Yesterday I was at a termly training day organised by our brilliant and very hardworking Schools Library Service (Suffolk)for high school librarians.
http://www.suffolk.gov.uk/EducationAndLearning/Schools/SchoolsLibraryService/
The main event was an inspiring morning session by Alan Gibbons, children's author and instigator of the Campaign for the Book, which started out with the threat to Doncaster libraries and turned, via Wirral library campaign, into a national campaign in many authorities as county councils target local libraries in the current round of stringent budget cuts. Here in Suffolk there has been a huge public outcry against the plan to "divest" many services to local interest groups or private providers.
I imagine Alan Gibbons has given this presentation (refreshingly without notes or AV displays) probably hundreds of times, and I was impressed by the vigour and passion of his argument and his ongoing commitment to the fight to keep public and school libraries, and school library services.
Alan's blog is updated daily with links to news and articles about library issues in UK.
http://alangibbons.net/
Later on today I came across this article from the Evening Standard about research linking book ownership to reading success ( a bit of a no-brainer, of course).
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23956834-prisons-must-by-law-have-libraries---so-why-dont-schools.do
The afternoon session was a workshop about advocacy. Two school libraries are under threat or have already closed in our local area, so it's a crucial time for evidence based impact assessment to fight our corner. I'm planning to produce some audio/ video clips of teachers and pupils talking about what the school library means to them and get comments about specific activities which couldn't have been done, or would have been difficult without the school library resources, including the librarian - me!
Finally our SLS Advisory Librarians share their reading experiences and school events at:
http://twitter.com/#!/LizandJacky
Thursday 30 June 2011
cpd23, Thing 3, update on personal brand
I have been mulling over my personal brand all week. I've checked my online presence and also asked a friend who works in a different professional field to comment on the impression conveyed by my blog. And I've read lots of other people's thoughts about branding. So I've done my homework!
I've decided for the present to leave my identity as it is. I know future "Things" include Twitter, Facebook etc and I'm going to continue to think about my brand so that I can get a consistent identity across those different applications. I'm pretty sure I don't want to use a photo, but I can see an image/ logo is useful for quick identification, so I might look at that.
I don't feel as if I've ducked this one and it's been very useful to think about personal and corporate branding.
Meanwhile other things have been going on. . .
I've decided for the present to leave my identity as it is. I know future "Things" include Twitter, Facebook etc and I'm going to continue to think about my brand so that I can get a consistent identity across those different applications. I'm pretty sure I don't want to use a photo, but I can see an image/ logo is useful for quick identification, so I might look at that.
I don't feel as if I've ducked this one and it's been very useful to think about personal and corporate branding.
Meanwhile other things have been going on. . .
Tuesday 28 June 2011
cpd23 Personal Brand, finding my way around blogging,
Just an update of my progress in the world of blogging:
I can now create links in my blog and upload pictures.
I have worked out how to follow a blog.
I looked at lots of blogs with advice about personal branding.
Still mulling over my thoughts about personal branding. I have misgivings about using my real name online and a picture also feels a bit risky. But I may change how I feel. The library community feels very supportive and friendly, but I'm really not very happy about being too revealed just yet. Might be something to do with my age/ era.
Today I've been asked to help collate/ edit information for our new school prospectus for 2012, a job I did two years ago. As we will be transforming into a new school (see my blog...) with a new name, uniform, logo, school site, this is also a branding exercise.
I can now create links in my blog and upload pictures.
I have worked out how to follow a blog.
I looked at lots of blogs with advice about personal branding.
Still mulling over my thoughts about personal branding. I have misgivings about using my real name online and a picture also feels a bit risky. But I may change how I feel. The library community feels very supportive and friendly, but I'm really not very happy about being too revealed just yet. Might be something to do with my age/ era.
Today I've been asked to help collate/ edit information for our new school prospectus for 2012, a job I did two years ago. As we will be transforming into a new school (see my blog...) with a new name, uniform, logo, school site, this is also a branding exercise.
Monday 27 June 2011
Social Media - Lost in the Labyrinth
I'm really pleased that I've managed to get my blog started, but I'm still finding my way around the "behind the scenes" - dashboard, profile, followers, etc.
