Thing 22 Volunteering

Yes Volunteering is a good thing if you can afford to do it. In my school library I couldn't do my job without volunteers. My employers haven't taken on enough staff to do the job properly, and so I'm having to use volunteers more and more. From my point of view, it's great to get an outsiders view. New eyes often hightlight issues that I may not have thought of. I train my volunteers to do the basics and they choose the hours that they can commit to. If they have particular skills such as artistic/creative abilities I use them to the full. Unfortunately, they do move on quite quickly, and the investment of time training is then lost and I have to start again. From the volunteers point of view, there are many hurdles still in place that have to be jumped over before they can work in our school. Not only do they have to the CRB check (as a given), the school insists on them filling out a FULL employment application form and then undergo an interview with senior management. I personally think it's a bit over the top and will put a lot of people off. Surely this red tape can be reduced for people who are doing us a huge favour?! But policy seems to be set in stone. As a means of gaining work experience I'm all for it. It shows intitiative, commitment to the profession and willingness to move forward. It bumps up the CV no end. So go for it!

Thing 21 CVs and interviews

I have updated my CV in the past 2 years due to the threat of redundancy. Everything noted on the CPD23 webpage is very apt. I firmly believe in keeping a running profolio, not just of good work and skills aquired, but a diary of whenever someone within the organisation actually says thank you, or well done! Sadly, these comments don't come often enough. Not because the work isn't up to scratch, but because people just don't seem to say thank you anymore. Instead, senior management rely on the old adage: 'You've all done very well' a phrase coined by Young Mr Grace in Are you Being Served! I believe a more personal approach has far more effect on anyone in the service industry let alone Libraraies. As far as job seeking is concerned, where are the jobs?! We can prepare as much as we like, but there are so many of us going for the few jobs that appear, that its going to be tough out there. I have been lucky enough to be shortlisted 4 times in the past year for professional posts in school libraries. I must be doing something right. Then it's down to the interview. Employers seem to be very cautious about what sort of person they are actually looking for. If your face doesn't fit, then no amount of preparation will help. Although employers are obliged to give you information about why you have been rejected, again it's couched in very general terms that aren't particularly helpful. I also think that employers are ageist still, even if they don't admit it. Younger people are cheaper and they are looking at the economics as much as the person. I think it's a bit like going on a blind date! So much of the interview/date is about chemistry that you can't take things too personally if it all goes wrong.

Thing 20 Library Routes

A short autobiography of my life in Libraries. Where to begin. At my advanced age, my career in Libraries has been varied. At 16 my school was reoorganised into a tertiary college, where for the first time the library was a big deal. I was drawn to the space and the staff and had my first incling that this would be a good place to work. The summer before I went to Universtiy to study History, I worked as a summer relief person in Richmond County libraries, so had a taste of the Public library sector. I loved the variety of work and community spirit of the branch libraries, but hated the regimentaiton of the large County Library (this was in the 1980s!). All through University I had no idea what to do once I qualified. Careers information wasn't that great. Many of my contemporaries went into Teaching or Accountancy, neither of which I thought was for me at the time. So Signed up for a Postgraduate course at North London Polytechnic as it was then known. Computers had only just been intorduced, so this was an interesting time. I had my pre-course placement at University of London, Senate house library and during the course went to a Special Library in a computer services firm, where my first computer was a PC with 10mb hard drive! After qualifiying, I finally got a job with the same computing firm in London. I'd obviously made an impression! It was here I really started to learn my trade, dealing with enquiries, learning about online searching, new technology and moving an entire library from London to Milton Keynes, involving re-designing the space. During this time I became a Chartered Librarian with the Library Association. Then came children and it was hard to find work which fitted kids hours, so I ran my own peripatetic music teaching business, whilst volunteering at my kids primary school as librarian and parent 'listener' helping youngsters to read. Finally, I landed a job in a local secondary school, which was a huge learning curve getting up to date with all the changes that had happened in libraries during my absence. The CILIP library was really helpful in lending items on new and current trends. Again, the library was transformed during a re-building programme. After a few years I moved from the State sector to the Independent sector, where I am now. All this information is a reapeat of what appeared in Thing 10 and here is the link to the Library Routes project for all those needing it.  Library Routes Project  I'm undergoing a big development project at my current school over the next few months with a few to transforming not only the Library space but the services that are offered to make our department worthy of a 21st century facility and to support our community in the way that they want to work.

