Chartership Blogger

Good news everybody!

2011-01-26T05:12:00.000-08:00

I have just received good news:

"I am pleased to inform you that at its meeting on 25/01/2011 the Chartership Board accepted your submission for Chartership. You are therefore invited to register as a Chartered member of CILIP."

Yayyyy!!! :D

To wrap up everything, I will do some reflection on the entire process, it will wrap thing up for me and it is always good to look at the entire process when finished.

More later!

Final update

2010-12-17T13:52:00.001-08:00

......the portfolio has been checked, printed and is sitting in the out tray.

Phew, it feels strange. I am getting withdrawal syndromes already, perhaps I should open the sealed envelope again and just read it though again, just in case I forgot something ........ worst thing would be if the appendix and page number doesn't match! ............. amazing how little things can matter so much!

I've heard CILIP has stopped advertising the new MCLIP in the national newspapers, great! Just when I needed some support to show the value of my CPD at work.......

Anyway, so the portfolio should reach CILIP next week and hopefully I will hear some news in six months time, good news I hope.

Selection!

2010-12-16T06:08:00.000-08:00

So, the CILIP Chartership Handbook has been updated. It is good timing, because I am one day away from sending in my portfolio, so have just been reading it just in case anything has changed since I have been away.

I did notice this bit:

"You will be demonstrating your professional judgment in the selection and organisation of your evidence. The emphasis is on the relevance of the material; quality is more important than quantity! You may include examples of personal reflective writing (not necessarily intended for publication) where they provide evidence of professional development. Your portfolio should be reflective and evaluative."

The past couple of days I have been trying to reduce the number of evidence in my portfolio, such a difficult task! All that effort that has gone in to the evidence that I have now excluded, it is painful!

Not that numbers matter, but I have reduced the number of evidence from 29 different documents, to 21, this includes the CV, the PPDP and so on.

I am scared that I have removed too much now, what if they think I have not included enough evidence?

Online Information 2010

2010-12-07T03:58:00.001-08:00

Although I am finished with my Chartership portfolio (door closed, just waiting for lift off) I am going to keep posting my CPD experiences on my blog. This way I will stay in the routine of looking at outcomes and reflecting on my experiences at work. Perhaps using it for my revalidation in the future, who knows.

So I attended the Online Information 2010 at Olympica Conference Centre in London (www.online-information.co.uk) after a years break (blame it on the baby!).
I had prepared myself for the exiting rushing around from seminar to seminar and stall to stall. My manager gave me some of her input for things to look out for and I was hoping get updated on the latest happenings, tools, websites and information sources I had missed out on while on maternity.

As usual there were free seminars on different topics. I tend to select the ones I find interesting and create a timetable for myself so I don’t miss any of the seminars. But this year I was a bit disappointed with the seminar selection, they didn’t have much on career development or new tools, no Phil Bradley or Karen Blakeman or anybody else going through the latest LIS stuff. I attended 4 out of 5 seminars on my list, and they were nothing exiting to be honest. Other people must have felt the same, because a lot of people were walking out after the first 15minutes, and even I was tempted to do so to avoid falling asleep.

I felt very disappointed, as the seminars are what I look forward to and I bring back lots of new ideas and a lists of things to do and websites to visit etc. Whoever selected the speakers for the free seminars this year must have been very desperate! Or maybe all the good ones were kept for the expensive masterclasses??

I also noticed that there were fewer students attending this year and also fever CPD or career related seminars. It seems to have become more commercially focused this year. The conference seemed to suit buyers or managers more, rather than students or graduates. Obviously, I didn’t attend with the intention of purchasing anything, which is why I felt a bit out of the target.

Another thing I noticed was the low attendance and also several empty exhibitor stalls. Many of the usual exhibitors were not present, for example Mintel, KeyNote, Oracle, Datamonitor and so on. And I wonder why?

So what did I get up to?

Well, I had a good long chat with Michael Martin from CILIP at the stand (where they also had the Wii bowling set up!) about my Chartership, what doors it opens up for me and I learned that when I finish my Chartership I could get enrolled at a distance learning university and possibly go straight to the dissertation. THAT makes me feel my Chartership gives value! He also spoke about how an unnecessary long portfolio be a negative thing, so I will need to look at the portfolio with fresh eyes and reduce and only keep what is relevant to the criteria, perhaps using a chartership criteria matrix.

At the Ebsco stand, I asked if our contact person was around, which she wasn’t so instead I asked what new is happening at Ebsco, and the lady said “oh not much”…… so I just walked to the next stand.

I spoke to CLA about the new Print Disability Licence, but I was told that it all depends on the licence we have at the moment (e.g. business licence) and I was told that the best thing would be to speak to the person dealing with it at CLA, which is what my manager and I had in mind anyway.

I noticed the Direct Marketing Association’s stand, and asked them what they were there to promote, and it seemed they were there just to recruit members! Not sure how though…..

Then I spoke to a gentleman at the Eurostat stand, we started talking about the European Commission’s database first which had some useful data I could use for my enquiries, but then he told me he was Scottish, which he didn’t look because he was originally Italian, but he studied somewhere else and now lives in Switzerland with his Danish wife from Randers! It is nice to know there are lots of people out there like me with a complicated story to tell.

As I was walking around I tried to find some databases that would hold some technical/technological statistics, as I have been asked so many times why we don’t include market data on the hard core subjects in our collection, along with retail/leisure and so on. I really tried, but at the fair I only found database providers who offered article databases for scientists, not really useful for marketers! I think I will try and check the British Library's Business and IP section to see what they have on this.....

Finally, I had a long chat with Graham from Soutron who is almost like a relative of the Library. He has designed a new product called Solo which is an upgraded version of Textworks.
Textworks is like the backbone of the Library. Solo is much more contemporary with its databases linked with urls and it has all the technological features you tend to see with the library databases these days. Inspired by the internet, it is much quicker and avoids the walls between the different sections of the catalogue. I actually forgot to ask him to show me the enquiry logging bit, which is a bit silly of me as that is what I would have like to know about.

It is not a revolutionary product by any means, but it would make many daily tasks quicker and it just means a lot to have the latest software when you use it day in and day out! So thumbs up for Soutron Solo! Let’s hope we buy it soon!

If I had to rate the overall conference experience, I would give it 3 out of 10, while in the past it has been a 8 out of 10. But I wouldn’t have known that unless I had been there, amirite?

I didn’t bring back much on the latest trends in information retrieval, the only CPD related inspiration I got was by speaking to Michal Martin and the buzz was just not there.

Oh and next time, if I go, I will bring my own sandwich, I found £5 for a cheese and tomato Panini so crazy that I didn’t bother getting a drink with it!

Customer Service and Technology?

2010-10-21T07:48:00.000-07:00

So, am finally back from my maternity leave, things are a bit crazy still, but I am all set to get back on track again.

I had a funny moment, I didn't say anything at the moment, but yesterday when a lady said to me: "today being a librarian is all about customer service and about the new social media tools....." I just wished I had told her there and then that THAT (and more) has always been the case for Librarians; customer service is one of our core principles, when was it not part of our work?

Also, from what I understand of history, we have always adapted the latest technologies into our work, from very early on actually, so just because the libraries are using web 2.0 tools now, doesn't mean we just opened up our eyes to technology today. It's like, just because your eyes are closed, doesn't mean I am not here!

That is all I wanted to say....... feel better now.....

In the meantime.......

2010-08-11T03:11:00.000-07:00

This has happened!

Instead of reading the CILIP magazine alone, I read it with Gurveer:

My chartership is more or less ready to hit the press now and I am going to hand it in either before my maternity leave finishes, that way I do not need to extend it with the new updates at my work, or as soon as possible after begining work again.

Academic libraries article......

2009-08-18T03:38:00.000-07:00

While scanning the daily newspapers today (noh I don't do it for pleasure, it is part of my job trust me!) I came across this article in The Guardian. I have highlighted some of the sentences in the article which made me nod my head while reading. I must admit, despite being a Librarian I hardly read books anymore, strange world isn't it?

In The Guardian, Tuesday 18 August 2009:

Academic libraries are undergoing a quiet revolution

Being a librarian these days is all about technology and customer service; no time to stick your

Anne Hannaford has a passion for what libraries can mean for people. Photograph: Andrew Fox
Thirty years ago, says Professor Jane Core, director of library and learning services at the University of Northumbria, people went into librarianship for a quiet life that had a bit of cachet. If they think that now, however, "they may be disappointed," she says. "Here, our focus is on working with people and with information." There's not much spare time to stick your nose in a book.
Applying for a job in a university library because you "love reading" isn't going to get you very far these days. These hallowed repositories of academic knowledge have changed beyond recognition over the last decade, and the people recruited to work in them have to be willing to embrace new technologies and customer service with an alacrity that would likely horrify the shushing custodians of the past.
The digital revolution in the late 1990s transformed – and is still transforming – everything, explains Toby Bainton, secretary of the Society of College, National and University Libraries (Sconul).
"It's been a mixed blessing," he explains. "Distributing and sharing information is much easier, but things are much more complex behind the scenes. Students think that what they see on their screens is free, but information is very valuable and has to be bought, so often what they see is very strictly controlled by contract."

I am not going to insert more of the article, don't want the newspaper to come after me! But you should be able to read the rest of it on the Guardian's website.

Information Officer needed!....

2009-08-04T05:01:00.001-07:00

....my organisation is looking for an Information Officer (to replace me while I am on maternity leave from September) and so far we have not been very lucky! So if anyone out there is looking for a full time temp work in a marketing library situated in a lovely location (Maidenhead) with lots of staff benefits (free lunch is just one of them!) please let me know!

