Thing 9 - Evernote

Evernote is a service for notetaking and archiving digital items including web pages, photographs, and audio recordings.  You can then add comments and edit your items before tagging them which allows you to group them together and search for them by tag later.

I like the idea of having a tool to let me organize what I’m looking at online.  Sometimes I feel that there is so much out there that you could almost drown under all the information, so anything that helps you keep (the illusion!) of control is a good thing.

Unfortunately, Evernote is yet another thing that I've downloaded but just not had the time to really play about with.  I've downloaded it to my phone and had a go at sending photos taken with the phone straight to Evernote, which was very successful.  However, I know that is only scratching the surface of what Evernote can do, so I guess I'll have to make the time to explore it more fully. 

Thing 8 - Google Calendar

The theme of thing 8 is organising yourself, so it's ironic that it's taken me weeks to get round to posting about it.

I told myself it was because I really wanted a chance to play about with Google Calendar before I passed judgement.  But the truth is I haven't really been all that motivated to try it out, on first glance it just hasn't really grabbed me.

I already use a calendar in Microsoft Outlook to record work appointments, deadlines, and meetings.  However, I don't tend to use it to record non-work related appointments.  Also, I only work three days a week at the library, the other two days of the working week I have another job which doesn’t involve using a computer at all.  So, I use a diary to record appointments and to write reminders as I can carry it around with me in my bag. 

I had been thinking for a while that perhaps a diary that combined everything, personal and both jobs, would be of benefit, because at the moment it’s a bit like I change heads depending on which job I'm at.  But it would need to be something I could use on the go, so I downloaded Google Calendar to my phone and I fully intend to start playing about with it.

Library Day in the Life #7 part 3

I started writing this post on Friday to record my final day of the Library Day in the Life project, but for one reason or another I never got round to posting it.  Even though the project has finished now (for this round) I thought I might as well go ahead and post it any way.

Today I manage to get in relatively early, as it’s just gone 8.30 when I arrive.  I bring the morning’s papers up to the library with me, and sit down and go through the local ones for any mention of the museum.  We cut out and paste into scrapbooks every newspaper cutting we find from the local papers regarding the museum.  Our scrapbooks go right back to the formation of the museum, and make for fascinating reading, although some of the early ones are practically falling to pieces these days.

After that I set about weeding the main library new books and journals displays.  All new books and journals are displayed for a period in the main library, and for many staff they are the first place they head to when they visit us.  I tend to weed the books once the shelves get full, so how often I do that tends to depend on how much new stock we have coming in.  Occasionally we make exceptions for books that we think lots of people are going to want to see, and they get to stay on longer.

I nip down to the main hall coffee shop to grab a takeaway coffee, I don’t really have time to take a full break this morning.  When I get back up I start going through the morning’s post.  This is not one of my regular jobs, but rather something I do when my colleague is away.  I end up getting side-tracked by Plastiquarian, the journal of the Plastics Historical Society (more interesting than it sounds), and in particular by a photo of Ekco’s Novaware by David Harman Powell, tableware that was designed in the 1960s.

Also amongst the post were a few journals for the Cambrian Archaeological Association.   In addition to our own library collections we also house the libraries of the Cambrian Archaeological Association and the Cardiff Naturalists Society.

After lunch I package up some museum publications to send to the copyright libraries.  The museum is obliged to send out copies of all its publications to the 6 legal deposit libraries; the British Library, the Bodleian Library, Cambridge University Library, the National Library of Scotland, the Library of Trinity College, Dublin and the National Library of Wales.  The publication I am sending out today is the new companion guide to the Museum's art galleries, in both English and Welsh.

The end of the day comes around before I know it, and it's a mad rush to get things finished off before I'm back in again next week.

Library Day in the Life #7 part 2

It’s back to normal again today, as I don’t manage to make it in before 8.30 so I try and power through the basement corridors to get up to the library on time.  It’s funny to think how easily I used to get lost walking about the museum basement.  For the first few weeks I used to have to be escorted to and from the library otherwise I would have got lost en route, the basement can be a bit of a maze when you’re new.