As to advice to those joining the profession, don't go into it for the money! I think we'd all agree that it's poorly paid and doesn't receive the recognition and status that it should. In these days of information, you'd think that the Information Professional would be heralded, but no. Unless you can prove a direct link to profit outcomes, it's not. It is however, a satisfying and fulfilling career that can overtake your entire life if you let it. In my experience the fault is with management who do not take the trouble to find out exactly what we do.. They just expect it to be done. Often we are so complying and people pleasers that it is hard to avoid being taken advantage of. Our multi-level and lateral range of skills are rarely acknowledged. On the other hand it only takes one successful conversation pointing a user in the right direction to make a huge difference to that person on many levels. It's those small things that make it all worth while. I had a member of teaching staff actually say thank you last week, and I was emotionally overwhelmed because it was such a rare occurrance. It's a professional I take pride and joy in doing, but others need to go in with their eyes open.

Thing 19, Slideshare

And so to slideshare. This is a great way of viewing other people's slideshows, but as yet I haven't produced anything for others to follow. I'm concentrating on Prezi and all it's machinations which is automatically available for others to view. I've viewed some of the slideshows and presentations from the CILIP SLG conference and some fabulous display ideas for our LRC. It could be a way to show off remorselessly because you can stop 'copying' by others and allow viewing only. This isn't a new tool, but has been around for some time in the background. Those who belong to the SLN on Yahoo groups will know and love it well.

I've been asked to run a small project in school using some of the tools from CPD23. I've chosen blogging. However, I wait with baited breath to know if I can go ahead with this, needing permissions from SLT, as most blogging software is net based and not just internal to our school. Hopefully they will be enlightended, and trusting enough to let the project be launched.

So watch this space!

Thing 19, Reflection

Well some time to reflect at last! It's part of our new school 'Values' which we are working on, so very apt. This course has been extremely useful in pointing me to tools that would help in my daily life. My favourite tools, some of which I already use, are: RSS, Twitter, Dropbox, Prezi and learning much more about blogs. Many of the other tools I well come back to as my working life gets far more complex. I have signed up to communicate online with many librarian type groups as well. The problem here is finding the time to keep up with it all. (My employer has made so may people redundant recently, that they expect far more from those left, to the point of excess. I'm probably working a 45 hour week on average just to keep up, and things like reflection & connecting, although part of our 'Values' seems a luxury. As a professional I don't want to be seen to 'fail' even though I'm not being paid for all these extra hours. On reflection this may be a poor strategy as it doesn't give a clear picture to my bosses of what the job entails.) I have completed many Prezi inductions this week and am getting used to the ebb and flow of the software which is indeed much easier than Powerpoint to control. Dropbox has proved invaluable for not only accessing my documents anywhere, but also in sharing documents. Other tools including google docs seem to be blocked by the school network. RSS is a quick and easy way to stay up to date without getting too involved in other online groups. My question is how do these librarians have the time to be constantly posting? I want their jobs! Even Twitter is becoming alarming to keep up with and I will need to 'weed' the groups I am following in order to reduce the number of posts I have to plough through. I need to spend time sifting in order to black out so much 'white noise' and make life a little simpler but more productive. I hope the links to all of the web 2.0 tools will stay on the CPD23 wepages for a little while after the end of the course ion order to revisit them when time and circumstances dictate. If nothing else, having the knowledge of what's available and the confidence to explore is a huge step forward. As a digital immigrant as apposed to the natives under 20, This has allowed me to keep one step ahead, to the point where our Head of ICT teaching thinks I'm one to consult!