In particular, I haven't quite worked out how to follow other people's blogs (though I am reading them) and I need to learn about creating links in my blog. It's just a matter of getting round to it.
This is fairly typical of my experience with technology - get to grips with the basics (or sometimes not even that) but grind to a halt when the technical things/ navigation start to get challenging. I haven't given up, though, and now I've jotted down these thoughts, with luck I will actually do something about them.
I think that's the great thing about the blog - taking time to capture the thought, which then allows the next bit of thinking.
Thanks to the people who've give me feedback - I will try to do personal replies, when I've worked out how.
In particular, I haven't quite worked out how to follow other people's blogs (though I am reading them) and I need to learn about creating links in my blog. It's just a matter of getting round to it.
This is fairly typical of my experience with technology - get to grips with the basics (or sometimes not even that) but grind to a halt when the technical things/ navigation start to get challenging. I haven't given up, though, and now I've jotted down these thoughts, with luck I will actually do something about them.
I think that's the great thing about the blog - taking time to capture the thought, which then allows the next bit of thinking.
Thanks to the people who've give me feedback - I will try to do personal replies, when I've worked out how.
Personal Brand - cpd23 Thing 3
I've just looked through the cpd 23 thing 3 which is about creating a personal brand. I thought I'd get some thoughts down straight away before I take refuge from difficult thinking in the stock check! This issue is very timely and will challenge me to think through and tackle some issues about privacy, confidence, visibility, security.
In a work-based sense, I haven't really found a personal brand for my school library, so I'm hoping that I'll be able to consider that as well.
There are particular issues with that one - how to create a distinctive identity within the bounds of an institution (school). Now is an excellent time to be thinking about this: we are going through a reorganisation process, with schools in my area moving from a three tier (primary, middle, upper) to two tier (primary, secondary) in September 2012. We will technically be a new school (new name, uniform, colours, logos). We will be gaining two extra year groups - Years 7&8 (11 & 12 year olds). In addition, our 6th form is moving to another site across town. I will be setting up a completely new library for them on that site. So effectively I'll need to find a "brand" for both libraries. Then there's the online presence of the school library, which currently is hidden away in the depths of our VLE and is the clunkiest, ugliest interface it's possible to imagine.
Did you notice how I craftily slipped away from thinking about MY personal brand to talking about my library's brand? It's easier to tackle the less personal issues, and I've already done a lot of consultation and planning for the changes ahead - practical solutions. But I do need to think about the underlying "whys" as well as the "whats" and "hows". And I think a key issue for me is about "design" - making it look good, which I'm not very confident about. That's why writing this blog is such a pleasure - it looks great, so thanks to all the techy people who run this website!
I did the Google name check. I have done this before, but not for a while, so I knew there was a high profile Australian politician who shares my name. However, I shouldn't have been surprised to find numerous sites with "speculative" links to my name, plus an irritating, inaccurate, out of date - by 10 years - and potentially embarrassing listing in a phone directory site (first listing - they obviously pay a lot for priority).
I also discovered my Twitter listing, which I signed up for on a social media training course a year ago (thanks Phil Bradley) but have never used. That uses a completely different persona which I obviously had to make up on the spot and would never have remembered. So that's a bit of personal branding I need to address for consistency.
I also noticed two new links to a role I've taken on recently as Music Librarian for a local choir. So there I don't have a personal brand, but the choir's webpages are quite stylish so I'm happy enough to be associated with that.
And then of course there are some other people who share my name (fairly unusual, so not that many). OK, so that's the groundwork. Now I'll let it brew a bit and be back later with some more.
In a work-based sense, I haven't really found a personal brand for my school library, so I'm hoping that I'll be able to consider that as well.
There are particular issues with that one - how to create a distinctive identity within the bounds of an institution (school). Now is an excellent time to be thinking about this: we are going through a reorganisation process, with schools in my area moving from a three tier (primary, middle, upper) to two tier (primary, secondary) in September 2012. We will technically be a new school (new name, uniform, colours, logos). We will be gaining two extra year groups - Years 7&8 (11 & 12 year olds). In addition, our 6th form is moving to another site across town. I will be setting up a completely new library for them on that site. So effectively I'll need to find a "brand" for both libraries. Then there's the online presence of the school library, which currently is hidden away in the depths of our VLE and is the clunkiest, ugliest interface it's possible to imagine.
