Google Calendar Part 8 of CPD23

Part 8 of CPD 23 looked at Google Calendar. Google Calender would be used to create events and make them freely available on your blog etc.

Face-to-face networks and professional organisations part 7

Well I didn't get around to writting part 7 of the CPD, which looked professional organisations. With a link to Real life networking for #cpd23, looking at past library events. It also looked at paid for organisations to join such as CILIP amongst other. It also looked at Informal organisations such as Lisnpn amongst others.

After a holiday in Germany......

Well, after a week in Burgerfest with the misses, I have got back to here about Library Camp. Oh well, booked it. But work tomorrow.

3 years on

3 years ago today my brother was murdered. Its not really a day I enjoy, but one I seldom forget. Thankfully, I'm away on holiday from tomorrow, so that helps. I'll be thinking of you Jody.

23 Things for Professional Development Thing 6......The network affect

The CPD23 thing 6, looked at the use of social networks for library and information professionals. These sites would include:-
1. LinkedIn (mine)
2. Facebook
3. Lisnpn.
4. Welcome to Librarians as Teachers Network.
5. CILIP Communities.

I always feel as a professional, linked in is one of the best sites, as their is no data smog. Lisnpn is one I don't use enough. Short blog i'm afraid.

Out with the Cousin

My cousin recently got a first class degree from Falmouth (even better than me). Anyhow, he was up in London showing the work he'd produced on the course in Brick Lane. Anyhow, was fascinating to see his work, and meet the next night with his friends for beers. So, well done Phil.

Holidaying with a book

(Found via here). An article in Salon entitled Reading retreats: Paradise for book lovers. The article discusses the rise of holidays specifically for reading. It also looks London's School of Life has created Bibliotherapy, which is:-

Once upon a time, it was easy to find books you could enjoy and which felt relevant to your life. Now a new book is published every 30 seconds, and you would need 163 lifetimes to get through all the titles offered on Amazon. That’s why The School of Life has set up a bibliotherapy service: the perfect way for you to discover those amazing but often elusive works of literature that can illuminate and even change your life.

Great, but as individual consultations cost £70.00, I think I might use my own mind to choose my books thanks.

23 Things for Professional Development - Thing 5 – Reflective Practice

Thing 5 – Reflective Practice is available today. This looked at:-

1. Recall it: this could be an event you’ve participated in, a project group you’ve been part of, a workshop you’ve delivered, an enquiry you’ve responded to…

2. Evaluate it: Take some time to consider these questions
What did you learn?
What did you enjoy?
What worked well?
What, if anything, went wrong?
What would you change?
What (potential) impact could this have in your workplace?

3. Apply it: Take some action. What can you practically apply from the experience you’ve had?

I often struggle in this area. I mean I read some blog post like this one recently. My blog post are sometimes the poorly planned and poorly executed. Ummmmm....

Bookmooch closed

Many years ago I joined bookmooch, an international, on-line book exchange community founded by John Buckman. Forfive years I used it. Since buying the Kindle I've closed it down. I closed it due to the expense and that I was willing to send and others were not. I also got feed up with the complaints about it such as these.

Possible library job losses In Warwickshire

The BBC website reports Warwickshire libraries could face 120 job cuts. The report says:-

Library staff in Warwickshire have been told the council is looking to make 50 full-time posts redundant.

That could result in up to 120 of them losing their jobs as many people work part-time.

More bad news.

The return of Michael Casey

One of the reasons for starting this blog was because of Michael Casey and Library Crunch and wrote Working Towards a Definition of Library 2.0. Although Librarycrunch has now ceased. I'd noted he'd not written for ages, as his mum had passed away. He's now going to write more often (or hope so). Be good to have him back.

Worldwide Library 2.011 Conference in November 2011

I just got this via email, that might be of interest to you:-

This is our official call for presentations for the Library 2.011 conference, November 2 - 3, 2011. The conference will be held online, in multiple time zones over the course of two days, and will be free to attend. We encourage all to participate, and ask that you share this information where appropriate. Presentation submission instructions are at http://www.library20.com/pages/call-for-proposals.

The Library 2.011 conference will be a unique chance to participate in a global conversation on the current and future state of libraries. The conference strands are at the bottom of this email. Session proposals will be posted on the conference website, and we encourage making comments to and connecting with others based on their session proposals, as well as "voting" for session using the "like" button on the submissions. Session proposals are due September 15, and session acceptances will be communicated by September 30.

