CPD23: Thing 12 - Social Media and Social Networking

What do they mean by social media?

Social networking, online communities... does that not include email listings, facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc...? We covered this in CPD23 Thing 6: Online Networks.

To answer the questions included for this Thing:

1. Advantages of social networking for professional development

Easy. I can 'do it' at my desk, when I have a spare five minutes between work activities, and I can use it to catch up with colleagues, check out trends, check out the competition (what are Cambridge Medical Library up to?), I can keep tabs on tools that I really ought to know about for my work but haven't had the time to invest (eg Mendeley, Google docs!), and I can see what librarians in other sectors are doing, eg Digitalist and the business world.

2. Disadvantages of social networking

Takes up valuable work time and makes it easier to hide behind a computer instead of getting out there to meet people face-to-face. Well, this is good and bad.

3. How has CPD23 helped me to connect with others

I've enjoyed, thus far, reading The Wolfenden Report and other blogs which I wouldn't have had on my radar (or my Google Reader RSS feeds) otherwise.

4. How I used social media for professional development pre-CPD23

I've kept tabs on other librarians' blogs via my Google Reader RSS feeds for a while now, and had discovered last year via the Oxford 23 Things project that I didn't find Twitter very useful for my work, although i've enjoyed reading tweets following conferences such as the 2011 International Clinical Librarians' Conference in Birmingham in June...

5. Does social networking really help to foster a sense of community?

It depends on how you use it, and what you put into it! I feel more 'connected' to other librarians just by reading their blogs, for example, even if I never meet them or have any other interaction with them. It's more psychological than I had realised.

Quickfire reading list:

• Digitalist on Thing 12
• The Wolfenden Report on Thing 12
• Passionatemedicallibrarian on Thing 12
• Phil Bradley on social networks for librarians
• TooMuchInformation on Thing 12
  

Librarians using Facebook

New article:

Phillips NK. 'Academic Library Use of Facebook: Building Relationships with Students', The Journal of Academic Librarianship, Article in Press:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0099133311001625#s0060

Librarians are using Facebook to interact with users. Users may be sceptical but are engaging with this, to some extent. Librarians are using this tool to promote library services... shocker.

Thing 11: I love my mentor

I think that I have at least two mentors. I have my colleague, TP, who has been a rock ever since I joined the BHCL nearly three years ago. I can't remember my first impressions of her, and how we have formed such a great relationship, but I am very glad to say that we have. We even went to Portugal together to attend a conference last year! She never stops encouraging me: whether it's to leave my husband (don't ask, really, I don't so you had better not), or to submit papers to journals or conferences, or to say NO to colleagues, or to get involved with presenting to 4th year medical students... She brightens up my day. I did get a teensy bit fed up with her at the end of the second conference that we attended together last year, and behaved like a hideous stroppy child to her when we parted ways at Oxford train station, but she forgave me and we go from strength to strength. I have been lucky enough to have a few other similarly supportive colleagues, but as they work in London, this support comes electronically via email and Facebook, not in person. Mentors are the BEST. In return, I get her espadrilles every time I go abroad, if I can. I've given her at least four pairs so far, although she keeps insisting on paying me back for 5 Euro footwear from Valencia...

I also now have my CILIP Chartership mentor as well to be thankful for. We've met once, emailed several times, and she has been most supportive as well. She suggested that I get involved with this CPD23 Things project as part of my Portfolio. She suggested that I attend the Library TeachMeet, which was great. Yes, mentors are the best.

One day, I hope to be a mentor for someone. But right now, I have a lot on my plate and have to learn how to be a better librarian (and person).

Thing 10: Routes into Librarianship

I didn't set out to be a librarian. I like libraries. I love libraries. I've spent an awful lot of time in them, in the physical buildings, reading the physical items, enjoying the space and the quiet. But to be a Librarian?!

My background is in social anthropology. In my third year, when I was working on my dissertation, I started to wonder about Evidence. What is 'evidence'? How is something proved, proven? When is something 'evidence' and when is it not? So, after a twisted path and some life-experience, I enrolled for the MSc in Evidence-Based Social Work at Oxford Uni, now renamed Evidence-Based Social Interventions. It was a very good course. I did well at statistics, I learned that all the hot men visit the Social Science Library, so I duly followed them in, and I enjoyed the course. When I left, (ahem, graduated), I found that I could get a job as an Information Scientist. In the course of this job, I found that this position was similar to other people, known as Information Specialists, and Knowledge Officers, Librarians etc... Hang on! Librarian!

