Cilip

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Thing 17 – Reflective Practise

I can’t believe that we are at the beginning of October and that we have now reached thing 17.

The post about reflective practice is particularly useful to me in my role as a Cilip Mentor.  It is the one area that 2015-09-24_1355 people become very worried about as they are not sure what it means to them.  I had not come across the diagram or Gibbs  reflective cycle, despite it having been around for most of my professional life.  If nothing else I would have expected to come across it whilst undertaking my OU degrees.

Having the sequence in a pictorial form enables you to quickly assess what you should be doing and where you are in the process.  In the article I greatly appreciated the fact that Stephanie showed us the various stages that you can go through in increasing the reflective elements of your writing.

I also think this might have some uses in my role as a school governor, so that I get a more holistic view of what is going on and where we need to be focusing as a governing body.  Definitely lots of things to think about and consider what they mean and where I should be focusing.

 

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Thing 13 – Professional organizations

well, if you have read any of my earlier posts you will know that I have very strong links with children’s librarianship in the UK.  I belong to both Youth Libraries Group and School Libraries group and have been a member of Cilip and The Library Association (old name) for the last 40+ years.  There have been times when my membership of YLG has helped me through some very YLG Logotough times with local government re-organization and cuts.  The support and friendship that you get through belonging to such groups is beyond price.

 

I have also been a member of the School Library Association for the last 10 years (doesn’t time fly) and although not strictly a professional body in the same way as Cilip, it does support and help all of those working in a school environment regardless of qualifications; the work that the SLA does is invaluable to those working in schools across the UK.  They also are responsible for the SLA Information Book of the Year Award as well as the School Librarian of the Year Award.

Generally I have not joined any other professional organizations, but I have worked with several and have friends associated with others.  IFLA is the international umbrella organization representing libraries and I have had colleagues sitting on committees associated with both children’s and school libraries; the opportunity to learn about experiences across the world is amazing and this can then be fed back to the national bodies.

One organization that we can all join if we wish is IBBY (International Board of Books for Young People).  There are national group and then every two years there is an international conference.  In 2012 this was held in London and I had the pleasure of organizing the exhibition.  The range of delegates  from all over the world was amazing and I learnt so much about the way that books and libraries are viewed across the globe.

The latest professional group I have joined is not directly related to Librarianship but there are some links.  this is the Society for Editors and Proofreaders and I have joined because I want to undertake some of their training in proofreading.  I think the idea of even semi-retirement seems to have passed me by.  I just want to keep busy and proofreading would be another string to my bow.

So for me belonging to a professional organization has had several differing advantages.  Firstly there is the sense of belonging and the support you get from fellow members.  Then there is the opportunity to gain experience and skills by joining committees and planning events as well as keeping your CPD up to date. Finally there is the recognition that you have a profession that you are proud of and that you think will make a difference in your chosen work area.  Whatever field you are working in do find out what bodies are available for you to join, particularly if you are a sole worker in a large company or educational establishment.  Professional loneliness is a terrible thing, so it is brilliant to have colleagues at the end of the phone, or email, who can answer queries, give support and just share in your frustrations and joys.

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Thing 12 – attending Conferences

Possibly my favourite “Thing”.  I have to admit that I am a bit of a conference junkie, particularly if they are associated with children’s books.  I totally agree with all that Caroline has said and it is a shame that training managers and senior staff do not always think so as well.

The first conference that I ever attended was an AAL one (the precursor of Career Development group) and it was held in Scarborough in November 1972(?).  We ended up travelling back to Manchester in a Morris 1000 during a snowstorm on the M62; memorable but not for the right reasons.

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Did I mention cake?

My main conference links have been with Youth Libraries group, which I have attended most years since 1997.  Part of that has been because I was the exhibition manager for 10 years and chair of the group in 2010; the latter gave me the opportunity to set the theme for conference and work with others to create the programme.  This really made me realize what a tough job it is to co-ordinate all the speakers, workshops, publishers etc.  Many years ago I wrote an article for the Youth Library Review about attending conference for the first time.  Perhaps the piece of advice that still gets quoted is to take two cases (one inside of the other) so that you can carry all of the goodies that you pick up at exhibitions. I know this will depend on the type of conference but there are usually leaflets, cards, pens and books and even soft toys if you are lucky.

