A visit from The Career Mum: survival tips

March is the month we traditionally celebrate women, particularly mothers. International Womens' Day, Women's History Month, Mothering Sunday, and Matronalia all take place in this month and I'm sure there are even more festivals I am unaware of. It was fitting then for the Women's Equality Group meeting at my institution to choose March to host a visit from The Career Mum, Amanda Newman.

I've mentioned previously how much I value online groups like The Career Mum, especially as it can be difficult to get alternative support. Amanda created the Facebook group at the end of 2017 and I found it incredibly helpful when I returned to work after my second maternity leave. I'm sure that if it had been in existence after my first it would have been very helpful then too and I may have avoided some of the issues I had. The group welcomes everyone whether they are parents or not, working or not - Amanda is the career mum of the title. It is full of people who provide help with dilemmas around work, whether that be getting into work or balancing responsibilities once in it.

Amanda told us about herself and then followed with a Q&A session. Some of the biggest tips I took away from her talk were:

Map your life so far: I remember dong a similar exercise on the Aurora course and it really does help you understand how far you have come, what your drivers are and to identify your strengths and challenges. This was also the exercise I encouraged the students on the UCL leadership and Management course to do as I strongly believe that self awareness can help people become fantastic leaders.

Map out who can help you: I'm terrible at doing this even though I regularly help others and give them this same advice. As a consequence, I probably struggle through a lot that I don't necessarily need to. Taking this on board, I have just texted a neighbour to see if she can recommend a plumber!

Take up coaching or mentoring wherever possible: I'm completely biased here as I'm training to be a coach; however, I've taken up offers where my colleagues have needed to practise on people and it has already helped me move forwards with a number of goals and stopped me ruminating over them. There are coaching and mentoring circles being set up within the Facebook Group so if you have one near you I would strongly recommend it.

Build your resilience: I've mentioned previously that taking some responsibility for your own happiness, wellbeing and resilience doesn't let the organisations and power structures who make lives very difficult off the hook. However, we can to some extent help ourselves become mentally, physically and emotionally stronger by engaging in exercise, eating well and participating in mindfulness.

Lastly, own your identity. This ties in with the first point about self-awareness. Our identities can be very much tied up with work or those we care for and, while this can be fine, it can lead to problems if there are major changes. Finding out what else interests and drives us can offer some protection. As Stephen Covey wrote in 7 Habits of Effective People, know who you are otherwise others will shape you and your life.

I'd love to know your response to these tips and how you may have approached them? Leave me a comment below!

Digital literacy: sharing good practice

Finding myself last Thursday (Feb 4th) inside a very sleek, clean building located right in the prime location of London's Finsbury Square, with toilets which wouldn't have been out of place in a hotel, I thought I couldn't possibly be in a university - but luckily I was, otherwise I would have been very lost! I was in the University of Liverpool, London Campus to present at the joint Information Literacy (IL) Group and the Tinder Foundation event and a very swish looking place it was indeed.

This was a free event, designed for public librarians and those in the Higher and Further education sectors to share knowledge regarding the library's increasing role in improving the digital literacy of its users. Jane Secker, opening the day's programme, explained how both the IL Group and the Tinder Foundation shared concerns over the digital literacy of the UK public in a landscape where there is increased emphasis to apply for jobs, benefits and pay bills online and yet, according to the UK Digital Inclusion Charter,  11 million people lack basic digital skills. Having spent a lot of time supporting digital literacy in colleges and universities, librarians in the academic sector are in a very good position to be able to share with those working in the public sector what works, what doesn't and can help them save both valuable time and resources.

Enthusiasm

There were three speakers in the morning and again in the afternoon, followed by themed discussions after each trio had presented. The speakers came from a variety of Universities, myself included, and spoke enthusiastically for ten minutes on topics ranging from a demonstration of Aurasma, as well as Vines, digital footprint workshops, Libguides and big data. I spoke about the social media masterclasses I had set up in my own workplace and what I had learned from them, as well as how they had also been integrated into the subject librarians' digital literacy programme. My ten minutes zoomed by but there was chance for plenty of conversation over lunch and despite the struggles public library staff are facing they seemed genuinely excited and motivated to be there and to be picking up tips they could use.

The discussion tables in the room consisted of a speaker, a facilitator who took notes and then the rest of the attendees moved round in turn. I'd thought initially that we might be discussing the presentations and how they could be utilised in a public library setting; however, we were each given a theme to consider and ours was welfare reform.

Welfare Reform

Throughout the day, public library staff from Islington, Coventry, Worcester, Lambeth, Hampshire, and Richmond libraries engaged in conversation about how Universal Credit and changes in applications for other benefits, such as Freedom Passes, were affecting their workload. Unanimously, and unsurprisingly, human resources were said to be the main issue staff faced due to an increased demand from users being directed to the Library, not always with the staff members' knowledge, and a lack of skills to deal with the advice users were asking for when filling out the paperwork. I was surprised that very few mentioned a lack of computers and having to charge for pcs because I remember quite clearly when my husband was out of work and we didn't have a computer he hated having to spend money to fill out long application forms on the public library pcs, which would invariably crash as he went to click send!

To deal with the issues, some said they recruited volunteers who signed up to a code of practice, others decided to signpost help rather than refer (and made the distinction between those two terms very clear), and others spoke to services such as the Job Centre to tell them to stop sending people to them and refrain from offering false promises that the Library staff could not possibly fulfil. One Library staff member tried to focus on the positive of more feet through the door can't be bad and adopted a 'let's show them what we have while they are here' approach.