Good news for Somerset......bad news for libraries and librarians

The BBC has reportrd three Somerset libraries set to stay open. The article says:-

Three out of six libraries due to lose funding from Somerset County Council in three months are set to stay open.

Six libraries in the county will have their funding stopped from 1 October and another five will have their funding stopped from next April.

Volunteers have stepped in to pay for and run libraries in Bishops Lydeard, Bruton and Porlock.

The Conservative-led council aims to save 25%, or £1.35m of the library budget.

I'm not really one for the volunteers in libraries thing. I thing it won't work as there is little financial. intellectual or social pay back for the volunteers. Also, they won't have the skillset for users on copyright issues etc. oh well.

23 Things for Professional Development Thing 4: Current awareness - Twitter, RSS and Pushnote

23 Things for Professional Development new post discusses Thing 4: Current awareness - Twitter, RSS and Pushnote.

The twitter part looks at join (which I did YEARS ago). It then looked at introducing oneself on twitter and using the hashtag #cpd23.

My problem with twitter is you need to be constantly on it to know whats going on.

The RSS section looked at what RSS does, what RSS reader to use. It also sites to perhaps add to your reader:-

Librarian by Day - transliteracy, digital library services
Phil Bradley's weblog - "where librarians and the Internet meet" - search engines, web 2.0 technologies
The Wikiman - library advocacy, marketing, social media
Thoughts of a [wannabe] librarian - IT in libraries, digital divide, library news and advocacy
Agnostic Maybe - ebooks, library news. Hosts an "open-thread Thursday" discussion each week
Hack Library School - a must for LIS students, "hack" your library school experience using the web as a collaborative space
Rarely Sited - special collections and outreach
Mashable - social media and technology news

I was disappointed I wasn't there. I also think they should add you can compartmentalised different blog interest group. I did comment on this here (google actually said no to that on 10 occasions). My query was:-

RSS can also be used for multiple interest. For example sport, news, work. Maybe that might be something to add to cpd23?

The final thing was Pushnote. described as:-

a tool that allows you to rate and comment on any website. If any of your Twitter or Facebook friends use Pushnote as well, you can add them as a friend, and then share pages with them. You can also choose to automatically post your comments to Twitter and/or Facebook if you want to share them with a wider audience.

I've never really been a fan of this system, so I didn't sign up for it.

Gloucester libraries on channel 4 news

It was with some interest I saw Friends of Gloucester Libraries was on channel 4 news. The news discussed The High Court issues an injunction against Gloucestershire County Council over library closures. I did also get to see the delightful conservative leader Mark Hawthorne complaining about it.

What is in a job?

I have mentioned previously that I now have one of those rare things in Librarianship. A permanent role. The role is certainly different to my previous job here and let me explain why. Previously, I was in user services department. This generally meant being able to do membership, desk duties, searching for missing books etc. The new role is working as an assistant in collection management team. The other job was good, but I prefer the collection management. The reason is:-
1. I'm constantly busy.
2. With Senate House in the midst of moving its collections I get a better understanding of the collection. As well as learning how expensive space can be.
3. I'm able to focus on one job at a time.
4. As we are a small team, and movers are in, I need to communicate better to them so that we can get everything done. This as actually been the best part so far. Improving my communication and management skills.
5. I now have a permanent role and am less stressed about waiting for my contract to be not renewed.
6. Finally, as I said in my interview, Digital libraries and collection management seem to be growth area's in librarianship (I feel). I feel (paper) collections will be retained more in depositories off site and more books become digitalisated, therefore I see a growth area in my present position.

Anyhow, the job means I'm more tired, drinking less and quit smoking.

Kindle power

Having continually pointed out I have a Kindle, I thought I'd mention how its going using it. I now some articles have said :-

Books as I grew up with them — books with jackets and covers and paper and spines — have stories that reach beyond what's written inside, and those stories are mine. There's the paperback copy of "Fahrenheit 451," signed by Ray Bradbury when he came to my hometown bookstore (and which I consequently never returned to the library).

But I find the kindle more convenient etc. I don't want an autograph book (why would I want to bow before the alter of celebrity fandom?) I really don't have space in an expensive London flat. I can arange the books into my own categories. I can take 2000 books with me. I can start reading without fear of losing my book marker. I can sell my books to pay for my Kindle. I never thought I would say it, but I prefer my kindle.