Academic libraries article......

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!....

....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.....

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

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

Still here....

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

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

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

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

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

ruletheweb. co.uk

Shape the Agenda event

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

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

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

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

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)