Thing 23: Reflection - What next?

The most useful aspect of this exercise for me was to make me think about my career and how I want it to develop. I have valuable experience in people management and conducting information skills sessions. I have acted in a professional post and that helped me understand more what I am capable of. I have been reviewing my career over the past year and I haven't made up my mind which direction I am going to take and if indeed I will remain a librarian or maybe I need to think of other avenues to use my skills. 6 word story to sum up how I feel about the program worthwhile, informative, practical and fun. Task _ PDP A smart analysis would show that I should concentrate on improving my technological skills, specifically include some time in my work schedule to get to know new tools and services, like Prezi and evernote, as in the long run they may help make my working life easier. (And that of my colleagues). This should be done in tandem with building my official / formal training especially to enable me to continue to develop. This would form the basis of any PDP, but should be augmented with proper management training opportunities. At work we create a PDP on a regular basis and this is signed off by all involved. CPD I plan to continue with CPD on my own, separate from the opportunities that may or may not be available to me via work. This includes maintaining my personal professional memberships and contributing to CILIP as I can. Reading to stay current and surfing the net for ideas. I have been keeping an online portfolio but I need to work on it more regularly. 23 things what next I'm not sure where this goes next. I know that I have received benefits, as has my employer, from my participation in the program. I know it's reminded me that I need to keep a closer eye on the online tools and services that are available, especially productivity tools. So I suppose I should try to set up some alerts for those... but I need to think about how to phrase the search. I will continue to use many of the tools that were part of the program, and hopefully find some more of my own to add to my list. It is good to know that I am on the right path, having already started out on many of the practices put forward in the program as relevant as tools or opportunities for CPD.

Thing 22: Volunteering to get experience

I haven't had a chance to do volunteer work. I did consider it at some stage but I had to take another route at the time. I would adise other people to try it as it may be helpful. Even though I am in an Experience Catch22 at the moment myself, I can't afford to do voluntary work as I have a family to feed. Looking at other qualified librarians who have volunteered in our library I am yet to be convinved that in this climeate it is a useful exercise. all of them have had to find alternative careers while they wait to find professional work. Ireland being a small country there aren't that many jobs and actually less than ten have been advertised in the country this year. Maybe colleges have to review the numbers of people who are studying for the qualification while the prospects of making a career out of it are so gloomy. I don't think volunteering cheapens the profession but it needs to be managed in a responsible manner.

Thing 21: Promoting yourself in job applications and at interview

Activities and interests: I love looking and searching for information on any subject. The less I know initially the better. I enjoy giving Information skills demonstrations to students and to staff, giving tips and short cuts. I love reading fiction, non fiction and anything really. I also love listening to music and depending on my mood it could be Jazz, Mbira, RnB, Classical or Pop. At parties I am the girl who never gets off the dance floor. I am told the food I cook tastes great and I also bake the most divine cakes. I get bored really quickly so I enjoy learning new skills and revamping the way things are done. I am one who is not afraid of change at all and I am usually found trying to convince colleagues who find change difficult that it is good to change things once in a while. A tipp about job interviews, I once asked a senoir librarian to give me interview coaching. She was so good that everytime I follow her advice I get the job even though the situation might have looked hopeless initially. Get someone who is experienced in interviewing people to coach you. It is invaluable.

Thing 20: The Library Routes Project

My route was not typical at all. I loved to read from a very young age. I read everything and I always remembered most of my information sources. I was also known as the person who knew about a lot more things than my peers. Even today I am the go to person if you need to find information about anything. I didn't even see a proper library until I was in secondary school. When I was choosing my career I knew that I didn't want to be what everyone else was going to be. My then boyfriend told be about a course he had heard about which turned out to be librarianship. I applied and got in and as they say the rest is history. I also married the boyfriend even though he was never crazy about libraries. I have noticed that a lot of my colleagues chose their careers later in life or after trying a few things. It is all good as I don't think most people are born to be one thing or another. People choose their careers for various different reasons and sometimes the careers choose them. I love working in an academic library but my dream is to work in a special library. Public libraries on the other hand send me into a panic.

Thing 19: Catch up week on integrating 'things'

Most useful to me are: My google account and open ID as they are the gateway to many other things. For example through my google account I can access my blog, the library's wiki, google calendar, google docs, google reader, and analytics. It is a cornerstone of my working routine and I use it at least once a day. The next most useful thing are my social networking accounts - which I have integrated to 'talk' to each other. Least useful I didn't really find Jing of much use. Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites are not for me. I'm not sure if I will ever use pushnote again. I have still to find a relevant use for it for my current role. Many of the things about professional development I have already done so they didn't really figure as useful, apart from the fact that it confirms that I am on the right track. These would include: * Face to face networks and professional organisations Masters Degrees and Chartership which I have to go back to. * Mentoring- I will definitely look for a formal one. * Attending, presenting and conferences and other events * Advocacy and speaking out for the profession - getting published I could not set up some of the 'things' as they required network priviledges that I am not given at work, so Dropbox and Mendeley will not be used a I cannot even get them set up properly. Zotero, I have only used occasionally over the last few years, as we have access to endnote web this is not critical, but may be used as an alternative and students may need to be made aware of the availability and usefullness. Things that have / may find their way into my work or working routine The following are already part of my working routine... daily, weekly, monthly, or irregularly. Google Account & Open ID, Google Reader, Twitter, Facebook. LinkedIN, Wikis (library wiki via google sites. Things that I have yet to figure out a regular use for, but that I can see myself potentially using include: Google calendar : used to update opening hours as and when they change Evernote (This would be especially useful for gathering ideas for writing papers for publishing. Google docs - I need to make use of it more and will endevour to use it more frequently. Blog - I need to figure out a use for it after my 23 things are finished, I don't want to let it die, but I need a direction for it. Maybe monthly updates on what I'm doing professionally / reading etc might work. Citeulike, I think I will use this, but not frequently, as publish or perish would match a certain amount of what it does. I think that I have managed to integrate many of the 23 things.

Thing 18: Jing / screen capture / podcasts (making and following them)

I have done training on using Camtasia and have created a few podcasts but my position does not require me to use the technology much. I have followed a few podcasts of interests both professionally and personally. I also use IL pre-prepared training programmes. These would have been created using Captivate and Articulate. I am aware of their functionality and usage. I am also involved on the creating aspect of testing and proving feedback from the trainer's point of view and also the user.

Thing 17- Prezi

I first saw Prezi at a teachmeet session we had about a month ago for Information literacy. I was quite impressed by it. As I have been working on a project and studying for exams for an Accounts course I am doing I thought it would be helpful to keep ideas together. It took too long for me to understand the concepts though so I left it for another less stressful time. The one thing I didn't like about it is that everything I put up is on public view. This means unless I am working on something for our students I can't really use it. I guess I have to stick to mindmaps for now. I will make time to learn to use it and maybe with exprerience I will find it friendly and easy to use.