Thing 23

What next?!

I think this programme has helped me in several ways:

1. Getting me to actually write something
Writing isn't one of my strongest points, but I hope that getting me to actually put my thoughts into words has been very useful. As I progress through my masters I know that putting pen to paper is a huge aspect of it, and starting by just by writing a few paragraphs on here has to have been beneficial, even if not one of the aims of the programme!

2. Getting me to think
Mostly about what I am doing in my career, and where I hope to go, but also about the wealth of free online resources available to me. From Prezi to Mendeley, I feel I have learnt a huge amount about how many clever things there are on the internet, and how I can use them to make my life easier!

3. Getting me to consider my future
And how reflecting on what I am doing is vital to keeping a track of what skills I attain at work and outside, and how that can help me in my career. This is where I hope to do more work and actually try to keep a folder of what I have done and what it means - something they try to get you to do at school when it feels irrelevant and time consuming. I will start by making a list of all the day to day activities I carry out, and see what skills I gain from then, and then move on to 'extra curricular activities'. Already at work we have 6 month PDRs which help me reflect, and I complete evaluation forms for every training event I have been on, to help me remember exactly what I gained from the session.

I think working in a college library has given me vital experience but I appreciate that elsewhere I need to have different skills, such as maybe moving into the 'information society' a bit more! From looking at job specifications I know that getting my masters will be incredibly useful (in a couple of years when I've finished).I think it could be useful to me to gain experience in different types of libraries, and maybe the option of volunteering in a public library should be one to consider. But at the moment my masters and a full time job are pretty time consuming, and something for me to focus all my efforts on for the time being.

Thing 22

Volunteering to gain experience

I don't think I could be where I am today with having worked voluntarily. Having no idea what to do with my life after university, and not wanting to spend my spare time doing a job that would get me nowhere in the end, I was eager to be able to get work experience at my university library. It was definitely a positive experience, and encouraged me that it was something I really could do. It gave me confidence, and helped we learn just what the job of librarian could mean, something you never really know until you experience it. Today I sometimes feel amazed that I now get paid for the job I do - having spent so long volunteering and never having had a (proper) paid job before it still seems surreal.

I spent my summer between third and fourth year doing this, plus volunteering at a local hospice and Durham's Botanic Gardens. Even though less relevant to becoming a librarian, I still think you can get a great deal out of doing something where you are meeting new people and trying something you haven't done before. Without all this experience I have no doubt that I would not be doing what I do now - having a decent degree is great but you need to have more! Since I've been in Cambridge I haven't done anything like I did that summer, and sometimes I think it would be a great idea. I can definitely see how it can fill gaps in your experience - the mention of teaching is something I have only observed, and I think some experience of that could only be a good thing. But now I am studying such a large amount of my time has disappeared, and what I have left I just want to do nothing and recuperate a bit! So maybe in a couple of years... I would love to do something involving children or maybe even just with a slightly different target group to most university libraries.

Thing 21

Job Applications and Interviews - eek!

This is not my favourite thing to talk about, most likely because of my lack of experience. But the time will come soon to start thinking about it all again, and giving some thought to it now is probably a good idea.

Thinking about what I like doing at work - I love organising. Although I don't do it naturally, the satisfaction I get from it is enjoyable! When I worked at Darwin College in the summer I loved making sure all the shelves were in order with their neat labels. Although I hope that I can progress to higher things (this is definitely the case back at John's!), fundamentally I know I love sorting and perfecting things. My work with the biographical office definitely requires this, updating records and researching people for enquirers. I also love the feeling when I've had a really busy day and I've achieved so much. Having had a productive day, arranged my day well and done things to help others is truly satisfying. I love having a project and following it through to the end. I think the skill of time keeping is something I definitely built on whilst at Durham, and continue to do so especially now as I have to study and work.

Surprisingly another thing I have enjoyed since I arrived in Cambridge is doing tours and talking to students. Usually really shy, I thought this would be an aspect I would hate. But I have to say I think it is the biggest thing my work at John's has given me - confidence in the work place. I have also been lucky enough to attend lots of training sessions during the past year, from HTML and cataloguing to the everyday stuff like Microsoft Office. I am really interested in the IT part of working in libraries, and all this has helped me further,

Outside of work I love cooking and baking, especially without a recipe book (when the end result is good!). I think this shows that although I love ordering things it is in the end product that is important, not how you get there. Being out in the open air working, planning my route and reaching the top of a hill which was a challenge is when I'm the happiest. I guess that also comes from loving to organise things. It also shows how I like to keep work and home separate - I do not want being a librarian to take over my life. I love what I do now, but it is a job to me, I enjoy the fact I don't need to think about it outside of work (hm, although I guess I am a little now!). Finally, I love food, and going out for dinner and a glass of wine is such a treat. Not sure how that goes with anything work related...

