It’s been a while since my last post, longer than usual anyway. I’m not going to apologise for this; partly because I get fed up with reading posts from people apologising for not blogging (personally, I’m all for organic blogging rather than forcing blog posts), but mainly because it’s sort of been a conscious decision whilst I’ve been contemplating.

I’ve been settling into my new job (almost 5 weeks now, gone so quickly!), and with that a whole new institution (and accompanying procedures and acronyms) to understand, and a whole new way of working. So far I am really enjoying it, and it’s getting more exciting now I’m getting stuck into the actual work, but it’s a very different world to get used to.  Technically I’m still part of an academic library department, and I still refer to myself as a librarian, but truthfully my job role doesn’t need any library experience or qualifications (although it is an advantage), and I could successfully fulfill my job role and very rarely set foot in a library. I know I’m not unique in this way, there are a number of people within the profession who don’t work in libraries; information specialists, independent consultants, and others working on library/information service related projects such as myself. But it’s taking a bit of getting used to after 5 years of being fully immersed in working in libraries.

View as I left my last day working in a library (imagine it’s changed a lot since!)

I’m lucky in that I have a network of fellow librarians and information professionals who I am in regular contact with, but no longer being in a library, particularly at this time of year (the busiest time for an academic librarian), is very strange. No running round like a headless chicken frantically trying to cover all the induction sessions and tours, no working extra long hours to prepare for these sessions and try to keep on top of other demands, no Fresher’s flu even (fingers crossed!). OK, so if I’m being totally honest there are some things I don’t miss, no one enjoys having Fresher’s flu. But on the flip side I won’t get that feeling of exhausted satisfaction when someone truly appreciates the session you provided, the warm glow when you know a session has gone down well and genuinely helped people, or the feeling of pride when someone recommends you to a colleague because your support was so invaluable to their research.

It’s given me a different perspective on things, and I’m so glad that I’ve had that experience so that I can understand how the work I currently do (research and evaluation for the information community) can support the core of the profession – the library environment. I don’t want to lose touch with that, and I’ll be making a conscious effort to ensure that doesn’t happen.

Some things haven’t changed, my network for one, which has been a massive bonus whilst changing jobs (and it has also helped tremendously that I knew some of my new work colleagues before I started and they have been wonderful at helping me settle in – if you’re reading, you know who you are, thank you!). I’ll still be blogging, although the nature of the posts may change. I have always kept my blogging separate from my work anyway, but a lot of my blog posts stemmed from issues/developments which emerged through my work as a librarian, and I’m unlikely to come across everyday problems from users within my work; I’m not even sure technically I am a librarian anymore (though I still very much feel like part of the library profession).

It takes me back to a much earlier popular blog post of mine, which got some really interesting views in the comments - what makes a librarian a librarian? It’s a different angle on the issue from when I initially blogged about it (when the focus was on the value of qualifications), but it’s a question which has been running through my mind a lot recently. What defines a librarian? Do you need to work in a library? Will anything change in the future? Am I still a librarian even though I don’t work in a library? I’d be interested to hear other’s views.

Belbin team roles - my results

As you can see, I came out with the most points as an implementer. To give an idea of the role the implementer plays, here’s an explanation from the Mind Tools website (which includes more information about the different roles):

Implementers are the people who get things done. They turn the team’s ideas and concepts into practical actions and plans. They are typically conservative, disciplined people who work systematically and efficiently and are very well organized. These are the people who you can count on to get the job done.

On the downside, Implementers may be inflexible and can be somewhat resistant to change.

Now I know when we get the results of a psychological test like this we have to take it with a pinch of salt, and of course we’re bound to focus on the things we agree with (there was a fascinating section in a book I read recently about how we treat results of these sort of tests), but that aside I do feel that this describes the role I usually take on board.

I certainly like to work systematically, and prefer to have a plan to work to. I’m usually the person who will volunteer to organise these sort of things and I’m a person who lives her life by making lists! I also agree with the downsides of being an implementer – I don’t like it when things go majorly off course and don’t stick to the plan, and I can be resistant to change (particularly in my home life, although not so much in my working life).

