Thing 15: attending and participating in events

Before I had a 'proper' library job I almost never sought out or volunteered for events or training, because a) I didn't really fit into any one sector and there just didn't seem to be relevant events out there for me, b) there was never really any money or encouragement to go to them, and c) it was usually a logistical nightmare due to having an infant to look after at the beginning, middle and end of every day.

But since I started in my current post in 2009 I have become something of an events junkie. Unlike a (lovely) ex-colleague who cheerfully declared that 'I'd rather stick a pencil in my eye than go to Umbrella', I volunteer for every conference, visit and training session that could possibly be construed as relevant. Why the change? I think it's partly down to what might be called an 'enabling environment' - I'm encouraged and often expected to attend training and library events, and my personal capacity to do things has also increased now my daughter is older. I'm also hearing about a lot more opportunities through my engagement with social and professional networks.

I'm not sure I have any great tips to pass on about attending events, except:

1. make sure you build in 'alone' time for reflection/recuperation, especially if the event lasts several days and there's a busy programme.

2. talk to people. This is scary, but I find it helps if you don't think of it as 'networking' and ease yourself in gently by starting a conversation about the biscuits or something. I also like to home in on someone I follow on Twitter and stalk them until they talk to me give them a compliment about their brilliant tweets etc.

3. think about how you are going to apply what you've learned/communicate it to the rest of your team when you get back to work. Kind of the opposite of 'what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas'.

4. get free stuff

I haven't yet been a speaker at any kind of event, but I'd quite like to, if I had anything to say! There are one or two things I could probably bang on about but other people are already banging on about them much better than I can. Maybe next year...

As for organising things, well my past experience of running events (not in a library context) has given me the unfortunate impression that it's a mug's game, fraught with logistical and political problems and generally not worth the effort. Which isn't to say I'll never do it again, because I am a known masochist. I do love the idea of TeachMeets, LibraryCamp, and other informal events. We have a regular 'tweetup' where I live, which happily bridges the gap between online interaction and real life, with beer. I know there are library tweetups happening all over already, but if there's any interest in a regular Brighton/Sussex/South East event then I'm sure something could be arranged...

...oops, told you I was a masochist.

Photo by phonakins on Flickr

Thing 14: Zotero/Mendeley/citeulike

I was pleased to see this Thing come up, because I'd been meaning to investigate these tools for a while - not so much on my own behalf but for our users (postgraduate students and researchers). They do regularly ask questions about reference management etc and frankly it's about time I got up to speed! I can pass as a digital native in most areas but I have to admit I really haven't got my head around using technology to do bibliographic referencing yet...

I'm hoping to create a user guide to social media/free web 2.0 tools soon and would like to feature Zotero and Mendeley quite prominently, so my main challenge with this Thing is not just learning to use the tools but also figuring out how to explain them to others. I suspect a training session/visual demonstration would be clearer here than a written guide, but I'm not sure I'd be able/allowed to offer this at the moment.

First step - download Zotero plugin. This was pretty easy as I'm already using Firefox at work and happily my permissions allowed the plugin. Registering my account and setting up sync preferences was slightly more alarming at first glance (there's about a billion options on the preferences menu) but in practice quick and easy too. The interface of the 'library' itself is fairly generic and simple, although as with any new toy, if you're used to creating/managing your citations manually this is a bit of a leap in terms of workflow. But a worthwhile one I'm convinced. Putting myself in the shoes of our users, I don't think they'd have too many problems here - as long as they use Firefox!

Next - Mendeley. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to use this at work as it's a desktop download, and I was on tenterhooks (tragic I know) as I slowly worked through all the installation steps. But finally it worked. Another new interface to get used to... I can't quite bring myself to try it out until I have some real PDFs/references to organise, as it feels like too much hard work just for testing purposes. But again, it seems relatively intuitive and since everyone I know who uses it raves about it, I'm sure our students would benefit.

