorgan Business School"

The second of the 30 minute presentations was from Emma Harrison (@glambuslib) about how social media helps her connect with and meet the needs of students at Glamorgan Business School, and included a live Twitter feed (very brave, it is usually during presentations that technology decides to no longer cooperate)

She started with an introduction in to using Twitter for professional reasons.  She pointed out that Twitter helped her with her new job (she's been in the role 15 months) filling in gaps in her knowledge and boosting current awareness.  This was well illustrated as tweets started popping up in her timeline reporting the result of the #savelibraries High Court Appeal.

“What you get out of twitter is who you follow"

She described how she follows over 1,000 people on Twitter, including, librarians, news sites and staff and students at the University of Glamorgan.  As well as creating personal lists, such as a Welsh librarians list and one featuring members of the Business Librarians Association, she also created lists relevant to the subjects taught in Glamorgan Business School, such as marketing or management.

Emma recommends Twitter as a great way to share what you are doing as well as to keep up with what others are doing.

Whilst doing the CPD23 course (discussed later by Karen) she began to think of how she was coming across on Twitter. Her decision was to try to keep it professional and related to business, but also to show she is a human being.  This included looking at the language she used and the style, no text speak, staying professional, and not swearing.  The photo used for her Twitter avatar was taken by a professional photographer (all the librarians at Glamorgan had them done) and is used consistently in any promotional material produced by the University.

She decided to her username would be @glambuslib rather than something more personal so that if she moves on her replacement can keep the account.  This provides consistency for the students.

Emma also discussed how Twitter can be used to help create feelings of community, for example the #latenightlibrarian hashtag is used by librarians working on late night shifts when talking to each other.

She then went on to discuss the other social media tools she uses for work, including;
LinkedIn

Netvibes

Blog

She also pointed out that although she has a Facebook account she prefers to keep that solely for personal use.

She has a Twitter feed on her LinkedIn account as it makes it seem like she's busier on it than she actually is.

She can use LinkedIn to connect with staff not on Twitter about what she's been doing for the Business School. 

“Reaching far more staff than if sitting in the library waiting for them to ask questions”
The blog allows Emma to post information, rather than emailing it all to staff , instead she can just email them a link to the relevant post and if they are interested they can click the link to learn more but if not just delete it, which saves having to read through long emails that are not of interest.  The blog can also be used as a knowledge bank.  It's a great time saver, for example in dealing with repeat queries, it's possible to send a link to a previous blog post rather than have to write it out again.  Her Twitter feed is also linked to the blog.

Net vibes is used as a repository for subject guides for students with links to resources and information.  They are subject specific, for example, HR management.  They retain the consistency of design, used in other social media tools, professional picture etc. with links to Twitter feed and blog.  Emma uses lists to createTwitter feeds that are subject specific.

She believes that all these social media tools can help with breaking out of the echo chamber.

"Librarians suffer from people not really knowing what we do – using stuff like this (social media) can show what we do".

It can also be helpful to share and connect with the library community, you can compare and share best practice etc

Some of the questions that came up were concerns about having to follow loads of people but Emma pointed out that you don’t have to follow all the ‘list’ people.

The other main concern was how to find the time to fit in all the social media activity.  Emma pointed out that Twitter activity didn't take very long.  It is true that setting everything up can take a while, but once it is up and running it tends to take care of itself.

CLIC Social Media event: Using social media for personal and professional development

Mandy Powell (@Minimorticia) kicked things off with a presentation on how she uses social media for personal and professional development. 

She began by introducing herself and what her role as the Policy Officer for CILIP Cymru Wales tends to involve.  She also mentioned that their next conference will be held in Cardiff in May 2012!

 

 

Mandy discussed some of the ways using Twitter helps her, such as allowing her to;

Connect with the wider community

Keep up to date quickly, with no need to wait for write ups of news stories

Contribute to the debate, such as the #savelibraries campaign
Add other peoples conferences notes to her own
Interact remotely and ask questions

“a conference is not a conference without a hashtag”

Other advantages to Twitter that she pointed out were how much more successful for gaining comments and feedback after events it was than traditional feedback forms.  She also pointed out that Twitter helped with putting conferences together.

Hashtags that Mandy recommended checking out included;

#savelibraries

#ukpling

#mashlib

#CILIP

#cpd23

#uklibchat

#uklibcamp11

 

 

She mentioned that anyone new to using social media, and who might like to benefit from some help and advice could check out the Social Media Surgeries  who run regular free training sessions in the Roath, Adamsdown, Llandaff and Canton areas of Cardiff.

