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

I have had plenty of experience of attending seminars, conferences and other events but have yet to experience presenting at or organising any.

I have attended courses on topics such as Advanced Searching Techniques, Chartership and interview skills.

The events I have attended in the past have not only kept me up to date with goings on in the profession but have provided me with networking opportunities.

Due to the economic climate both staff and monetary restraints mean that it is currently difficult to attend events.  There is also, as others have mentioned, the geographical aspect, although with a lot of conferences, seminars and training events now being made available through web conferencing this should make it easier for me to participate.

Thing 14: Organising your references

When I was at university tools such as Zotero / Mendeley / citeulike were not available and bibliographies and references were sometimes painstaking to compile, but would I have used them even if they were.  I am going to look at them all with a view to using one of them to help compile my references for my chartership submission.

We do run reference classes for our students that are progressing onto university and have a referencing course set up on Blackboard (VLE) but due to the fact that our computer network does not allow students to download anything to the computer these tools would not be of any use.

Zotero - Probably would not use this one as I tend to use IE rather than Firefox

Mendeley - This requires you to download the software, which I am unable to do on the computers at work so it looks like I won't be using this either.

Cite U like - I like the fact that you can attach PDF's to your references and I think this is probably the best of the 3 tools.

None of the above really fit what I am looking for so I think when I do finally get around to compiling my bibliography for Chartership I will investigate other tools.

Thing 13: Filesharing/Collaboration - Google Docs, Wikis and Dropbox

I have been aware of wikis for a while and we use one at work (on the PB Works platform) to share ideas and information.  This works well as our team is spread across 3 sites and it is difficult to get together for team meetings.

I haven't used GoogleDocs or Drop box before.  We have a shared drive at work that the team can access so haven't really needed to.  I also have my own drive on the college server which only I can access.  The only problem with this is that I can't access any of the documents from my home PC and have been using a USB stick to transfer documents from work to home.  GoogleDocs and Drop box would be the solution to this problem.  Not that I do much work from home really.

These tools will also help me share Chartership documents with my mentor such as my PPDP and evaluative statement.  Previously I had to either post them or attach them to an email which wasn't ideal.

Thing 12 - Putting the social into social media

Before starting cpd 23 I only used social media for personal use and hadn't really thought about using it in a professional capacity. However now I see the potential of social media in helping with the development of my career.  Through cpd23 and the use of social networking I have made contact with other Information Assistants in Colleges in Scotland who have also registered for cpd23, giving me the opportunity to share knowledge and ideas with others. I also intend to use  LinkedIn to market my professional self online. Facebook will still remain a personal social networking tool and I think that what happened with the recent riots just show the negative side of social networking.

Thing 11: Mentoring

Having been both mentor and mentee, mentoring is something I am very familiar with.

Mentee

When registering for chartership, part of the process is to find a mentor, CILIP provided a list of mentors in my area and I just picked one and emailed them to see if they would mentor me. I tried to pick a mentor who was in the same or similar field of work so I went for one who worked in education. My mentor guided me through the first part of the chartership process and offered support and advice as and when I needed it. Unfortunately I am without a mentor at present as he retired so am on the look out for someone new.  My mentor was in the profession for a long time and had specific training from CILIP to be a mentor, so they had a wide range of knowledge and expertise to share.

MENTOR

A previous colleague of mine was working towards an HNC in Librarianship and as I had already been through the process asked me if I would be her mentor.  I pointed her towards resources and let her take a look at some of the assignments I had produced.  In doing this I felt I was giving something back to the profession.

My place of work runs a mentoring scheme where current staff are mentors to new staff.  I was asked to take part in this scheme as a mentor but as yet have not been assigned any mentee's.  Probably something I can blogg about at a later date.

Thing 10 - Graduate traineeships, Masters Degrees, Chartership, Accreditation

Why librarianship?

I knew what career path I wanted to follow from an early age. By the time I reached high school I had read every book in the mobile library that visited the small Stirlingshire village I was brought up in. I remember thinking how great it would be to be surrounded by books and have all that knowledge at my finger tips everyday. So when everybody else was off visiting hospitals and dentist practices for their work experience, there was me sitting sorting out the card catalogue at the local library.

Qualifications

I went from school in 1995 to Bell College of Technology in Hamilton and completed the HNC in Librarianship and Information Science, which clarified for me that librarianship was indeed the right pathway. I then went to Robert Gordon University to study for a degree in Information and Library Studies and graduated in 2000. Since then I've spent 2 years working in public libraries and the last 10 working in further education.   I am now in the process of putting together my chartership portfolio.

Thing 9: Evernote

Before embarking on Thing 9 for cpd23 I had never heard of EVERNOTE so decided to investigate.  I found it easy enough to download and sign up for but I will have to take a more indepth look at all the features and familiarise myself with them.   I tend to use the favourites option in Internet explorer for bookmarking web pages and I feel this is sufficient for my needs, however I do like that you can link the webpage to your notes. I also like the fact that I can access it from any PC that has evernote installed.  I have notebooks and scrapbooks at home filled with newspaper, magazine cuttings and recipes, this is the digital equivalent of those, so I can see how useful this will be.