I think the one thing I will take away from this - I need to keep a CV 'file'. At school you always had your personal development folder, and I guess despite laughing at it at the time it is a useful thing to do, especially now I am learning new things every week. I need to try and remember everything I have achieved since I started working - which is helped by the fact we have to review every training course we have been on in a big file at work.

In terms of interview tips I always think just being yourself is the best you can do - it's not just what you can do that's important, it's who you are and whether you will fit in in that work environment. I always like to plan profusely, if only to calm myself - usually everything you 'revised' beforehand leaves your head the minute you walk in and you have to improvise! Smile :-), and probably ignore what I've said as I am very inexperienced in all this! Read someone elses blog :-).

Thing 20 - From Physics to Libraries

The Library Routes Project

As seems to be the case with everyone (and hence not terribly interesting!), I fell into libraries for no good reason. And who knows if it was I will do for the rest of my working life? I was in my penultimate year at Durham studying Theoretical Physics and pondering what to do after my graduation. A close friend suggested volunteering in the college library where she did, for only an hour a week. I thought there was nothing to lose, so I signed up and whilst there saw a flyer for getting work experience at the university library. After a short chat with the staff there I found myself going in two days a week over the summer (2010), and getting to know what working in a library was all about. And I really enjoyed it! The people there were so friendly, and I really enjoyed what they asked me to do. I experienced all elements, acquisitions, processing, serials, academic support, working on the desk with students and much more.

With still no idea of how to use my degree directly in a job I would enjoy I decided to give it a go getting a job in a library, believing my scientific background would block me straight away. But I was lucky, and got a place as a graduate trainee librarian in Cambridge. The year was so interesting, I learnt so much and gained confidence, and I enjoyed my work so much. Now I have returned to St John's as maternity cover in the position Projects Assistant, and have begun my masters in Information and Library Studies at Aberystwyth by distance learning. At the current time I am just about to submit my first two assignments after my initial study school back in September, and so far I'm finding it really interesting. It is a lot to fit in but I think it is good to challenge yourself from time to time. Going from writing lab reports and equations to essays is quite a step for me but hopefully I'll make it through. I would love to find myself in a job where my science-y background was useful, I do miss maths a bit! But at the moment I'm just plodding along :-)

Thing 19

I've been having a long think about this thing - at least that's my excuse! A lot has happened in the last month, and time has just flown past. I've turned a year older, moved into a new house and started my 'new job'. I've also started studying with Aberystwyth by distance learning, and that is taking up a fair bit of my spare time. It's a different kind of study to anything I've done in a long while (actually having to read something?!) but it's turning out really interesting. My first essay is on censorship which to be honest is not something I have ever given a great deal of thought to, but now I am worried about how I am going to keep to the 3000 word limit! I have begun using Mendeley, and I hope it will of great use to me over the next couple of years.

I don't know how much more I have to talk about, but one thing that is definitely relevant has been the starting of a St John's College Library twitter account. Proposed at our recent 'Away day' we (YiWen, the new Graduate Trainee and I) worked towards having it up and running for the start of term. Tweeting a minimum of once a day, I hope we provide useful information to students and others who are interested. We also invite visitors to follow us on the College Library website http://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/library/ with a mini live feed appearing on the right hand side. So far the number of followers has gradually increased and I do hope that as people realise how useful we could be to follow the numbers will go up even more (follow us - StJohns_Library). I have to say that this project has made me use Twitter more to keep up with what is going on.

Thing 18

Jing/screen capture/podcasts (making and following them)

1. Jing

I could have a lot of fun with this! Taking only ten minutes to download and create my first video (very basic!). I can see a multitude of uses for Jing, if only to start with helping my grandad to do things on the computer himself, without me having to be there! It is so simple to use (I didn't read any instructions) and the option of adding a narration over the top is particularly important. From what I could tell you can only add captions if you  download more software (Camtasia Studio) which does have a free trial, but I decided not to venture that far. With the sound recording option I don't think it is required, but may be useful for a business to make their videos particularly clear. To conclude I think this is a great tool, and being free I will definitely try it out in real life situations!

2. Podcasting

It is a long time since I have listened to any podcasts, my first experience of them was listening to those by New Scientist journal, on my ipod during sixth form. I found them a great way to find out about popular science topics without having to lug a book around on the train. I used iTunes to download the series automatically, and chose which ones appealed most to add to my ipod. I know that the arcadia seminars programme was published as podcasts, and I think they are a very useful way of distributing your information. A little like iplayer in a way, allowing the user to listen at will! I am yet to create a podcast, but I can see the many ways it could be used in a library. At St John's it could be implemented to create guides for students, however I do think visual options are best, or for example to allow people to listen to talks given as part of the Samuel Butler events (see http://on.fb.me/QgWcCu or http://bit.ly/Q7MLqx).

