[CPD23] Thing 22: Volunteering to get experience

So far I haven't really done any volunteer work in libraries. It's something I would be quite happy to do to get experience if I was missing a criteria from a dream job's description, however I would always check that I wasn't taking a job away from paid qualified staff. I think there are a lot of ways that volunteers can do a lot of good for libraries though. I had a quick look around a Volunteering Fair at UCL yesterday, and Westminster Libraries had a stall there recruiting volunteers for a homework club scheme they run across the area. Running this kind of thing would take up a lot of staff time, and a library degree really isn't necessary to help kids with their maths homework, so this is a nice way to use volunteers to supplement core library services.

Okay so what have I done? I have done the odd bits and pieces of voluntary "stuff" such as lending a hand occasionally as an assistant Cub Scout leader, organising Cam23 2.0, and I've recently joined the Cambridge Library Group committee. Things like this always seem to be very useful things to be able to talk about in job applications and at interviews, as well as being good fun to do!

PS: Since I wrote my Thing 21 post about job applications and interviews, the summary has gone up for the #uklibchat on LIS Jobs and Careers, which is well worth a read.

[CPD23] Thing 21: Promoting yourself in job applications and at interview

A lot of thinking to do for this week's Thing, but right now job applications and interviews are just about the furthest thing from my mind! I have just started my MA, which I had an interview for waaay back in December, and another interview for funding a few months ago. It's nice to know I've got a break from applications for a little bit, while I concentrate on doing the thing I actually interviewed for! I do see the sense in keeping a record, or "CV database" of things that I've done, and I did keep an Excel file of this kind of thing while I was a graduate trainee so I'm going to aim to keep the habit going.

I feel like a total cop out leaving it at that, but I have bookmarked Maria Giovanna's excellent tips, and I solemnly swear to do this Thing properly next summer before I start applying to professional posts.

Here are a few blog posts I've bookmarked in the past because they have handy application and interview tips:
Laura Wilkinson, Tips for applying for library jobs
Becky Woods, Application, application, application
Katy Wrathall, Gizza job - from both sides of the desk
Ned Potter, What's the key to a good interview - beyond the usual trueisms we all know already?

And here's a blog post that I wrote last year about practical tasks in interviews. (Includes a crowdsourced list!)

By David Davies on Flickr

Week One

UCL's main library is just behind the nekkid man

I've just finished my first week at UCL. This week has been an induction week, with introductory lectures for several of our modules, a bit of getting lost, and lots and lots of queueing! I've got my university card with a picture that apparently looks nothing like me (maybe it's actually that other Annie Johnson, the one who's stolen my email alias...) and have managed to make it through this unseasonably hot week without melting either on the tube or in the Freshers' Fayre tents!

As well as having introductions to our modules, we've also had several more general lectures on presentation skills, report writing, and an introduction to CILIP. This last was one of the most interesting, as we were debating the merits of joining CILIP and reasons not to join. I joined CILIP last year and I have blogged before about being a member. While I'm not the most active member, and I know I could get a lot more out of my membership if I put more in, I feel it is easily worth the £38 I currently pay. It was interesting to listen to the other side of the argument though, from Jen for example.

An important decision to make this week has been which optional modules to take. I have decided to sign up for Digital Resources in the Humanities and...dum dum duuuum... Cataloguing and Classification II. I've kind of surprised myself with how my attitude to cataloguing has changed over the last year - a year ago I felt rather like this, but as I've done more of it this has changed. I've especially enjoyed creating some records from scratch for our sheet music collection at Newnham. It's also important to me to get as many practical skills out of this MA, as it is after all a vocational course. When I did my undergraduate degree (which was in music), I ended up choosing lots of philosophical type of modules like Music and Ethics. These may have been very interesting, but yeah...not too useful really.