 

 

Mandy went on to talk about how Twitter can not only be used for professional development, but also can have a more direct impact on your work life.  She spoke about how useful Twitter is to show heads of departments or council members what you are doing rather than having to wait to do reports and make appointments to be seen, there is an immediacy to it.  It can also help lone workers who miss the chatter you get in an office environment.

 

 

She finished up with discussing some of the issues that need to be considered when using Twitter, such as;

Hardware, whether you will have getting access to it

How to strike that professional/personal balance

Being conscious of how you come across, not swearing etc.

Convincing the boss that it is worthwhile and not just time-wasting

CLIC Social Media in Libraries

On the 16^th November CLIC (Cardiff Libraries in Co-operation) organised a free training event on Social Media in Libraries hosted at Cardiff University’s Trevithick Building

It was advertised on the CLIC website (http://www.cliclibraries.co.uk/) and promoted on Twitter with the #clicsocmed hashtag set up by @CLICLibraries.  During the event there was plenty of live tweeting and a number of people were inspired to loose their Twitter "virginity".

As there was no budget to put on the event, CLIC were unable to provide any refreshments, but no-one seemed to mind as there was a coffee shop in the building, and @Gemma_DS very kindly brought some cakes, which were much appreciated.

There were six presentations in total, I'll blog about each one separately, but they included;

• Using social media for personal and professional development
• Using social media for networking, current awareness and to support staff and students in Glamorgan Business School
• How Cardiff University are managing their social media presence
• Cardiff Public Library blog and use of Twitter
• Cardiff University Virtual Librarian Service
• CPD23: Learning about tools for professional development

The event was a great success with in the region of 60 attendees, and a really enthusiastic buzz about it all during the whole thing. 

Thing 19 - Reflection

I think this 'Thing' was originally intended as a way to give people a chance for a bit of a breather and catch up.  I'm so far behind now that I'm starting to fear I won't be done in time to get the certificate (and I really want that certificate!), so I'm only going to do a brief reflection now.  I think I'll save doing a fuller evaluation of the whole course once I'm finished, and preferably after a little time has passed.  I think a little distance, and breathing space, is often required to see the true value of what you have been learning.

Some of the changes that have occurred since doing CPD23, either as a direct result, or because it confirmed what I'd already been considering, include;
Having a blog, a Twitter and a LinkedIn account
Considering setting up a library blog and Twitter account at work
Joining CILIP, and plan on joining ARLIS and the SLA (Special Library Association) in the New Year
Going to networking events, including Library Camp 2011 in Birmingham
Getting re-involved with CLIC (Cardiff Libraries in Co-operation)
Taking part in a couple of #uklibchat discussions, Library Day in the Life and the Library Routes project
Offering to do a guest post on LISNPN in the future

So far one of the things I've found most useful has been Twitter, which really surprised me.  I never used it before CPD, and had a rather negative impression of it, but once I got into it I realised how incredibly useful it is a professional tool.

But I think overall, looking at the list of things I've done I'm struck by the fact that it has all worked to raise, both my profile as a library professional and that of my place of work to the wider world.

Thing 4 - better late than never

The problem I am having with cpd23 is I am doing the things, I'm just not making the time to blog about doing them.

Twitter
I joined Twitter @KrisWJ, and have already found it incredibly useful.  Like a lot of people, my impression (quite wrongly) of Twitter was that it was just full of celebrities tweeting about what they'd just had for dinner.  Well probably there is a lot of that but it's also an amazing tool for professional networking, and I'm hooked already.  I think it is the immediacy (is that a word?) of it that is so appealing, the exchange of ideas is much faster than any forum I've experienced before.  And the 140 character limit is not as restricting as you would think, particularly as so many people use their tweets to link to blogs that can explain their point more fully.  Plus, I can access Twitter on my phone so it is very straightforward to keep up to date on the move.  When I first joined I was a bit nervous about how to proceed, but I found the following post from thewikiman really useful.

RSS
One of the things I'd been a bit overwhelmed with during Thing 2 was the sheer volume of cpd23 blogs out there, and how to possibly find the time to check them all out.  How to choose which ones to read seemed a bit like a lottery, you could use Twitter, recommendations from friends or serendipity, but there was always the chance you would miss out on someone whose blog would be of real interest to you.  The RSS feed bundle put together for the cpd23ers is really useful for that.  I can scan through recent posts and pick out the ones that catch my interest, much more informative than trying to pick from a list of just the blog titles.

Pushnote
Honestly I just can't be bothered with it (sorry).  I've tried to see the point of it, get enthusiastic about it, try it out, but it just doesn't appeal.  Probably not the best attitude to have.  Perhaps I'll give it a second chance later in the course, but for now I'd rather get on with the other 'things'.

And finally, thanks to Twitter I found this great post all about Thing 4 via Alan Rickman Genius!