Volunteers, ethics and a trusted brand

The majority of the public library staff there said they were using volunteers to deal with the human resource issues, and this led to a question of responsibilities and the importance of them being provided with oversight, training, and ethics guidance, especially in light of staff possibly being provided with personal information about claimants when helping them to fill out forms. Ethics was also raised as a concern with the arrival of Halifax and Barclay staff providing IT lessons in libraries and how this could potentially tarnish the reputation of a public library as a safe, neutral environment as it becomes associated with corporations and commercial advertising.

Conclusion

While I'm not sure anyone discovered a solution to relieve the turmoil public library staff are experiencing, there did seem to be a lot of hope in the room. Although I keep up to date with what is going on in public libraries and even though my family and I are regular users of several near us, it was nevertheless still enlightening to hear of front line experiences and led me to appreciate even further the effort the staff put in and the motivation they have to provide the best service they can. It felt like a really worthwhile day for me personally as I was asked quite a few questions about what we provide at Brunel University London for students and I was exceptionally pleased to think it had been useful.

I would like to thank the Information Literacy Group and Tinder Foundation for inviting me to this and I hope they continue to work together. Some huge topics were very quickly touched upon on the day and therefore in this blogpost. If you are interested in following up any of the themes mentioned, I would recommend the following links:

Lauren Smith's  list of what public library staff do
Ian Anstice's Pros and cons of commercial involvement with libraries
Ian Clark's post asking Why are Barclay's in our libraries?

Using career planning ideas to inform coaching and mentoring

Recently, as a result of a project a group of us are involved with at work we have been thinking about setting up coaching/mentoring / shadowing services for Library staff.  I’d already attended a staff development session at work on using coaching skills to unlock potential which got me quite excited about the idea and, as luck would have it, another session was being run by the same trainer on career planning. So on April 2^nd (forgive me for the huge lapse in time in writing this up!) I attended in the hope that it might help provide some ideas of how we can make these services more effective.

The workshop:

It was a small group - just 5 attendees, including myself. This meant that it was quite an intimate atmosphere and we were able to share stories, advice, and discuss the topics in some detail. We started off the day by looking at ‘pinnacles and foothill’ moments of our working past and identifying what was energising and satisfying about the pinnacles and draining and unsatisfying about the foothills. The idea being that if we looked at these events we could pick and choose the scenarios we wanted to avoid or repeat.

The workshop was very closely aligned with the changes both within our organisation and in higher education in general, for example, there was significant discussion about various work processes altering, getting used to working with new departments, and how student fees and expectations might impact on the institution and our role within it. Identifying these changes led us to establish what new skills would be needed and determining how we would be able to ensure we developed these. This is where I could see the coaching fitting in quite nicely as it would specifically target these areas.

As another exercise, we were asked to fill in a ‘career wheel’ to establish how balanced each aspect of our work life was; this was quite similar in some respects to some of the exercises I completed a while ago in What Color is your parachute. My answers, using both approaches, indicated that my ‘perfect' job at the moment would be very similar to what I am doing now - a job with lots of variety and autonomy; one that involves training and helping people,  but in in an environment with prettier surroundings, and the ability to work from home a couple of days a week. 

One of the areas we were asked to consider was whether our personal plans and interests overlapped with these changing needs within the organisation.  I think this is a very important question to consider as it’s healthy not to have too much of a disconnect between the two. While the current economic climate is unlikely to provide a job that ticks every single box, it’s a useful exercise to be able to recognise the perfect role just in case it does turn up one day.

Do the all the aspects of your work life balance out?

The end of the day focused on networking using social media (I ended up doing training sessions on LinkedIn and Twitter after some of the conversations that took place here, which was a handy bit of stealth advocacy for the Library) and branding which I’m not so keen on as a concept, perhaps because I don’t generally trust brands and nor do I want to be a product.

Conclusions:

Ultimately, it was a worthwhile day. It didn’t teach me anything new about myself or my career path, apart from perhaps to emphasise how important some green space and natural light is to me; however, I could see that plenty of the exercises we completed would work in a coaching or mentoring setting. If we do decide to go ahead with it, it could become a great way of helping people work out what’s available to them and how they can get there. As someone who didn’t do a graduate traineeship nor came into contact with people from a range of careers growing up, something like this would have been very useful for me earlier on.

What do you think? Do your values and interests match your job? Would you recognise ‘the perfect job’ if it dropped in your inbox tomorrow? Do you already have it – in which case, how do you know it is? Does it even matter, as long as it pays the bills and keeps a roof over your head? I'd be very interested to read your comments.

Conference Write-up - Open Access Futures in the Humanities and Social Sciences #HSSOA

Open Access Futures in the Humanities and Social Sciences was a conference that truly embraced the power of social media. Every presenter had their Twitter handle clearly displayed on slides. Tweets were displayed on the screen next to the speakers. Even Google hangouts played a part as people became involved in multiple strands of conversation.

I attended this event on 24th October 2013 because I currently look after the Social Sciences within my institution and have learned from my experience with them that they tend to like to do things differently. Also, it was a conference mainly attended by academics, as opposed to librarians, and I thought it might be prudent to check that we are correct in our thoughts about what academics issues are.

Found on Flickrr,net

Looking back at my notes from the day, the main issues seemed to be:

Plagiarism
Some audience members were concerned that plagiarism would increase if work was openly available. It was remarked that students do attribute correctly in essays (so library staff are getting something right!) but often mix their own words with academics - students need to write for themselves and in their own voice. Both Brian Hole and Professor Charlotte Waelde on the panel at the time responded that plagiarism depends on the ability to hide so open access will help prevent plagiarism as it is easier to detect. This made sense to me yet it remains a sensitive topic as academics consider their livelihoods to be at stake and wish to ensure rules like those set by the Berne Convention remain in place.