There was quite a difference between my score as an implementer and the others, although I also scored relatively highly as a resource investigator (who explores outside opportunities) and a completer-finisher (who ensures thorough, timely completion). I think the latter will ring true with anyone who has worked with me – I’m often the designated proofreader who checks everything is accurate, and I tend to take on an organisation role to make sure things are on track. I can certainly see some of the elements of the resource investigator in my personality too – I’m curious (to the point of being annoying with all my questions!) and like to help negotiate to bring in external contacts and resources. I’m more introverted than extroverted though, and not very outgoing.

As for the roles I probably don’t tend to take on, I scored low points for the role of the shaper (who challenges the team to improve) and the plant (who presents new ideas and approaches). I’m certainly usually the type of person who avoids confrontation, and I won’t usually challenge others or shake things up unless I really think it’s necessary. I’m not a creative innovator either (like the plant); I tend to follow existing practical approaches where possible.

It was an interesting exercise and useful to learn more about myself and ensure I’m aware of my strengths and weaknesses, and the roles I usually play within a team. I am also now aware of the way my new boss tends to work and how we may be able to work together more effectively.

What role do yo usually play? Do you think it’s useful for staff to understand their role within a team?

Today, 20th August 2010, is the last day of my contract at  University of Wolverhampton (last Friday was my final working day). Having begun employment as a Graduate Trainee on 1st September 2005, I worked there for almost 5 years. During that time I had four different contracts, three different bosses, two different job titles, and worked at three different campuses. I worked with some fabulous colleagues, many of whom I am sure I’ll keep in touch with.

I started out in the trainee post, and then worked in a paraprofessional role whilst I was working towards my postgraduate qualification (which I still need to complete the dissertation part of!). I started my first professional post in November 2008, in a traditional subject librarian role. I learnt a lot during my time in each job, and developed many skills essential to my work such as information management, organisation, time management, effective communication, and project management.

Over the last couple of years, I also spent a lot of my free time working on professional activities such as committee work for CILIP, writing articles for publication, and speaking at conferences. I was encouraged by my managers, and by my professional network, to continue to push myself into new challenges. I began to discover my professional interests (although I’m sure these will change throughout my career), and realised that I’m passionate about driving things forward – whether it’s implementing new technologies, adopting new working practices, or investigating the feasibility of new services. I thrive on project based work and love investigating and researching areas to support development of library and information services.

So, armed with the encouragement of my mentors and my network, I jumped at the opportunity to apply for a job as Evidence-based Researcher. My passion must have shown through in my interview, and I start my new job at Birmingham City University on Monday.

The job will be very different; I’ll be involved in research projects for libraries, but I won’t be based in a library. I think I may find it strange at first to make the adjustment, but I know many others who work closely with libraries yet no longer work in one, and I’m sure my professional network will help ensure I don’t lose touch of what’s actually happening in libraries.

My working pattern will change, and I’ll probably be travelling a lot more, but that’s something I’m really looking forward to. The train is one of my favourite places to work so I’m happy to work on the go and I hope to have the technology to enable me to do so. I love attending conference and events, and hope to be able to continue to do so on behalf of my new employers.

I’ve started researching some of the projects I’m going to be working on, and I’m really looking forward to getting stuck into it. I hope to be able to bring some of my current skills in analysis and evaluation, and develop further some of my skills in research and consultancy. I’ve got some ideas of what I’d like to achieve, both on a personal level, and also to support the work of my new department, and I can’t wait to get started!

Something that I think will make the transition easier is the fact that my professional network is unlikely to change very much. My immediate colleagues will obviously change, but I get a lot of information and support from my network (particularly those on Twitter), and I hope to continue to build this network in my new role. I’ll also be able to keep in touch with some of my current work colleagues with similar interests to my own, which I hope will be of mutual benefit to ourselves and our employers. It’s really highlighted to me just how valuable a professional network is.

Bring on the new challenges!

