Saw the link via Twitter for this delightful, and timely reminder, of the value of librarians in the digital age from the CILIP VP, Phil Bradley. I have sent this to my team in case there are some who might want to reflect on what they are doing the job for. In the last round robin email to my team at Highbury I also added this quote which surfaced on Twitter too; "Google will bring you back 100,000,000 answers. A librarian will bring you back the right answer." - Neil Gaiman.
Perhaps in the race to adopt and adapt to e-services, much of which is brilliant for breaking down accessibility barriers and making people information rich, there is a blinkered vision of forgetting the core skills of managing knowledge, which starts with a skilled professionall librarian, not a computer.
The thoughts of a library professional who is a firm believer in Sir Terry Pratchett's l-space dimension. I am currently testing the theory "in library space no one can hear you scream" and see librarianship as both a serious profession and a great spectator sport.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Monday, June 20, 2011
cpd23; engage
First web 2, then the concept of librarian 2.0, and somewhere I heard of, or read, web 3, but perhaps I was imagining things.
So why participate in CPD23?
With time and cost pressure on CPD from the workplace, web2 is ideal; librarians are gatekeepers to information, now the gate posts have moved into the clouds where more work is developing and we need to keep up. So participation in CPD23 will help underpin what I know, and help develop new areas to develop. As a mentor for, and member of CILIP, I have to keep up with current trends to help my CPD and those of my mentees.
My career?
I have been in libraries now since 1978, when I was a small lad selling books from the school library, and 12 years later I graduated with a library degree and went into my first job building a museum library from scratch. 21 years later, I am about to be made redundant because of skewed data and the economic crunch. I have been a solo librarian in commercial libraries, a three year stint using transferable skills in mortgage processing, and in a further education college since 1999. So at the moment I am looking at the end of library work here in Hampshire because of local authority cuts on professionals, a freeze on MOD library jobs, and not enough experience to enter University Libraries. So once again transferrable skills will take me on a new path in the local job market.
What am I hoping to learn from CPD23?
New ways of managing, and communicating information; where to find new web 2 tools, and present perhaps a new way of showing my image in the virtual world.
Most or least looking forward to with CPD23?
Most looking forward to gaining new contacts; there are no negatives about taking part in CPD23.
What do I feel about blogging?
Just a place to reflect and record on events either of personal or public in nature which I feel are worthy of mention, and the possible hope others may find comments useful. I have restarted my blogging activity in the light of my redundancy to record events, focus my thoughts, share information to the world who want to listen, and show the interconnectedness of knowledge.
So why participate in CPD23?
With time and cost pressure on CPD from the workplace, web2 is ideal; librarians are gatekeepers to information, now the gate posts have moved into the clouds where more work is developing and we need to keep up. So participation in CPD23 will help underpin what I know, and help develop new areas to develop. As a mentor for, and member of CILIP, I have to keep up with current trends to help my CPD and those of my mentees.
My career?
I have been in libraries now since 1978, when I was a small lad selling books from the school library, and 12 years later I graduated with a library degree and went into my first job building a museum library from scratch. 21 years later, I am about to be made redundant because of skewed data and the economic crunch. I have been a solo librarian in commercial libraries, a three year stint using transferable skills in mortgage processing, and in a further education college since 1999. So at the moment I am looking at the end of library work here in Hampshire because of local authority cuts on professionals, a freeze on MOD library jobs, and not enough experience to enter University Libraries. So once again transferrable skills will take me on a new path in the local job market.
What am I hoping to learn from CPD23?
New ways of managing, and communicating information; where to find new web 2 tools, and present perhaps a new way of showing my image in the virtual world.
Most or least looking forward to with CPD23?
Most looking forward to gaining new contacts; there are no negatives about taking part in CPD23.
What do I feel about blogging?
Just a place to reflect and record on events either of personal or public in nature which I feel are worthy of mention, and the possible hope others may find comments useful. I have restarted my blogging activity in the light of my redundancy to record events, focus my thoughts, share information to the world who want to listen, and show the interconnectedness of knowledge.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Library Assistants Day
The headline for this year's training was Ready for the next step? Develop your library potential. Themed around the promotion of Certification from CILIP, the day had three presentations about options for developing in a library career, and was the Circle's first full day for library assistants; previous events only lasted for half a day.
