Aargh!

Two things each week – how is everyone managing to keep up?  I got behind last week.  I’m ok this month as no kids in, but once Sept comes it’ll be manic again!

23:6 – Online networks

I completely missed this thing!  Aargh.  It was a mad week last week!  Anyhow, slightly out of order – and now that the kids are on hols I’ll try and get caught up.

Hee hee, slightly ahead as I recently found the video from commoncraft earlier this month when I was prepping for a Y10 HSC class.  Looks like they’re going to start charging for vids tho which is a shame as they are briliant! BUT most of the networks outlined are blocked at school – social networking is obviously not something to be encouraged  I am trying not to take work home with me in the interests of a proper work-life balance and all that – and changes in my workplace have proven that work done at home is not recognised or valued.  But, as a professional – I should be looking at all these new tools.  Where do you draw the line?

Anyhow – onto the actual ‘thing’!

LinkedIn – I do like the look of this and can see how it would work.  But it seems like a lot of personal information to share online with the world.  Makes me a little unsure.  Having a look for some of my friends then I can get their opinions. 

Facebook – afraid I’m a bit of a luddite and I just can’t get my head around facebook!  Why spend all your time updating your wall and being nosy looking for people you once knew?  Invite your friends over for tea, instead! I already have email, friendfeed, text and phone. 

On the plus side – I did join twitter last night!  I’m still finding my way round – and am just going to use it to keep up with information – not tell the world that I’m washing up now, or my bus is late.  Folks aren’t really interested in that kind of information, are they?

23:7 – networking and professional organisations

Aarghh, networking!  Hate it, hate it!  Love just talking to folks about my job and getting ideas from them but as soon as there is any hint of ‘networking’ I run a mile.  I think that there is a degree of snobbery within the profession – and often feel that I am disregarded as ‘just a school librarian’.  This is of course, totally unfair – and I could wax lyrical about this, but I’m aware I’m in a bad mood today so I’ll just leave it at that for now

Anyhow – my involvement in professional organisations includes:

• CILIP – ah, the joy of CILIP.  Feel that I should confess, albeit quietly, that I didn’t renew my CILIP membership this year!  I know, I’m a bad librarian.  However, I have never earned a professional salary despite following all of the guidelines issued by CILIP after my initial degree.  I worked in an FE college and a school before applying to do my MSc as CILIP said you had to have relevant experience before undertaking such a course.  Tho that turned out not to be the case.  Then I went into school librarianship.  Now, I know that possibly wasn’t the best decision in my life – but I was hooked already!  Being your own boss, each day being unpredictable, encouraging quieter kids to come out of their shells and all the books I wanted to read at my fingertips   The downside, as there is no legal requirement to have a school library or a librarian salaries and status within the school reflect that.  I remember reading one school librarian’s advice that you shouldn’t accept a job at less than the CILIP guidelines but that’s not totally practical.  You have to go where the jobs are.  Anyhow, I was a fully paid up member of CILIP for many years and procrastinated over my chartership for far too long – before deciding to cut my losses.  It wouldn’t make any difference to my standing within school or my salary.  As it is my hours are being cut in September by around 25% as a result of budget restrictions.  Did being in CILIP make any difference? No.  Will my school pay me to go on any CILIP courses? No – they’re too expensive, and train fare to London ain’t cheap. 
• SLA – I am however still a fully paid up member of the School Library Association.  I was even secretary of the local branch for 4 years.  I’ve been on a couple of SLA courses and helped to organise one or two.  The people you meet here are working within the same constraints as you are.  I can sometimes be disheartened by the number of unqualified school librarians that you meet – who are often earning more than me.  But it is a problem with the system, not with them personally.  Suppose I just wish I’d had the guts to apply for a job straight from university instead, I’m still paying off my loans for MSc.  (Heavens I sound like I’m a right moaning cow today, don’t I?!)  But key to SLA is sharing ideas and resources and support.  They also administer the School Librarian of the Year Award – which is an excellent way of raising the profile of school librarians! Yeah!
• SLN – my daily support group is a yahoo mailing list, the School Librarian’s Network.  Although the list goes through many cycles, sometimes all in the same week, it is mainly a supportive network where you can ask the really dumb questions (does anyone know this book – it had a dog in it called Spot and had a red cover?) and the more difficult ones (my hours are being cut, what can I do? 
• LSW – I’ve recently joined the Library Society of the World via friendfeed which is a hoot and full of much more knowledgeable and enthusiastic people than I will ever be.  I think most of the folks on there are academic librarians, and there is a heavy US slant, but it’s great for thinking outside of the box, getting a different perspective and meeting some really nice library folks. 

I think networks for school librarians are invaluable as we’re often the lone librarian in a sea of teachers.  We sometimes struggle with our identity as within school I find we’re more often defined by what we’re not, rather than what we are.  We are not teachers – although we teach.  We are not admin staff – although we do admin.  We are not NTAs – although we support  students in a variety of ways.