Visibility
There was a lot of emphasis on the publishing of books and chapters as social scientists and humanities scholars still rely on these for much of their research output. The general impression I received was that while open access can increase the visibility of monographs, the logistics for these still need some thought as they can be both costly and awkward to manage. It will be interesting to see if they remain viable in the future.

Visibility for new staff was also raised as a key issue for which open access could be a solution, e.g. easily accessible urls can help with job applications, however, publishing in traditional high profile journals is often what it is expected of academics to build up a reputation.

Cost
There was much heated discussion about the cost of open access; it is not free as some might think but comes with a hefty price tag. Libraries have to pay costs to publishers whenever they choose to publish an open access article and this can sometimes run into thousands. While a few are in receipt of RCUK funding to reduce the burden, my own included, libraries just can't afford to keep doing this, especially as quite often they are paying twice - once for the article to be published and again for the subscription.


While this is only a brief snapshot of the conference (more information can be gleaned from the Storify created by the organisers) I left feeling that no-one really had the answers yet and that there is much more to discuss and discover. There are some innovative projects created by forward-thinking enthusiastic people, for example, new ways of publishing and collaborative projects like the Mark Twain Project Online , but these seem to remain few and far between.

LIKE 50: Collaborate or die

It's been so busy at work and in life recently that I've had little time to do any writing. However, here's a little catch-up of LIKE's 50th event - The Business case for Collaboration. To celebrate reaching this number, the group decided to coordinate their event with the Online Information 2013 conference and invite their keynote speaker Jacob Morgan, author of The Collaborative Organisation, to speak about collaboration and the way workplaces have to be willing to change to thrive in the future.

The evening was very much an interactive affair with him asking questions, inviting examples and so on, which kept it very much in the spirit of LIKE.

The main points which came out of the discussions were:

• Millenials are very picky about where they work - they like to have social media available, have a flexible work/ life balance, are not necessarily in it for the money and are increasingly working for themselves e.g. portfolio working.
• As job security no longer exists and if millenials choose flexibility and other criteria  over money then big companies may not exist in the future, unless they choose to adapt
• With social media now widespread, workers are no longer tied to their organisations as they create personal profiles and reputations instead and find it much easier to talk to people in other organisations
• The  downside of this is that they rarely switch off and the work/life balance can become skewed

There was quite a lot of conversation about whether universities will exist in the future. Jacob's argument was that as graduates leave with increasing levels of debt they will be working to just to pay the debt off and will become 'unengaged zombies'. There will be less of an incentive to pay for an education. There will also be less of a need as they will find it easier and cheaper to build up skills themselves through Youtube and MOOCs. While I do think the current government may be trying to hasten the closure of many universities, I don't think there are any silver bullets to take over just yet.

Photo courtesy of Matthew Rees

There was also a lot of discussion about social media and the use of text analytics - a few people gave examples of colleagues who had been fired because their Facebook profile didn't 'fit' their employees company profile.While others, myself included, thought that it was very shortsighted if a company didn't learn how to use it well.

Jacob emphasised that collaboration helps employees as well as the company's bottom line. It helps them be more effective in their jobs, encourages teamwork, breaks down barriers, and reduces stress BUT only if it is seamlessly integrated into working life, not 'yet another thing to do', is not micromanaged, is measured appropriately, and is taken seriously by management.

As a so-called 'millenial' I found myself both agreeing and disagreeing with much of what Jacob had to say. I use social media, save my work in the cloud, and consider librarians in other institutions my colleagues, however, I also think that while it's great to work for an organisation which is forward-thinking, offers flexible working and values individuals, much of the conversation was based on the top 10% (the Alphas in life) who are generally in a position to not worry so much about paying the bills. It will be interesting to see if companies change to benefit everyone else.

Why I love LIKE and why I no longer say I'm not a 'proper professional'.

LIKE is the acronym for the London Information and Knowledge Exchange and today I would like to extol its virtues.

What is it? 
LIKE is a community of Library, Information, Knowledge and Communication professionals. It meets regularly, usually monthly, to share stories, learn, and exchange knowledge in an informal and relaxed setting. Often a speaker delivers a presentation or a workshop which is then followed by dinner where members discuss what they have just heard or taken part in. Social events include visits and walks around interesting parts of London as well as the annual Christmas Dinner. During the last two summers LIKE Ideas conferences have also been held.

How I got into it?
I stumbled across LIKE in 2011 when I was browsing a LinkedIn profile and saw their group page. My first few experiences attending the events were rather daunting. As I walked up the stairs and encountered people who were dressed very smartly, seemed incredibly self-assured and generally oozed confidence, I felt like I didn't belong. I remember describing myself as someone who wasn't like the 'proper professionals yet' indicating the suited and booted people. I was immediately told to stop being so silly: I was here wasn't I and ready to learn just like everyone else in the room? Since then I've generally tried to take that advice on board and even when I really don't feel like I belong I certainly no longer announce it. After all, to rehash the line oft attributed to Woody Allen, eighty percent of success in life is in the showing up.

As I attended events on copyright, information literacy, coaching, knowledge transfer, and knowledge management, and much more; I began to realise that these were topics which affected library and information professionals across a vast array of sectors. It can be quite easy to become purely focused on the sector we are working in, however, by taking heed of the broader picture I think we can help each other by understanding the key issues we all deal with.