Thing 17

The Medium is the Message - Prezi and Slideshare

I have to say I have gotten quite excited about this thing - and have just spent an hour playing with Prezi, trying to get my head around it! I thought I would start by trying to create a basic presentation about the steps to applying for a graduate traineeship (nice and easy, don't need to think too much about the content!). I am one of those people who just jumps in without reading the instructions so I just went straight away to use a basic template that they offered - and I really liked the look of the footsteps one. I love the way you can zoom in and out of the different parts of the presentation, it looks so much more interesting than PowerPoint. I think one great way this could be used, for fun, would be to create a presentation for yourself of holiday photos. You could either use a timeline format (I love making timelines, after all the time I spent preparing the Johnian Physicists exhibition at St John's!) or as a keen OS map user when out walking, maybe a large map of the area you had been with the key places you visited and the photos you took. Maybe this is not quite what it is designed for, but I think it's a nice idea! In terms of concentrating on its uses in the real world, I can see how invaluable it would be to be able to share presentations and allow others to edit it, wherever you are in the world. I found it a little disappointing that you have to pay to allow your presentations to be kept private, but I guess that is to be expected. I also had some difficulty using the options, such as putting photos into the presentation, but I think this is something that could be solved by actually following some of the tutorials beforehand, and this is what I aim to do!

This thing is definitely going to give me something to fill in any bored moments I have over the next few weeks! I haven't even tried Slideshare yet...

Thing 16

Advocacy, speaking up for the profession and getting published

This thing scares me a little, as it is discussing things I have never really considered before! Through working in a college library it has not been a concern of mine that we need to promote the service in the way that maybe a public library needs to. We should always be needed, and on the whole students want the same things year after year - that mostly being the space to work! At the beginning of the academic year we 'advertise' ourselves to the new students by creating new leaflets, holding sessions on how to use the library and running tours. This year will be different due to all the structural changes to the building, and the addition of self issue machines. We also promote the use of e-resources and create displays of new acquisitions within the ground floor area for visitors and students. Therefore I think the most important thing for us to be doing is showing the students that we are a great place for them to work, and that we do our best to provide all the resources they require for their studies.One way I could potentially help promote our library more would be through social media, as I feel this an area not touched on currently. I just feel unsure about the usefulness of Facebook and other mediums for libraries as I did not use them when I was a student to access information about the libraries. Maybe time will show me how they can be used and how to encourage students/researchers/the public to sign up and follow them.


I am generally quite a quiet person and keep my views to myself, usually being able to see and understand both sides. I frequently read publications relating to libraries, particularly in the public sector and how vital services are being cut to the dismay of many communities. I have never worked in a public library but this is something I would like to look into further, as I feel we are very restricted when only working in a university library, and even more so in just a college library where it's another world really! I have enjoyed attending Cambridge Library Group events where you get a mix of people from various different library backgrounds. We are all catering for such different things.

Publishing is not something I have thought of within the context of working in a library, all the papers I have ever written (not published of course!) are of a more scientific nature. Writing is not something I feel strong at, though I hope over the next couple of years that will improve. This year I wrote a short piece on the history of St John's College and its foundress, Lady Margaret Beaufort, for a similarly named college in Australia, and I thoroughly enjoyed that. But I am not sure this is quite what we are talking about :-).

Experimenting with word clouds... for Thing 15

Thing 15

Seminars, Conferences and Events

Hm, okay, this is a tricky one for me! Being relatively, um, young(?) I feel I haven't much to talk about (I seem to be doing several things wrong already!) But anyway, I can talk about some non-librarian related things too...

In terms of having attended conferences, my only real experience is the libraries@cambridge conference in January. I guess the best thing I did before attending that was carefully reading through the programme and deciding which bits would interest me most. I guess I did make the mistake mentioned in Katie's blog of taking lots of notes, however in this case I found it particularly helpful to me as I then went on to write up the event for the CATALOG website, which my poor memory would have not allowed me to do without! Beforehand we also created a poster for the displays viewed between seminars and over lunch, and I felt this made me a lot more interested in general about the conference, and thinking about what else others would talk about/create posters for.

Presentations are something I have some experience of doing, although not in my past year here in Cambridge. I find them terrifying to do, but that does have the advantage that I prepare so much for them that they usually go okay! However, all my presentations to date have been on physicsy/mathsy topics, so maybe it is a little different when it is library related.

Finally, I do find there are conferences cropping up, especially in the CILIP Update magazine, which I would be curious to go to. Money is usually the case for not thinking twice about going to them though, even if somehow they are free they turn out to be in Newcastle or somewhere equally far away! I am always interested in attending seminars and talks within Cambridge, especially when they discuss topics such as social networking and the move into 'the digital age'.

