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 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 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 :-).

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...

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.

 

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.

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...