I head over first thing to do some shelving in one of the department libraries, I prefer doing things like that early as it means I can trundle through the galleries with my trolley and not have to worry about the noise being a disturbance.  I also do a bit of tidying while I’m there departmental libraries rely on the ‘trust’ system for loans, staff fill in a loan card and place it on the shelves in the spaces occupied by the books or journals, and sign them back in afterwards, removing the loan card.  Because it’s a ‘self-service’ arrangement the shelves can get a little messy, so every now and again we go out and put them in order, although to be honest it’s not something that has to be done too often, staff are pretty good at keeping the place neat. There is no limit on how many books a member of staff can borrow at one time, nor how long they can keep them for, I’ve seen loan cards for books signed out from back in the 1980s.  As we are primarily a reference library it’s not really a problem if someone else wants a book already on loan, as you just check the name on the card and pop over to their office to ask if they’ve finished with it.

We are a great deal quieter today than yesterday; we have no external visitors, only staff members in, and one of the Museum Friends doing research for the art tours they do around the art galleries.  It’s not surprising to find staff up here simply using the library as a quiet place to work, plus if they need to spread their work out then we often have more space for that than in their offices.

Because we were so quiet after lunch I was able to get on with some accessioning.  Every book, complete journal volume and annual report that we hold has its own unique identifying number – an accession number.  These are generated manually; we have a list and mark off each number, in order as it is assigned.  These are then inputted into the corresponding catalogue record, and written into the front of the book, they act in exactly the same way as barcodes.  On a regular basis these numbers and the records attached to them are printed out in a list which is stored for future reference, should we ever need them.  We have accession register books dating back to the founding of the museum library; although those ones were all hand written (usually in beautiful copperplate handwriting).  They do still provide a useful point of reference if we are having problems finding an item.

Before heading home I have a look through some old photos of the museum we have in our photographic archive.  There are some lovely ones of the library from the early 1950s, and apart from the fact that there is more clutter and we all have computers, the library hasn’t really changed all that much.

Library Day in the Life #7

I'm a part-time library assistant working in a museum library.  I’m taking part in the Library Day in the Life project this time because although I used to enjoy reading the posts in the previous rounds this is the first time I've had a blog of my own.

The library I work in has been part of the museum since it was built in the early part of the 20th century.  The initial collection moved in the 1920's into a purpose built library, but as it rapidly outgrew that space material moved out to form a number of smaller, unstaffed departmental libraries. The original room, where we are based, is now known as the Main Library (or ML).

Because I am only part-time my week doesn't start till Wednesday, I try to get in fairly early, I aim for 8.30 but it is often later before I manage to arrive.  However, today for some reason I make it in for 8.20, which does leave me with the unsettling feeling that I’ve forgotten to do part of my normal morning routine.

When I arrive in the morning I tend to make my way up to the library through the art galleries, it gives me a chance to be nosy at what exhibitions they have.  At the moment a number of cases are being cleared as a temporary exhibition is moving on so I am looking forward to seeing what will be replacing it in the coming weeks.

It’s always very silent when I first come in, but at 10.00am when we open to the public there will be an explosion of noise in the main hall.  We are at the top of the building up above the public spaces and the sound really echoes.  Mondays are the only days we are closed to the public, and I’ve often wondered what it would be like working here then, as I imagine the silence would be quite eerie.
 
When I first get in I work through my emails, I get a variety including order status reports from our book suppliers, feedback on queries that came in the previous week, and details of any visitors we have coming in.  Although our main purpose is to provide information resources for the museum’s staff, we also accommodate researchers requiring material that is not easily available in other libraries.  These are usually by appointment only and we tend to require that visitors know in advance what they are looking for.

After clearing the backlog of emails I head out shelving and tidying, both in the main library and in one of the departmental ones.  The advantage of having our libraries spread throughout the building is you do get the opportunity to get out and about a bit; in fact there are some days when I am barely at my desk at all.  I’m less enamoured of shelving in the main library stacks, as I have a real love/hate relationship with them.  On the one hand I appreciate that they are originals from when the building was designed, and that they are unusual because they are pull-out stacks rather than static shelving or roller racking.  However, their disadvantages are that they were obviously designed for small books, the shelves themselves are not very wide, and all the stacks are too close together, and they are really heavy, particularly when full.

This morning I also made time to sign up for Library Camp UK 2011 in Birmingham, I’m really looking forward to it, and particularly all the cake that seems to have been promised.  I checked Twitter and my RSS feeds to see what people are talking about in the library world today, and I finally got round to posting Things 6 and 7 of my cpd23 things, I’d written them earlier, but hadn’t yet published them on my blog.