I know when I say Information Officer it sounds like it could be someone doing more or less anything, could be in a reception, at a police station, in a council and so on, so I understand that the title is what makes people feel that it is the sort of thing anyone can do (which explains the lack of qualified applicants for this position!).

Sorry but we do require a person with a LIS related qualification! It does state so on the advert, but unfortunately we (our profession) have not been successful in making the Information Officer a librarian related title only, and this is the punishment!

Luckily my manager (being a Librarian herself) feels the same way as I do (and should do!) that a Librarian's role cannot be replaced by a non-qualified librarian (unless we are talking about someone with years of experience in librarianship without qualifications...... which is a quite rare anyway...). It would have dangerous consequences for the existance of our profession, so why dig our own hole? We should naturally keep loyalty to our own profession just like any other profession would. I can imagine HR people may not fully agree with this (they have their reasons I guess!) but just like a Marketer would not want to be replaced by a Librarian, a Librarian cannot be replaced by a Receptionist (no offence to receptionists, they are very nice people, my mum is one of them even!)

What if I was a Business Librarian or a Business Information Researcher? Do you think it would help?

Anyway, any questions, please get back to me. I am very friendly and I am always happy to help :)

Because.....

2009-07-23T04:04:00.000-07:00

Okay, the person who asked me has now come back to me after reading my previous post and she doesn't want to know why I blog (thank God!), but wanted to ask the benefits of blogging for chartership. Now that is much easier to answer. I'll give you my story:

When I started my Chartership (ages ago!) I was struggling to write notes and my thoughts would be all over the place which gave me a setback of 6 months. Another thing that was bothering me was never understanding how to be relective, the right way. Sure I would think and look back at many things I had learnt, but I never managed to get used to reflective writing until I started writing this blog.

I started noticing blogs while working on enquiries at work and one day found a blog by one of my previous uniy friend in Danish on the development of her work at a children's library in Copenhagen.
In her blog she would write anything and everything she felt the need to share about her work and it was a very interesting read, a bit like reading someones diary, except that this one was work related so I could actually make some use of it too!

My blog became my tool to motivate me as the blog made me visible in the public. To begin with I never imagined anyone would ever stumble across it! But slowly I began to understand that there are actually people reading my silly constructions of words.

You need to keep a blog up to date which forced me to think of my chartership more often than I would have normally. You would think that this should have made me complete my Chartership much quicker, it probably should have, but the truth is that the blog opened up my world to so many new tools to try, which distracted me, but I was distraction in a good way :)

My blog:

- has made my thoughts publicly accessible, making me think twice about what I do at work
- has given me dicipline with regards to Chartership
- has given me a place to practice reflective thinking
- gives me the freedom to whatever I choose to write about, no rules and restrictions
- has introduced me to new web technology which I left behind when completing my studies
back in 2005 and has brought me up to date once again.
- has become my notebook; Instead of writing down my notes and thoughts for myself on a
sheet only I can see, I am doing it in front of others and getting feedback on my thoughts at the
same time
- is also a useful place to let off steam, as it is my personal blog, it is all about me

I am hoping this will be useful to other bloggers or soon to be bloggers as well. Blogging has really worked out well for me, even though I am not much of a writer and English is not even my first language. Getting your thoughts out in public is a different thing altogether, you don't have to have a conversation with yourself any more, it's much easier to blog and become part of a wider community that does not exist elsewhere.

Moreover, I am the only one in my department who blogs which means that if this is something my organisation today or in future will be doing I will at least have some advantage.

I know it is much more valuable and looks much better to have your article published in a LIS magazine but that isn't me, I'm not really a writer, I am just a web user librarian who wants to contribute to online content :)

The blog

2009-07-21T06:44:00.000-07:00

I am almost at the final states of my chartership now. I must admit the confusing part is not over yet, but I won't go into that right now.

The other day I was asked why I blog and why do I write a blog about my chartership?
It almost sounded as if it was a strange thing to do, as if it is too boring to read and write about!

It made me wonder.

Is my blog just a self created tool that I use to talk about my chartership for my own sake or do is there a greater meaning?

Give me a couple of days and I will get back to you on this one.......

Marketing Search Engine, Part II

2009-07-13T01:36:00.000-07:00

Still here....

2009-06-18T12:54:00.000-07:00

Well, not much going on here these days. Why? Well my organisation has decided to increase our levels of censorship on the internet! Hmfh! I basically do not have access to my own blog now even though it is part of my CPD which my organisation is paying for. But of course this is not something our IT department would know so I have requested this site unblocked……… so hopefully soon……………. In the mean time I am writing the little headings or introductions to all my evidence. It is not that it takes a lot of time, it is more a lack of concentration and I would like to share another thing that makes it much much harder to complete my portfolio, it’s CILIPs chartership board’s meeting dates; if you would like to submit your portfolio on one of the dates (for example the 8th July ‘09) you have to hand in your portfolio three weeks before this date! So you could say that the deadline is actually 3 weeks before the 8th! Moreover, if I do hand it in in time, there is a 50/50 percent chance that the examiners will see it this time around, if not then next time! It means that the deadline is not really a deadline!

Twittering away

2009-04-06T08:06:00.000-07:00

Yes yes I have now joined Twitter too........... hmm, its all good. I think sometimes it takes a lot more work than just joining, you have to dedicate yourself in a way you might now expect to begin with. So if I just keep it at this stage for now, when I get a Aha! thought for what Twitter can do for me, then I will go straight there and continue. for now, I have just joined for the sake of joining. Can't say I am not being honest.
Was reading in the news, Google might be taking over Twitter .......... it seems like everything I touch turns to Google!

Marketing the library services

2009-03-31T05:21:00.000-07:00

Yesterday an email was sent around to our members and studying members as a "reminder" of the library services they have access to as members. It was probably the only marketing of the library that did not have other services included, or where the library was not just a "side dish". In other words: This email was about the library only!! What an honour!

It was a quite simple email, with a professional layout and examples of the type of searches we could do and it was a great success in terms of response.

The only thing I can complain about is that the email was sent out in the late afternoon, 45 mins before we close and we were aware that this email was being created, but had no clue it was being broadcasted on that day! So as one out of the two people on the telephone I must have sounded surprise in the first call referring to this email.

Done about 30-40 enquiries today!

My Marketing Search Engine

2009-03-27T05:03:00.000-07:00

Inspired by a web 2.0 I attended, I have for a while been fiddling with the thought of creating a search engine for all my marketing resources which I have created as a researcher in my current for the past 2.5 years.

Although the bookmarks in my browser are a great way of keeping all the links in one place and even in subject order, when it comes to actually using them you need to go through many links before you actually find what you are looking for, unless your brain is so sharp that you have all your bookmarks memorized, in which case you really do not need any of these tools!

I have looked around and out of all the search engine customization tools out there (such as MSN's Live Search Macros, Eurekster Swicki etc) but have now narrowed my choices down to two candidates. The first one is Rollyo. For over a year I have heard this word, coming in, but discretely gone to the back of my mind with the label "to be looked at later". It has several times been recommended by Phil Bradley whose blog I follow. The second one is Google. I have seen lots of websites using a adapted version of Google as a search tool for their websites, I believe the organisation I work for was once of them even. The benefit of using Google's version would be that my Gmail account, my Blogger account, my Picassa picture album, my Toolbar etc is all in the Google family, which means that with one login and password everything is accessible. Not to mention things will look familiar for me. Moreover, from what I have read so far, there is not a limit to the number of pages you can add to your search engine in Google's version, unlike Rollyo where the limit is 25. I think I have made my decision, I am not happy that Google is the winner, but let's see, I might give Rollyo a try later on.

So far I have only looked at the different types of search engine customization tools and chosen mine, now I need to create it and next would of course be to test it's usefulness.
I wonder if the Google search engine will give me the possibility of tags or meta data or thesaurus terms..... hmm....

I have only added a few of my bookmarks, but it has already created a mini search engine for me to test:

By the way, the link to this search engine (easy for me because I can just log on to my Gmail and access it) is probably something I will have to bookmark: http://www.google.co.uk/coop/cse?cx=012893089089251216177%3Aftxel3ywsxu

more photofun

2009-02-26T07:35:00.000-08:00

I know this probably has nothing to do with chartership, but this is really cool and needs to be shared:
http://www.photofunia.com/
Photofunia is a lot like ruletheweb site so this could be an addition to Phil Bradley's suggestion in Gazette this week, only I think I like it more than ruletheweb :)

It's very straightforward, go to the website, select a image you would like and upload your picture (PS if you are not interested in your picture going public, tick the box!) and see your image be created! I would have shown a couple of examples, but I'd rather keep them private!Enjoy!

personalised bus ad

2009-02-26T06:33:00.000-08:00

ruletheweb. co.uk

Shape the Agenda event

2009-02-19T07:49:00.000-08:00

The Chartered Institute of Marketing publishes bi-annual papers known as Shape the Agenda papers. They set out the latest thinking on topics affecting the marketing profession, and at the launch of a new paper is accompanied by an event held at CIM. As the Institute is a chartered body, it supports marketers in their chartered CPD programme in a similar way CILIP supports librarians on their way to Chartership.