On Thursday we had a seminar in a room in Gordon Square, which was pretty much directly opposite this house:

Which, it turns out, is now this:

Statue of Newton outside the British Library

Also this week, I signed up for the British Library, which was a lot easier than I was expecting. I had my CILIP membership card all ready to enjoy that particular perk, but turns out they let pretty much anyone in nowadays, what is the world coming to?!*

I also went to my first LIKE event on Thursday night, at a lovely pub in Farringdon. The event was led by John Davies from TFPL and the starting point for the discussion was a TFPL report titled 'Connecting Information with Innovation', which examined the trends emerging in Information and Knowledge Management. My first impressions of LIKE were of a very intelligent group of people, and the debate was very lively. While I probably didn't contribute much of any use to the discussion, I enjoyed the evening and everyone was very welcoming to a first time attendee!

I'm looking forward to starting proper lectures next week, and Library Camp has been rather sneaky and somehow it is now only a week away so I've got that to look forward to too. The only question is will I have enough time this week to bake a cake...?



* In case it isn't obvious, I'm not being serious.

What I've been reading in September

Advocacy

Lauren Smith, Thing 16: Advocacy, speaking up for the profession and getting published (from the CPD23 blog)

Nikki (Musings from a Librarian), Thing 16: Advocacy 

Ian Clark, Advocacy etc. 

Ian Anstice, Arguments Against Libraries, Arguments For Libraries 

The Good Library Blog, About two thirds of reading in this country is of books from public libraries


Marketing

Ned Potter, Marketing Libraries in a Web 2 World [slides]


Social Media

Nancy Baym, Personal Connections in the Digital Age (Cambridge: Polity, 2010)

Meredith Farkas, The Changing Professional Conversation

Ned Potter, thewikiman blog? There's an app for that! (Useful looking tool for turning blogs into iphone apps, shame no Android support though!)

Ian Clark, Turning blogs into apps (How the above tool could be a lot better)

Laura Wilkinson, Highlights from Oxford Social Media Day 2011

Jo Alcock, 6 Twitter Tips for Organisations #hhlib (Great advice from Donna Ekhart at the Handheld Librarian conference)


eBooks and Digital Resources

JSTOR, Early Journal Content on JSTOR, Free to Anyone in the World 

Simon Barron, UK Government rejects idea of National Digital Library

David Rapp, Sony Announces First Dedicated eReader with Wireless Library eBook Download Capability

Obnoxious Librarian from Hades, The one with the e-book chaos 

Julie Bosman, Kindle Connects to Library eBooks (But only in the US as yet)

Bobbi Newman, How to Check Out (and Return!) Library eBooks from OverDrive on Your Amazon Kindle


Library School

Annie Pho, What does your degree mean to you? (Is a library degree more than just a "union card"?)


The Future of Libraries

Ian Clark, Could the UK soon need an official 'Banned Books Week'? 

Ned Potter, Skip to the end: library futures, now... 


Misc.

Anna Martin, Organising a Day Trip 

Central Station, Mysterious Paper Sculptures

Brian Herzog, Work Like a Patron Day 2011

By LibraryMan on Flickr

[CPD23] Thing 20: Library Routes and Day in the Life projects

I think the Library Routes project is a brilliant idea. I've been aware of the wiki for a while and read quite a few of the posts. I haven't written one myself because, well, it wouldn't be very long! I don't know if I've been working in libraries for long enough to have roots, let alone routes, but I will write about my 'rootlings' anyway!

'Winding Road' by AColvin on Flickr

 I can't pinpoint the exact moment when I decided that I wanted to become a librarian. When I was 14 I wanted to be a vet. When I was 17 I wanted to be a music therapist. When I was 20 and coming towards the end of my music degree I didn't know what I wanted to be, except I knew I would be a terrible teacher and I was in no way talented enough to become a concert pianist... Luckily I had been working part time in the music library as a student assistant, and it began to dawn on me that this would be a job I would both enjoy and be good at.

I began to talk to librarians and other information professionals about this idea, however this began a bit disastrously! The first couple of people I spoke to about being a librarian were quite negative, and assured me that technology was already replacing librarians, and that it was turning into a dead-end job. This was slightly discouraging, but after speaking to some more people I realised that this wasn't the majority view thank goodness! The Library Day in the Life project was really helpful when I was looking into different kinds of library jobs, and that is the other part of the Thing this week. I have done a few posts during the last two rounds of Library Day in the Life, and if you're interested in reading my Day in the Life posts they can be found here.