We’ve made a conscious decision this year to focus our efforts (and finances!) into improving our home. We’ve lived here almost 5 years now, owned the house for over 3 years, and yet still there are things we’re not happy with. Over the last few weeks we’ve been gradually getting things sorted – we’ve finally replaced the bath with one that doesn’t soak our floor every time we shower, added a shower screen, got some new kitchen lights, done some more work in the garden, and re-painted the kitchen ceiling. There’s still a lot of little jobs to do but it’s been very therapeutic to get some of these things sorted. Last weekend I decided I’d sort out our paperwork and finally organised all my statements and bills going right back to when I started University in 2002. We use online banking and keep track of our spending on an Excel spreadsheet, but I had kept hold of all our paper bills and statements too, so it was well overdue a sort out!

…spring cleaning elsewhere

The organising process has also rubbed off to other areas of my life too – my desk/dressing table is now clear of clutter, my dissertation paperwork is all neatly organised, and my desk at work is nice and tidy too. I’ve also been organising my online accounts, getting rid of unused accounts and tidying up accounts I do use. Here’s some of the stuff I’ve been up to online to clean up my accounts:

• Deleting unused accounts – do you still have a MySpace account you never use? How about Friends Reunited/Hi5/WAYN/Bebo? I had accounts with all of these, all of which had out-of-date information on. Most were relatively easy to delete, you tend to be able to do this in the account settings of each service. Some don’t really want you to leave, but just be sure to click on the right links to delete the account, you may wish to let them know why you’re leaving too (in my case I completed the surveys and explained that I am leaving due to replacement services meeting my needs). I’ve decided to keep active accounts on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
• Updating personal information on remaining accounts - making sure my details are up-to-date and updating my photo on Twitter and LinkedIn which has been in need of updating for a long time – I haven’t had a fringe for over a year! I’ve also added some of the work I currently do to support local CILIP committees and made sure all the professional activities I do outside of work are included on LinkedIn.
• Updating contacts (otherwise known as the “friend cull”) – this has become a hot topic amongst many of my real life friends (i.e. the few friends who exist in the real world and I see face to face!), it seems to be a competition to see who can have the least amount of friends on Facebook rather than the most. Initially, I added everyone I’d ever known to my “friend” list on Facebook, but more recently my feed was full of information from people I haven’t seen for over 10 years and frankly aren’t that interested in on a day-to-day basis. I’ve reduced it down to those whose updates I’m actually interested in now. I may also review the number of people I follow on Twitter, although I tend to treat this more as a conversation to dip in and out of. I have my favourite tweeters in Twitter lists so that I don’t miss their updates, something you may wish to adopt if you’re struggling to keep up with your Twitter feed.
• Weeding RSS feeds – I’m finding these are becoming unmanageable again, and am using the techniques I previously blogged about to reduce the number of blogs I subscribe to. Until recently I subscribed to all the librarian blogs I came across, but I’m having to review this now that I have so many! I’m using Google Reader’s Trends again to look at the statistics of those I genuinely do read and getting rid of any who no longer post or whose topics I’m not so interested in at the moment.

It seems there are a few of us currently “spring cleaning” our networks and streamlining processes to prevent information overload and manage information effectively; you may be interested in some of these other posts on related topics:

• Emma Cragg’s Establishing Order
• Steve Wheeler’s Swabbing the decks
• Mashable’s How to Spring Clean Your Twitter Account

Do you have any other tips for spring cleaning your online or offline information? Please share any tips in the comments

It’s been a year full of ups and downs, mainly ups thankfully – although at times it’s been difficult to focus on the positives, I’ve learnt a lot this year about myself.

This time last year I had recently started my first professional librarian job, and one year in I’m really enjoying it – it was definitely worth all the hard work completing my Diploma. I’ve had the opportunity to work on projects such as improving the way we manage inductions, sharing information about our information literacy provision via an online shared calendar, communicating with our users via online technologies such as social media, and an evaluation of a collection leading to a lot of weeding and rearrangement of one of our rooms. It’s a part time position which has also given me the opportunity to also develop other areas.

I’ve learnt a lot more about marketing thanks to my work with my boyfriend at Cookies and Java, and this has given me inspiration for my MSc Dissertation. I had hoped I’d complete it this year to be honest, but life took over and my new target is the end of next year (this may also be too ambitious, we’ll see!).

