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Thing 15 – Library Advocacy

Thanks to Barbara Band, who highlighted this on School Librarians Network,  I did this course on advocacy earlier in the year.

University_of_TorontoX: LA101x Library Advocacy Unshushed

 This was a MOOC that I undertook earlier this year after it was mentioned by Barbara Band, who is one of the guest speakers during the course.  Whilst this was run by a Canadian university there was still a huge amount of interest to those of us in Europe.  Perhaps some of the most important sections were when local politicians spoke about what gets through to them and what  they will give time to.

Advocacy is something that we have not been good at in the library profession.  we know what we do and how important it is, but we are terrible at letting others know.  We are also not good at saying how we can link in to the agendas that the power brokers have.  It always seemed to be “this is what we offer – take it or leave it”  Luckily we have moved on and are much more likely to work with colleagues in partner groups and organizations.  However I think many school librarians feel as if the struggle is still on to work with their teacher colleagues.

Maybe it is just me but since the advent of the world wide web it seems that everyone thinks they can be an expert. Of course if they put in enough time and effort then they can be experts, but I think  this thing of “anyone can do anything” can lead to all kinds of problems, not least being that libraries can be run by volunteers.  However that is one subject I am steering clear of today

One of the main things that the MOOC looked at was links to the community and this is also very much the central theme that David Lankes explores with his book “New Librarianship”, although it is old librarianship as far as I am concerned.  He has also produced a MOOC on the subject which uses his book as a framework, so it might be useful to people if it is run again in the future.

I am really looking forward to hearing other people’s views about advocacy as this is a topic relevant to all parts of the profession and hopefully we can all learn from each other.

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Thing 14 – Augmented reality

I’ll admit this is something that I have not used before, although I did come across the concept in another course that I did last year.  My problem is that I am not a great user of mobile technology.  I have an iPad but my phone is just that.  I do not have a smart phone and cannot access the web from mine.  At some point in the past I decided that I wanted freedom from the shadow of the mobile phone.  My family will tell you that I am terrible about having the thing switched on and they can never get hold of me when I am out.  I do use my iPad quite a lot but it is for web searches, emails,  twitter, Facebook and taking pictures.  I have mentally assigned different uses for my various bits of technology and if I am using most digital tools then i prefer the laptop because of the bigger screen size.

I tried creating an ‘Aura’ yesterday and again today but I don’t think they were particularly successful.  Perhaps I need to see someone else creating them, or maybe it is just that I can’t see a use for the tool as far as my work is concerned.  Something for later, I think.

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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.

2014-06-21 15.49.10

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.

2015-04-11 11.00.01

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 11 – some reflections

Yay!  I am just managing to keep up with all the “Things”.  It was the last two that really had me worried as they were the most uncomfortable to do. Anyway I managed to leap the hurdle and feel a lot better.  I suspect that a lot of the problem is that I give these thing a go but probably should practice them a bit more.  It really is an old adage but still true today that we “use it or lose it”.  I know from my other blog entries that the things I use most frequently are the ones that I am most comfortable with.  But which came first?  Did I continue to use something because it felt easy or was it because it was very useful and I made the effort to use it?

Some of the ‘things’ that are coming up are really interesting and will bring me back in to my comfort zone, although I am sure that there are things that I can still learn about these activities etc.  There are a couple of things  that would be useful for people to know about but are not represented – reader development aids – but I am sure that I can slide them in to one of my blogs at some point.  This course is full of fascinating topics but it cannot cover the full range of ‘things’ that we need as librarians/information specialists, however it does provide an excellent basis for increasing our knowledge and importantly is a brilliant way of networking with colleagues from a wide range of disciplines.

I have just gone back and read the information about this particular ‘thing’ and I really liked the bit about procrastination.  As someone who is ‘semi-retired’ I have control over what I do and also when I do it and it is very easy to leave things for later.  Reading this has made me start a process that I have been meaning to do for ages and I have joined the Society for Editors and Proofreaders.  This is a precursor to doing a couple of online courses to train as a proofreader, something I have wanted to do for several years now.  I am one of those infuriating people who notice spelling mistakes on shop signs, so I hope I can manage this course.  No doubt I will be blogging about the experience later on.

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Thing 10 – Live Streaming

I must admit that this could be the most daunting of the modules that we are looking at.  I do have a Skype account which I use to talk to family but I have not used any live streaming in my work.  I have definitely been at events that were being streamed and that is becoming more and more popular.  This year’s Carnegie and Kate Greenaway awards ceremony was streamed but I know that a lot of people had problems with buffering, so that the pupils did not get the experience they had hoped for.This suggests that the sooner we all have high speed broadband the better.

There are definitely times at conferences that you have a really great speaker and you wish that everyone was able to listen to them. I think it is still more common for sessions to be recorded and then uploaded rather than risk the problems of streaming.  The technologies have moved forward in a dramatic fashion over the last few years but I think there is still room for improvement.