I didn't like that job very much. So I looked for a Way Out. The Way Out involved enrolling for another Masters degree, this time in Information and Library Management. I did a 2 year distance learning course, fully funded by myself through the rise in pay that I got from Getting Out of crap job and being accepted for Good Job.

I graduated in that masters last year, in October 2010. I waited for a bit, while my Good Job changed and there was much insecurity about my job and eventually I could apply for my Present Job. I also moved house, got a kitten, went through several other stressful experiences, wrote a few conference papers, gave some presentations, wrote a few journal articles etc etc, and now I feel ready to start the process of Chartering.

I have a mentor. We met in June. I've recently received her approval on my CV and annotated job description. My PPDP should have reached CILIP over a month ago. They have my £50. I am in the process of compiling my portfolio, asking our admin staff for a current copy of the Organisation Chart, and generally getting on with both my job and all the CPD it currently involves. I intend to Charter as soon as possible, get comfortable with Managing, and then see what else is out there for me. If there is nothing, then I will make the most of my current position, and do the best I can. If there is something else out there, then I will make sure that I have the skills and the enthusiasm.

I didn't mean to be a librarian. But now that I am one, I rather like it.


Image above from http://www.theliterarygiftcompany.com/gift-boxed-librarian-badge-3188-p.asp

"This book... has been one long reflective practice essay."

Above quotation from p.289, In Stitches: The Highes and Lows of Being an A&E Doctor, Dr Nick Edwards (2011).

I've just finished reading this book, which is brilliant and funny, insightful, tragic, and thought-provoking. If I, as a librarian, sat down at the end of each working day to think about, reflect on and write about one moment in my day, I doubt it would be an iota as interesting as Dr Nick Edwards' time in an A&E department. I've enjoyed being able to read the book, which is on our shelves as part of our Book Swap initiative, a way of enticing people into the library with the promise of free books, and a place for them to deposit worthy reading material for other people. I've read it at work in those pauses while waiting for files to upload, or when importing files from LISA into Endnote, as I am currently doing...

I'm now a Believer in reflective practice. I've done a lot of it this month, as I've been on leave (and enjoyed being on leave immensely). I've been reflecting on the nature of my present job, the endless struggle between wanting to do my outreach work and yet having numerous Management tasks fulfil ASAP, in addition to having an ambitious pile of books on my desk to help with my CPD that I just haven't had the chance to look at yet. I now have to learn how to induct a new member of staff while starting to read up on recruitment and update a job description/ person spec/ advert. I have numerous tasks on my To Do list which i am avoiding like the proverbial, which involve talking to people who work in our building and asking them questions. I have enough to do... managing people here and making sure that books are circulating happily (not yet possible with our new library management system for books from the Bodleian stacks). I'm rather stressed just being here. I must manage this better in future, with or without the aid of amusing books such as this one by Dr Nick Edwards.

• In Stitches - from Amazon
• NHS Support Federation book review
• 'Emergency Gloom', The Guardian, 29 August 2007
  

N.B these are all my posts on 'reflective practice'. Plan>Do>Reflect/Review. - see this article as well !!

And for my chartership... Good things that I've done recently: Induction plan for RT; Visits to Gladstone Link; CILIP Update Gazette reading; blog attempts; toe in the Recruitment water...

A poem about librarianship

... Is here

!! Useful pages for me to catch up with...

Thing 8 - Google Calendar: Library Wanderer Wolfenden report (things 8-10)

Thing 9 - Evernote: Library Wanderer

Thing 10 - chartership etc: CPD23 page Library Wanderer Too much info

Thing 11 - mentorship: CPD23 page Library Wanderer Wolfenden report Too much info

Thing 12 - social media: CPD23 page

Thing 13 - googledocs, wikis etc (this will be useful for Technology group!): CPD23 page

Interesting post on drs using ipads - Krafty Librarian and here