In 2012, a call was put out for volunteers to help put together the inaugural conference. I was interested in its topic (Social Media) and I thought it would be a nice way of saying thank you to the people who had organised the previous events so I offered my services. The conference was a great success and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of working with a fantastic team of people to put it together so allowed myself to be roped in to the next one, on Big Data this time, the following year.

How it has helped me
I have learned a lot from attending individual events, which I always write about after attending, and I have received much more from my involvement with LIKE. This could generally, but with some cross-over, be organised into two categories - skills learned and benefits gained:

Skills learned:

• Using Twitter more effectively -  archiving tweets, getting the tone right, using it to get information out as well as connect with members and stimulate conversation, live-tweeting events - learning from all of this and then putting it into practise again at the next conference
• Asking people for sponsorship - I tried doing this for the first conference and I didn't raise a single penny. At the next one, I learned from the mistakes I made and managed to raise £400 and also generate a possible sponsor for the next conference too. I rarely feel comfortable asking for anything so I was very pleased with this result
• Event amplification - learning to utilise as many channels as possible to promote a message and contacting people directly rather than using a scatter-gun impersonal approach. I recently received just such an email from a Special Libraries Association (SLA) Candidate for President-Elect and was very impressed so it does work
• Gathering and analysing feedback - this is very important as you may think that everything went well and people were smiling when really they were all sweltering and unable to locate the bathroom. The problems may not be able to be solved there and then but you can ensure they are never repeated

Benefits gained:

• Meeting lots of new people - due to the variety of the events and the tables usually being organised by food choices, I get to meet new faces as well as more familiar ones so the resulting serendipity regularly guarantees a great evening
• Realising that conference bags don't stuff themselves - someone has to go to the effort of thinking of everything, from finding good speakers and arranging the order they present in a way which makes sense and flows well to finding a location which isn't too stuffy, has clean toilets, decent wi-fi and enough space to mingle. I now have a great deal of respect for anyone involved in conference organising
• Being part of a close network - I have now met many lovely people from a range of library and information sectors through LIKE who I wouldn't hesitate to get in touch with if I needed to
• Having the opportunity to pay it back and forward - attending planning meetings, writing up events I've attended for those who can't, offering ideas for events and having them accepted, and giving talented people I know the chance to present has meant that I've been able to both give back to LIKE and to develop the profession. It's a fantastic feeling.

What next?
LIKE is currently in the planning stage for next year's itinerary of events and would benefit from more volunteers. I'm taking a back step for now, especially from conference planning, as it is coming to a very busy period of work for me and I'm hoping to move house soon. If I have convinced anybody that LIKE is A GOOD THING (if anyone actually reads this, that is) then I hope you will consider volunteering or at least popping along to a future event and seeing what all the fuss is about. Just one tip - don't say you aren't a proper professional, because you most certainly are!

A tweet experience

Over the last few years I have developed a strong attachment to Twitter. I look after several organisations' accounts and use it for promoting services; conversations, keeping up to to date, and what I most like using it for is to vicariously attend conferences via event hashtags.

A developing relationship

As much as I have always enjoyed reading event tweets, it was not until I volunteered for the task of 'official tweeter' for a conference that I fully appreciated the skill behind it. I have now completed this task for the two London Information and Knowledge Exchange (LIKE) conferences which have taken place and I have most definitely learned from the experience.

As the first conference was about social media, it was obvious that Twitter should focus quite heavily in the marketing so I tweeted social media related questions in the run up to the event to generate and maintain interest. Once I had got used to writing with an appropriate tone - professional, friendly and inclusive - it became easier to do this. The only downside was that it was quite time-consuming so I used to write them on my very long commute at the time to work and, unfortunately, this meant most people were still in bed. Had I discovered Hootsuite much earlier than I did, I would have used this to schedule a few tweets for during the day too.

Due to the nature of this first conference, it was expected that others would tweet too. I've heard of some events (not going to name names) where the speaker has specifically asked for attendees not to tweet. I think that a few years ago it would have seemed quite rude to have a phone or laptop during someone's presentation. Now it is expected and speakers are berated as being behind the times if they don't allow it. I can see both sides. I think that if speakers don't want their audience to tweet (perhaps because they like to see the front rather than the tops of people's heads when they are talking)  then they should make a real effort to make the session as interactive as possible so there isn't time to do it rather than announce a ban and face resentment.

I used to find it difficult to tweet while listening because, although it can encourage critical listening; picking out the salient points and formulating them into something short and pithy, I would find it difficult to carry on listening. I was able to write notes while absorbing further information but was unable to do this while typing. I tended to lose track of where I was and I think this is because I would never need to show my scribbled notes to anyone but tweets are there for all to see so need more care taken over them.

After that conference, I asked myself what I would have done differently. I would have:

• asked who was following the tweets as I really don't see the point in just tweeting for the audience who are there anyway. I think mingling and networking are much more important for making connections at a live event
• not spend too much time panicking about the quantity - I would have selected my words much more carefully. Quality over quantity
• Sat closer to the action - I had sat near a plug in case my battery run out but this meant I ended up with rubbish pictures 

Fortunately I remembered my own advice so this time I was sat right at the front; I knew in advance that people were following outside of the event and I focused more on soundbites rather than recording everything word for word.  I also set up an Eventifier archive so I could share the collated tweets and images which was a nice way of amplifying the group and what it does. It all seemed to work and I felt much more relaxed about the whole experience. I have since tweeted at other events where people who couldn't attend have asked questions of the speaker so I have acted as a conduit for this, which I think is a lovely way to increase participation.