Did you notice how I craftily slipped away from thinking about MY personal brand to talking about my library's brand? It's easier to tackle the less personal issues, and I've already done a lot of consultation and planning for the changes ahead - practical solutions. But I do need to think about the underlying "whys" as well as the "whats" and "hows". And I think a key issue for me is about "design" - making it look good, which I'm not very confident about. That's why writing this blog is such a pleasure - it looks great, so thanks to all the techy people who run this website!
I did the Google name check. I have done this before, but not for a while, so I knew there was a high profile Australian politician who shares my name. However, I shouldn't have been surprised to find numerous sites with "speculative" links to my name, plus an irritating, inaccurate, out of date - by 10 years - and potentially embarrassing listing in a phone directory site (first listing - they obviously pay a lot for priority).
I also discovered my Twitter listing, which I signed up for on a social media training course a year ago (thanks Phil Bradley) but have never used. That uses a completely different persona which I obviously had to make up on the spot and would never have remembered. So that's a bit of personal branding I need to address for consistency.
I also noticed two new links to a role I've taken on recently as Music Librarian for a local choir. So there I don't have a personal brand, but the choir's webpages are quite stylish so I'm happy enough to be associated with that.
And then of course there are some other people who share my name (fairly unusual, so not that many). OK, so that's the groundwork. Now I'll let it brew a bit and be back later with some more.
Thursday 23 June 2011
Roots and Routes - a career in right angles
I discovered this Roots and Routes idea through cpd23. Scrolling through the other postings I had to hunt for school librarians. I know there are a lot of us out there - but we don't seem to have much of an online presence.
My roots in libraries:
I think I pretty much took libraries for granted as a child and teenager. We had books at home and my father in particular was a lifelong fiction reader, usually with a book on the go in every room.
Our public library (Wakefield City Library) was a regular haunt - my mother (an English teacher) presumably took us as I remember smaller siblings in push chairs. The junior library was a fabulous (old fashioned) place - parquet floor, wood everywhere, and the tantalising swing doors into the grown up library, Narnia-like.
As a teenager (or however old one had to be to be admitted to the hallowed place) I haunted the adult library. There was a teenage fiction section (hardly any teenage fiction really in those days - 1960's - don't gasp) - William Mayne is about all I remember. But I roamed the non- fiction shelves and borrowed voraciously especially travel/ adventure writing and lots of craft/ design books, true crime, psychology.
Of course that was all pre-digital (we barely had TVs) so there were also the mysteries of the card index and borrower tickets and all those boxes of issued tickets at the librarian's desk.
At school I suppose I borrowed fiction, but I don't remember much about it. I was a library prefect (!) in the 6th form but that seemed to be mainly about telling people to be quiet!!!
At university (Reading) I read English, hated the library, stopped reading anything except course-related "texts" and certainly being a librarian of any description never entered my head. Like other contributors to this thread, the careers advice at university was pathetic:I should be a teacher (based on no evidence at all) - no other suggestion. So, being pretty pathetic in the imagination stakes myself, off I went to do my PGCE and the rest, as they say, is history.
The right angles of my career:
English teacher in secondary schools/ English teacher FE college (think "Wilt", it's about the same era). Then the first unexpected turn - the college transformed (in one of those regular re-structuring exercises we are used to in Education) into a tertiary college - I don't even know if that is a recognisable term these days. Basically from a standard (bog-standard) 1970's FE college, the college added a big academic stream for 16+ students, including amazingly exciting whole new departments, like Performing Arts. So I wheedled a year's secondment retraining in Theatre Design and Stage Management and lectured in that area for the next ten years.
So where is the library in all this? you may wonder. Not there quite yet, though I did use the college library, which was transformed from a pokey, dusty no-one wants to go in there type of place, into a great big open, noisy (!) busy place with journals, comfy seats and a whole TEAM of smiley, young librarians, who would go to the pub with us. And I did manage the department's own resources.