Thing 14

Zotero/Mendeley/CiteULike

I've been playing about with this thing for the past couple of weeks, and have finally found the time (whilst manning the issue desk!) to write up my thoughts. This is something that I got excited about, I remember how much time I spent collating my references for my Masters project last summer, and how I wished there was an easier way to do it. Doing everything 'by hand' does allow errors to sneak in, and I have spent a great deal of my time over the last few years proof reading bibliographies for friends. It's amazing how much of a muddle you can get yourself in, for something that seems that it should be relatively simple.

I decided to give it a go with Mendeley (I liked the name :-)) and followed the instructions to download it onto my laptop, giving me a nice little shortcut on my desktop. I still had a selection of papers from my undergraduate studies on my laptop, so I set to work asking Mendeley to inport them. I was pleasantly surprised how many of the papers it could automatically recognise the details of, there only being a few from the more obscure journals that it got a bit muddled with (or gave up all together). I then got a little stuck, and this is something I need to work on, but I could figure out how to get Mendeley to create a bibliography list. Am I being dense? I think I will find it easier to play around with this software once I am studying again in September, and find that I actually need to use it!

Thing 13

1. Google Docs

I was introduced to this when I started at St John's, and also through having a play around with last year's 23 things programme around the same time. We use it to make announcements, and also to publish working hour rotas and details for example for public events and work experience students. It has been quite useful in that respect, but I can see how there is more potential for its use. For example, in the library we all access the Google calendar and docs through the same account details, which I guess is the not the point to be made in this thing. It would be immensely useful for group work when studying, and is maybe something I would consider from September when I 'return' to university.

2. Dropbox

I love this, and this year have become an avid user! It has been useful when making applications to library school, as I could work on them both at work and home using different computers. I think it's great to back up individual files that I want to keep safe, as I know that wherever I am I will always be able to access it. Transferring files between my old and new laptops has been another way it has proved its use. What it is interesting to note is that you can share files with people who do not have a dropbox account - something that may be useful at some point.

3. Wikis

Not a day will go by without me randomly googling an unknown word and ending up on Wikipedia do educate me a little! It is invaluable to many people, if you don't need to know everything about something, and are just curious. At university I found it had limited use, as even if you could find a page on quantum entanglement, it didn't necessarily mean the words were understandable! Sometimes looking at it just made it more confusing! I have never considered writing my own wiki, my only experience of this is as a graduate trainee maintaining the CATALOG website and recording changes made. I never really thought of this as a wiki though...

To conclude, I am always going to sing the praises of dropbox as it has had so many uses for me. My only wish would be for more space on my account! I have not yet got my head around Google, with so many aspects to it, and I think I need to look at it more carefully.

Thing 12

Putting the social into social media

This is something I imagine I am not great at! Aside from using facebook, which I guess my use could be labelled as social, I don't think I use social media effectively. I have said previously that I feel the main reason for this is the lack of time and medium on which to do so. I don't have a phone, netbook or ipad that I can use to access the internet whilst on the move, and have very little spare time on my laptop using these kinds of websites. For a lot of people who use social media as part of their job I can see how that is more achievable, as part of their day is dedicated to it, but it's not something that I am required to do at the moment. But maybe I should be...

I think that to begin with I could try to comment more on other people's blogs when I am preparing my own posts, as I do have a look around to get ideas (not being an imaginative person!) and I obviously have views on what other people write about. But this has to be a two way thing, if I attempt to be sociable but noone else does... why bother?

Thing 11: Mentoring

With no 'task' as such to do this (last!) week I just thought I would reflect on my experiences of mentoring. During my final year at high school I mentored a student in the year below me, to help him prepare for his Physics AS Level exams. From this I know how rewarding it can be to mentor, especially when the guidance you have provided yields results. The only people I feel have 'officially' been my mentors were my supervisors and tutors at university who I am still in contact with from time to time, but things have moved on and my work today is very different from the lab work and mathematics I needed guidance with back then. Working at St John's College I talk to a range of different people about my work and where I hope to go next, but I guess I am usually the kind of person who likes to go it alone and doesn't talk about these things perhaps as much as I should. I agree that is definitely based on the thought of wondering if you are good enough to be where you are, and go further. I think I need to think more carefully about this, especially as I have met so many people over the last 12 months who are in positions that I aspire to.

Thing 10

Graduate traineeships, Masters Degrees, Chartership, Accreditation

My route into librarianship began through a suggestion from a friend to volunteer in my college library at university. I have always been someone who is not sure what they want to do with their life, and decided to work in the library without thinking that it could lead to something. From there I found out about volunteer programmes in the university library, and spent my summer working there and gaining some invaluable experience. Through my final year I continued to volunteer one afternoon a week and that winter began to research what I would like to do after my graduation. And that lead me to the CILIP accredited traineeships as mentioned, and that's where I stand today. I have had a thoroughly enjoyable year and learnt an awful lot about working in a library, whilst also having the experience of working a full time job! With only three weeks to go I am looking forward to starting my studies again, with Aberystwyth University via distance learning. I hope that some of the theory I learn over the next year will help my work as I continue in a different position at St John's from mid-September. 