I now find it much easier to tweet and listen and regularly use my tweets as memory joggers to help me write up blog posts later on. I also tweet events much more often because I get so much out of it when I can't attend and others do so. I do wonder if attendance levels have fallen since people started doing this especially as the slides can often be found on Slideshare too; so far it doesn't seem to be the case. Personally, and where possible, I would always rather be in physical attendance. 

LIKE Ideas 2013 - From big data to little apps

The full title of the second LIKEIdeas conference to be held was: 'From Big Data to Little Apps; How you can access, present and deliver information in the workplace' and this is exactly what the five speakers showed us over the course of the afternoon.

The keynote speaker, Dom Pollard from Big Data Insight, announced he was going to demystify big data & explain how to apply it in the workplace. He explained that big data is about volume, variety & velocity and it has become much more accessible to smaller companies due to cloud computing. Strong emphasis was given to the benefits of collaboration which can open up many new possibilities, some examples given were:

• the pairing of Spotify and Songkick
• retailers using Met Office weather data to boost bikini sales
• the UK government potentially saving billions if it used social media data to prevent benefit fraud

Both Dom and the next speaker Michael Agar emphasised the importance of data analysis, stressing that it is important to ask the right questions, to not just do analysis for the sake of it and that data in and of itself is not useful until it has been interpreted. Michael's role was to help people visualise data and explore it in more detail through the use of infographics in order to tell a story. This led to questions from the audience about transparency as the sources are not always clear; infographics are being used quite heavily by marketers so it is becoming increasingly important to question and verify where the data originated from though this is not always easy to do.

Manny Cohen, told us what it was like to be a technological innovator, apparently this is difficult because no-one realises they need your creation! The technology is fairly simple to develop and, according to him, is generally the easy part; the most difficult aspect is changing social attitudes. This became clear when we were all asked to, in groups, consider the future of data in the next 5,10 and 15 years. There was a lot of optimism regarding technical advances and social adoption as we shared our answers, many of which were very similar focusing on better battery life, augmented reality, wearable technology and possibly revolting in 15 years away from all the technology as we realise it's taken over our lives. 

One thing which did vary massively was the time scales - there was a huge variation around the room regarding when we though the 'take-up' of these technologies might occur. And perhaps the revolt away from technology has already started as I have recently seen holidays advertised as being technology free and there seems to a proliferation of people returning to 'dumbphones'. In the future, maybe people will choose which side of the digital divide to be on. And, people will still be sharing picture of cats.

#LIKEIdeas attendees listening to Monique Ritchie's take on big data.

After we spent the break ruminating about the future of data, with a bit of networking thrown in for good measure, we returned to LIKE MIC, a panel of speakers comprising James Mullan, Monique Ritchie and Andrew Grave who in turn spoke about creating well-designed dashboards to create meaning from information within law firms, emphasising the importance of relationship building within the academic sector and ensuring academic staff are creating stable and secure places for their data, ie, not memory sticks, and finally, looking at how technology processes have changed in the last five years.

I went to this conference partly because I was helping to organise it but also because I wasn't quite sure I 'got' big data. It's a term which is used often and seemingly by everyone but which no-one seems to be able to succinctly explain. By attending the conference, I felt that actually, after all, big data is not a big deal. It's about information and people - something I am perfectly at home with.



The slides from the day can be found on the LIKE website.
The #LIKEIdeas tweets have been archived at Eventifier.

SLA Europe - 60 apps and websites in 60 minutes

On Tuesday 19th March, I travelled almost the entire way down the Metropolitan line, from Uxbridge to Moorgate, to City Business Library where Anneli Sarkanen and Simon Barron were holding their SLA Europe session entitled 60 Apps and sites in 60 minutes.

Inspired by similar sessions from SLA Chicago, we were told these were going "to improve our lives immeasurably". I couldn't wait!

It was split neatly up into productivity, communication, legal, technology, business, social networking, lifestyle, travel and fun and games.There were actually more than than 60 apps and websites and I am not going to go into each and every one, however, you can discover the entire list in the slides of the presentation. Having had a little time since 19th March to try out some of the apps and websites the following are some I am going to be using in the future:

• bit.ly - I tend to use bit.ly and tinyurl interchangeably however a reminder that I could record the statistics has encouraged me to use this one more regularly, especially at work, to assess their impact
• Doodle - I love Doodle and already use this regularly to arrange committee or work meetings
• Howstuffworks.com- I haven't used this for years but looking at it again has reminded me how fantastic it is. It is a useful tool I can use to brush up on my own knowledge as well as  point out to all my students
• Ifttt.com - this looks like it could potentially be very useful, however I'm struggling for good ideas to put it to use. I don't want to post things automatically to Twitter from any of the accounts I look after as I like to assess the benefit of everything I send
• Pocket - I'd never heard of this but it looks great. I usually save articles from Twitter by saving them as favourites but then need the internet to read them. Using this means I can access them anywhere, even when underground, as I no longer have to rely on the internet
• Goodreads.com - I have been using Librarything to record my reading over the last year and liked it, however, the site is not very mobile friendly so as Goodreads has an app, which scans barcodes too, I am going to try converting to this.

Those are the main ones, however, I will also be going through the legal websites as quite a number of these will prove useful in supporting my students, for example, http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/index_en.htm supplies summaries of all the European union legislation which would be of value to both my Economics and my Politics students. I will also be highlighting changedetection.com, which monitors website changes to my Masters students when I deliver my 'how to keep up to date' session. These, as well as several websites mentioned in the Business section, will also be welcome additions to my subject pages at work.