Then not so much a change of direction as a complete drop out. Heart ruled every other sense and I escaped to the northern wilds ( a year out, I thought of it). Circumstances dictated that one year turned into seven (things go slowly up north). Finally, having completely depleted my resources and desperate for a job, I came across a library assistant job in the local secondary school, just 15 minutes down the road. Competition was stiff (and we were all vastly overqualified for the level of post, but also inexperienced in librarian things) so I was really thrilled to get the job.
So there you have it - a librarian at last. Completely unexpected and unplanned, but absolutely good.
My route in libraries:
I think I worked about 15 hours a week in my first library assistant post. I was trained by the fabulous School Librarian (thanks Johanna). She was a "proper" qualified professional so I learned all the routine tasks, book processing, cataloguing, circulation management etc. We only overlapped at lunch times, so I had to get on with it on my own. Of course, being an experienced teacher helped me enormously, in terms of understanding curriculum, teachers, school things in general. I re-discovered the wonderful world of children's and teenage fiction.
After 4 years I upped roots and headed to Suffolk. I had no job to go to, so spent a scary few months without an income and applied for really any job going. Happily I got a job as school librarian for a year in a school which shared its library with the public library, so I benefitted from training in their LMS and worked with the public librarian who was another huge professional support for me (thanks Alison).
Finally I then moved to my present post (more hours, less travelling) where I have been for the last 13 years. There's a lot to say about my work here, but I'll keep that for another blog.
Reflections on my roots and route:
Happily I learnt some key essentials for my career needs, long ago enough to have made a difference to how I think about my career, but not earlier enough to save years of anxiety wondering what I was going to be "when I grew up".
I would like to make it very clear that being a librarian doesn't feel an inevitable or intended career, but it suits me very well and I think I do a reasonable job at it. But there are a whole range of other jobs I could have done (some of which I have done).
What I did learn about work is that the key thing for me is about balance: I need to do a job which has several elements and they need to be in about the right proportion. Those ingredients for me are: a blend of practical, physical work along with a variety of academic, intellectual activities. I get the biggest buzz out of teaching, but don't enjoy the stresses of classroom management which go with a lot of secondary teaching these days. I've always worked in the education system in various roles and that's probably significant. I'm good at logistics (stage management) and especially managing the physical environment. I can cope with being a sole worker, but I have to work hard to have effective relationships with teaching colleagues with allergies to libraries!
There's much more to say about status, career structure, SLS support, Chartership, managing stuck-ness, and also the many byways and meanders in my career which don't feature in my routes here. Another time for that.
My roots in libraries:
I think I pretty much took libraries for granted as a child and teenager. We had books at home and my father in particular was a lifelong fiction reader, usually with a book on the go in every room.
Our public library (Wakefield City Library) was a regular haunt - my mother (an English teacher) presumably took us as I remember smaller siblings in push chairs. The junior library was a fabulous (old fashioned) place - parquet floor, wood everywhere, and the tantalising swing doors into the grown up library, Narnia-like.
As a teenager (or however old one had to be to be admitted to the hallowed place) I haunted the adult library. There was a teenage fiction section (hardly any teenage fiction really in those days - 1960's - don't gasp) - William Mayne is about all I remember. But I roamed the non- fiction shelves and borrowed voraciously especially travel/ adventure writing and lots of craft/ design books, true crime, psychology.
Of course that was all pre-digital (we barely had TVs) so there were also the mysteries of the card index and borrower tickets and all those boxes of issued tickets at the librarian's desk.
At school I suppose I borrowed fiction, but I don't remember much about it. I was a library prefect (!) in the 6th form but that seemed to be mainly about telling people to be quiet!!!
At university (Reading) I read English, hated the library, stopped reading anything except course-related "texts" and certainly being a librarian of any description never entered my head. Like other contributors to this thread, the careers advice at university was pathetic:I should be a teacher (based on no evidence at all) - no other suggestion. So, being pretty pathetic in the imagination stakes myself, off I went to do my PGCE and the rest, as they say, is history.