One thing I'm not quite sure about with these tools is the social/sharing aspect - if you can attach full-text PDFs to your library and then share them in the cloud, isn't that, um, potentially illegal? Or do just the citations get shared, not the actual documents? I'm all for open access but we're not quite there yet, legally, are we? [Ok, confused and copyright-paranoid librarian bit over.]

Citeulike, as Isla says in her post, isn't quite the same deal, being more of a stand-alone organise-n-share website than a full reference management kit. I like it though - it's clean and simple and just wants to be Delicious for academic researchers. I would probably recommend it to our users, although I don't know if it really offers anything not already provided by other sites.

I definitely have more work to do here on applying these tools in real life, but since I'm nearly on holiday it might have to wait!

Photo by Barbara.K on Flickr

Thing 13: Google Docs, Wikis, and Dropbox

I've used both Google Docs and Dropbox before and they are easy, useful, does-what-it-says-on-the-tin tools. And yet I still associate them with feelings of frustration, because using them in any meaningful collaborative way at work doesn't look like happening any time soon. The way we share documents as a team is through a massive sprawling shared network drive. The way we cowrite/edit documents is usually through the 'review' features of Word - everyone will make comments and suggestions and then one person will try to incorporate them in a final draft. Everyone knows there are problems with this way of doing things, but nobody really has the will (or, to be fair, the time) to change it, or even to try out other things. There's also an institutional distrust of free tools and 'the cloud' - all large organisations are wedded to proprietary systems to some extent, and understandably risk averse. Having said all that, I haven't made any real effort to introduce alternative collaboration tools myself, so maybe I just need to jam that advocacy hat down a bit harder on my head and take the plunge...

As for wikis, I think they could be a great way of sharing, updating and presenting work that we're doing as a team, but again I can't see anything getting off the ground when we're all flat-out doing things in other ways. I don't mean to imply that suggestions of how to do things differently aren't welcome, but unless you can do it a) on your own, b) without using any resources and c), without taking up any time, it's probably not going to happen. I do want to try creating a wiki myself but a wiki that nobody else contributes to just seems a bit too lonely and sad...

Ho hum, a fairly downbeat post, but in difficult times there's a world of difference between exploring some new tools for your own professional development and actually implementing them in a busy and complex workplace.

Photo by AlphaChimpStudio on Flickr

Thing 12: social media

Oh social media, what would I do without you? Some real work, sceptical coworkers might suggest. But truthfully I can't imagine doing my job without using online social networks and tools. Some examples:

1. Cataloguing can be an odd and lonely occupation, but through Twitter and blogs and mailing lists and live forums etc I am able to talk to fellow toilers at the bibliographic coalface and feel a bit less isolated. (Special mention to Céline and Venessa and their high visibility cataloguing crusade!)

2. I 'do' social media for my workplace (mainly Twitter at the moment), and I can see it adding value to our work on a daily basis. Via Twitter I have: answered enquiries, promoted our services to hundreds of followers who have then told others about us (gotta love that retweet button), made useful contacts not only personally but for colleagues and the library in general, and been alerted to hundreds of events and projects that I wouldn't have otherwise known about.

3. I'm a better real-life networker and communicator because of my online activities. Being able to initiate conversation by saying ' I follow you on Twitter...' or 'I enjoyed that blog post you wrote on...' has alleviated conference terror on many occasions, and I feel more connected and confident in general.

4. The social web is democratizing and informal, cutting across job titles and pay grades to connect people who have something to say to each other regardless of their respective real-life roles. It's no accident that not a single online social network I can think of is based on a hierarchical structure...

So yes, I do think social networking creates genuine and productive communities. But as with any community, there's a danger of becoming TOO close. Communities can become insular and members can 'cocoon' each other in a safe blanket of confirmation bias, where your only contacts are people you already agree with. It sometimes feels like the entire library universe has embraced social media, and to those of us 'on the inside' it seems a natural and obvious fit - a perfect way for a diverse profession with a commitment to sharing information and knowledge to connect across barriers of geography, bureaucracy, hierarchy and personality (some of us are still conforming to the shy librarian stereotype, after all...)