I thoroughly enjoyed the evening; Anneli and Simon were well-prepared, humorous and engaging and the event provided a good chance to catch up with people I like. Definitely looking forward to attending more SLA Europe events.

Emerging technologies and authentic learning

On Monday 17th September, I attended a guest lecture entitled Emerging technologies and Authentic Learning by Vivienne Bozalek. It was hosted by the School of Health and Social Care at Brunel University and was held in the rather swish premises of the Mary Seacole Building.

Professor Vivienne Bozalek is the Director of Teaching and Learning at University of the Western Cape in South Africa and she was discussing the project she was currently involved in.

Her lecture was split into three parts: emerging technologies, qualitative outcomes and authentic learning.

Emerging technologies: 

In the first part she explained that an emerging technology wasn’t necessarily a brand new tool, in fact it may have been around for many years; for example, Facebook, twitter or virtual learning environments (vle). What made it ‘emerging’ was the way it was being used, i.e. being used as a self-directing, student-centred and flexible tool. 

She went on to elaborate that students are often using completely different tools to the ones they are encouraged to by their tutors, e.g. using Facebook and Twitter rather than the wikis set up for collaborative working within the vles. If institutions decide to ‘be where the user is’ then this will lead to more engagement but they must be careful not to get into ‘creepy tree-house’ territory. According to Vivienne “the ideal situation would be to utilise the potential of the tools without destroying what makes them special to their users”.

The Gartner Hype cycle, illustrated below, highlights the journey people and institutions go through when considering and taking on new technologies

Vivienne also referred to the Annual Horizon Report, a ten year project which investigates the impact emerging technologies have on teaching and learning identifies the techologies being used and explains how institutions are doing so – I didn’t know about this but think it is worth paying attention to see where we are in terms of our development. According to the report “mobile apps and tablet computing as technologies expected to enter mainstream use in the first horizon of one year or less. Game-based learning and learning analytics are seen in the second horizon of two to three years; gesture-based computing and the Internet of Things are seen emerging in the third horizon of four to five years”.

Ulitmately, the consequences of not being involved and of not showing an interest is that the gaps between effectual and ineffectual teaching and learning will increase as students continually disengage.

Qualitative outcomes: 

In the second instalment of her lecture, Vivienne started by explaining that the qualitative outcomes of the project were stimulating learning environments where students felt safe to express themselves without fear of humiliation and rebuke and where there is space to try out new things and experiment. This led to a discussion amongst the attendees about the types of rules, just like classroom rules, which should be in place to ensure students know how to conduct themselves in a virtual learning space. There tends to be the perception that because students are younger and seem to know what they are doing that they don’t need guidance on this. I think the social rules of the internet need to be taught – people don’t automatically pick up social skills even when they can do quite technical things, like designing apps.  

Authentic learning:

 

According to Vivienne, authentic learning consists of learners meeting the same content in many different contexts and with varying perspectives. Students need to be immersed in what they are learning and content should not be broken down for them to access readily, instead they should experience it holistically as they will use it in the real world, e.g. tests shouldn’t be multiple choice as people rarely use multiple choice in their everyday, real working lives.

Some of the main things I took away from this are that:

• My institution is doing reasonably well on the emerging technology front as it engages with students through a multitude of social media platforms – although there may be some tendency to be ‘creepy tree-house’
• Sometimes people think they are engaging with students by using emerging technologies, however, they are just delivering the same content in the same way but online. To use a soundbite - Technology doesn’t equal transformation
• There are still serious concerns over online identities and a lack of digital literacy amongst students
• Reflection and articulation are important for learning but vles are not generally conducive to this. It is up to staff to implement it as part of their programs

If anyone is interested in learning more about the project it can be found at http://www.emergingicts.blogspot.co.uk/

For those interested in emerging technologies, the Annual Horizon Report is worth a read.

If anyone would like to know more about web safety, you may find these JISC resources useful. There will also be a web safety in higher and further education presentation, held by the Academic and Research Libraries Group, London and South East Committee (ARLG LASEC) on 12th December 2012.

If anyone is interested in Big Data or the Internet of Things, some of the emerging technologies which, according to the Horizon Report will be used fully in a couple of years, there is a strong possibility of there being a conference focusing on them next July, held by the London Information and Knowledge Exchange.

LIKE Ideas 2012: The Business of Social Media

On 29th June 2012, I attended the inaugural conference of the London Information and Knowledge Exchange (LIKE). I was involved in helping to organise the event and it was a brilliant experience, not only because social media is a topic I am interested in and it was the largest event I've ever been involved in but also because I was given the opportunity to work with some lovely hardworking and professional people whom I greatly admire.

If you click on the picture, it should take you to an issuu book covering my writeup of the event (not the organising of it - that's for a later blog). This is the first time I've used issuu, I was introduced to it via Ned Potter's blog post, I thought I'd give it a try as it's rather a long post so looked pretty boring on paper.. Unfortunately, it isn't particularly compatible with Google Blogspot - unless I want to add it as a separate element. I will definitely use issuu in future but maybe not for blog posts...

The attendees of LIKEideas on the grand staircase of the Old Sessions House, taken by Ben Summers

Cpd - Thing 13 - Google Docs, Wikis and Dropbox

Thing 13 from CPD23 focuses on Google Docs, Wikis and Dropbox.