The right angles of my career:
English teacher in secondary schools/ English teacher FE college (think "Wilt", it's about the same era). Then the first unexpected turn - the college transformed (in one of those regular re-structuring exercises we are used to in Education) into a tertiary college - I don't even know if that is a recognisable term these days. Basically from a standard (bog-standard) 1970's FE college, the college added a big academic stream for 16+ students, including amazingly exciting whole new departments, like Performing Arts. So I wheedled a year's secondment retraining in Theatre Design and Stage Management and lectured in that area for the next ten years.
So where is the library in all this? you may wonder. Not there quite yet, though I did use the college library, which was transformed from a pokey, dusty no-one wants to go in there type of place, into a great big open, noisy (!) busy place with journals, comfy seats and a whole TEAM of smiley, young librarians, who would go to the pub with us. And I did manage the department's own resources.
Then not so much a change of direction as a complete drop out. Heart ruled every other sense and I escaped to the northern wilds ( a year out, I thought of it). Circumstances dictated that one year turned into seven (things go slowly up north). Finally, having completely depleted my resources and desperate for a job, I came across a library assistant job in the local secondary school, just 15 minutes down the road. Competition was stiff (and we were all vastly overqualified for the level of post, but also inexperienced in librarian things) so I was really thrilled to get the job.
So there you have it - a librarian at last. Completely unexpected and unplanned, but absolutely good.
My route in libraries:
I think I worked about 15 hours a week in my first library assistant post. I was trained by the fabulous School Librarian (thanks Johanna). She was a "proper" qualified professional so I learned all the routine tasks, book processing, cataloguing, circulation management etc. We only overlapped at lunch times, so I had to get on with it on my own. Of course, being an experienced teacher helped me enormously, in terms of understanding curriculum, teachers, school things in general. I re-discovered the wonderful world of children's and teenage fiction.
After 4 years I upped roots and headed to Suffolk. I had no job to go to, so spent a scary few months without an income and applied for really any job going. Happily I got a job as school librarian for a year in a school which shared its library with the public library, so I benefitted from training in their LMS and worked with the public librarian who was another huge professional support for me (thanks Alison).
Finally I then moved to my present post (more hours, less travelling) where I have been for the last 13 years. There's a lot to say about my work here, but I'll keep that for another blog.
Reflections on my roots and route:
Happily I learnt some key essentials for my career needs, long ago enough to have made a difference to how I think about my career, but not earlier enough to save years of anxiety wondering what I was going to be "when I grew up".
I would like to make it very clear that being a librarian doesn't feel an inevitable or intended career, but it suits me very well and I think I do a reasonable job at it. But there are a whole range of other jobs I could have done (some of which I have done).
What I did learn about work is that the key thing for me is about balance: I need to do a job which has several elements and they need to be in about the right proportion. Those ingredients for me are: a blend of practical, physical work along with a variety of academic, intellectual activities. I get the biggest buzz out of teaching, but don't enjoy the stresses of classroom management which go with a lot of secondary teaching these days. I've always worked in the education system in various roles and that's probably significant. I'm good at logistics (stage management) and especially managing the physical environment. I can cope with being a sole worker, but I have to work hard to have effective relationships with teaching colleagues with allergies to libraries!
There's much more to say about status, career structure, SLS support, Chartership, managing stuck-ness, and also the many byways and meanders in my career which don't feature in my routes here. Another time for that.
Teenagers, customer service; control-freakery - moi?
It's nearly the end of the summer public exams. The peace of the library (entirely self-regulated by the sixth form who habitually work here) has been broken by an invasion of Year 11 pupils who have (horror!) gone behind my desk while I was downstairs getting a coffee and have helped themselves to the Scrabble boards!
So I've put paid to that nonsense and now I'm wondering why do I do that??? The ones who have chosen to stay have actually now caught the calm atmosphere and are communing quietly over what I suspect is a game of hangman, but I don't see any actual revision for their afternoon exam going on. Oh, and the most popular book in (any) school library (Guinness World Records) is being shared and even read aloud in the group.
So really, what was the problem with the Scrabble - a literary game (of sorts) which I positively encourage at lunch times? The fact that they were quite noisy (having a good time, engaging in social interaction, getting in a positive frame of mind for their exam)? Or the fact that they got the board out when I wasn't here, going into my private space (barely seperated from the public part of the library, certainly not an office), not asking?