To widen my knowledge of marketing, and to stay up to date on the latest marketing topics, I attended the Shape the Agenda event covering the topic “The benefits and impacts of social marketing”. The Library assists in writing of the agenda papers, from research to proof reading, and when a publication is released the library becomes the first point of contact. Knowing that I will be contacted regarding this topic, it is in my interest to understand as much as possible so I can share my knowledge with the customers.

My experience in this role has made me realise that although I am not a marketer, many customers expect a high degree of marketing insight and knowledge from me. I am expected to know more than just how to find the information; I should also be able to understand and explain marketing to the marketers who contact me. This is one way of building specialist knowledge in the field of marketing, and it is as important to attend marketing events for my job as it is for me to attend events for library professionals.

Although a lot of marketing knowledge can be obtained by reading for example, course books in marketing and agenda papers, taking time out to mingle with marketers and take note of their questions and use of technical marketing terms gives me much better tools and greater confidence to deal with enquiries.

I am thinking of including this in the portfolio, lets see. I could enclose a session evaluation as proof of my attendance of the Shape the Agenda “Less smoke, more fire: The benefits and impacts of social marketing” event. I did not complete and return the form as I went as a member of staff rather than a member of the CIM.

Librarian name change

2009-01-15T03:16:00.000-08:00

I read in The Daily Telegraph of 13th January 2009 (page 13) about "Librarians reject name change":

"Changes to the library system in Edinburgh that would have involved renaming librarians "audience development officers" are likely to be rejected by the city council.
Librarians threatened to strike over the proposals, which would have meant self-service borrowing systems in which customers scanned books in and out themselves.

Audience Development Officers? Naah!!!!.........I wouldn't like it. Why not work on improving the image of "librarian" rather than thinking of creative titles to replace it?

I agree on this statement on marketing of libraries:

“I think we need to promote librarians even more than we need to promote libraries. Very few people know what librarians do and fewer know what training and education we have. People seem to think all we do is read, check books out and shelve them”.

From “Libraries in transition to a marketing orientation” in International Journal of
Volunteering Sector Marketing, November 2007

Wordle again

2009-01-13T04:17:00.000-08:00

I wanted to make a bookmark for our library, we do send out books by post, so why not add something useful to remind our readers about us?
It would have the usual things like contact details and opening hours, but I don't want too much text on it either, I was thinking of adding a word cloud like the above.

It doesn't make sense, nothing to read, but it is a picture made of words and all these words describe us, so basically it is a picture of us, the library.
I made it in Wordle.net

It is not that after doing the marketing your library course that I have come up with an idea of a bookmark, this is something that I wanted to do last year as well. It could have been a little flyer, but a bookmark is a little tool that has use to the reader and is kept, most importantly it is useful! We want to get a message out about us and what we can offer, we are not talking about a nationwide 2 months campaign here!

If it turns out that I get permission to use this for our first bookmark, I will mean I have found out what Wordle can be used for, something I questioned in an earlier blog entry.

update

2008-12-13T09:30:00.000-08:00

Current status is that I am still in the writing phase but I have created a document where I am adding all the pits and pieces. I am struggling with the writing though, it's really hard to write with the overview in my mind, so I am putting in things as they come to me, which is why at the moment I have lots of pages but with lots of gaps and holes :)

In the meantime my mentor has resigned and is migrating to the sunny Spain, no it is not just a holiday, she is leaving the cold and rain for a sunny place near the beach! This means I will not, officially, have a mentor when handing in my application, so I need to ask as many questions as possible now! :s

So before I start feeling all alone, I want to get as much done as possible, so next week, the final week of this year, I am planning on working on this every afternoon and show my mentor before she leaves :)

Am I a librarian? Part II

2008-12-11T03:57:00.000-08:00

My brother in law recently hinted that why would his 12 year old daugther go to a library to study, out of all places why a library! I didn't say anything, but I really wanted to interview him to find out why he said what he did and what did he mean? and why!??!

It made me think of another thing: He must know by now that I work in a library, but I wonder if he is one of those people who finds it difficult to comprehend that librarianship still exists and that a librarian doesn't have to sit within the four walls of a library!

It brings me back to the topic, am I a librarian? that stereotypical boring librarian? people think: who needs a librarian when you have the internet at your fingertips?

Why would I want to label myself with a tag that seems outdated for other people? Instead of batteling with the majority of people, why not adapt a new look and name to fit in with their thinking?
It all comes down one thing: I know what a librarian does and doesn't, just because I know it, doesn't mean the whole World knows it, it must be my responsibility to communicate this out, to market myself in such a way they will understand, by using their language and finding out what I can do for them. Once they know what I can do, they will know what I am. If I tell them I am a librarian, they don't know what I am and do. I need to find out the terms they would use to describe what I do. By marketing myself the right way, I can educate people. Maybe that internal marketing course I did last week, really did open my eyes!

Marketing of a marketing library

2008-12-01T03:34:00.000-08:00

Am at the Internal Marketing for the Workplace Librarian and Information Professional, it's held by Terry Kendrik at CILIP. Just writing some notes (thoughts coming into my head from left right and centre while I'm listning so need to get it on paper before I go nuts!) while listning:

the testimonials we did, what did we use them for eventually? if now, we could use them on the new website?
What is the health of our library?

general thoughts:

a lady at slough library wrote "www slough library" in Google's search box when she wanted to show me their library website.......if we cant use google better than the average user, then why should they come to us for help or advise? Obviously we would need to be better

In internal newsletters, how do we promote ourselves better? Terry's answer was to be more emotional, don't just provide the facts about what we did, write how we did, who did what and what were the consequences, promote everyone in the library, not just the manager, make sure people know who is who by mentioning them as often as possible?

Signage is part of marketing - sending people in the right direction and making them aware of things they didnt know we had

Break time, more later!

Blogging....

2008-11-28T07:07:00.000-08:00

.... keeps me sharp.

It motivates me to speak and write, even though I know I am on a stage in a hall full of empty chairs.

It makes me give the events I attend a thought and write down my notes for later.

It improves my communication, makes me think of what I do and why I do it.

It has become my notebook for my chartership and most probably I will continue to write once I have completed the chartership process.

Library tours

2008-11-27T08:50:00.000-08:00

I have been practising how to do a library tour in case my colleague who does it is not in a day.
So I have shadowed her a couple of times, taken notes, even done one. Its not much of a hu ha, its more something you just do and since I work in the library you would have thought I know most of the stuff anyway, which I do, but it is a different thing to be standing in front of a bunch of people and speaking about how we can help them. So that is what I will be practicing, speaking to groups and it has actually given me more confidence and I am not thinking about notes anymore. I wouldn't mind doing a proper presentation one day, you know, like we used to in uniy, maybe this will take me to the next step, small steps you know.

Thoughts on blogs!

2008-11-27T08:01:00.001-08:00

Not everything that you think should be said.

And not everything that you say should be written.

And not everything that is written should be printet.

Menachem Mendel (1787-1859)

brain fritatta.....

2008-11-27T07:37:00.000-08:00

so much!

There is just so so much information out there! on everything! So much information on information, how to handle information! I understand the purpose of chartership is, among other things, maintaining current awareness and updating skills, but my god, there is so much to be aware of and so many skills that needs updating with the changes happening every 2 minutes in the LIS world! ............. I have visited a library this week, on Monday I am going to CILIP for a course on marketing of libraries and the day after I am planning on attending a dusin of seminars at the Online Information event! I need a holiday soon, but noooh, I need to finish my chartership!
let's hope I finish it before I get information overloaded!

Am I a librarian?

2008-11-27T05:08:00.000-08:00

or an information officer? they have these in councils too, but dealing with council tax and benefits (no degree needed!) Hmm!

maybe I am a knowledge gardener?

a information specialist sounds suspicious....

how bout a k-guardian?

business librarian makes sense?

a researcher? sounds as if I stand on the high st annoying people with my questions, or worse even, over the telephone on a Friday at 6pm!

k-provider maybe?

sometimes a k-warrior? grrr?

So many job titles - all filling a librarianship role .... sigh ... why do people understand exactly who you are if you say your a librarian, it just doesn't need clarification, rather than when I say "hey, I'm a information officer" why??

I would like to be called something that describes what I do, and I don't mind librarian as a title, but it makes it sound like the stereotypical librarian............... because I do have glasses and I do put my hair up in a bun and I do deal with books! ......... but what word can I use to expand the librarian title, I thought something like a business librarian........ at least it tells people I am a librarian but a business one.......... is that me?

Inspiration provided by Lyndsay Rees-Jones in Library and Information Gazette, 28Nov-11Dec 2008, p7

Public Library visit- after the visit

2008-11-25T08:53:00.001-08:00

First thing that would describe today is: so so much information!

There is so much information here in this three story building! and now there is so much of it in my head! I can't possibly write down my thoughts, experiences and my reflection, firstly there is such a mess in my head right now and secondly, the pcs here at the library have quite useless keyboards, the monitors are clear but keyboard doesn't want to work with me, if i type abc, it chooses a and c and ditches the b! so this is very time consuming and it is very noisy here.

I will quickly write down my thoughts, the most important ones anyway:

I had sort of forgotten what a public library is all about, forgotten the wealth of information available! This has reminded me!

They have online access to FAME and anyone, yes anyone, can access it! We dont even have that!

I must admit, you meet everyone from the community here, business people, small people, elderly people, noisy people and creative people, mums and dads, grannys and grandads, librarians about to retire, librarians just graduated.........

Here you will find info in over 39 languages!

There is a 24/7 online enquiry service among public libraries and the type of enquiries are usually the ones where people have tried finding information themselves but did not succeed, so the enquiries are often in dept ones. For Free!