But in reality, not everyone is at the party. And I think we do need to be aware of the self-selecting nature of the voices we hear online. Are we in an echo chamber within an echo chamber, always preaching to the choir? And will my colleagues ever join Twitter and Google+ or will I always be a bit of a freak? Tune in 10 years from now for the next exciting installment, I guess...

Image generated using ACME Heart Maker

Thing 11: mentoring

I become inexplicably anxious and queasy when thinking about mentoring. It's not something I have any direct experience of, but the very word causes images of smug wisdom-mongerers like Yoda, Mr Miyagi and Liam Neeson with stupid facial hair in Batman Begins to pass before my horrified eyes. Do I need such a figure in my life? A thousand times no. Do I need a real-life mentor? Probably.

I have a number of people who I admire professionally, but very very few I would feel comfortable asking to mentor me. Worryingly, I have a slightly higher number of people I use as a model of the kind of librarian I DON'T want to be. This leads me to suspect that I might be a teensy bit arrogant. I'm definitely terrible at asking for help, taking advice and dealing with constructive criticism. Worse potential mentee ever, in fact! Still, they say that knowing you have a problem is the first step...

Photo by CaDs on Flickr

Thing 10: qualifications and routes into librarianship

For interesting stories on routes into librarianship, see the Library Routes Project. For a less interesting story, see below...

I studied English Literature for my undergraduate degree, a subject that opens doors into a myriad of professions: academia, publishing, arts administration, journalism... or at least lets you peer through the keyhole before slamming the door in your face. Once I'd tried and failed to find a graduate job in any of these fields, I started working in an office in Brighton, about which the less said the better. I then worked in a slightly nicer office, this time in a TEFL school, which allowed me to move into my first job at the University of Sussex, in the TEFL/modern languages learning centre. I was a resources assistant, and subsequently a resources coordinator. I loved working on the university campus but after a few years it seemed that a) the language resources were about as coordinated as they were ever going to get and b) I had a strange hankering to actually Learn Stuff again. It transpired that there was a reciprocal scheme between Sussex and Brighton allowing staff to undertake any degree course, for free. (This seemed an insanely good perk - and sure enough the year after I applied the scheme was withdrawn.)

I'm not sure when I decided I should study librarianship - since both my parents are librarians I spent most of my childhood thinking it was the last thing I wanted. But there was something about the work in the language centre - organising materials, helping people find what they needed, generally supporting learning and discovery - that I loved, and was good at, and wanted to do more of. So in due course I applied to the Information Studies MA at the University of Brighton and started part-time (one day a week) in 2003.

I enjoyed the MA course but at one day a week it was only a small part of my life (until dissertation time came round and like everyone else I became a stressed and hysterical monomaniac for 2 or 3 months.) I obviously didn't do a graduate traineeship, or even a placement, because I was already working. In some ways I think I missed out on new experiences because of this, but it did allow me to do my dissertation research in a setting I already knew and on a topic that I could apply immediately in my work.

I got pregnant just as the course finished in 2006, which meant I wasn't as motivated to find a new professional post as I might have been otherwise. I didn't want to relocate, which already narrowed down the options, and I knew if I wanted decent maternity benefits and the chance to return to work part-time, I would be better off staying where I was. I ended up staying at Sussex for another 2 years, until my current position became vacant. I'm still not technically working as a librarian - my post doesn't absolutely require a qualification, although in practice if I hadn't had one I probably wouldn't have got the job, given how competitive the field is.

I do think of myself as a professional cataloguer and I certainly use the skills acquired on my MA in that part of my work. As for the rest, on-the-job training, direct experience and continuing professional development opportunities (including cdp23!) have been far more valuable. Things move fast in the world of information and you can only learn so much in a formal setting.

I haven't so far considered chartership, as I'm not in a professional post and in general don't feel 'ready' yet. But it's more important to me to like my job, which I do, than to progress in a linear way. Another consideration is that, as I mentioned in a previous post, some sectors pay more than others, and I get better paid here as an assistant than I would do in entry-level professional roles in many other settings...

Photo by adotmanda on Flickr