Thing 17: The Medium is the Message- Prezi and Slideshare

Prezi 

Is indeed a very accurate, interesting and modern tool to use when inducting new students to our library. I had a go at it and I like it very much, so I cannot see myself using power points anymore. I very much like the idea of zooming in and out. I am preparing a prezi now for senior students “on how to use our new library management system”. I probably down load my prezi and have it ready instead of having it online.  I look forward to seeing our students’ reaction to my presentation using prezi!!

Ned potter prezi post is very helpful; I would recommend it to anyone who would like to know more and see a fantastic example of using prezi.

Slideshare, I won't be needing it at the moment may be in the future.

Thing 23: Reflection - What next?

The journey of the cps23 programme has just finished but my personal development journey has just started. I enjoyed the programme and would recommend it to anyone who is interested in wanting to know web 2.0, social media and networking better.  I can sum up my experience with the 23 tools in six words as “I definitely developed professionally and personally”

First tool introduced by CPD 23 (blogging), is indeed very useful tool to me. I was blogging before but not at this level. It gave me the chance to pick up some interesting, encourage and inspiring blogs. Those blogs enable me to develop a wider understanding of our profession and gave me insight into how fellow librarians and information professionals are dealing with current changes affecting our profession.

 I learnt some new tools and develop some old ones further. Some of the tools I use now daily in my work. They helped me to organise my work effectively and efficiently. Other tools have not had the time to look closely at them therefore have not used them yet but I will definitely revisit them.

I am better aware of where I want to be, where the gaps in my experience are and what the requirements for my next move are. The template provided by the CPD team is a good start for planning my PDP time wise.

Thing 22: Volunteering to get experience

I was lucky to get a job immediately after I got my university degree in librarianship. It was a Library Assistant in an academic library. I did the job for four then moved on with my husband overseas and that is when volunteering entered my life.

 I volunteered to help cataloguing and classifying the collection of BMI, Bishop Mackenzie International School in Malawi when I was there with my husband. The library was in need for help from a professional librarian. The school couldn’t afford to employ two librarians and didn’t want to get ride of the librarian who was running the library for quite long time. Cataloguing the collection allowed me to have a close look at it and advice them on how to develop it.  

Beside the library work I used some of my free time volunteering as a membership secretary for International Women’s Association. Joining the association was a great opportunity for me to meet women from all over the world, organise events to raise money for, orphanage centres, help single poor women to establish small business so they can have steady income to look after their children. Our main fund raiser was an annual bazaar and I was responsible of running the book stall. Although this wasn’t library related work a part from book stall but it did equip me with skills such as plan down to small details, respect other people ideas and understanding, meet target, be patience and focused to achieve targets and above all learn to live and enjoy different culture and respect and or obey the rules of the society you are living in.   

If you are living a nomad life like mine (moving country every two or three years) then  volunteering is the best starting point for finding a job,  knowing the country you are living in and its people. Volunteering in Africa is very valuable and appreciated as the need for free help is greater than anywhere else.

Thing 21: Promoting yourself in job applications and at interview

After I read thing 21, I reflected on my work, positions I held and academic qualifications or skills I gained for the last 5 years. From the long list I made of things I like, interested in or good at, I managed to discover the following about myself:

I am a tidy person therefore I like to work in a tidy and clean environment. Having a tidy desk help me find my things easily and prioritise my work. I feel uncomfortable and a bit irritated when someone uses my desk and move my things out of their places. It’s a tricky situation when sharing a desk or an office with someone messy.

I enjoy helping students to use the technology in searching and finding their information needs. Generally, I like dealing with enquires rather than sitting in a back office classifying or cataloguing books. Do not get me wrong I do like cataloguing.

 Information literacy is one of the areas I’m interested in and would like to develop my skills further within the next year or so. Since the school I’m working in is fairly new, we are in the process of designing info. Lit curriculum across the three sections. It’s a chance to acquire skills in designing info. Lit curriculum from age 3 up to age 18. I believe strongly in the important role of info. Lit in teaching and learning.

Strategic planning is an area I developed recently. I am keen on setting and writing policies, introduce new services and or improve existing services and set long and short terms targets for my operation. I managed to write our libraries staff manual from scratch. Documented existing and writing new polices. We upgraded LMC to a better system that will enable our team to deliver better services in effective and efficient ways. I turned the library to a better learning and teaching environment. I involved students in the library operation by creating Student Librarians Programme. I like to incorporate technology in my daily working life and use it to promote the services my library offer. Moving to a new LMC create a chance to use the technology in designing a new website for the library.