After all of this, who knows? I enjoy what I am doing now but I don't know that it's what I want to do for the rest of my life. But I don't think it has to be that anymore, everyone is continually changing jobs nowadays and I feel lucky that working in the information world is quite transferable. Whether changing the library I work in, or moving more into business, administration or archives, I feel there are options are available, and we need to be positive despite the current opportunities being limited in the economic climate! I hope that I will progress to chartership in the future, but we'll see. Things have a habit of just happening...

Things 8 and 9

Google Calendar and Evernote

This thing started off quite quickly as I already use Google Calendar at work. We have a library account to which we all add anything that is going on here, with the different areas of the library colour coded for ease. A copy is printed out every Monday and kept by the issue desk so it is easy to find but the calendar is constantly updated by us throughout the week. Leave is added by all staff, and it is helpful to know whether the Librarian or the Special Collections Librarian are in the building or not. We also use this account for Google Documents, allowing us to publish any important information to there for example staff work rotas (who is working lates this week) and information about work experience students.

Evernote is something I have never encountered and at a first glance I though it must be Endnote! It looks quite an interesting piece of software, and something that would be immensely useful to me. I hope that it is something I will play around with a bit more and possibly use when studying for my Masters from September.

Thing 7

Real-life networks...

My experience in this area is relatively limited (being relatively new to libraries!) but I am a member of two organisations - CILIP and the Cambridge Library Group. My reasons for joining them both probably stemmed from the fact I believed it would 'look good' to be able say I have interests in my career outside of my day to day work. With CILIP this really remains the case, as I have not used my membership wisely. I guess to me it seems quite terrifying and big! The CILIP website was of great help to me in gaining the position I have today (which they accredit) and I do enjoy flicking through their monthly 'CILIP Update' magazine. As a trainee I paid so little for my membership I guess I haven't felt the need to really get involved, which is definitely not a good thing. Maybe this thing should prod me to investigate a bit more.

The Cambridge Library Group has been of more use to me whilst I have been a trainee, giving me the opportunity to expand on the number of libraries I have visiting. In the past 6 months I have been to the  Archive and Conservation Laboratory at the Sedgwick Museum's Brighton Building, the Radzinowicz Library of Criminology, the Fitzwilliam Museum libraries and the Needham Research Institute all thanks to my membership of this group. I have also spoken to some interesting people working in business and public libraries, and it has given me a chance to meet up with a few of the other trainees on a more regular basis.

I had a little explore of some of the informal organisations listed, beginning with The Library Society of the World. It confused me a little though as all the posts on the front page were rather dated! I had a further explore of the LIS New Professional Network, which as I have already mentioned in Thing 6 I found quite interesting to read what people were discussing, and thought about making my own comments. I also think the downloadable resources are a great idea, and enjoyed looking at 'how to use twitter' and reviews of various LIS master courses (even if it is too late to change my mind now!).

What I would love to find would be an organisation for scientific librarians - reading and getting to know other professionals who are doing something I would be keen to go into would be useful. Maybe it would give me some more ideas of where my career could go.

Exhibition: Johnians in the Physical Sciences

Over the last two weeks I have been working on getting my exhibition all set up in our designated area of the library here at St John's, between the Working Library and the Old Library. I thought it would be good to show a sample of the final product in photos! If you'd like to see more of the exhibition go to the College Library website for details about our opening times.

 

The Penumbra Shadowing Scheme

Visiting the Judge Business School (JBS) library on Wednesday was a fascinating experience for me, in complete contrast to my day to day work at St John’s College. When we were first contacted about the Penumbra scheme back in March, visiting JBS stood out as an option to me - from a little research I quickly appreciated how much they promoted e-resources and social media to help their students. Through the ‘23 Things for Professional Development’ programme I have learnt a lot more about the use of Twitter, Facebook and other online mediums within a library setting and I hoped that the staff at JBS would be able to show me how they apply these ideas.

Prior to my arrival in the JBS Information Centre the team at JBS kindly drew up an itinerary for my afternoon, covering a wide range of areas. To begin with Claudia (Information & Library Assistant) gave me a tour of the building, highlighting their plans to gradually reduce the number of printed journals as more and more become available online. The main reason for doing so is to create more study areas for the students, as I was assured that during term time the mezzanine area gets very crowded! I found the area a bright and airy environment, and I am sure a comfortable place to work. The small (but growing) DVD collection was highlighted to me and finally we took a look at the rather terrifying (but very colourful) twin-screen Bloomberg terminals, showing one of the world’s leading financial databases.

