Putting the social into social media

I have been a user of facebook, twitter and linked in before 23 things began, and will continue to be afterwards. I find it useful not just for social networking but also for current awareness. I follow actual libraries and fellow professionals, and find it a great way to keep up with what's happening out there, often finding inspiration from their activities for our own library.

I have to admit though that I am very circumspect about what I put up on my account, as I keep it open to the world - being that it reflects my professional identity and not my private one. I try to make sure that I keep it relatively professional, with a little of my personality thrown in to aleviate boredom.

CPD23 has in some way's made contact with people that I wouldn't normally, but it just seems to be from the point of view of following each other's progress rather than anything social...

I thnk that social networking can help foster a sense of community... it was used successfully to organise out twenty year secondary school reunion, reunting people who had lost contact over the years. It also lets me stay in contact with friends overseas who would otherwise be lost, and only be contacted occassionally.

Mentoring

I have been lucky in my career to have had two very good informal mentors. I just don't feel comfortable approaching people to do this formally - must be part of my Irish psyche. The first mentor I had was before I qualified and they encouraged me to do so and gave very sound advice about courses to take, and first steps into professional life including applying for the ALAI. This relationship has continued over the years, with encouragement to write for professional journals being the latest step along this road. My second mentor has come to light as a result of being employed professionally. they have encouraged me to develop my technical skills, present at conference and seminars, participate in the LAI, and again to write professionally.

I have to confess that without the influence of both of these mentors I would not have achieved half of what I have so far.

I'm not sure if I could fill that role myself, but then again I have never tried so I couldn't say for sure.

Graduate traineeships, Masters Degrees and Chartership

So this is thing 10...
Many moons ago I was a Graduate trainee in UCD, and had the lovely job of preparing journals records for migration from blcmp to talis, augmented by temporary binding of serials, and eventually creation of order records for acquisitions. While I learnt a lot and got experience that I would never have received if I was working on a public service counter, I don't think that I will ever recover from the technical delight that was pegasus mail...

Subsequent to my qualifiation as a librarian I have also completed the Associateship of the Library Association of Ireland. This can be considered similar to chartership in the UK. It was a long enough process and quite a detailed process, btu worth it in the end.

And now I am hopefully at the end stage of writing my disseration for my Masters... If I could just get myself to sit down and finish it :)

I suppose this shows that I am trying to develop myself and my career, but I don't really think about it consciously at all, it just happens - ahhh the beauty of synergy...

I am an accidental librarian, in that I never pined to be a librarian, nor did I have a devastating need to do so. I ended up in the professional by process of elimination more than anything else. I am now a long serving member of the library staff, in the role of systems librarian, and I will probably continue in this role for the forseeable future. HOwever this may change with the inclusion of our institute in the alliance to create the Technological University of Dublin, all I can say is watch this space...

Things 8&9 Google Calendar & Evernote

I am trying to stay on top of this as I am about to take a month off... so I looked at thing 8 and realised that I had it done already!!! I even got my calendar to display on my blog :) I think that this might be a good way for people other than the web team at work to be able to update the library's opening hours and events.

Next up was thing 9. I thought that it was a bit less easy to use than the documentation made out, but I got there. I can see where this would be very useful workwise as I would be able to use it to gather websites that I like the look and feel of or the functionality of and review them in a batch, or share the batch at a later date. I like that it shows up on outlook etc, and isn't just restricted to the web. There might even be a use for it for my humanities subject liasion role, but I will need to spend a bit more time on it before I would be happy to commit to that!!! Happy to head on holiday though!

webjunction social media usage survey results

I think this is interesting in light of the whole 23things movement... http://blog.webjunctionworks.org/index.php/2011/07/06/library-staff-report-use-of-online-tools-again/

experiences with social / online networking

I've had a facebook and a linked in account for over a year now. I find they are both good ways for finding out what's going on within the locality and with colleagues. I have to admit I tend more towards the facebook side of things but then again maybe the fact that linked in sends notifications where as I have to actively log on to facebook to see post which requires me to be more interactive with facebook? I think thought that the groups on Linked IN work better than the groups on facebook do, but it really annoys me when people use things like the IFLA or CILIP groups to promote services, politics and goods.

I tried to join lisnpn, but I didn't get the e-mail with the confirmation code yet. And it's for new professional, which I am not. I guess I'll just wait and see what happens.

I haven't really spent much time in Goolge+, maybe it'll improve over time but I found it clunky and slow. I also found there are not a lot of people on there that I know to add to 'circles', and many of those that are haven't bothered to post anything, so I wonder if it is a long term prospect once the hype blows over.

Face to face networks and professional organisations

Upon qualifying many moons ago, I joined the LAI, IFLA and CILIP. When my employer took out a membership of CILIP I no longer had a need to be a member as I could access the publications etc via work and still do. They are quite useful at times, especially in the Cataloguing and Classification areas.

I am a personal member of IFLA, and have built up a back catalogue of ifla journals and publications that my employer does not provide. This proved very useful when I went back to do my add on masters. As a personal member I would love the chance to attend the IFLA conference, but the cost always puts me off...

I suppose the organisation that I have beenmost active in is the LAI. 5 years after 1st qualification I received my Associateship, and I suppose that I should consider applying to do a fellowship - once my thesis for my masters is submitted this year. I have been on the committees of Meitheal Oibre na Gaeilge, the Cataloguing and Indexing Group and the North-South Liaison Committee (looks after the publication of An Leabharlann and the Annual conference) I have goven presentations at seminars for Meitheal Oibre, CIG and the Academic and Special Libraries group. The renewed publication of An Leabharlann has let me get in touch with what other librarians that I would not encounter elsewhere.

I have recently joined the Alumni of SILS at UCD, and attended their first event. I look forward to seeing where this association goes.

I'm not sure if my memberships have had any impact on my career as I am in the same job as I was 6 months after qualification. But it has been very advantageous in keeping up to date with developments in the LIS world, about which I might otherwise not be aware. Additionally attending events has allowed me to be involved in face to face networking which has proven to be very beneficial in keeping in touch with colleagues with whom I have previously worked and studied. It's a great way to find out how others are dealing with issues, problems and developments.

I have learnt something from every publication of a professional oganisation that I have read, and more than one thing from every event that I attended. I would bore anyone reading this if I tried to list them all.

I am a member of the LAI so that I know what is going on in Ireland in the LIS World, and my membership of IFLA supports their activities in lesser developed countires and their advocacy of libraries at WSIS. This is very important to me as I would not like to see the commoditisation of information progress any further that is already hasm, nor the privitasation of library service provision.

I was always interested in joining the ALA as an international member and would love to be able to attend either of their conferences. I knew that this was possible, as a previous president of the LAI mentioned it to me in relation to her own membership, but this task has prompted me to consider it again. The bacis cost at $78 does not seem too prohibitive.  I would espeically lke to be able to attend training courses, perhaps in combination with attendance at IUG - if I ever get to go again. This is definitely something that I will consider in the next few weeks as membership runs from September to August...