I work in international school compromises of three sections, infant, junior and senior. Each section has a library with the senior library is the main or the hub. In school like this it’s important to have a library team its members are willing to cooperate with each other and eager to move the whole operation forward. I hate to be part of a team its members work in isolation of each other, unwilling to change or accept changes and not trying to update their ways of running their libraries and servicing their patrons.

In my current post, I’m enriching my experience by the day. I’m learning, new ideas and from mistakes. Now I know where and what I want to do in near future.

Thanks CPD 23 for referring to  What’s the key to a good interview - beyond the usual truisms we all know already? – a blog post by Ned Potter, aka The Wikiman, and various comments to it.  it’s indeed very useful.

Thing 20: My route to librarianship

This post is written for cpd 23, thing 20. I wrote before about how became a librarian in thing 10. This time I am adding a bit more to what I wrote before and linking it to The Library Routes Project

Writing this post no doubt will bring back many memories, some of which I would like to remember others I would rather forget.  My starting point to librarianship route was a little bit strange and unusual! It wasn’t my first choice to study librarianship when I applied to university. I wanted to be an architect when I was a little girl then change my mind at teenage to wanting to be a vet. Didn’t meet my university offer for veterinary science and I didn’t have a plan B. So I was unhappy and cross with myself for not being able to study what I thought is my dream subject. I was under enormous amount of pressure to decide whether I want to go to university that year or have a gap year and re apply. After a quick thinking, been realistic and not wanting to re-sit exam or to loss my chance of having a university degree I made a decision. I decided to move away from studying what I called traditional subjects and study something people knew nothing or a little about at least in my country and that was studying librarianship.  I cannot explain why I had that feeling at that time?

The librarianship course was four years course. I enjoyed most of it but most, I enjoyed annoying one of my lectures. He used to talk and referrer a lot to his time in the US whilst doing his Master& PhD and I didn’t like his style of teaching. A few months after I graduated I was luck enough for find a job in an academic library. The job was a good start for a newly qualified librarian. Also, it helped me to find my second job (Research Assistant) which had some similarities to the role of librarian in terms of search or collect, organise and analyse information /data.

I had to stop working for a few years to bring up my children. During those years I though about arming myself with some other skills, that might become handy at the some point in my life. I enrolled myself in a diploma course in translation and interpretation English/Arabic/English. After gaining the qualification I practiced as a casual interpreter for a couple of years then move on overseas where I went back to librarianship. I was school librarian at different international schools in different countries. Working overseas is a great experience particularly in international school where you meet students with different backgrounds, cultures and languages. The only downside is PD fund, employers are not keen in investing in someone they know in advanced is going to leave in a couple of years   

I am glad I became a librarian.  I think working in an educational environment with people, information and knowledge suits me more that working with animals. The feeling of reaching out to students and help them to acquire knowledge and information on all kind of formats is very rewarding.

                      

Thing 19: am I now a better Librarian armed with 18 things?

Only four/five tools to go before the cpd 23 goes. Sounds like I cannot wait for the things to disappeared but that is not true. I‘m delighted I joined cpd 23 series of tools. I am enjoying it so far and look forward every week to tackle a new challenge. Yes, they are challenging me as majority of the tools the team introduced so far I have not use before. I might have heard of them or used some of them at a limited level. Some time it is not easy to find the time to keep up with programme but I am determining to continue until the end! I will probably revisit some of the tools that I think are useful for my current and future job.

Now, how the cpd did developed my working style and understanding of web 2.0

As results of Joining the cpd I managed to expand my RSS list I hope I haven’t over did it, created discussion and contributed to many professional discussions, joined new interesting professional groups and now receiving regular updates and news from them, I am more and more reflecting than before at the personal and professional level, Google Doc. I use it on a daily basis to create and save documents. It’s my cloud and I cannot imagine myself working without it. I wanted to use Dropbox when it was introduced to save my documents but couldn’t download it because I am working in one of those countries affected by US sanction. Google Calendar is another important tool to me personally and professionally. I rely on it to organise my work and my family activities. It’s the first thing I open and leave open all day on my laptop.

Last but not least blogging, what a great way of keeping breast of what is going on in the profession and sharing your experience and interests with colleague from all kind of library and information professions.     