The CPD visitors we'll get would be interested in how we as a marketing library, market ourselves! So much think about that one!

I met a librarian who didn't know what a blog was!

Another librarian I metdid a google search by typing in www in the search field

Lots and lots of things I didn't know about and probably never will unless I work in a public library, maybe one day I should!

Many of the people I met knew about the CIM!

While we catalogue and index our stock, here everything gets downloaded from the suppliers!

INSPIRE is the name of a scheme to make libraries of all sorts available to non-members and the public!..... a librarian asked why our library is not part of this? "one would have thought......." so must look into that!

Observation from the front desk: some librarians are more service minded than others, I noticed many cases where the library users knew more about the library than the librarian did!

Would want to work in a public library? yes, but only in the info section!

Overall, it was a seriously great day! I am quite happy I contacted the library and that they welcomed my visit, it was definately worth it! I am actually visiting again this Saturday to work on my chartership!

A visit to Slough library - thoughts before the visit

2008-11-24T08:49:00.001-08:00

Tomorrow I will be visiting a second library and I have chosen a public library. This way I will have visited a membership organisation's library which is very similar to where I work now, and also a public library which is completely on the other end of the scale.

My thoughts before going are:

- is a public library a dull, kiddy, fiction focused, tea drinking kinda place? Is slowpaced the word I am lookign for here?

- do public librarians read/scan and select all the books?

- are money always short? I read in today's newspaper (must have been either Guardian or Telegraph that in 2008 38 public libraries closed and in 2007 35 libraries closed!)

- does the library get many business related enquiries?

- and what sort of services does the public library offer businesses? any sources I can use?

From my questions above you wouldn't think I myself am a librarian would you? I seem to have the same prejudice thoughts as a non-librarian....... and to change this, or at least to challenge this I have chosen to visit a public library, not a small one either, its Slough Library at the heart of Slough.

Networking

2008-11-12T03:50:00.000-08:00

While I tend to sieze every networking opportunity that is offered, I still haven't quite learnt the skills of networking it seems. The feeling of being snubbed prevents little beings like me to walk over to a person with a big smile on my face. Which is the biggest hindrance. I am still thinking about this, so I will leave this one floating in space ........ untill something hits it and it changes direction! (Think Newton!)

Too Googlefied!

2008-10-22T08:26:00.000-07:00

....... I just talked to a human being who did not know other search engines existed, besides Google!

How sad is that?

Now just imagine me trying to explain to this lady that there are lots and lots of other search engine providers out there........

Think... think..... think......Winnie the Pooh style!

2008-10-21T08:35:00.000-07:00

The mentor meeting was a short meeting as I have been very active in visiting libraries and attending workshops but have not managed to progress in the portfolio bit. I confessed how difficult I found the writing process to my mentor. The problem is the language, as English is not my first language as well as the lack of overview over my portfolio. We did not decide on anything for the next meeting except that the next meeting will be after I have sat down and started writing for the portfolio and that I need to set a deadline for this.

My plan now is to focus on the writing part. I really need to write a fact file........ hmm lets make a list:

1) Make another fact file
2) Look at procedure in library for visually impaired students/members
3) Do presentation in Library
4) Finish PPDP
5) Start writing statement

Less chat, more work!

CILIP membersday......

2008-10-21T01:33:00.000-07:00

Last week my mentor and I attended to the CILIP membership day event. As we missed it last year, and thereby also missed free workshops, we had put the date in the diary well ahead.

The workshop I chose was called 'Launch of the "Network of Expertise and Interests" and was presented by Gwenda Sippings and Lyndsay Rees-Jones. It was good fun actually, nothing formal - we had a laugh every 5 minutes. We started with introductions, not the usual type, but we had to tell what was different about us. I said that although I look Indian I am in fact Danish and am educated in Denmark, which I bet no one would have guessed. I would have said more, but the way everyone turned their heads to look at me when I said it, I figured that must be shock enough for one day.

The new network that CILIP is launching is for their members to network: www.cilip.org.uk/network

For example: Person A needs some help on e.g. e-books and finds member B on the list who is "an expert" on e-books and can get some advice from someone experienced in the field.

I have signed up for it, added a description of me and what I am not, rather than what I am. I wanted to add a picture, but I don't have one here, I'm sure I'll survive!

At present it is more at beta level, which is okay because a lot of feedback was given and discussions on how to improve the service were happening. I had signed up for it, although I am far from being an expert in anything yet, but as it was said at the workshop (when someone mentioned that newly graduates wouldn't benefit from this tool) if I ever need help with anything, I would know where to go, hanna? (isnt it)? :)

It's all good and all. But why isn't this part of CILIP Communities where the CILIP forum is?

Why have a list of people, then a different place for Q&A and, why not have this in the same place? profiles with fields of expertise and forum in one I mean.

Anyway, I met up with a friend at CILIP, and talked to a lady from a CILIP something something, to tell you the truth, she thought it was very interesting that I had come from Denmark, but I seriously can't remember who she was or what she did. All I remember is her bright red lipstick, her voice and her pearl necklace. I guess that conversation didn't get much of my attention. Anyway, while working on a small task at the workshop, a guy comes up to me and says "Maninder (pronounced perfectly!) are you from the Royal School of Library and Information Science, in Copenhagen?............ Would you happen to know Nuil Olpers?"

I thought "Who on Earth is that, it doesn't even sound like a human being"????????

I gave my brain a few seconds, and AHA! He meant Professor Niels Ole Pors!!! Ah yes, I knew him alright! (http://tinyurl.com/6dkujl) He was my mentor (vejleder is the word in Danish) for my final project when I was in uniy :) I hadn't thought of him for a very long time, but then all the things came back to me. He was the one who guided me and my, now best friend, though our project, we used SPSS and Ms Access for our project and we loved showing off our funky statistical figures and graphs in our reports, it was almost, fun! And he was also the mentor for Stuart Hamilton, who did his Ph.D at our uniy and who I worked with when I did research for IFLA for a 6 months time or so, same sort of time I had started my first semester on my masters and was going crazy doing shopping for my wedding.

Anyway, this guy I spoke to was actually Steve Thornton who is the editor of the Performance Measurement and Metrics Journal, and Prof. Niels Ole Pors is part of the editorial committee. This is how they knew each other. It was a nice chat and I am thinking of dropping my old mentor a email once of the days.

Oh also, I spoke to Lyndsay, about the CILIP Blogger thing, lets see if she gets back to me.....

To summarise the day; I had the chance to participate in CILIP's member's day, and as a member of CILIP, that is a bit like a family reunion, expect it's one of them where you only know the host and maybe two more out of the hundreds of people there. Well, it's a nice feeling that everyone in that building are almost just like you, makes you feel a bit at home. And I will definitely give this new networking tool a chance and see what happens.

The University of the workplace

2008-09-23T01:53:00.000-07:00

While scanning the daily newspapers (I usually do the Guardian and Daily Telegraph) I found an article in The Guardian of today (23rd September 2008) about on the job training which is increasing and according to the article it brings the best out of employees: "We've always argued that the workplace is somewhere people learn rather than go and vegetate," says Liz Smith, director of unionlearn, the body that oversees the network. "The more people are engaged in learning, the more they will contribute to an organisation. They are more motivated, confident and adaptable."

I can't understand why some companies would not want to invest in training for their employees, I would say staff (like me) feel valued and feel they can progres in their professional careers, it can make them feel more motivated and do their job in a better way, so at the end of the it can increase staff retention as well.

Sure it costs money to train staff, but it is an investment because happier staff means they are happier to work for you and if they are happier to work for you they will make improvements and increase productivity. As a company you will end up with a skilled workforce making your company more competitive and that will show on bottom line.

Hmm, my witty colleague (Umm... let's just call him Mark) next to me just said "that is a bold statement, they would probably get all the training they can and then leave for a better job......" :s HMM!

Anyway, my organisation is a "training organisation" to begin with, we offer training and qualifications for marketers, so it would be appropriate for the staff here to be given a lot of free training. Personally I think I do get a lot of training, I am not sure if it is because I am doing the chartership only, but when I find an interesting course I do bring it up with my line manager and for some reason I feel this eagerness to learn and I actually enjoy going on courses and be trained in new things. I believe it is because I feel there is just so much out there happening and I want to become part of it and make sure that my organisation is aware and following the new changes. Besides I just love studying and learning new things...... so much more fun and valuable that sitting behind closed doors....... :)

Beyond Google....

2008-09-17T02:47:00.000-07:00

In the 22 August - 4 September 2008 edition of Gazette from CILIP there was a little piece on how academic library and information professionals can educate students about searching beyond Google.

I ordered a DVD from University of Brighton as we do not have access to YouTube here at work (!) Had a look at it the other day, hmm not really for me/us here. As it said on the description it offers advice on developing training sessions, e.g. make sure you have eye contact, make sure you set up this and this.

But I am just pleased I had a chance to look at it and it just makes me more aware of how important it is not to think of Google as a universal library catalogue, I have learnt that that is far from the truth. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy Google as a brand as anyone else does (after all it is the most loved brand according Marketing's annual league table), I love the fun of Google, the colours, their new ideas (Google Labs), the changing banners (Which brand do you know of that changes its looks almost every week, successfully?) but because I have now realised that for information retrieval purposes Google is not a solution, but merely a tool out of thousands of tools, I am looking at Google with new pair of glasses (pardon my poor translation of a Danish phrase).