The upshot of all this that I am considering leaving school librarianship and maybe even librarianship. I’m hoping that this course will give me some insight into my next career move. Bring it on!

23:5 – reflective practice

What?
I’m doing CPD23… 

So what?
…so that I can gain some new skills, consolidate some existing skills and gain some confidence in the job market…

Now what?
…just need to get on with the other 18 things

23:4 – twitter, rss and pushnote

Ok – so I’m a bit behind.  That’s what reflective weeks are for isn’t it?

I’ve had a fun day getting to grips with google reader and diigo.  I can’t access twitter from school and internet not being installed at home for another couple of weeks, so that will have to wait a little bit.

Google Reader
I asked friends and colleagues who they followed – and then looked at their followers etc.. and think I’ve now got a core set.  I did originally subscribe the the cpd23ers rss feed – but there’s so many of us I was overwhelmed.  I’ve now reduced that to blogs that I’ve visited and liked, people who’ve commented on my blog and school librarians from around the world.  Now I’ve just got to find time each day to keep on top of it all.  I used to use netvibes but it takes forever to load at work and I just found myself getting frustrated.  I like how Google Reader is just in a list too.  While it’s not funky looking, it is more obviously readable. 

I’m also realising that all this online reading really does require different reading skills.  Not sure I’m quite there yet.

Diigo
I can’t access Pushnote, and after a brief flirtation with delicious – it was suggested to me that I have a look at Diigo.  I think this does a lot of the same stuff as pushnote – however, I’m only using the social bookmarking element at the moment.  I’m building up a collection of resources and have finally cleared out my favourites list – which was so messy!

Problem?
It’s great that I’ve got this all set up now, and I’ll be able to keep on top of it all in the summer.  But when term starts again?  I’m not sure.  I barely have time to sit down and what with my hours being cut from September it’s going to be even more difficult.  I try not to work at home – as I don’t feel this is valued by my employer, and hey we all need some time off.  But, I wonder how to get the balance right.  Lots of the blogs I’ve visited today comment about how they’re behind with the 23things.  Are we all that disorganised?  Or id it just that our employers don’t recognise that we need time for our CPD?  Or that we should be taking on CPD as our own personal thing.  I’d be interested in your comments.

Actual meet up for CPD23ers

Following on from the post on the main site about real-life meet ups, I’m happy to arrange something in the South Yorks area if there is an interest.  Leave me a comment if you’re interested and we’ll see what’s what

23:3 – online presence/brand

This week’s task is consider our online personal brand.

I totally understand Jo’s admission that it took forever for her to decide on usernames and layout.  I’m there too.  The only reason I was so quick to set up the blog for cpd23 was that I already had it ready… was just waiting for inspiration on what to do with it.

I’ve recently opened a new email account and blog as I’m trying to collate all of my online work into one area – with one contact.  So I’ve already done some of the work. 

However, having the same name as a 1940s baseball player, an American psychologist, a New Zealand politician, a London based author, a nurse who died in suspicious circumstances in the Middle East in the late 1970s, an Australian Olympic fencer and a bridge player there is very little evidence (ie none!) of me online  :-/  So I’ve got a different problem.  How to get myself noticed?! And what kind of information do I want to put out there?  Do I want separate professional and personal ‘brands’ or can it work together?  I will ponder and blog some more later in the week.

23:2 – exploring blogs

Had a little look around and commented on blogs of other ‘Helen’s.  We’re a common lot amongst librarians.  Hoping that my name appears on the list soon so hopefully I’ll have some visitors of my own too!

23:1 – blogs

So… after some wallowing, some cider and some surfing I’ve joined up for 23 things for professional development!

I’ve had this blog for a little while so will have to actually get round to doing something with it now

I’ve been a school librarian for around 10 years and most days I love my job.  No day is ever the same as another, and there are some really cool kids who really make our job worthwhile.  However, it has been a really tough year in our school and it’s not looking much more promising for the following year.  So I’m trying to focus my energies into developing my personal skills – in the hope of coming to some idea of what I can do in the future to move onwards and upwards.  Hence 23things!

Being a school librarian I sometimes feel like a jack of all trades and a master of none.  We have such a varied range of activities and have to be focussed to ensure that new developments are pushed through in what is already a really demanding and time-restricted environment.  I buy my own books, catalogue them, display them, shelve them, promote them, mend them, use them.  I make displays and use blogs to support learning.  I corral teachers into using the library for research lessons, promoting IL to many students who really do believe that if they find something from the internet and paste it into their work it is their work. Yet I also support those who are in trouble, arbitrate arguments, engineer situations so that students can develop their self-confidence, sort out printer problems, calm situations before they become problems and so much more. 

However, I don’t have an in-depth knowledge of anything!  I’m therefore hoping that this course will help me build my self confidence so that while I won’t be a master, I’ll be on the way.

Right, I’d better go.  Will try and update my blog a bit tomorrow and put some the exciting widgety things on so you can all ooh and aah!  Look forward to getting to know some of you!