Thing 18: screen capture & podcasting

This is my first time to explore and use Jing. I used to rely on using print screen tab to capture screen. After a little play with it I decided to download it http://www.techsmith.com/jing which was easy and use straight away.

I think of it as the right tool came in the right time. We have changed our library management system recently. Since the system is new to students and teacher we have to start training them on how the use it to find their information needs. I would use this tool to show them how to set up, access and manage their own portal on the new system. I think I will be using both features of capturing and videoing to make it easier and clearer for them. Also, it will probably help me to design and enhance the look of the library’s website by making it more attractive and inviting to parents and students alike to access it more often. 

Podcasting, I started to use it sometime ago for personal purpose. I use it to keep up with some my favourite series of programme. Every weekend I download the episodes I missed during the week on my i pod then listen to them while driving on my way to and from work. It’s some thing that I look forward to do every weekend. I have not experience using it at work but I can see many ways of using to enhance some of the services my library provide to its patrons. 

Thing 16: Advocacy, speaking up for the profession and getting published

 Librarians were, still and will continue to advocate their profession. They advocate in many ways and at different levels from the day they joined the profession and probably until they retired! I do agree public libraries are suffering at the moment in the UK but they are not alone, school libraries is another important sector that has being suffering form cuts and low profile.

I chose to be a librarian and since I made that decision I have been explaining the important role of libraries and their value. I work in international private school fairly stable working environment. I advocate my service to the school community, students and teachers. Explain to students the important role of the library in their learning. Unfortunately it takes as much effort as to advocate teachers as well. They do not encourage or direct students to use the valuable and costly resources available for them in the library. Once I had a discussion with a teacher who believes that a librarian does not need to have a high qualification to run a library. I wasn’t expecting that from an educator who supposed to be working in partnership with library staff to facilitate teaching and learning for future generations.        

Thing 15: Attending, presenting at and organising seminars, conferences and other events

This thing shows you that there are many ideas and ways of attending /organising face- to- face events that could help develop your professional. They are great ideas but as the thing mentioned, events cost money and time. Due to the financial difficulties we are all facing at the moment it is difficult to ask your employer to bear the cost of sending you to a conference or workshop. As result of that some institutions started to explore cheep ways of providing PD for their staff such as in house training or fund for local/regional events.

 

I’m a librarian who is currently does not have the money or the time to attend conferences or professional events?  I substitute them by relying more and more on e social networks. However enjoyable they are to use, great on answering questions and connecting you with peers across the globe, face the face events will still be the best way to pick up, up-date and share ideas. I have to admit, it has been quite some time since I attended an event. I have been busy enriching my experience since I finished my masters. I think it’s about time for me to start looking into this. What I would really like to attend is one of those big conferences where I can meet many librarians and information professionals to compensate for the years I have not been able to. But I have to fund it from my own money and use my own time.

I have no fear of speaking in public as I did this before although it wasn’t library related issue. Perhaps working overseas for quite some time and in different countries where you exposed to different cultures and people with different background and understanding I think has enable me to overcome the fears of speaking in public

Thing 14: Zotero, Mendeley, citulike

Just like Isla did my masters dissertation following the traditional way of writing reference, generating and adding references manually. I wish I was aware of any of thing14 tools then.

Zotero / Mendeley / citeulike

Explored the 3 tools but got hocked on Mendeley. Since I have not used it before, I spent more time going through it trying to familiarise my self with it. I like its features and the support it gives. I will be willing to introduce it to my students as a tool that will help them go through the reference process effectively and efficiently.

Thing 13: Google docs, Dropbox and Wikis

     

Useful tools for those who work in the learning and teaching environment not just librarians and information professionals. I was first introduced to Google docs as part of in house training. I saw its usefulness immediately and decided to use it wherever documents needed input from the library team.  For example, I collaborated with the team on writing and updating documents concerned with policies and procedures that needed to be included in the staff manual. It saved us the hassle of sending documents backwards and forwards and allowed us to do the job effectively and efficiently. I would love to use it more and more.

     

I explored dropbox for the first time via 23 cpd. It’s the kind of tool that will probably make my life easier and saves the worry of having to make sure that I have the document I need before I set off from my desk. I have opened an account and I have now started to load my documents. It will definitely become part of my daily working life and I would recommend it for my team. 