Google Docs - I started using Google Docs when I joined CoFHE LASEC. I had never used it before but found it very easy to pick up.We use it to collaborate on training events, keep a list of members, lists of useful contacts and the details of those who have attended our events. We also keep our minutes there. I have found this really useful as it cuts down on the amount of emails sent each other and means we can all see what each other is doing, our progress and what still needs to be done.

I haven't really used it for any other purpose but I think I would have used it for my Chartership documents if I had known about it when I started. The downside to Google Docs at the minute seems to be that whenever I am at work and using it it goes incredibly slowly and the typing doesn't seem to pick up, hopefully this will solve itself soon before I pull any more hair out...

Dropbox - I have just downloaded Dropbox which seems to do exactly the same things that Google Docs does. Perhaps if I didn't already use Google I would use this instead.Downloading Dropbox at home was easy but unfortunately there seems to be a block on this at work - which defeats the purpose somewhat - annoying.  It does seem easier to back things up to Dropbox than it does Google Docs so I may still put my portfolio in there to save a repeat performance of my work server not saving it when using it from home. That sick feeling in the in the pit of the stomach is not something I like to experience very often!

Wikis - I noticed since joining Twitter that many people were tweeting about the Library Day in the Life project and I think I might join in the next one as it looks like an interesting way of finding out what goes on in various library posts round the world.

Wikis have become increasingly useful in my workplace due to the fewer staff members we have and the number of sites we have to maintain. It is often difficult to meet up to discuss projects to keep the service moving forward so a way round this was to create a wiki and for everyone to contribute.

The last wiki used at my place of work was for creating the LRC's mission statement. I think this proved to be very effective method and I like how it also allows for thinking time, i.e. you can often be guaranteed a great idea will come to you when everybody has left the meeting - having a wiki ensures these little nuggets are saved too.

Cpd23 - Thing 11 and 12 - Mentoring and Putting the social into social media.

Thing 11 is looking at mentoring.

I currently have a mentor as I am doing my Chartership and it is a prerequisite of the portfolio being accepted by CILIP. I have found it useful as meeting up with her has meant that I keep to my deadlines and she often points me in a slightly different direction to the one I was looking at - not in an immediately obvious way just a slight nudge! I've liked having one for this reason.

Other than that, I've never had an official mentor, although I have occasionally had unofficial ones throughout my life. These have generally been people I look up to and admire.

I have had to be a mentor to people in my current workplace and felt woefully under prepared for it, however, I didn't have any complaints and despite one of the members leaving later on I'm sure it wasn't because of me!

Although having a mentor is a nice thing to have I wouldn't panic if I didn't have one and I don't think others should do either, as often they are there to provide confidence. I  have built on my confidence by working hard and knowing that I can do what I put my mind to and participating in new ventures, like this, can really help.

Thing 12 is going to be quite a short blog this time, as I think I have already extolled the virtues of social networking before. I think social media is a fantastic tool  for building  networks and creating a sense of community.


Professionally, for me the ADVANTAGES are:

The speed of which I can interact with people - I know there's the phone but a tweet or a post in an online debate is so much easier, quicker and doesn't involve disturbing people working or trying to locate them.

The amount of appropriate and  really up to date knowledge I can  access - usually someone has read an interesting article or report and is willing to share. I rarely have the time to look for the them so it is great to latch on to what the people actually paid to research the good stuff have found!

It has put me in contact with people I would never have normally been in touch with. I have met them both online and then in real life, for example, the Cpd23 meetup in London. I found out about the Birmingham Library Camp through Twtter and the whole thing, from the agenda to the cake, has been organised by bunch of social networkers. I am looking forward to meeting many of them there.

The DISADVANTAGES for me are:

Sometimes I feel like I am missing out on what's happening as I can't keep up with everything, especially on Twitter. I can't have Twitter on constantly like some do so I generally just look through say 20 of the last posts from each of my saved lists and have to just leave it at that, otherwise, I'd be spending an inordinate amount of time on there which would not be healthy. For everything else I use rss feeds and have told myself it's okay not to read everything and occasionally use the 'mark all as read' button - without really having read them (who's going to know?) - great post on this here from Laura Woods, aka @Woodsiegirl.

I occasionally feel like I can't keep up with all the new social networking platforms, as reiterated in Phil Bradley's post. I know I need to for the benefit of my own professional development and the people I provide a service for but sometimes it just seems like -  yet another thing! Google+ is a prime example of this!

I'm not sure yet how I can get round these issues but I will be reading other's blogs out of interest to see if they have experienced similar issues and how they have dealt with them. My tip at the moment is to be selective.

The majority of the social networking community I have experienced comes across as really friendly and helpful. There have been the occasional blips such as the Little Gossip website and people using Twitter and Facebook for the riots and hate campaigns. But for every site glorifying a Raol Moat type character there is another called #riotcleanup. I think social networking reflects society - it is not like the crooked mirror in Andersen's The Snow Queen which distorts it.

Cpd23 - Thing 8,9 and 10 - Google Calendar, Evernote and Chartership

Well, this week I am amalgamating a few Things as I'm off work for a little while and am trying to just think about things like growing veg, exercise and pondering the meaning of life rather than anything library or work-related - this is to prevent me from having a meltdown come the time of enrolling and inducting new students.


Trying to do more of this...



Firstly, I use Google Calendar sparingly. I have it on my iGoogle page but don't really have much on it. This doesn't mean I lead a carefree existence and can pick things up and drop them as I please, far from it, it just means I currently use other facilities.