These pupils are not habitual users of the library; they challenge the status quo and my "authority" and I'm really not good at handling that. Over-reacting, being unreasonable, inflexible. OK, so now am I going to go over there, apologise, offer them the Scrabble after all?
Watch this space.
So I've put paid to that nonsense and now I'm wondering why do I do that??? The ones who have chosen to stay have actually now caught the calm atmosphere and are communing quietly over what I suspect is a game of hangman, but I don't see any actual revision for their afternoon exam going on. Oh, and the most popular book in (any) school library (Guinness World Records) is being shared and even read aloud in the group.
So really, what was the problem with the Scrabble - a literary game (of sorts) which I positively encourage at lunch times? The fact that they were quite noisy (having a good time, engaging in social interaction, getting in a positive frame of mind for their exam)? Or the fact that they got the board out when I wasn't here, going into my private space (barely seperated from the public part of the library, certainly not an office), not asking?
These pupils are not habitual users of the library; they challenge the status quo and my "authority" and I'm really not good at handling that. Over-reacting, being unreasonable, inflexible. OK, so now am I going to go over there, apologise, offer them the Scrabble after all?
Watch this space.
Tuesday 21 June 2011
cpd23
My very first blog, hmm.
I guess I'm feeling a bit sceptical about blogging - mainly, how on earth will I find time to do it? Reading other people's blogs yesterday took up a couple of hours and I felt pretty guilty about that when the stock checking/ displays/ etc is all piling up. It's much the same as when I spend an afternoon actually reading my stock - feel I have to explain myself, as if I'm not doing anything.
So, why a blog now?
I saw the info about cpd23 via a CILIP mailing and really liked the idea of the self-directed programme. The topics are exactly the areas I've been needing to develop, and have actually done several CPD courses on, but never find that development space to get it embedded. So I'm hoping that I will get this into a routine and really make time - I've put the "Things" in my diary to look at on a Monday.
I'm also in the middle of my CILIP Chartership process and have been very stuck with it over the winter months, so I'm hoping this will help me keep up the momentum and develop my reflective practice.
I'm a secondary school librarian and feel like a sole worker, though I am lucky enough to have an assistant at lunchtimes, who does cataloguing, research for teachers, displays etc. I do have good contact with the teaching and support staff in school and also a brilliant Schools Library Service which keeps me in touch with my other High school Librarian colleagues.
Unlike the new bloggers (New Professionals) I was reading yesterday, I'm pretty much towards the later part of my career, though since the retirement date gets further off every time I look, I'm expecting to be around for a few years yet.
So now I have to do the scary bit and "go live" with my blog. There's the private bit of me which is hoping no-one notices!
I guess I'm feeling a bit sceptical about blogging - mainly, how on earth will I find time to do it? Reading other people's blogs yesterday took up a couple of hours and I felt pretty guilty about that when the stock checking/ displays/ etc is all piling up. It's much the same as when I spend an afternoon actually reading my stock - feel I have to explain myself, as if I'm not doing anything.
So, why a blog now?
I saw the info about cpd23 via a CILIP mailing and really liked the idea of the self-directed programme. The topics are exactly the areas I've been needing to develop, and have actually done several CPD courses on, but never find that development space to get it embedded. So I'm hoping that I will get this into a routine and really make time - I've put the "Things" in my diary to look at on a Monday.
I'm also in the middle of my CILIP Chartership process and have been very stuck with it over the winter months, so I'm hoping this will help me keep up the momentum and develop my reflective practice.
I'm a secondary school librarian and feel like a sole worker, though I am lucky enough to have an assistant at lunchtimes, who does cataloguing, research for teachers, displays etc. I do have good contact with the teaching and support staff in school and also a brilliant Schools Library Service which keeps me in touch with my other High school Librarian colleagues.
Unlike the new bloggers (New Professionals) I was reading yesterday, I'm pretty much towards the later part of my career, though since the retirement date gets further off every time I look, I'm expecting to be around for a few years yet.
So now I have to do the scary bit and "go live" with my blog. There's the private bit of me which is hoping no-one notices!
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