Doing the customer service thing

2008-09-11T06:50:00.000-07:00

My initial thoughts on customer service are:

good customer service is something people remember you by
good customer service is so important it can increase your profits
customer service isn't about a one off experience, good service delivery has to be consistent

The reason I am looking into this now is because I have put customer service on my PPDP as something I want to see how I can improve my customer service skills. Recently I found a book on our "New Books Added to the Library Catalogue" about customer service. It's called "Wow! that's what i call service", its by Don Hales and Derek Williams and has some really good examples of how some employees in different industries have gone the extra mile to help somebody (customer). It is inspiring, and when I get positive feedback, I am always willing to go even further the next time.

Thinking about it, when have I offered good customer service? Hmm, I can think of examples of situations where I got really positive feedback from customers which means that I must have done something to impress them. We tend to get good feedback on our email enquiries and get many "thank you for your prompt response" emails. That is one way of measuring our service. We had a student who was visually impaired and needed a long list of publications in format that her software could read out for her so I made an extra effort to request the books through the publishers (and as many may know, publishers aren't the easiest people to deal with on this planet.....) and I gathered articles and changed their format and copy and pasted things to make all these document readable for her. It was a task that took a couple of months and although there was one book which I just could not get hold of in electronic copy, she was happy for the fact I put so much effort in for her. Another time, I hand delivered some photocopies to a student who needed these papers for an important conference she was leaving for at 5am the day after. Her office was only 2 minutes walk from my house and I would have to drive past it anyway, so I arranged with her to drop by after work and deliver the documents myself. She was a happy customer, telling me how much she appreciated my dedication and she was very amazed the my organisation would go this far for it's members. Doesn't that just make you smile dear reader? :)

I do feel that everything I do when speaking or emailing or talking to a customer/member/visitor/participant can become a positive experience. There are the unhappy members who are misrable from the time you say hello to them, but you can turn that around and even though you may not be able to help them, you can change their mood and make them leave happier than when they phoned. It is important to try, it is not only my job to dig out things a provide people information, it's to hand over a document with a smile on my face. Moods are contagious you know......

Just now, while writing this, I have taken a call from a member and I ended the conversation with a "thank you, that is very kind of you", because he said to me:

"You know what, you are a star, you have been a great help, I did not know about that source, thank you very much, what is your name?"

"My name is Maninder, that is spelled M-A-N-I-N-D-E-R" I said

"Thank you very much Maninder, it has been a absolute pleasure speaking to you".

Hopefully he will remember that I provided him good service with a smile and he will know he can contact us when he needs help in the future.

Going home now with a smile on my face :o)

Crome? Croming?

2008-09-08T08:58:00.000-07:00

I've downloaded Google's new browser Crome, was really exited, but the only thing I have managed to figure out is that your search box is same as your url box, which is great because you do not have to open Google's page. But this also means that you are using Google without realising u are using it! ...... hmmm

Non-Google Day link

2008-09-08T08:54:00.001-07:00

Some weeks ago (or was it months?) I mentioned my commitment to non-google day, and since then I have using different search engines on Wednesdays. If there is a week where I can't think of a new search engine to use, or I do not have time to look for one (usually I find them on Karen Blakeman or Phil Bradley's website) then I just continue using any of the previous search engines I've tried. But this one is new for the list of search engines to try: http://www.cluuz.com/

I found a reference to it in Karen Blakeman's Tales from the Terminal Room newsletter of August 2008.

I could also use these, which I've got in my favourites list in my browser:

Ask.com
Canuckster.com
Exalead.com
Live.com (used on 17/09/08)
Yahoo.com (used on 10/09/08)
Graball to compare search engine results side by side
Copernic Agent to search multiple search engines
www.intelways.com
www.zuula.com
www.akacrawiki.com

This will be an opportunity to learn the features and weaknesses of these search engines. It will be an opportunity to get out of the Google rut.

A visit to the CILIP Library - after the visit

2008-09-03T05:39:00.000-07:00

Although the CILIP library is the size of one of our bookshelves in my organisation's library, it was a grrrreat experience to visit the team! I would say that it is something everyone ought to do once in a while (visit a library that is), chartership or no chartership.

Today I was the member who knew only the average 10% of the services offered by the membership organisation! It was very eye opening because usually I explain our members about all the services that they may never have heard about even though they have been members for a decade! I was basically the lacking-knowledge-of-membership-organisation's-services-type-of-member this time :) Which was a good thing, because now I know what it feels like. There were two good things about this visit:

1) I became aware of a lot of the things my membership organisation can offer me and I am now going back with a bunch of ideas and knowledge in my bag. Things like the CILIP blog, the CILIP forum, the type of questions CILIP can advise me on etc.

2) I have visited another library "behind the scenes" for the first time, and it was an eye opener to see how the same things can work differently and how different things can work the same way.

I will now see if I can visit a public library, I have a feeling I will enjoy that too!

This is what I have learnt/experienced today:

I was asked if this blog can be aggregated by the CILIP Members Blog Landscape: I was informed that a lot of people underestimate how useful a blog can be and been offered to make it available as a CILIP BLOGGER as they call it here. Sounds good to me, as it will get me motivated to write more, more properly and it will mean that my thoughts might be useful to someone else.
Because this was not a library at the same scale that we are, the way the department was organised was completely different, less library like and more like a academic/corporate organisation.
Some of the tools used to promote CILIP and LIS were more advanced than my organisation's, this includes things like:
1) Staff have created a FAQ database accessible for all staff at CILIP, it is continuously maintained and can be time saving when you have to answer the same sort of questions, e.g. where can I find information on data protection etc, but it also gives more consistency in answers and it is a way of sharing resources.
2) The Information and Advice team has got their own blog (http://communities.cilip.org.uk/blogs/informationadvice/default.aspx) and update it with new websites they encounter while answering the enquiries from their members or information that may be useful to LIS people like me from news and e-newsletters. It's a good initiative and I generally like anything that shares information with others. I am not sure such a blog would work for my information and library team; if we have a website we like we send it around so staff can bookmark it, or we can choose to add it to our catalogue or website. Kinda simple, but with our current website design, I don't see a blog happening.
Some people actually complain about the CILIP Salary Guides saying that they earn alot more than the average and that the average salaries presented by CILIP are too low!?! :s (Team Leader Jill Duffin told me and I was chocked, wish it was me!)
Generally the CILIP Information and Advice is different than us because they also offer advice on for example copyright or career, while here things like enquiries take up most of our time.

Sometimes you don't walk away thinking, oh I must go home and do this, this and this, while other times, like this, you go you home thinking, it was good I came, at least now I know. :o)

A visit to the CILIP Library - before the visit

2008-09-02T02:47:00.000-07:00

I have arranged a visit to the CILIP library at the CILIP headquaters tomorrow. This is one of the good things about doing chartership, you get a good excuse to get out there and peak into the LIS world. I dont know if I will get such opportunities later on, so I want to explore as much as possible now when I have the chance! :o)

I will see how it goes tomorrow, and if "needed" I might consider going to another library and see how things work there, maybe a public library? When will I get the chance to visit a public library "behind the scenes"? :)

As it is a membership body such as my own organisationI am planning on looking into the following areas tomorrow:

Number of members
How many work in the library and how many are actually librarians and chartered?
Type and number of enquiries received
Sources, in house, alternatives
Software used
How do they market themselves
What is their policy on

Oh and while I am there I must ask them about the changes being made to the CPD scheme and on behalf of my manager ask about the revalidation scheme, maybe they could need some tips from us?

Generally: to pick up ideas about how another professional membership bodies' library works compared to ours and to liase with other professionals about current issues in CPD, LIS and the general status of the library world!

Let's see!

I Like!

2008-08-28T03:26:00.001-07:00

How you work – not what you do – makes you an information professional!

THE CILIP CPD PROGRAM

2008-08-20T05:11:00.001-07:00

After seeing the CPD programme that my organisation offers, the CILIP one seems very primitive! Is primitive too harsh a word to use? might be, but that is the first word that came to mind.

I know CILIP is currently changing their website, so it may be that they will do something for the CPD as well, but during the presentation it did strike me that there is so much help given by my organisation, while CILIP still seems to follow some old and boring model.

I am sitting here hoping that someone has already given this a thought and while writing this someone is actually working on it already. I will find out when I visit the CILIP library in two weeks time.

I made a couple of notes of the changes to our CPD portal and so on, but the one thing that I made sure to write down was this:

"CPD is not only about being chartered - it's about becoming aware of the developments in my profession and to find out where I fit into these changes"

Writing For The Web...... one day workshop

2008-08-19T08:35:00.000-07:00

Activity:
On a gloomy Monday morning the in house training for how to write on the web began.
This was a more hands on update of corporate websites' usability, structure and basically how it should be done and how it shouldn't be done. Our talker of the day was from an agency called AI Digital (http://www.ai-digital.com/) as knew how our organisation works and has worked for a number of organisations. Did I mention it was a Monday morning??

Learned:
We covered things like:

Difference between online and off line content; why you can't just upload the same info that you published in your leaflets and so on.
Structure, how do people actually read a page; it is not from left to right as we do when reading something in hard copy, its a more zig zag approach - like when women do shopping during sale season, we scan left, right and centre instead of looking at each item in chronological order. A lot of psychology there.
How does Google work in terms of search results, ranking, ad words and how to promote our site rating in the search results. SEO basically.
Creative writing which is consistent, user focused and in compliance with our brand guidelines and style guide.

In the exercises we trashed our own website which makes one realise how much work there needs to be doing. Even after the launch of our new website, the things we learnt will be good as a checklist for what is good practise.