Thing 18 Screen capture and podcasting

Having had the week from hell, I can now try to gather my thoughts. NB I was disappointed that the Prezi section for Thing 17 has been postponed. However, I went ahead without it and produced a Prezi for my new induction lessons for all year groups  coming into the new school. It all went extremely well, and the students did seem to concentrate more and asked lots of questions which made it very interactive. Only problem was in producing handouts, but that may be because of the chaos of our ICT this week.
So now Thing 18. I love the idea of screen capture videos. I'm doing one for our continuing induction lessons on how to access our catalogue on the school network, because it's not that obvious. This can then be stored on our VLE and even the new Sharepoint pages when it that application arrives, I've been told its coming soon, but I won't hold my breath! I have experienced problems downloading the software at school because of permissions, so I'll attempt plan B. As for Podcasting, I've experienced many of these myself when exploring new technologies. Is this the same as Webinars that appear in various websites? I suspect this is the American terminology for a Podcast on the web. For my own CPD these are very useful. However, I have tried to use them in school and they have fallen on 'deaf' ears so to speak. Our students prefer the visual element to keep them engaged. We have looked at purchasing a service called 'GCSE POD' which is very expensive. Itunes U also have some interetsing and free podcasts, but again the videos are preferred. My attempt to get students to record their book reviews for others to hear was a complete failure. Somehow our students (aged 11-18) only think of 'listening' on MP3 players or iplayers in terms of music, not school related things. Maybe it's an age thing. Kids don't listen to 'talk' radio either! I can see it working in Higher Education, especially where lectures etc are missed, or for revision. However, for the visually impaired, it may well be a fabulous development! Occasionally, there has been something book or library related on the BBC radio podcasts which are easy to download. However it's usually only 2 or 3 minutes that are relevant, and you can't edit the BBC podasts yourself, so you need to capture the entire thing. Somewhat limiting. In short, if podcasts are going to be used as part of my learning resources centre, we have a big job to persuade the students to actually use them. I suppose it's worth trying to change this attitude, but it's way down the list of priorities.

CPD23 Thing 14, 15 and 16

The summer has flown by and we're now in a term term in a new school, but many of the old problems. Note to project managers everywhere: Please allow 2-3 days contingency time to get things all working!
 I seem to apologising to all and sundry for the lack of IT and software packages that we've come to rely upon not working. I feel as if we've had a false start.

So in investigating web 2.0 tools such as Mendeley for organising and referencing, my obvious response is : make sure you have a backup of everything you save! Mendeley looks good, and could be useful to students in particular. There seem to be so many choices of different tools in this area, I would say see what suits you best. Mendeley doesn't seem to do much more than Dropbox and Neil's toolbox put together in one place, although I may be underestimating it's power having not fully explored all its capabilities. It has a fancy 'dashboard' but I didn't find it intuitive to use and had a very American 'look'. In my view simple is good. For our 6th form students , the newly launched Studyvibe from Autrialia seems better presented and a one stop shop for research tools.As ever, time is an issue with finding out more.

Conferences and presenting. Conferences are a wonderful thing, particularly for school librarians who are often one man bands these days. It's such a relief to be with one's own kind, and know that you are not alone! This is in addition to all the wonderful new things to discover and share in the profession. Cost is an issue, so go where you can! Video conferencing could be an answer, which we are going to trial within our small Independent schools librarians group. Presenting when working in a school is part of daily life, particularly at the beginning of a new school year. All those inductions! I love them, but they are exhausting if you don't do it all year round. I fully endorse all the tips from Phil Bradley here.  I also believe that some of these skills need to be taught on Library and information course as they are in the USA.

This also links in with advocacy. I try by every means possible to get recognised in the school curriculum. Some teachers are more supportive than others, as are some subject areas. The full support of Senior Management is also needed. Until Information Literacy becomes part of the curriculum in Independent schools, this is a slow but steady development. Staffing to cover the rest of the library whilst you're 'teaching' however is another issue in a busy environment. There is a problem being overwhelmed with too many initiatives when you have little in terms of cover. Advocacy in the wider world is an issue that CILIP is starting to address on behalf of the profession in the UK. I strongly feel that the modern Information Professional is highly skilled on a miriad of ways and are not recognised either in status or pay. It is a stark reminder when you work in a school that an NQT gets the same pay as a Chartered Librarian with 20 years experience. I realise that economic times are bad, but employers are taking huge advantage of the situation and lowering renumeration. Not only do we need to save our libraries by investing in change to suit the changing technology available, we need to ensure that the Professional Librarian doesn't die out. I fear that the next generation with otherwise miss out on those gatekeepers (for want of a better word) to information. In short, our professional body, CILIP has a big job to do! Advocay needs to be done consistently and powerfully, getting to the right people to persuade. How many of us in full time work can actually spend enough time doing this? All we are left with is little by little on a personal level. A drip feed if you will, which in conjunction with the National campagin has to have some effect in the long run.

Here endeth the lesson!