 My workplace uses Outlook so this means I tend to as well. I have a page which no-one else can see which I use for work and personal commitments, for example, workshops I am delivering and dentist appointments. I even put meet ups with friends as otherwise I'd end up not seeing people for ages! I have this side by side with the work one and transfer any relevant appointments across.

I started using the Google one as I thought I could also download other useful calendars, like the CILIP one, however, it won't let me at the moment. I like Outlook but can only use the webmail version at home and I really don't like it due to its lack of functionality, so perhaps Google Calendar may still have a chance. I don't seem to use my work diary more for keeping track of events anymore - just my day to day work. I wonder if the sale of work diaries has reduced...

Secondly, I quite like the idea of Evernote as I have often made comments on people's ages and promptly forgotten about them until I did the Google yourself task for Thing 3 and there they were! I don't want to download it just yet as I borrowing someone else's laptop but will as soon as my new one arrives (or I return to work). I had never heard of Evernote or Springpad, which was mentioned in the comments box, so am definitely going to have a look at them. I wish I had known about the Web Clipper before I started my my Chartership as this would have been very useful when trying to compile my bibliography.


Which leads us nicely into thirdly - Thing 10. In whatever job I've had in the past I've wanted to be very good at it! I had all my stars when I worked for McDonalds, for example! So when I landed a job as a Learning Centre Assistant based on my customer service skills rather than any library knowledge, although obviously I'd been an avid library user in the past, I looked at the next step up the ladder. I already had an English degree so investigated studying for a Masters. Due to financial constraints and personal circumstances I decided to continue working full time and did a part time course at UCL. Very difficult but I managed it and have used this as an example of being incredibly organised ever since!

As soon as I qualified, I was given the opportunity to work at Kingston College and set up a Higher Education Centre. I have really enjoyed this job and like delivering workshops to the students and liaising (aka having a good chat) with the staff. Having a job which sits across two sectors is interesting but requires a lot of catching up on what's happening in each one! I didn't start Chartership straight away as I had other training needs which I wanted to sort out. After completing the CMI Diploma in Line Management, to improve my line management skills I decided to take on both Chartership to develop professionally and PTTLS to develop my teaching. 

I have now finished my PTTLS and am close to Chartership completion, so I am now looking round at the next big thing to do. I am contemplating doing something unwork related, like learning Spanish, but have yet to come to any conclusions, as this will be of use both personally and professionally. I would really like to try writing articles, or just the one, but still haven't got round to it - I think I'd feel a bit embarrassed handing something over which no-one has asked for.

 I am also in the process of trying to find some kittens to buy :).

Learning Spanish will be useful if I go back here!

Plans/ideas for future:

Buy kittens

Learn Spanish

Write articles

Continue involvement with other library peeps

Cpd23 - Thing 7 - Face to face networks and professional organisations

Thing 7 is about two things - face to face networking and professional organisations. I used to feel a bit silly networking as I thought that even though I could get a lot of knowledge from other people I had little to offer in return. Also I felt like you had to be a bit of a cold fish to network as basically you are talking to someone in the hope they may prove useful! I find it can be a nerve-wracking experience walking into a room full of professionals that it's sometimes easy to forget I am one! What I now try to do is walk in quickly, ideally not too late when everyone has already introduced themselves, find a table with two or three people on and ask if I can join in. I've found that the less scared I pretend to be the less nervous I come across to other people. I'm terrible at remembering names so if I've got on well with someone I'll make an extra effort. To encourage people to remember me (I haven't convinced myself I need a business card yet) I try to remember to wear something bright - like a yellow top or a red dress - I'm only 5ft so it can be quite easy to miss me sometimes - it also helps that I've now married into a silly surname which no-can spell but is easily identifiable as me!



Not my hats but you get the idea... image by Beglib taken from Morguefile

On 21st July I went to the CPD23 event in London, where there were so many people and speeches that it was really difficult to speak to as many people as I would have liked. I went wearing two hats - one as a cpd23 member wanting to find out what was out there and the other hat was as a CoFHE LASEC Liaison Officer trying to encourage more interest. I think I succeeded in both objectives. People showed interest in CoFHE LASEC and hopefully they will turn up at the AGM meeting in November or be encouraged to write a blog for us. We currently have enough members on the committee however the CDG LASEC could do with a few more and I would really recommend being involved.

At the event I met some people who I follow on Twitter, which was a little strange - is it just me or does 'Hi, I follow you on Twitter' sound a bit stalkerish? Jo Alcock told me how being both in the CoFHE West Midlands and in the CDG  increases the liaison between both groups - perhaps in response I should get more involved in the CDG LASEC group myself.  I don't think this will happen in the near future though as work is going to get increasingly busier over the next few months. She also highlighted the advantages of the ALA which I hadn't looked at because of its focus on America (obviously). She claimed that she has got a lot out if it, especially from her attendance at the ALA Annual, so I am going to have a little investigation.

Tina Reynolds, another Tweeter I follow, enthused about the SLA and the BIALL and encouraged me to sign up, despite my protestations about not being a law librarian. I'll have a look, however, I am concerned that this all going to take a big chunk out my purse and my time - neither of which I have in abundance. I should say for the record I am a member of CILIP and am so because it is the main professional body of most librarians. I am also doing my Chartership at the moment so it is required of me.

So in summary - I am involved in:

• CILIP
• CoFHE LASEC
• LIKE
• LISNPN - a tiny little bit

and am going to investigate:

• BIALL
• ALA
• SLA

            so  lots of investigations and reading for me and then a proper look at the prices of these memberships and whether I can justify them.