Applied:
So far it has been a real eye opener for a lot of people who did the course, but as I said to my manager, a lot of it is something I learnt while doing my LIS degree and something I am quite aware of, but it was very beneficial because it was hands on, it was only concerning our organisation's website and it was information that was up-to-date. Keeping in mind I finished my studies in 2005, a lot changes in 3 years.
For the time being, it doesn't seem that I will be updating anything on the website as these responsibilities have not been passed on to me. But my manager is aware of my interest and promised she would make sure to involve me so I can put my interest and knowledge to work.
It would be a pity if, despite doing all the web 2.0 courses and reading up and testing and with the background I have, not to have any responsibilities in the IT/web area at work.

The ideas and tasks from this workshops are as followed:

Everytime we write an article, for example a factfile or any heading on our websites and so on, we should keep ranking in mind and keep the way the Google spider works in mind.
DDA: I need to work on guidelines for disabled visitors, not the facilities part of things, but the accessability of our information. Apparently 17% of users are affected by some sort of disability e.g. visual impairment. For this the www.w3c.org guidelines and the DDA which is based on this, are good sources along with gathering information on how other corporate libraries deal with this.

uPdAte

2008-07-31T08:42:00.000-07:00

PPDP found...... and am now adding more interesting items on it after being inspired!

Aargh!

2008-07-23T08:49:00.001-07:00

I can't find my PPDP! ......... :O

Focus!

2008-07-17T05:05:00.000-07:00

The mentor meeting was very successful! It was very relieving to know that I am doing everything right, except that I am doing it at snail speed :)

1. Blog - is it any use? and if so, what to change?

This blog is not to be submitted as evidence, but will be used as a reference in the portfolio. It is used as a a selv-development log, instead of a hard copy diary, this is my tool to track my development and progress. Its the modern diary in other words.
My mentor said it was interesting to read, so if nothing else, it will give me blogging experience and at the same time also experience in reflecting.

2. PPDP - still in process of being updated (this is the 6 months review meeting! Argh!), will show changes next time......

My mentor was kind to actually give a list of suggestions for additions to the PPDP! So now I will complete the PPDP and look at it as a complete document (very soon!),

3. Take out a day (or just an afternoon) of the month for CPD, ask manager

I have actually asked my colleague as it affects him more than anyone else. Every Tuesday after lunch, I will work on my CPD with the phones being off and not replying to emails. UNLESS, there is a call waiting, as agreed with my colleague. That is one of the great things about my job, my colleague and I can cover for each other and out of everyone in the library we are the ones who can really do teamwork and take on each others tasks! Its a great feeling as you can rely on each other and help each other if you are getting snowed under.

I will be working on the actual putting together of the portfolio on Tuesdays, things like:

Getting the documents together (sorting out evidence - what I got and what I need to get)
Making a list of contents for the portfolio
Sorting out organisation chart, CV and so on

4. Chance to work on Intranet (ask manager)

Or internet for that matter. But for some reason things have been sidelined and I have not been envolved in the development in a way I had hoped. My mentor will look into this and guide on what can be done.

5. Criteria of assessment - am I still on the right track?

Everytime we have a meeting we will go through the criteria - just to make sure we stick to the criteria!

6. Does my portfolio have room for creation of a disability guidelines for the library document?

Yes. This is something that will go on my PPDP and will need to be started soon as it has been in the pipeline for too long.

7. I would like to try and make statistics for how much the library is used, eg. number of emails received in a month, number of book loans, number of enquiries (phone, face to face, email), but I am not sure what the information can be used for? (the monthly update??)

My mentor will try and think of an idea and so will I ......

8. What am I doing right and what am I doing wrong? Please enlighten me?

Nothing in particular wrong with what I do, but personally I think I should get some work done, LESS TALK MORE WORK! (......and even though my mentor never says so, and probably never will, I am sure she feels the same! :)

This meeting was also the 6 months review of the mentor agreement, and my mentor and I looked at what we had promised (and signed) and the only thing that seemed very unrealistic was the "meet up once a month to discuss progress". So we changed that to once every two months, everyone knows how quickly a month goes by! According to this "new" agreement our next meeting should be in August, but let's see if I can work a bit harder and organise things better.

Mission number one is to sort out the PPDP!

Moments before......

2008-07-16T05:54:00.001-07:00

..... my mentor meeting is about to begin. Why does this feeling of guilt keep coming up? ....... could it be related to the fact that I have hardly managed to do any work on my CPD for the last oh say 6 months or so? Hmm....

The things on the agenda for today's mentor meeting are:

1. Blog - is it any use? and if so, what to change?
2. PPDP - still in process of being updated (this is the 6 months review meeting! Argh!), will show changes next time......
3. Take out a day (or just an afternoon) of the month for CPD, ask manager
4. Chance to work on Intranet (ask manager)
5. Criteria of assessment - am I still on the right track?
6. Does my portfolio have room for creation of a disability guidelines for the library document?
7. I would like to try and make statistics for how much the library is used, eg. number of emails received in a month, number of book loans, number of enquiries (phone, face to face, email), but I am not sure what the information can be used for? (the monthly update??)
8. What am I doing right and what am I doing wrong? Please enlighten me?

At least things are slightly more clear in my head!

I will come back in half an hour and write down the outcome......... fingers crossed! Arrgh why am I so nervous!!! I doesn't make sense....... :s

Wordle.net

2008-06-24T08:39:00.000-07:00

I am not sure what I can use it for, but I am sure I like it! Its dynamic and fun tool, if only I knew what people use it for??

I copy and pasted text from my company's website, and this is the wonderful word cloud that came out. You can change the words, colours, font, cloud shape and so on......... but what for? beats me! :)

Search Engines: Is Google really white bread for the mind?

2008-06-18T02:44:00.000-07:00

"Google is white bread for the mind"

said lecturer Tara Brabazon (Update magazine March 2008, p10)

There has been a lot of discussion on this topic and obviously these words became quite controversial. There were the loyal googlers (According to Wikipedia a "Googler may refer to:
1) A person who uses Google's features very efficiently 2) Fan of Google 3) An expert online searcher 4) A full-time Google employee.) and the hardcore librarians on the other side.

Even thought I am not a hardcore librarian (yet!) the white bread part did make sense to me instantly. Google has changed the way we search and our expectations of our searches. Put in a couple of words which you know by experience that will come up with a number of useful links, and wupti your information is presented to you after a few clicks!

That is how the Google world works, but that is not how searching really works. We do not charge people money for doing a couple of "quick and dirty" (that what we used to call them in uniy) searches and present to our users. Do we? No really, we don't: First of all we will be aware of the limitations of the source (in this case Google), we will combine terms according to our experience and the way the source is catalogued, we will consider searching for either separate words or phrase we will use search operators such as Boolean, truncation, limiters and so on. Once the search results appear we will carefully look at the sources before looking at the information on the link and after checking the credibility of the source we will select the article and rank its relevancy compared to other articles available. This can take anything from 1 minute to much longer.

I think it is clear in everyone's mind that the pros of Google is the simple search option, the listing of results and the speed of retrieving information. The downside is at times its credibility and ranking (most popular first) and the "clutter" of information that you get with your search results. I guess Google has affected the information world in such a way that it is changing the way we and our users search. When it comes to Google we librarians seem to be a bit redundant (or on the positive side, we can almost always assume that users who approach us have already tried to Google their results and now come to us in desperation!). There was a time when our academic theory of how to search and where to search was the practise, but now we are being told by new technology where to go and how to get there. It's as if we are adapting to the technology, and not the technology adapting to us any longer. That is probably the story in every industry.
I have a feeling that Google can only rely on this sort of behavior for a limited time, I am sure something will change for the poor websites which are on page 9.568 on Google search results. If they got the proper indexing terms, and we searched using a Google thesaurus, they would be given justice too, popular or not!

I wouldn't say that Google is database, such as a library database, it is more a dumpyard for information and although Google's techonology works on the same priciples as citation indexing, I do, along with other of my kind, feel that the future of IS in is doubt, because people's understanding of information retrieval is changing.

Last week I was in the local Gurdwara with my hubby, we were having langar, the "free meal", and a friend of my in laws came and sat with us. He is a very nice person no doubt, very jolly and very loving. He asked me if I was still working in Uxbridge, and I answered no no I am in Maidenhead now, working as a information professional. I often don't expect people to understand right away what it means to be a information professional, but his reply was "oh, so you find a document on the shelf and give it to people, here you go"?
I was left a bit shocked but jolly as he is, he started laughing and made me laugh too. But truth is that it is people's perception of information retrieval that has changed and we do not seem to have become part of that change. Maybe that is not so bad, because at the end of the day, when people fail to find the information they need on their beloved Google...... eventually they will turn to us won't they? Gives me hope :) We have to know the sources that go beyond Google and also look at Google's competitors.

This may be my thoughts presentend in a very messy way, but I have been inspired by something I read on a blog:

http://zerotwozero.wordpress.com/2007/11/12/non-google-day/ :

Here is a suggestion for something that I reckon, would prove a hit in any academic library. A ‘Non Google Day’. Google is now a verb in itself, to ‘Google‘ something is the act of looking up information on the internet, “What’s a multi faceted information architecture?” ”I don’t know, why don’t you google it!“ etc.
So here is the challenge. Make every student that you comes to you with an information query look for the information through another web based search engine other then Google, or even in a book/journal/magazine. This excersise should prove to students that there are other resources other then Google such as www.ask.co.uk, infotrac/other online journal database, hard copy journals, the list is endless.
Pros: Increases and promotes greater information literacy, fun to do, will help lecturers who find students increasingly rely on Google for information.
Cons: Needs promotion, needs understanding and support from lecturers, not enforcable without blocking Google from whole institution (through firewall).
Although we haven’t actually done this yet at our library, it would be interesting to see if anyone has done anything similiar and the results from that excersise!

and http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/14/altsearch_google_boycott/

So from now on, every Wednesday, I will try different search engines, so I can learn what I miss out on when using Google or what I do not miss out on. It will broaden my knowledge of new and old search engines, and I feel that is the least a librarian can do!