I started to apply to graduate trainee positions during my last year of university, and after a few interviews was offered the place at Newnham. My graduateship was brilliant, and I am really lucky that when it finished they kept me on as a part time library assistant as our senior library assistant has decided to reduce her hours. I'm loving working in a library. I have a lot of variety in my work which is great because it means I have learnt so many new things. I have also just started an MA in Library and Information Studies at UCL, which means that I will be able to study the theory behind the things I am doing in practice in my job.

My roots are probably quite similar to many other peoples'. It seems to be quite common for people to "fall into" librarianship. It would be cool if librarians were more prominent at careers fairs etc. to get the word out that librarianship is actually a career, it's actually something people do!

The Space Between

Since my traineeship finished, I'm now in theory a part time library assistant, working 14 hours a week. However I had a few weeks until my MA started, so I have been going in to work most days to rack up some hours! This has been great as I've been able to work with Polly, our new graduate trainee. In between going over Library of Congress Subject Headings (sorry Polly...) and which sticky labels go on which books (important concerns!), we've been working on an exhibition on Newnham's connections with the Bloomsbury group. One of the group, Frances Partridge, was a student at Newnham, and Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own was based on a series of lectures given at Newnham and Girton Colleges.

In other news, Cam23 2.0 ended this week. We held our closing event at the Museum of Classical Archaeology on Thursday night, holding an awards ceremony for those voted the best bloggers, and nomming our way through far too much cheese and pineapple. It was a lovely end to the programme, and although I'm feeling quite a bit of relief that it's over (only one set of 23 Things to think about now!), I had a great time both as an organiser and a participant. 

Next week is induction week at UCL, so I will be off to the big city, clutching a map and my brand new Oyster card. I'm looking forward to meeting people that I have only spoken to through Facebook and Twitter, and to being a student and learning again, although I'm sure I'm sure I'll soon get over the novelty factor on that one!

'UCL Students do it 24/7' apparently. By Ofey on Flickr

[CPD23] Thing 17: The medium is the message - Prezi and Slideshare

It has rather amused me reading through the CPD23 feeds over the last couple of weeks and seeing the number of posts along the lines of "This is a placeholder post for Thing 17, order must be maintained! *twitch*" I have to say the thought did cross my mind to do the same! Oh librarians :)

Prezi
I've only recently started using Prezi, after we covered this in Cam23 2.0. At the moment I'm still playing with it, and making frivolous presentations such as this one of my Dublin holiday:

Dublin, September 2011 on Prezi

When I start at UCL I'm sure I will have to start giving proper presentations, so I may have the chance to use this tool then. In the meantime I made my second complete Prezi for CPD23, which condenses my instruction post on Twitter into Prezi form:

Twitter: What's it all aboot eh? on Prezi

I really like Prezi as a presentation tool, it's intuitive to use and for an audience it is nice to see something other than Powerpoint slides once in a while. When I do use it I'll make sure not to whirl about madly and make people sick!

As a project for the future, I would like to have a go at making an interactive map of our library using Prezi, something along the lines of this one by Ned Potter.  I’ll probably need to practice a bit more before I attempt that though...

Slideshare
I’ve only used Slideshare as a creator once before, when I wanted to share a presentation the graduate trainees made for the Libraries@Cambridge conference. Surprisingly, our presentation was chosen as one of Slideshare’s ‘Featured Presentations’ (I’m not sure why, it seems quite a niche topic!) and then went on to get over a thousand views in a week, which was a bit of a strange experience! Again, I think this is something that will become increasingly more useful in the future as I start making more presentations.

Apart from that, I have used Slideshare quite often to view other peoples’ presentations. After conferences or other events I will usually have another look at the presentations, which are often hosted on Slideshare.

I think if you were going for a job in design or marketing, a slide-deck CV could be a good way to show your skills off. If I was going for a job which asked for these skills in the job description, I might consider putting together a Powerpoint or even a Prezi CV. It obviously couldn't contain as much detail as a traditional CV (at least, not without filling your slides with text and making a rubbish presentation) so I don't think it could replace the paper one.

I'm glad the last weeks of the programme are going to be spread out a little bit more, as I start at UCL on Monday. However I think the last few Things are going to be some of the most useful and interesting, so bring it on!