After lunch I’m checking back in journals and auction catalogues that have been down in the various departments.  Much of the stock we have either stays in the ML or heads down to its permanent home in the departmental libraries.  However, we have a small portion of the collection that goes on circulation before finally returning to be housed in the ML.  We keep a check list for things going out and coming back in, and one of my jobs involves recording the safe return of these items, or chasing up any outstanding ones.

We are unusually busy today, as well as a member of staff working all day in the library we have had visitors in both the morning and afternoon.  We are normally much quieter, and particularly so during the summer months when staff tend to be away.  Many of our outside visitors tend to be postgraduate students from the nearby universities, particularly the conservation, archaeology and museum studies courses, but as it's the summer holidays we have not seen so much of them recently.  We also have our volunteer with us today; he is currently working through shelves of pamphlet material, checking their details on the card catalogues and then inputting them onto our cataloguing system.  We started using a computerised catalogue back in 1999 but the job of putting all the old stock on to it is so vast we are still working through it.

Towards the end of the day it gets a bit quieter and I’m able to work for a bit on the library e-newsletter.  We decided last year to start producing an electronic newsletter to circulate to all staff.  I act as the editor (although the Head Librarian always has the last word!) and content tends to include details of resources we have purchased, interesting new acquisitions and library announcements.

By then it is time to head home, and I realise I’ve been so busy today I haven’t even had time to make myself a cup of tea!

Thing 7 - face-to-face networking and professional organisations

CILIP
I sent off my application for CILIP (Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals) membership two weeks ago.  I'd been in two minds about whether it was worth joining for some time.  We have an institutional membership at work, so I was able to read the various publications they produce, attend training events and all the other benefits of being a member any way.  And I'd been following the various discussions on whether CILIP membership was good value for money on blogs such as Phil Bradley's and the CILIP Communities forums.  However, prompted in part by the thought that I may want to become chartered at some point I've decided to join, we'll see how it goes!

ARLIS
ARLIS (Art Libraries Society) is another one that we have institutional membership to, and so begs the question as to whether it is worth paying for individual membership.  I'm still undecided on this one, although I suspect I will probably decide to join.

LISNPN
As mentioned in the Thing 6 post, I'm a member of LISNPN and am trying to make the effort to attend any events organised in (or near) my area.

CLIC
Cardiff Libraries in Co-operation I've been part of this organisation since it's inception, although lately I haven't been very active.  CLIC puts on regular training and networking events for people working in libraries in Cardiff.  Some of the training events have been incredibly useful, though by far the best thing about them have been the behind the scenes looks at the various different libraries in Cardiff.  And, for a while I was the website administrator for the CLIC site.

Last, but not least, I went to what I hope will be the first of many CPD23 Cardiff meet-ups last week.  It was great meeting people I had been communicating with on Twitter (which along with blogs helped to coordinate the meet up).  We were lucky to get the yurt almost entirely to ourselves and had a very sociable time, although we didn't really talk about cpd23 that much!

                                                       Photo courtesy of WalesOnline.co.uk

Thing 6 - online networks

I'm still quite new to the idea of networking as it is something I don't really feel that comfortable doing.  However, online networking seems to be a great way to introduce yourself to it in a (relatively) pain free way.

LinkedIn
I've had a look at LinkedIn, and it is definitely something I plan on joining, although I haven't got round to doing so yet.  I think it might well take me a while to fill in my profile.  I haven't been good at keeping my CV up to date, and it's been quite a long time since I last had to fill in a job application, so putting together a decent profile will need more thought than I have time for right now.  But it is something I plan to work on before the end of summer.

Facebook
I've been on Facebook for a number of years now.  I only joined because so many of my friends were on it and it seemed such a convenient way to stay in touch with the ones that lived far away.  I don't go on it that much, and to be honest I really don't think I like the idea of using it for work purposes.  I would much rather keep my professional and personal life separate.

LISNPN
I joined the LIS New Professionals network about a year ago (I think) and so far have found it really useful.  In fact it was through LISNPN that I first heard about CPD23 and decided to take part.  I also went to the first face-to-face networking event I'd been to in ages through LISNPN when I attended the Bristol meet-up back in June.  It's been great seeing how many more people have been joining it as a result of doing the CPD23.