I have made a note in my Outlook calender saying "Non-Google Day" and also made my colleagues aware of my new activity.

I will try and update this blog on the search engines I have used, also it will remind me of what I have used and still have to try.

Karen Blankeman's list on search engines will be quite useful: ttp://www.rba.co.uk/wordpress/index.php

I would also like to try this one which I heard about at the Online Information conference in 2008: http://www.exalead.co.uk/search

Labels......

2008-06-06T07:37:00.000-07:00

I probably should already know this...... but you do not actually get an insight into the classification system of the library (for books in this instance) if you only take books off the shelves or put books on the shelves which is what you do to books when you are a researcher. But after having taking on responsibilities of our missing library admins, one of them re-labelling the library books collection, I have realised that I am not very familiar with the indexing system we use (which is London Business School in case I forget later on....). So when looking at which sections needed new labels I realised how the system is actually put together! Now for the usability and design......

The fox and the explorer

2008-06-06T04:01:00.001-07:00

I've got permission from my IT department to install Firefox on my pc (not sure if I really needed permission.....). I can now tick one of the things on my "to do list": to explore an alternative browser and not just the standard Internet Explorer *yawn*.

Firefox is fun because it is open source software and I feel like I am exploring a new world which my colleagues are *maybe* not using ( I like to be different!). I noticed how accustomed I have become to using IE (I vaguely remember using Mozilla as a browser back in 1998??!).
I have transferred all my bookmarks and customized the layout and added a couple of interesting add-ons such as visual search. I have not thought about switching for the time being I am just having fun by choosing the one I am in the mood for. I have read that IE has a add on functionality which I only found out when searching for Firefox add ons, so at least I know that now!
I shall continue my mission to explore the strange new worlds of Firebox, to seek out new functionalities and add-ons, to boldly go where I have never gone before.

Text Works by Soutron - Applied

2008-06-04T08:01:00.000-07:00

Applied:
Looking back at what I learned on level one, I have actually applied the shortcuts into my daily searching routine, particularly the Alt+U and spell check. It saves me time and I am pleased that the training session has not been a repeat of what I already know and given me confidence that the way I am using the system is correct and optimal, but it also pleases me that I can integrate new routines which gives a bit of change and improvement.

How I use Textworks:
Creating a new user/updating user information
Logging enquiries
Searching for information
Catalouging newspaper articles/checking for duplicated etc.
Checking books in and out/renewing books
Sending overdue letters
Importing from Ms Word

British Library workshop and CILIP Library

2008-05-14T11:38:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a full CPD day for me. This was my plan:
9am to 1pm to work on chartership using the CILIP "library" in London.
1pm to 2pm: Walk from CILIP to BL and grab lunch on the way and make sure to get a reader pass made so I had to bring the necessary proof.
2pm-4pm: BL workshop "Knowing your market" in the Business and IP Centre.

Working on the chartership is harder than I initially thought, I am not going to deny that. I think the fact that the current workload in the Library is at its maximum as we do not have any admins (sigh!) has given me lots of opportunities no doubt. But one thing is to do a lot of work which is not part of your job, its another thing to actually take notes, think, reflect, learn and write down your reflection! When are you ever going to find the time when your 9-5 job is fully packed? This is what has left me rather behind in my 'reflection' process. So the purpose of going to the CILIP library to actually study was a good idea! I did get to sort out my papers, actually read some of my notes and locate notes which I feared I had lost forever. I also got a chance to see how another membership body's library could look like - yes it did make our library look like the superior, but that is a different matter anyway. I learnt that I need to learn to dedicate time for my CPD if I ever wish to finish it, it is far too easy to come with the excuse of never having time to write.....I've done enough of that. So just like all the other reminders in my Outlook diary at work, I am going to create a reminder of reflecting at least once a week!

I was keen on visiting the British Libary. Although I have been there before while doing my degree (2004 I think it was....) - it was a very brief visit and all I seem to remember is the public bench looking like an open book. To get to the point, the workshop I chose as Knowing Your Market at the Business & IP Centre. It was a workshop on the resources the British Library could offer (which was completely mind blowing!). They mentioned some of the sources which I am already aware of e.g. Mintel, Key Note, LexisNexis and so on. But I got hold of a list of the many other databases the centre subscribes to, for example FAME and Verdict, I am sure this will come in handy at some stage. I also grabbed some industry guides they publish, for example on different industries, I am sure these can be used when we update our links collection later this year: http://www.bl.uk/collections/business/bisheets.html
The centre has access to databases which I have used, heard of and never ever heard of: http://www.bl.uk/collections/cd-busin.html

To use the newly aquired skills, we would need to have a reader pass which I sorted out with my CILIP card quite quickly (it lasts 3 years!) and got a chance to play with the new tools introduced to me.

It has given me another thing to put on my list of "alternative options" when I cant seem to locate the information I need for an enquiry and I know many members as well as non-members who ask for more information than we can provide (particulary free information) who I can direct to the BL B&IP Centre. So this has helped me in knowing more resources for specific problems.

I am not to do a review of the BL or anything, but I guess I left the place feeling impressed and glad I got the chance to go there. Come to think of it, if it wasnt for this chartership I am doing, I would have staying in my own little world.....but now, I am looking for opportunities to continuesly explore the LIS world..................... I think my manager has realised that too! :)

CE - We read the news so you don’t have to!

2008-04-15T02:34:00.000-07:00

Activity:
The library receives a large around of magazines/journals per week and 35 daily newspapers in one week. We also get a number of magazines which we don't actually subscribe to but receive for free. Any information that comes into the library is scanned by human eyes....... which is what makes the CE: "We read the news so you don’t have to". Cutting Edge is a weekly digest of marketing, business and other news from sectors as diverse as the environment, leisure and tourism, financial services, and transport and travel. It is a member benefit and has recently experienced 3139 clicks in the month of February 2008. Compared to other sections of the website this is a high click rate (...and as this part of the website "belongs" to the library I would like to say HOORAY!) Although Cutting Edge is to be going through many changes in the next couple of months, I got a chance to work on it. This is how CE works: 1) articles are scanned 2) articles are selected 3) articles are re-written 4) CE is proof read 5) CE is uploaded and emailed to subscribers.

Learned:
My colleague who does the CE every week introduced me to writing the CE and uploading the CE on Contentis which is the corporate web publishing software used. Although my colleague selected the articles (usually between 10-12 articles out of the 80 per week) for me, I took part in the scanning of the articles as well (The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian). I would then summarise the articles using my own words, give a new title and add the source.
Normally I look at what terms to use from the thesaurus to index a particular article, now I would have to think how to re-write it.

Example of a CE entry:
Give her a treatCadbury Milk Tray is to be relaunched and positioned as a gift for older women, aged 35-45. Will you thank your hubbie for giving you a box, knowing you’re considered to be an ‘older woman’?
Marketing, 2 April 2008, p8

I managed to squeeze this task into my schedule still dealing with my usual tasks as an information officer along with the admin tasks I have been taking on board. Despite all the sweating (English is not my first language but number 3 on the list! :s) and the complex I started with, it actually helped me improve my abstracting skills and given my written communication skills a boost!

I experienced that it is much easier to summarize the article, but difficult to choose different words, or "say it in your own words" .....
The outcome? I can include this experience in my portfolio as suggested by my Mentor. I better get some screen shots just in case changes happen quicker than I expect! It also means that in my colleagues' absence I can help with CE, writing it as well as uploading it. I actually like the internet related element in my role, so I am quite pleased I have had a go and maybe it will encourage more trys.
Working on CE increased my knowledge of the publications we receive and also what type of information our users tend to be looking for. This is something I can use in my research for users.
Cutting Edge is not only about latest news in the industry, but in a way also a a reminder of what the library subscribes to and what is new in our collection (excluding books of course) or new agenda papers. It also reminds people every week that "hey, hallo! the library is here if you need any info......" so I have also taken part in marketing of the library as well.

Applied:
I also had to use the style guide for consistency which gave me a couple of things to change when I write emails to users. I tend to keep a daily eye out for the type or articles I know would be particularly suitable for CE and which ones wouldn’t. I have also uploaded CE enough times to know what I am doing and to troubleshoot if needed, and I know what to do when, which means I can be used as a back up person when needed.

As I said, it has given me more confidence as I am shy writing in English and find it difficult to express myself, but the proof is out there in people's inboxs now, we haven't had any complaints yet, so I will assume my English can't be that bad?

Mental Notes II

2008-03-17T03:00:00.000-07:00

Good to keep in mind:

CILIP CPD audio sheet: CPD Audit Sheet from the CILIP website:

Date
Activity
What you have learned from the activity
How you applied it in the workplace

TextWork by Soutron

2008-03-14T09:19:00.000-07:00

Version 9, level 1 (6th February 2008)

Activity:
This was my first proper training (proper in terms of I was being trained by someone from Soutron and not one of my colleagues) therefore it was more at an introduction level than at an advanced level.....