Next I spent some time with Meg (Projects Officer) looking at all the different aspects of their website. Set up using an online blogging website, the Information and Library Services website is colourful and interesting to explore. With various blogs on the left hand side, the team spends a great deal of time putting them together and selecting eye-catching images to accompany them. Meg emphasised how important they find it to ensure the blogs are about relevant and fun topics, steering clear of simply blogging opening times! The grey ribbon along the top lists the five key things that students may want to do when using the website, and in the centre of the page you can see meebo, an online messaging service which allows students to speak to staff in real time .

With Claudia again I spent some time looking through the slides placed on the plasma screened situated both outside and inside the library. Aside from giving useful information, the team also pick out some key business and finance facts and figures for users’ interest. I also had a look at the Microsoft Access database they keep to record all enquiries, time spent on them and their replies. I found this a particularly interesting idea, especially due to my experience with this database software with the Biographical Office, and can definitely see the use when receiving the same enquiry again.

Moving onto social media with Sarah (Information & Library Assistant) allowed me to come to grips with the use of Twitter, and since this I have spent some time placing my Twitter feed onto my blog. I am also going to try and tweet a little more about what I have been up to! We also explored how they use Pinterest to show a very visual pin board of e-books, new books, funny quotes and numerous infographics on subjects from plagiarism and business to how to study. Ange (Deputy Information & Library Services Manager) told me some more about how she creates infographics, and what their aim is. I found them colourful and amusing, and a great way to get across statistics in a very engaging way. This lead on to us discussing how JBS aims to personalise their customer service, and finally a review of the afternoon. I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and went away seeing in action one way in which libraries can adapt in this technology driven world. The fact that the staff at JBS strive to know the names and faces of all the students they provide for, and the way they deal with individual research enquiries, showed me how personalising your service to cater for each and every student makes you so much more accessible.

I would like to say thank you to Claudia, Meg, Sarah, Ange and Nataliya for all the time they put in to showing me around their library, it was an enlightening experience!

Thing 6

This Thing starts out looking at two social networks that I am (relatively) familiar with. At least Facebook is something that everyone my age has at some point used, and is seen as vital to be a part of whilst at university. For me, now I am no longer a student I feel I use it less. I still enjoy being able to see what old friends are up to, looking at photos and reading their posts, but I don't reveal so many aspects of my life anymore. I do believe that Facebook should be kept separate from your professional life, and I have to say that I have never quite understood why businesses use Facebook - it doesn't quite make sense to me! Taking a library for example, I think using Twitter and a blog to keep followers up to date on news and opening times would make more sense.

I have spoken about LinkedIn previously, and I do think it is a really interesting network. It is particularly useful to me in this job as I frequently come across the profiles of Johnians (members of St John's College, Cambridge) which I can use to update their record in the Biographical database that I work on with the Biographical Office based here in the library. As to helping me find work... it had not yet been useful... but I hope that when people search for me they can find out a lot about my background using this network.


Finally I took a look at the LIS New Professionals Network, which as I had never used it before I decided to sign up and have an explore. There seemed to be alot of different areas to look at, and it was particularly interesting to see all the posts about graduate trainees such as myself, with questions like 'Graduate Trainees 2011-12 where are you going and what are you doing?' I think it will be very interesting to look at other peoples feedback to questions such as this, and to put my own views forward.

Thing 5

This looks like it's going to be the toughest post yet for me to write, reflective thinking is not something I think I do a great deal of! To start me off I began reading over some of the most recent posts for Thing 5 on the 23 Things for Professional Development blog. Thank you to Emma, Wendy and Polly for your help!

I am going to take the systematic approach, as I have always found that works best for me. Making bullet points under headings and planning exactly how to approach something is usually the way I go for whatever task I have to complete.

1. Recall it

Over the last couple of weeks I have learnt a great deal whilst working my way through the first five Things. Firstly we started out by setting up a blog and then beginning to use it to express our efforts and thoughts about each Thing we came to tackle. Secondly we spent some time expanding on this by looking at the blogs of our fellow bloggers. Thing 3 brought us to consider our personal brand, spending time finding out what information we could access about ourselves online and whether it portrayed the image we wanted it to. Thing 4 involved lots of parts, learning about Twitter, RSS feeds and Sporify. And this brings us up to this, learning the importance of reflective thinking (although it's not quite complete yet!).

2. Evaluate it

I feel so far I have learnt a great deal in the last few weeks, and been encouraged to use those Things I had used before more frequently. Blogging is an art that I feel I will take some time to gain confidence in, but what has definitely helped is having this structure to persuade (force being a too strong a word!) me to log on and blog. Having a 'project' to complete will always help me to keep doing something, and hopefully after this years 23 things programme has finished I will have gotten in the habit of coming to this page every week or so. This is why I think my blogging on the CATALOG website has been so successful, I have made myself the task of ensuring at least once a month I write a piece on what I have been upto at work. This is of course giving me a great record of what I have been doing during this one year scheme, and hopefully will be helpful to others considering librarianship as a career. In Thing 2, looking at the blogs of others has definitely helped me to understand what blogging is about, especially as some people have been working on them for a great deal of time. I have always felt learning from example is an efficient way to absorb ideas, and this approach definitely helps me there.

