Am I a librarian? Part II

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Why would I want to label myself with a tag that seems outdated for other people?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

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....

.... 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

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!

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.....

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?

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

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

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

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!

....... 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!

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......

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

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....

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

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?

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

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

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

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!