I had a look at at Periscope but I would need to think how I would use it.  There are several positives and negatives about the way it is set up and I need to think through whether there is an overall benefit.

Live Streaming is something that is going to continue to grow and particularly as it becomes more expensive to physically attend training and even to get the time out of work to do this, or attend meetings.   It is something that I am going to have to think about, especially for author events perhaps.

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Thing 9 – Video

I am now well and truly out of my comfort zone.  As I mentioned in the podcast section I do not like speaking to camera or audio.  This sounds really strange as I will quite happily do a talk to several hundred people in a room but there is something about talking to an inanimate object that really freaks me a bit.  However I have decided to bite the bullet and to do a voice-over for a PowerPoint about Local History in the curriculum.  It is a course that I ran for several years and led on to other local history projects with schools.

Having hopefully got everything together I went to over to Screencast-o-matic which I used for a recording about strong passwords during another course last year.  Unfortunately the connection is rather slow and it may take some time to get it to link to the website, or maybe it is the Windows 10 giving issues – I do hope not, thankfully it has behaved itself since I upgraded last week.  When I have done the video I will put it on YouTube and put the link up on this blog.

Well here it is, the link to a YouTube upload that I have done.

It has been somewhat traumatic to say the least.  I had to re-set the microphone after my upgrade to Windows 10.  This was after I had uploaded a version where the sound did not work.  The latest version is fine for the sound, but it shows the slides in a working format rather than as a slideshow.  However I have decided to quit while I am ahead on this.  It seems that I will need to do a lot more practising to get this right.

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Thing 8 Curator Tools

Well this is my second attempt at writing this entry.  The first one disappeared when the draft failed to get saved on the blog.  I did not scream, there was just this gentle moan as I  now have  to remember everything I said before.  It will teach me to do manual saves more frequently and not rely on the automatic ones.

Anyway I had been talking about the types of curation tools that I have come across and the ones that I now use on a regular basis.  The one that I seem to use most is Pinterest, possibly because it is very easy, lots of images etc enable you to pin them and it is a great way of putting together images for work and for leisure interests.  Mine tend to be for courses I have done, libraries, books I want to read (great to have the visual key) and I think I am going to try recipes as well.

The other tool that I use quite a lot is Diigo, which is a bookmarking tool that allows me to collect together references about the same or related topics; you do this by the tags/keyword you assign to the link. Very quick and simple to use.

I was interested in the two other tools that have been mentioned on Thing 8 and I had not used, so I went and had a go to see how  they felt.  I have signed up to Flipboard as I think that it has possibilities and helps bring a range of articles to my notice that I might have missed otherwise.  I had heard of Storify and I know a couple of colleagues have used it successfully but  it is something for the future maybe.

Two other tools that I have on the computer and I am just starting to use are Scoop.it and a little red armchair for a tool called Readability.  Scoop.it trawls the internet for articles and references to subjects that I have nominated, but it will also allow me to capture information that I come across from a variety of sources.  Readability is something I had almost forgotten about but I have just given it a try and it is great for saving documents to read later and even to send to your Kindle.  Somehow reading a report whilst curled up in a chair is better than sitting at a computer.  Finally I am going to mention Jing and Screencast.com  which shows as a small sun shape at the top of my computer screen.  It allows me to capture images, pages or even video and then save it to my computer.  It is great for saving pieces of information that you want to read later.

Given the amount of information that we are inundated with it is so useful to have curation tools that are easy to use and help keep a track of information for both professional and personal interests.

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Thing 7 – Podcasts

Well, today’s thing is definitely taking me out of my comfort zone.  I  have only made a Podcast once and that was for a MOOC that I did a few months ago, so rather than go through the whole process again I have decided to share the previous effort.  Coincidentally it was about what you need to consider when setting up a blog.  However I have had to do something new as I have not used Sound Cloud before and I had to remind myself about Audacity, which I had used to record the podcast.

Whilst I do not really need to use this in my normal life it is something that I need to be aware of and need to be able to explain the basic principles to schools and librarians.  I have listened to podcasts for work and of course it is the same as listening to the radio, but with a much wider range of material and it is possible for anyone to produce and upload content if they wish.

I really do agree that the secret to a good podcast is preparation.  Make sure you have a written script and that you practice before you record.  Whilst Audacity is quite easy to use, it is frustrating  when you have to edit out all of the “Ums” and “Errs” that we seem to include when we are not feeling comfortable with the technology.  Perhaps I will try another podcast to try and build my confidence, but I will have to find a topic that I feel really comfortable with and then WRITE IT ALL DOWN.

So let us see if I can get this to embed in this blog.

 

It worked, wow, I was so surprised but very pleased!

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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.