I began looking at Thing 3 thinking what a strange idea! I had never thought about how I appear online, aside from ensuring I don't share any information I do not want the world to know. This task definitely encouraged me to fiddle around with this blog - although still not satisfied with the design I do love the flowers! One day I shall get out with a camera and take some semi-decent photos of myself and come up with an idea for a more personalized background.

Finally Thing 4 was the task I enjoyed most so far - particularly using Sporify as this was completely new to me. As I said previously I have never been sure about Twitter, partly because I don't know many people who use it themselves. Maybe if all my friends were tweeting about themselves it would interest me more. Sporify was great to play around with, but I don't know if it is something I would use much at this stage. Maybe I just need to learn more about what it can do!

3. Apply it

All these things I have learnt about could be very useful to a modern library - I especially enjoy reading Polly's blog for Newnham College Library. I will be going to the Judge Business School library (Cambridge) in a few weeks as part of the Penumbra shadowing scheme, and particularly requested to see how they use technology such as this in their library.

Over the next few months I am going to make a particular effort to blog, and keep up with the 23 Things (I am now on track! On to Thing 6 next week :-)). Twitter is something I plan to experiment with, and again with Sporify, I hope I can come up with more excuses to use it on here.

As to reflective thinking, I hope this hasn't bored you to senseless - it is rather long!

Thing 4... the important bit

This is a bit late, but I seem to be behind on all my things at the moment!

Okay, what did I do yesterday? I am not new to Twitter, but it must be said that I am not a big tweeter. I find Twitter a little strange, as I never feel I have anything to share with everyone that takes up such a small amount of space! At university I did find it useful though, following organisations such as the university library and computer services. I also like to check it occasionally to see what is going on with friends who are more avid tweeters than me. So it does have it's uses. I do feel it would be more important to me if I had some medium to use it, that wasn't a laptop or pc, so I could it on the move and quickly. Having to turn this on, find the website, log in and then post is not terribly easy!

Again, I feel the RSS feeds would be particularly useful on a phone! I have been using these for a while, without really appreciating what they are and learning what it is an abbreviation for amuses me. I guess SS would be too short? I do think this is an interesting tool to see everyones blogs though, which definitely helps when it comes to figuring out what I should write. Now I can use it more than just for looking at the BBC news on my Google homepage. I subscribed to 'Infoism' which I think will be good reading. It was also interesting to note a blog he wrote on the subject of volunteering in libraries, which I had been reading more about earlier in an email LinkedIn had sent me due to my being a member of the 'CILIP: Library, Information and Knowledge Professionals' group. I would definitely recommend joining it if you are on LinkedIn (which you should be!).

Finally on to Sporify - something completely new to me. A little tricky to get my head around at first - but I did have fun playing around! I was sad to see some people had not posted their 'stories' in their blog, though it did take me a while to figure out how to! I did enjoy looking at all the photographs in The Wandering Librarian's blog of libraries he will be visiting in Chicago, again I find it amazing how many different people are taking part in this.

All in all I have found these (3) things fascinating to play with, and I know I have barely scratched the surface. I look forward to meddling a little more, when some time allows.

Here's to Thing 5...

Thing 4

Thing 3

To get straight to the point...

When I google my name alone somewhere far down the page appears my LinkedIn profile, but my name must be relatively common as I am definitely not a singer! Adding 'library' to the search definitely helps, with my appearance on the St John's College library and the Cambridge graduate trainees website, CATALOG, popping up as well. However, this blog does not appear and neither does my facebook page (although that is likely to be because of my security settings, I don't want the whole world to see photos of me lying on the beach). I have spent a great deal of time on my LinkedIn profile, so I am pleased that it is easy for people to find that, and likewise with the blogs I have written for the CATALOG website. I feel that everything that appears gives a positive view of my position at the moment, although maybe does not give me a 'personal brand' as such. This could be shown more through my blog here, which to be honest at the moment is pretty boring! This is something I could work on to improve my image and maybe give an idea of the person I am to those reading. So far my LinkedIn photo is probably the only easy to find page that gives an idea of my personality! It would also be great if my blog could appear in the top listings in a google search, and this is something I need to work on.

Thing 2

Getting two 'things' done in the space of an hour is quite speedy, but the time seemed right...