I’ve also been able to spend time focusing my efforts on researching areas which really interest me, and I’ve done a heck of a lot of professional reading this year – books, journal articles, conference papers and blog posts. I’ve also attended conferences (highlights include the CoFHE Conference, New Professionals Conference, The Library Show and Middlemash – which I still need to write up!), training events, and participated in a number of other events online.

One major achievement for me this year is that I have spoken at two events, the New Professionals Conference and the CILIP Graduate Open Day. I was incredibly nervous but must have enjoyed it since I’ve volunteered myself for more! I’m really glad I decided to give it a go and am particularly thankful to my boss who encouraged me to go for it, and to role models such as Meredith Farkas for their inspiration and advice to push yourself that little bit further.

I’ve authored and co-authored more journal articles and it’s been really exciting to see my name in print. I’ve also continued to write posts for this blog, and really enjoy sharing my ideas and particularly getting comments back from readers. As I touched on last year, blogging has become integrated into my routine and is a really useful avenue for reflection or sharing ideas; it’s something I have also encouraged others to do this year.

My professional network has grown so much in 2009, particularly with other UK librarians and new professionals, and I think this is a massive highlight of 2009. The growth of popularity of Twitter has contributed enormously to this, and there are a number of new UK librarian bloggers too. I’ve also been able to meet a number of these people face to face this year which has been great (I was particularly starstruck when I met Phil Bradley at the Library Show), and I hope to meet more in 2010.

Being more connected with the librarian network in the UK has made me excited about what the future might bring for the profession, and I’m glad to have the opportunity to be a part of that change. The New Professionals Conference was a really positive event – there was so much enthusiasm and energy and it was great to meet other new professionals. Many of these, including myself, are now becoming more active in the future of the profession by becoming CILIP activists or even just making sure their voice is heard – the CILIP 2.0 event earlier in the year showed just how much people evidently have to say. CILIP’s Big Conversation in 2010 will hopefully bring some exciting ideas (although I share other’s worries that the initial invitation seems elitist).

I’m looking forward to the challenges of 2010 – for me personally that will include my MSc Dissertation, marketing responsibility for CILIP West Midlands, speaking at the CoFHE/UC&R conference, and possibly starting my Chartership. There will also be new challenges within my job role due to a restructure, and within the library profession as a whole with the changes in society, the economy and education. All I can say is bring it on, here’s to 2010! Happy New Year everyone

New Year Celebrations in London (from i is Ashby on Flickr)

Firstly, I hope any readers who celebrate have had a wonderful Christmas season and enjoyed the break – I certainly have. It’s given me chance to see family, spend time at home relaxing with my boyfriend and our kittens, catch up on sleep, do some cross-stitching (for next year’s Christmas cards!) and learn a bit of Photoshop.

As it’s the last day of the year I thought I’d take the opportunity to reflect back on the year and look forward to 2009.

2008 has been quite a big year for me professionally; I’ve worked on my qualification and completed my Diploma in October, and started my first professional post as a Resources Librarian in November.

I’ve also been to a number of events and met a lot of great people in the profession. Particular highlights include a COfHE event The Terrible 2.0s? Web 2.0 without tears, Internet Librarian International 2008, and the recent Mashed Library Unconference.

One of my main projects this year has been the Facebook Page for our Learning Centres. Although it has so far only been a fairly small-scale pilot project, we have almost 250 fans and it has been a very interesting experience. I’ve been able to help others with their Facebook Pages too which has been very rewarding. The Facebook Page was featured as a case study in a recent presentation about Librarians, Libraries and Facebook, and I’ve recently submitted a paper to ALISS Quarterly about our experiences (more on that in the New Year hopefully).

I was also invited to co-author a conference paper for the Bridging Worlds 2008 conference in Singapore, and wrote about the Library 2.0 initiatives and barriers at University of Wolverhampton as a guest blog post for the UK Web Focus blog.

I have particularly enjoyed blogging this year, I often find myself thinking about possible blog posts in my spare time. I enjoy sharing ideas via the blog and hearing about other experiences/points of view through the comments. Blogging also seems to have become more popular in academic libraries this year, and I hope to help develop that further this coming year.