 I would prefer to explore them a bit more. I have a feeling that I might not need to use them at work as we store all documents that are related to the library in a folder designated for library use only on the school Intranet. That way the library team is able to have access and everyone can comment and update.

Thing 12: Putting the social into social media

In regard to the advantages and disadvantages of social networking:

Social networking has no doubt made it easier for librarians and information professionals who work in isolated or poor environments to communicate with colleagues world wide. However, the tool of virtual communication can be very expensive and not easy to acquire by an individual. For example in the third world, the majority of librarians use their offices’ computers and Internet connection to communicate virtually.

 I have used social media to develop my career professionally at a slow pace before, but after I joined cpd 23 I started to use it more often at a wider and deeper level. Cpd 23 has helped me to increase my contact list, follow blogs and join interesting professional groups. Because of this I’m spending more and more time now on social networks than ever before and I am enjoying a large number of professional debates and discussions. Therefore I will most likely try to keep and increase my contacts and groups through social networks. 

Social networking creates a sense of community in terms of giving you the opportunity to follow like minded people and join discussions where you feel your comments could be useful and helpful, and where your questions could be answered.   

Thing 11: Mentoring

Being mentored is a great way of motivating and developing your career. However finding the right mentor who has an interest in what you do and who is willing to spend the time and energy mentoring can be a scary and tricky process. It is fair to say that I have been thinking about how to find a mentor for quite some time.

In most cases I come across mentees who found formal mentors via work, a colleague or their boss, but in my case, I will most likely look for a virtual mentor. The down side of having a virtual mentor is losing the benefit of face-to-face contact, which could impact negatively on the relationship between you and the mentor. However the use of Skype and other such ways of communicating could help avoid the substitution of face to face contact thus helping the relationship.

My informal mentor is someone I respect, reach out to in the most difficult of situations and is someone who I feel comfortable enough with to discuss my career options and take his advice on board. He has given me a tremendous amount of help.

Thing 10: Graduate, Traineeship, Masters Degrees

My undergraduate degree was in Library and Documentation Science (Khartoum). It was a four year course which I think is a bit long, the whole course could have been done in less than four years. I chose to study librarianship because it appealed to me than any of the other courses available to me at that age, no doubt the love of reading and being in libraries at different stages of my learning have contributed. Throughout the course I kept being asked, ‘what is librarianship and what does it entail?’

After graduation I got a job as a library assistant for 3 years in an academic library. It was an interesting job but not very challenging. I then got married and joined my husband who was working in a famine zone with SCF. I had to stop being a librarian and instead I became a research assistant for a researcher who was trying to find out how people cope with famine. I thoroughly enjoyed my time as a research assistant as it allowed me to travel around villages collecting data. Following this I moved overseas, but this time I was able to be a librarian for a couple of years in one of the international schools.

On my return to the UK I worked in public libraries for sometime. My husband was then sent overseas again and since I wasn’t sure about being able to find a job out there, I decided to upgrade my qualification by taking a distant learning masters degree course whilst living overseas. Aberystwyth was recommended to me and I liked the course so I went for it. Fortunately, I did find a job as a librarian in an international school whilst doing my dissertation on the use of e-resources by HE students in Kampala- Uganda, where I was living at that time.

Now, I’m still overseas, this time in Khartoum-Sudan, where I work as a Deputy Library Manager in an IB international school. I find working in international schools very interesting as I am able to deal with students and teachers from different backgrounds, reading cultures and different attitudes towards libraries and librarians. Chartership, I have been thinking about it for quite sometime but have never had the courage to take practical steps toward it. I think my main worry is how I will find a mentor which lead me to the next thing (mentoring)  

Thing: 8 & 9 Google Calendar & Evernote

Google Calendar:

I have to admit I’m not using it at work at the moment but have used it in the past for a period of time then went back to using my paper diary. I do not know the real reason for this but it might be because the nature of my work requires me to move around quite a bit so I find it easier and quicker to use my diary instead of carrying my PC and trying to find a socket to keep the battery alive and that's even if the Internet connection decides to cooperate and stay on! However, I use the whole school calendar on a daily basis to check major events happening in the school. I can see the value of having a shared calendar with colleagues and perhaps that is something I should consider for the next academic year.

Evernote:

Again, one of the things that I have not used before. I followed your advice and signed up for an account. Look forward to having fun with it!  http://www.evernote.com/