Thing 23

                                                   

I have completed 23 Things! WELL, except 2 i tinkered with, and found that they weren’t for me at present. This was mainly due to having to download certain items to a personal computer, and the thing not being relevant to my current job.

From doing this exercise I have learned new skills. I feel more confident in using internet tools, like twitter and Evernote, and I am networking constantly.

For my next position I may need to look at Prezi again. I tinkered with it, but found it best to come back to it at a later date when I can use it more frequently.

For my PDP, doing this exercise has set me apart from my colleagues, just been more curious to learn and develop my progression independently. I have used this exercise in my CPD for my certification, where I have used my learning experience to find out what else goes on in the library world. I am learning lots, and hope to one day use my experience in my next job.

thing 21 Promoting ones self!

STRENGTHS

I am a people person. I have a genuine interest in what people have to say, I am good at listening.

I like the challenge of helping the awkward customer. They are just after someone to listen to them. I can listen.

I like comedy, and the majority of the time I am cheery and smile a lot.

I have a good all round life experience grounding. I am a mother.  I have had various jobs. Worked with various people and worked with different teams.

In my job, I organise well. I get tasks finished. I am a good time keeper. I provide a good service. I go the extra mile. I have attention to detail. I am constantly learning, and love to learn new skills, and I enjoying sharing knowledge with people. I volunteer with ESOL students.

WEAKNESS

I like to give ideas, but don’t like criticism. I don’t like to fail. I don’t like enthusiasm being quashed. I am restricted in my job, due to regimes and in house politics. I’m always striving for something different, but I’m not sure what. I have out grown my current job.

I love humour. It is good to laugh. Working where I do making people laugh can change their mood for the time that you see them, and hopefully I show that not everyone is a negative in their day to day routine.

As an interview tip, my advice would be…. Yes you are there for the job, but show that you are a person too. Show your good points, including your personal ones, be human!

Thing 22... Volunteering

I completed a course middle of the year in ‘Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector 7303’. It was a course recommended by my librarian that she had done some years previous, but I had looked at doing something along those lines, due to noticing that library work isn’t just about sourcing things for people, we teach them how to source for themselves.

From finishing the course, you have an end of learning interview, where you are asked what you are going to do next. The next step for me was to take the next course, but unfortunately I had limited funds and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to pay for more courses, if in a few months down the line I changed my mind and didn’t like teaching! My tutor mentioned that the education department were taken on volunteers for ESOL (English Speakers of Other Languages) and this would be good experience in been in an learning environment from other side of the desk, and would only take a couple of hours out of my week. I jumped at the chance! So, I now volunteer at the local education centre in a drop-in centre where the education department put on a coffee morning for their students to come along, practice their English and pick up new words in a non-structured environment. It is a good experience for me as it allows me to step into a mentoring role slowly, under no pressure and the students get to talk to a new face with a different local accent, where different words are used! I am able to bring experience from my library job, such as the group want to start a reading group to get conversations and debates going. I already mentor library orderlies, so I have experience of listening and advising, plus patience plays a great part along with humour in helping a person develop themselves

I think volunteering is a brilliant idea. My role is run by volunteers who wish to work in a teaching environment. It began with volunteers and will always be run by volunteers. It is a good way to gain experience to develop a career or to just get back into routine if a person has been out of the job market for a while.  To give a little of your time to benefit a person who is keen and wants to get along in life is a great confidence booster and a sense of purpose can only be a good thing!

Thing 20.... the Library Roots Project

Thing 20     The Library Roots Project

I left university knowing I did not want to go in the area I had studied for 3 years. I spent a lot of my time reading books I should not have even found time to read, and decided that my best possible route for employment was in libraries.

I began working as a temporary register assistant with one of my local councils, and covered hours when needed in all the branches in my area. I learned valuable experience in the day to day life of how a public library service runs, and then one day I noticed on the local council website there was a vacancy at the local prison. I knew the council provided a library service there, and this was one of the areas temporary register never provide cover for. In need of a permanent position I contacted the head of the service and asked if I could have a visit to the establishment before I decided to apply for the post.

On visiting the prison, it was an eye opener to firstly be on the wrong side of the wall, but once inside the library it was unlike a branch library I had worked in previously. It had new book covers advertised on the walls, of course local prison information, but it was homely and had well stocked shelves, and the staff I met was lovely. So I applied!

I have been at the prison library for 3 years now. We have had a major refit, and we have doubled in floor space. We look better than we did before, and our borrowers are keen to use the space. The library is open from 8.30 in the morning till 4.30, and each visitor is allowed 30 minutes visiting time each week. We are well used, and on a whole we are an invaluable, but often over shadowed service. Working in a prison library can be very isolating and is at times quite frustrating, and although we do provide a wonderful library service, we are at the mercy of prison politics and regime.

From going to a Prison Library training day in 2010 I have started my ACLIP qualification, which brings you into contact with other wonderful library sectors and provides brilliant networking opportunities. It is also, depending on how curious you are a great way to find skills like using 23 Things for Career Development, which I don’t need to use in my current job, but is a way to learn new skills to take to your next job. I am a member of CILIP Northeast and I am a committee member for the Special Interest Group of Prison Libraries.