All in all, it’s been a very exciting year and I hope to continue developing projects at work, and share our experiences through conferences, papers and blogging. I’ve enjoyed spreading the word about new technologies and ideas for developing services both in my department and externally and I hope to continue doing so next year.

I hope you all have a wonderful New Year and a happy and healthy 2009.

As this was purely a personal holiday, you may think its unlikely that I can relate my experiences at Disney to my work in an academic library. However, something which really stood out to both myself and my partner was the excellent service we received in most places, but particularly in Disney. All staff (or “cast” as they’re referred to at Disney) were attentive and they were all working to the same objective – to ensure everyone enjoys their experience.

We also visited the Kennedy Space Centre. Apparently, if you ask any member of NASA staff there what their job is they will respond with “My job is to put a man on the moon”. I don’t know how true that is but I really like the concept. Whether a member of staff is a director or a cleaner, they ultimately help work towards the same goal and I think that’s great. It’s something which I think we can all learn from – in libraries, our main role is to satisfy our customers and help ensure they receive the information they need to. That’s a shared goal for all staff, wouldn’t it be great if we were all working towards that goal as a big picture rather than focussing on tiny details of our job roles which can sometimes take over our focus?

At Disney it’s all about the customers and I think that’s something that I will take back to work with me, to try to ensure that our users needs are considered and try to make their experience of the library, whether it is physical or virtual, the best it can be.

Something else which I love in America is how staff say “You’re welcome” after you thank them, I’m going to bear that in mind next time a student thanks me for helping them. It’s such a minor thing but as long as it is genuinely meant, it’s a nice thing to hear.

All in all, I was very impressed with America, and I think my partner would emigrate in a second if he could take all our family and friends with us!

If anyone is interested, there are loads of photos of Florida in my Flickr account.

By then end of 2008 I hope to have completed my Diploma in Information and Library Studies and become that all important “qualified information professional” – better get back to the studying really as I’ve done none over the Christmas period! I’ll hopefully be working on my dissertation this time next year if all goes well.

I’m also quite excited about the next year at work, I’m getting involved in more project based work and really hope to help improve our service by using some more up-to-date tools. We’ll hopefully be improving our OPAC, and I’ll be working on our presence in FaceBook. I think our department in particularly needs to really up the marketing this year, we have some great services that our users (both students and staff) just aren’t aware of which is a shame.

I’m sure I’ll continue blogging throughout 2008, so we’ll have to see where I’m at this time next year and whether or not I’ve achieved what I wanted to!

Writing about: pdf24 and their tools for Pageflakes and iGoogle.

As my home PC, work laptop and work PC all have different versions of Office on, I seem to be forever converting documents and adjusting them to suit wherever I need to print.

For example, I recently used our home PC (which has Office 2007) to make a nice fancy report, but some of the items weren’t compatible with Office 2000 or 2003 and when I took it into work to finish it off and print it, it moved all my page numbers around and shifted things to different pages. All very frustrating and meant it took ages to actually get it printed. At the time I was thinking “if only I could convert it to pdf it would stop all this hassle…”

Recently I was playing with my home pages (I am still alternating between PageFlakes and iGoogle so my post about those is still sitting in my drafts!) and found an extra tool called “Document to pdf”. I added it and tried it out and it works perfectly. You simply put in an e-mail address, browse to find the file, and it converts the file to pdf and e-mails it to you! Superb and definitely something I will be making use of. The even better thing is because it is web based I can also use it at work as I don’t need to download anything, should be great when we’re producing leaflets and guides to add to web pages.

I have been working part time for the last year, which has been good as it has given me extra time to study, however it has been more of a struggle financially and I have tended to spend my free day each week catching up with housework, going to town, the bank, the doctors, etc etc! A full time job came up at my level so I decided to apply for it, and was successful. I’m hoping to be able to take on more project work and hopefully try to put some of the Web 2.0 stuff into practice if I can. Hopefully I will still be able to find time at the evenings and weekends to concentrate on my studying. I’ve been having a bit of a break recently and am looking forward to getting back into it soon.