First on the programme was Michael Martin, CILIP Qualifications Adviser, who gave a comprehensive presentation on the benefits of Certification, with hints of Revalidation and Chartership. Certification is the CILIP recognition for paraprofessionals who wish to make a start towards a professional library career, and it is easy to achieve by creating porfolio of evidence and other specified documentation. Still largely in paper format, CILIP recognises the value of electronic media and allows an electronic copy to be submitted alongside the paper versions. Mention was also made of e-portfolios using the Mahara open source software, and there is a website which is free to use on creating an account at http://foliofor.me/.
Following Certification, Linda Jones, Law & Criminology Librarian, University of Portsmouth, developed the career theme with the trendy buzz of mashup. Linda commenced her presentation by explaining her background and progression into Librarianship as a comparison to the options now available. An NVQ verifier and CILIP mentor, Linda set a practical exercise for the participants who were mixed into three groups. The aim was to review three documents from NVQ, Certification & Chartership and note the style and content of each, from which Linda showed the progression of each stage in a group discussion.
Breaking for lunch, delegates were able to eat, network, and visit the library service of the host, Queen Mary's College, Basingstoke.
The concluding presentation was by Paula Thompson, Senior Library Assistant at the University of Portsmouth. Paula has recently qualified with a Library NVQ Level 3 and gave an illuminating insight into her plans for achieving the ultimate goal of becoming a librarian which has not been a straight path as first thought. Delgates were given examples of her work at the University and her reflection on elements of completing the NVQ and was a really good conclusion to the day's theme of developing a career in librarianship.
This is the second Library Assistants day which I have chaired and the longer programme seemed to be appreciated - note to self must arrange a proper feedback channel in future. By a show of hands the delegates agreed the day had met their expectations generated by the programme. Thank you to all who contributed to the planning and especially those who provided the presentations.
First on the programme was Michael Martin, CILIP Qualifications Adviser, who gave a comprehensive presentation on the benefits of Certification, with hints of Revalidation and Chartership. Certification is the CILIP recognition for paraprofessionals who wish to make a start towards a professional library career, and it is easy to achieve by creating porfolio of evidence and other specified documentation. Still largely in paper format, CILIP recognises the value of electronic media and allows an electronic copy to be submitted alongside the paper versions. Mention was also made of e-portfolios using the Mahara open source software, and there is a website which is free to use on creating an account at http://foliofor.me/.
Following Certification, Linda Jones, Law & Criminology Librarian, University of Portsmouth, developed the career theme with the trendy buzz of mashup. Linda commenced her presentation by explaining her background and progression into Librarianship as a comparison to the options now available. An NVQ verifier and CILIP mentor, Linda set a practical exercise for the participants who were mixed into three groups. The aim was to review three documents from NVQ, Certification & Chartership and note the style and content of each, from which Linda showed the progression of each stage in a group discussion.
Breaking for lunch, delegates were able to eat, network, and visit the library service of the host, Queen Mary's College, Basingstoke.
The concluding presentation was by Paula Thompson, Senior Library Assistant at the University of Portsmouth. Paula has recently qualified with a Library NVQ Level 3 and gave an illuminating insight into her plans for achieving the ultimate goal of becoming a librarian which has not been a straight path as first thought. Delgates were given examples of her work at the University and her reflection on elements of completing the NVQ and was a really good conclusion to the day's theme of developing a career in librarianship.
This is the second Library Assistants day which I have chaired and the longer programme seemed to be appreciated - note to self must arrange a proper feedback channel in future. By a show of hands the delegates agreed the day had met their expectations generated by the programme. Thank you to all who contributed to the planning and especially those who provided the presentations.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
All change, again
Well, this blog has been dormant long enough and it is ironic the last blog entry was my promotion, and now I am reflecting on the redundancy within two weeks at Highbury due to financial squeeze and questionable benchmarking evidence of how many librarians are needed at College. Sufficient to say COLRIC and COFHE data has been rejected in favour of something which can not be produced after waiting two weeks of asking. However, cannot say any more at the moment in case the traitor who reported an email to my College Principal hoping to get me in trouble, tracks this down for a second attempt. More information after the 21st June and I will start publishing my thoughts on the work of coming back to the labour market for the first time since August 1999.