If I was to give any advice to anyone new in the job, it would be, be prepared to get frustrated, so long as you are there providing your service, that is all that matters. DO get involved in CILIP groups; it is good for one’s moral and future professional development to get involved with different courses, events and training days. You never stop learning in this career! Enrol onto JISCmail as this provides an email service to activities currently going on and you get contacted when things are happening. Use Facebook, it isn’t just there for social networking, many library sectors have a page on there, and it is an easy way to get involved.

I guess to sum up my Thing 20, I fell in to my job I guess by accident, been there at the right time, but still knowing what I wanted. My advice to new professional would be: try and get as much out of yourself as well as your job. Don’t stand still, be curious and be brave enough to want to venture out in to new things. All library sectors have a lot to offer, and you can learn a lot from talking to other professionals. Good luck in library world, it’s a wondrous place!

thing 16 ...speaking up and getting published...

I wrote this for the SIGPrison Libraries. it was published in one of their magazines this year...  i think i speak up for prison libraries and their future....  

The future of prison libraries, from someone new in the job.

I have been a senior library assistant within holme house prison for just over 2 years, and I thoroughly enjoy the challenges and satisfaction of what the job brings.

With virtual campus been integrated in to libraries, moving  computer access forward, I feel we are going to be in a better position for the future as we can use the attendance figures for this  to our own advantage.  It will give us the opportunity to be able to promote events and reader development to the wider population who may not get to the library on a regular basis or at all. This will in turn, I believe, show that the prison library is a necessary part of prison life and prisoner resettlement and it won’t take up too much officer time in the process.

Personally, for the future of my prison library I will be giving 100% of my enthusiasm and commitment to make my library have worth and value on what it provides, and not let it be recognised as an unnecessary waste of prison time. To use my abilities of communication I will be making myself noticeable in all areas of my prison, to make sure the populous know that the library is here and it will for years to come!

THING 19..... CATCH UP

 I have found doing 23 Things for professional development a really easy to follow exercise. I wasn’t a novice in using the internet, I use face book and research constantly on the net, but this opened new doors for me while doing my ACLIP. I have had a go at all the exercises except for Thing 14, I had a dabble with Thing 17 and I have totally omitted Thing 18. I have been doing this in my own time, at home, so if anything required been downloaded or bought, I declined the task. Also due to my job, I do not want to broad cast myself for all to see, for personal and employment reasons.

My favourite articles to do and what I am still using are Twitter, which keeps me up to date with CPD, CILIP, and other professionals, along with Google and Evernote.  Twitter is and  can be seen as what it is, just a lot of famous people twittering but from a career development point of view, it has opened new doors to other library professionals, feeds into relevant news items and keeps me up to date with how all library sectors are doing in the current climate. Google I used just for email before, but now I use it for calendar reminders, and also for dropping my word articles in to it for my projects. Evernote I use for bibliographical references and I find once saved they are easy enough to find. All these items are beneficial to me, for my career development, where previously I never would have known they were there to be used by someone just like me.

I first heard about 23 Things at a Prison Libraries Group training day by Helen Leach, Virtual Content Manager for Surrey Libraries.  She had encouraged her staff to take part in this exercise and seen it has a useful resource for the service.  She gave her presentation using Prezi, and I found it an amazing tool to see been in use.  I decided to do 23 Things as my own professional development, while I work for a prison library, there are restrictions in what can be accessed over the internet, and library resources are quite far removed from the majority of fast moving sectors like academic libraries. I would recommend anyone to try this project, just to keep abreast of what is happening in the World Wide Web, and in the process it is fun to learn.

THING 15 .. ATTENDING A PRESENTATION

I attended the Northeast CILIP AGM in May 2011. This was my first group meeting I had gone to, which wasn’t within the remit of my job. There was one speaker for this meeting, and she was called Annie Mauger. Not knowing what I know now, Annie was introduced and her topic was going to be on the future on libraries. Having heard what the Government plans were for libraries and there futures, I wasn’t expecting any more from Annie’s talk than a lot of ‘oh we are going to be fine and we’ re all just going to have to wait and see’. The talk turned out to be one of the most invigorating, honest approaches I had ever witnessed.

Annie talked to the group explaining her new role was going to be changing CILIP and its qualifications, and how having professional library staff, who are committed  to their  library career and own development, makes for a good service. Changing mangers and library services ways of thinking was going to be Annie’s role, and watching her talk, her body and her delivery made me come away from the meeting a more valued person.  She acknowledged every library service from prison libraries to medical libraries to very small charity libraries, I believed every word she said, and felt that everything she said was achievable.

I have never spoken to an audience before and if I did ever have the courage to, I would want to be like the woman I watched that day. Annie new her area, she knew the faults of the service and she knew how to take it forward, but she also understood the concerns of CILIP members. This was my best and most worthy presentation I had ever been too, and I would suggest to anyone out there in library land, if you ever get the chance to hear Annie Mauger speak, go along and listen, you WILL come away with a better outlook for your career!