I find it amazing how many people have blogged, and how much detail they have gone into. I have to admit to being fascinated by my fellow trainee's blog, the library shelf elf (a very imaginative name, unlike mine!). Otherwise I did go down the list of blogs picking out one's I liked the name of, for example:

• Library Cat
• The Library Monkey
• The Library Bee

...which of course despite having brilliant, animal themed, names, had made some interesting points. I also find it fascinating that so many people from so many places and backgrounds are all taking part.

I look forward to reading more, and getting ideas for what I can talk about :-). Physicists aren't well renowned for stimulating conversation...

23 things...

Hello,

My name is Rachel and although you can see I have already blogged before, it can hardly be said that I do so frequently! Last week I registered to take part in Cambridge's 23 Things for Professional Development. I have heard so much about this scheme in my ten months here as Graduate Trainee Librarian at St John's College, Cambridge, and so it is quite exciting to actually get started on it! I realise I am rather late in beginning, there are just never enough hours in the day, but I plan to catch up in the next couple of days.

I am probably going to repeat things said elsewhere on this page, but anyhow. I am just coming to the end of my time as a trainee at John's, and from September will be studying for a masters in Library and Information Sciences at Aberystwyth by distance learning. So currently I am on a job search! From being here I decided that I did not want to return to being a student (having done that for 4 years was quite enough), I love actually having a job and feeling I am doing something with my life. I hope to finish my MA at relative speed, so allowing me to progress from whatever position I get starting in August (fingers crossed).

I hope cdp23 will help me to learn more about areas of social media and ways to use the internet that I have not come across yet. There are definitely a few 'things' that I have not heard of. One other advantage could be actually reminding me to blog! I seem to have no difficulty doing this for our trainee's CATALOG website...

Life

The last week or so has been a cold one, and experiencing Cambridge in the snow has been beautiful! The temperatures in the library have been a little chillier than one can cope with, and the aim has been to see how many layers I can wear and still move...

As time gets further through my traineeship I have begun to think about more pressing matters, such as what will I be doing come August. Gaining a place on a LIS Masters course has been achieved however there is the subject of how I will fund this, and my living costs, throughout the two year period. Jobs are not so easy to come by from my research, so it could be a case of thinking outside the box! I've been immensely lucky this year, I have learnt so much so far and I'm only a little over half way through. I hope the skills I've picked up on the way will be useful in the coming months as I begin the tedious process of applications again.

Joe Brearley

January has been quite a busy month so far in the library; there has been a lot of biographical work to be getting on with. Recently I have been working through a book about Joe Brearley, ‘the man who taught Harold Pinter’, who was a Johnian and beforehand had a very tiny entry in the ‘Register of Twentieth Century Johnians’. Thanks to the book, ‘Fortune’s Fool’ I have managed to bulk out his record significantly, with his whole career history and details of his travels. He was a fascinating person, and his life around the time of the Second World War was riveting to read about. Although the book is fairly hefty it was relatively easy to browse, and I spent a few hours earlier this week reading the letters to friends and family and the various bits he wrote before he died. I felt very happy as I updated the Register with my newfound information, and I hope more people will be interested to read of him and his life.

This week Rebecca (Butler Project Associate) and I had great fun attending a Zumba class. One of the craziest things I’ve done in a while, I did feel it was a great workout! Looking forward to going next week, though along with step it does leave me feeling a little exhausted by mid week! I’m looking forward to my day off tomorrow, which will hopefully involve a small lie in. The rest of this weekend involves going to Evensong in the College, along with my grandparents and cousin which I am quite excited about as I hear the music is amazing. I am also expecting to enjoy some tasty food at the Galleria restaurant by the river; they have excellent reviews so I am hoping for something enjoyable!

A New Year

Hello All

After such a long time of no blogging I've decided to start a fresh. This week has seen me writing various pieces for the CATALOG website and it's got me in the mood for thinking and typing.

It's been a busy one, in fact the last three weeks since I arrived back in Cambridge have all been productive, despite there being various days spent outside of the library. Together I worked with the other trainees to produce a poster for the libraries@cambridge conference last week, spending a day of my leave before Christmas putting everything together. I've also spent three days up at the Innovation Centre in Cambridge helping Allen, the Lower Library Cataloguer, work through many boxes of books donated to the library. I found this fascinating and would love to get involved with it more, which I have been promised! I've also been working on a project with Fiona in the Biographical Office locating all the past Overseas Visiting Scholars of the College. It's only these last few days I've managed to get on with the general work load and it's quite pleasing to see my 'To do' list shrink a little!

Other than that it's been back to normal, meeting up with friends (and family) for lunches and coffe, going to step aerobics (yay!) and generally trying to get all those bits and pieces done around the house that you just leave until you really have to do them. I've also had the excitement of receiving offers from both Northumbria and Aberystwyth to study with them by distance learning. Now just to see where the rest of this year takes me and what I'll end up doing from August... a little scary thought.