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And more cake!

 

Going to your first conference can be very daunting, even for the most gregarious people.  I know YLG in 1997 was terrifying to begin with.  Luckily an ex-colleague, Sarah Wilkie was on the organizing committee, so that made me feel better.  I was then lucky enough to be spoken to at the bar by another delegate, this was Miranda Mckearney and she was so kind, asking me about my background etc.  On hearing that I had worked in Portsmouth she introduced me to a librarian from there, it was Peter Bone and we have worked together at Waterlooville library.  Suddenly the world seemed a much smaller and friendlier place and I had a really great conference.

Since then I have become a regular at the School Library Association Conferences and they have greatly added to my knowledge and understanding of the special circumstances in schools.  I have also been to a couple of conferences for the Federation of Children’s Book Groups.  This is totally different in that it is not for a professional body but just for those interested in promoting books to children.

Frank Cottrell Boyce

Frank Cottrell Boyce

Somehow I always seem to miss the Cilip Conference (Umbrella), but I must get there one year because the range of topics is something to really challenge me and it would give me the chance to meet colleagues in other areas of the profession.  I would definitely be taking my business cards with me.  Far from being on the way out I find that I receive a lot of cards and it is good to  be able to offer my own in return.  Perhaps the most important elements of the card were the design and the wording that I wanted on it.  It had to be professional yet friendly, informative and yet not overloaded with information.  I hope you all like what I ended up with.  Yes, I am rather keen on Owls.   2014-09-12 15.00.11

I suspect that for many of us the main issue about conferences is the cost.  Local authorities, schools and businesses are having to look at the amount they spend on training and a conference does not always highlight the ‘learning outcomes’, so it is imperative that we can justify our attendance in terms of benefits to our employer and additional skills in the workplace.  However I do think that we all have some responsibility for our professional development and if the subject matter is important then you should think about funding yourself. I understand that this is not possible if you are on a low wage, no wage or if travel costs etc put it all out of range.  Luckily there are still offers of support given by various professional bodies, so be on the lookout for this.

Well I am off to the YLG conference in Glasgow in October, so will get a chance to meet up with friends, learn a lot about Diversity in Publishing and find out what books are coming out in the next few months. I have also got two more conferences pencilled into the diary for next year.  Conferences are amazing events.  Not only do they provide information, discussion and news but they also act as a huge support mechanism for those who attend.  You learn things but you also have your own knowledge validated and your enthusiasm is boosted.  In this day and age these are important elements.  I hope to meet some of you at conferences in the future.

Just as a little footnote, I have signed up for an online conference run by Digital Shift in October.  Here is the link if anyone is interested.

https://event.on24.com/eventRegistration/EventLobbyServlet?target=registration.jsp&eventid=1016943&sessionid=1&key=1A53E7363BFA13D45F7E562DDEA83B24&sourcepage=register&partnerref=ljeblast

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Thing 6 – reflective practice

Wow I have just finished reading the linked article by the “Daring Librarian” and she is quite a role model.  I  think I have a very different style, but there were definitely some ideas and comments that I can definitely take on board.  I tend to talk about book reviews and events, but I could also think a bit more about what I feel I have learnt from a conference.  Of course the sensible thing is to ask what I want to achieve before I go off on one of these events – and then make sure that I don’t get totally overawed by the authors etc.

I also looked at several of the other blogs for this course and really found it interesting that some people love LinkedIn and Twitter, whilst others could not see any purpose for them.   I must admit that I enjoy using both, but I do so on my own terms.  Twitter in particular is great for learning about new books, events, activities and research and I tend to follow people and companies that are book, literacy and education based. LinkedIn has become a way of keeping track of my professional development and balances with my portfolio on the Cilip VLE, which I use for my re-validation.

What I do find with blogs is that they can be whatever you want.  I have two that I am using at the moment and they fulfill different purposes; the one related to this course is the one I am writing on at this moment, the other one is my children’s book review blog.  Some people are very articulate and also include a lot of pictures, links and additional information for the reader, whilst others have much shorter and more concise entries that just give you the basic details of the subject.  I suspect that these differences relate to how comfortable people are in using the technology and as this grows, so will the complexity of their blog.