Learned:
.....which is why I knew many of the things we went through. But if nothing else it was good to know how much I knew (which is almost 78 pages worth of level 1 manual) and good to have a theory recap because the one thing I am always on the outlook for are shortcuts - keyboard shortcuts that is! I learned that you can also use "not" when searching in the database. Although i know about the usual "and", "or" and "not" I have just never applied it when searching in Textworks. At least now i know that it is possible and if i ever need it i will consider doing it - to make my life easier and to process an enquiry quicker. Other short cuts are F5 which saves whatever you have changed.....I already use tabs to go either up or down in the query screen, I use F3 to open the thesaurus and I use the arrows and tab to move up or down, BUT I always have to click with my mouse in "List Shows" to go from terms list to thesaurus, now i know i can just use Alt+U. I like that! You can also add spell check when cataloging, but I have to make sure not to trust that too much (it has its mood) and to make sure that it is set as British and not as American. Oh and F11 is useful to seperate lines, eg. address and so on.

BBOD Seminar On the 5th February 2008

2008-03-14T09:17:00.000-07:00

Activity:
I attended the BBOD evening seminar in Reading on information ethics. The talk was held by Jonathan Gordon-Till from Info Ethics and the topic was of course information ethics.

The CILIP's Information Ethics website: www.infoethics.org.uk has lots of case studies on ethical situations and it has a blog where readers can contribute with their issues and solutions at their workplace.

Learned:
Now, ethics are a very important part of our profession, so the issues of ethical dilemmas in libraries are something I have heard about since library school. We have an ethical responsibility as librarians. The typical public library situation is the man who visits the library and uses the library PCs to look up what seems to be pornographic material. If he is looking at pornographic material that is art, is it then still offensive?

Or from personal experience, the patron who photocopies more than the copyright law allows him to. I am not a police officer, so I cannot punish him for photocopying more than the copyright allowance, but does that mean I cannot stop him? Can I as a librarian refuse to provide information to a patron, on ethical grounds? and what would the implications be?

Example:

Patron asking e.g. competitive info, poison, explosives, suicides ↔ Can librarian provide this? ↔ Ethics? Rules and regulations. To be objective or subjective. Cilip guidelines, confidentiality.

Librarians own belief/professional belief/custodians of information >< Law/confidentiality

It is one of those dilemmas where you think you know the answer but you always bang your head against the wall. It is not always the ethical guide for each company is handy, and as Jonathan said "There is not always a right answer" but you can either be subjective or objective.
It is just one of them subjects which which we all have something to say about, but cannot always act on. It is good to keep it in the back on your mind, and also remember that there is something called infoethics I can turn. But until that day, I will leave this topic full of blurriness and full of dilemmas!

Another interesting aspect that Jonathan mentioned, was that as a librarian I do not merely provide a transaction, I provide a piece of advice! And that holds a certain responsibility! My actions have ethical contents. I don't think I understood what he meant to being with, but after a quick tour in my mental roundabout; It is true! I guide the users, I say yes to some things and no to other things, and I give them advise on what information would be more useful than another. I direct them, tell them where to look and select and deselect information on their behalf. This can be for important information for their businesses, it can be a matter of investment, entering new markets, competitor analysis, speeches, workshops, curriculum, published material, it could be for a a persons career, a job interview! In other words I am responsible for my "advise". My advise has consequences. That is where the responsibility comes in.
I inform users that this is today's information, this is current, although it may not be tomorrow - it is my "duty" to stay up to date with what information is current and what is not. It is my responsibility to make sure I widen my interests, knowledge and develop my profession - if I ignore this, I am being unprofessional, and this can have consequences. I am being trusted for my qualifications and it would be ethically wrong to be unprofessional because I will not be able to give my best advise.
It is now almost clear how information ethics links to me and my chartership:
On the CILIP website, under career advise, a section called Working in business libraries describes the work in a business library:
"Librarians working in business libraries carry out a mixture of research and enquiry work from both electronic and hard copy sources.The range of material is broad:
market research reports
company profiles
government statistics
trade journals
product directories
financial information
salary guides
worldwide trade information
European information
marketing information

Applied:
The important factor in using business information is its currency.It has to be available to its users very soon after publication.Users need enquiries answered quickly and accurately so ability in accessing both online and hard copy sources is vital."
I must stay up to date and continue developing my skills to stay professional and take responsibility for the work I carry out. I actually feel quite enlightened by all this. As if it is now clear why chartership is so so important for me. I am a carrier of responsibility - it is not only about getting a certificate or a MCILIP after my name, it is all about me developing as an information professional, making sure my skills can be trusted.

The result is that on my PPDP one of my development needs are to "acquire specialist knowledge in the field of marketing and business information".

Mentor Meeting II

2008-03-14T09:15:00.000-07:00

The aim of my second meeting with my mentor (30th January 2008) was to get the mentor form completed and sent off which it has been! I have also informed my mentor (and Manager as well, in case the IT department has any concerns) about this blog, so she can stay updated as well. We concluded it is only worth backdating my portfolio till 6th September 2006 which is the day I started in my current role. Although, there is one thing from before this date, I would like to include : the work I did for IFLA/FAIFE yearbook which was in 2005. I somehow need to make a mental note of this as I will need to justify this. I think the research I did for that publication taught me so much about Internet research that it almost felt like my first proper research job after completing uni. It was even better because my research and text was all in English and from English sources. I felt i got to use the tools I had learnt and the acknowledgement and appreciation was a real reward. I will give some more thought to this and also speak to my mentor about it next time.

My mentor and I agreed to request some successful portfolios to look at. I have requested one to be sent to me and am eagerly waiting for it now. Initially, I wanted to look at portfolios from corporate or specialist libraries, but they were not as widely available so I compromised and chose a portfolio from a NHS librarian.

There is a new book out by CILIP, it is called Building your Portfolio: the CILIP guide by Margareth Watson. That has been ordered for me, so I am looking forward to that - so is my Mentor ;o)

My next aim is to deal with building the portfolio.

The next mentor meeting will be held in the end of February/beginning of March 2008.

Mental Notes

2008-02-01T05:03:00.000-08:00

I may be slow at updating, but that does not mean that nothing is happening! Au contraire:

I have had my second official mentor meeting

I have attended a very interesting BBOD seminar on ethical information

I have had some more training in the library software (TextWork by Soutron) we use

I have been introduced to the website uploading of our weekly marketing newsletter

I have had a thought on which libraries to visit to broaden my horizon

I will update each section in the next posts!

Recap and Forms - Which ones and where??

2008-01-22T06:51:00.000-08:00

It seems I should have started this blog just as soon as I started the chartership, the day I registered, or any time sooner than now would have been great! Before starting this blog, everything seemed to be a blur, which is probably the reason I did no progress!

Me being late at this, means that I have some catching up to do, in terms of writing!

This is what has happened in the chartership process so far:

1. Mentor
I seem to be luckier than most, as I already have an excellent mentor who even works in the same company and the same department as me. Thank God I did not have to try out any mentors from the CILIP list! That is one task less!

2. Forms

Let's see......... So far ...... these documents have been sent to CILIP:

Chartership Registration Form along with copies of my LIS qualifications from Denmark.
PPDP (Although I have a feeling I will need to alter this)
I am not sure, but it is possible that a CV has been sent too!

That means my mentor and I need to complete the mentor form and get that sent off ASAP. I believe this calls for a mentor meeting!

3. Log book

I have been advised to keep track of all my projects, including a record of meetings with my mentor. I have some notes here and there of workshops I've attended and a couple of emails which demanded in dept search and a couple where I got some nice feedback from customers. But I have no notes from the first mentor meeting, and not much recollection of what was said either I am afraid :s

This is what I recall happening:
My mentor and I looked at the PPDP (it always reminds me of Flanders saying "Pdidilidoo") and brainstorming what could go in which box. My mentor was kind to make a list of the possible developments I could do here at the library. My job was then to put fill in the boxes of the PPDP, and to send it to CILIP (The sending off part did not happen until December!!!). So technically my first mentor meeting was on Wednesday 5th September 2007.

Action Plan

Mentor meeting:

Go through the draft of the mentoring agreement and send it off.
Look at the PPDP - it looks a bit boring to me!?
Inform mentor of my blog and other (if other) progression

General to do list:

Request an example of a portfolio from the Qualifications and Professional Development (QPD) office at CILIP.
Make of lists of workshops etc I have attended (e.g. I attended a CPD workshop at CILIP in London (14November 2007))
Look at Criteria of Assessment in the handbook and get an idea of which direction I want to progress in.
Keep track of evidence - make a folder!
Update this blog and use it as a journal for thoughts, ideas, communication, so I don’t waste another 6 months because of blurriness.
Network, find chartership lists, where are all the chartership people I need to talk to??!!?

Okay, there are a couple of more things before I can get the ball rolling - but if I follow this plan, I should be on my way - properly this time!

First Step!

2008-01-22T05:05:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the complete mess in my mind. In the last six months I have had nothing but CILIP chartership on my mind, but have managed to do absolutely nothing about it. I just did not have the time (work, holidays, home, family etc), and promised myself to sort out my chartership in the new year.

It is the end of January now, so this is the beginning I have been waiting for. Let's get started with the chartership!

This log starts with confusion number one, what is the chatership report supposed to contain?

I may have to ignore that for the time being, as I believe there is a deadline for handing in the papers (PPDP), as well as the mentor form. So let's start with that first!