The encouragement you need to submit your article!

If I can do it...
After attending Umbrella 2011, I was asked to write an article on it for the Directions newsletter. While advocacy and conference attendance have been discussed with fire and wit elsewhere, this post should serve a double duty by encouraging you to submit an article for publication. The bar is not so high! Do share a draft of articles with your manager, for politeness if not for political reasons.

The article is included here with permission from CILIP's London and Southeast Career Development Group.

First-Timer’s Report from Umbrella 2011

CILIP’s Umbrella 2011 conference in July offered two days of seminar sessions on a wide range of topics, an exhibitor area with library vendors and time set aside for refuelling and networking. Based on my university memories, I supposed seminars would be the most valuable part of the conference. The reality was different to my expectations, as I learned as much from informal conversations as in the sessions. Reflecting on my Umbrella experience, my advice is to make opportunities to talk with practitioners from a wide range of libraries, whether at conferences, online or during library tours. Although effort and bravery are needed to reach out to strangers, library types are helpful and informative.

I was delighted to receive Umbrella sponsorship from the London and Southeast Career Development Group. Given the almost universal budget cuts in libraries, one goal for the conference was to explore extending traditional services through volunteers and social networks. I also wanted to gain insight into effective methods of library advocacy as part of my Chartership preparation. While I work as a librarian for a local authority, the greatest benefit of Umbrella was learning about these subjects from information professionals with dissimilar experience.

A solo librarian I met at the First Timers’ lunch taught me the training techniques that help her manage a one person specialist library with over fifty volunteers. At the gala dinner, two remarkable library development workers from Leicestershire helped me plan my upcoming visit to a MIND day centre. And an informal chat with a CILIP trustee was empowering; she strongly suggested supporting change within CILIP by getting involved, whether on a committee, organising an event or writing a blog. 

In casual conversation a number of Umbrella attendees voiced concerns about volunteers, yet in the current economy many libraries use or are planning to use volunteers. Given this disconnect, Tracy Long’s and Tracy Hager’s presentations at the Volunteers in Libraries session were particularly important. The presenters detailed the processes, pitfalls and even unexpected benefits of their work with volunteers. As my local authority is piloting work with teen volunteers, I forwarded Tracy Hager's presentation to my co-workers, starting up a useful email dialogue. Access to this and other Umbrella 2011 presentations and related blogs is available via http://www.cilip.org.uk/umbrella2011/

I also attended several sessions on the future of libraries and library advocacy in the UK. Annie Mauger was explicit about CILIP’s role as a library advocacy group that champions all types of library and information professionals, communicating our importance at as high a political level as possible.  The recruitment of trustees from the Society of Chief Librarians and the Society of College, National and University Libraries is a step towards increasing the effectiveness of CILIP’s advocacy. Working at a grass roots level, the group Voices for the Library is an enthusiastic and visible advocate for public libraries. You can read about and get involved with both types of advocacy using the websites below:

http://www.cilip.org.uk/get-involved/advocacy/

            http://www.voicesforthelibrary.org.uk/wordpress/

Social media sessions were intriguing, although the academic librarians and technology consultant presenters were farther along the curve in the practical application of social media. In this case hands-on experience trumped the seminars. I gained a huge amount of transferable knowledge about social networks preparing for, documenting and then following up on connections made at Umbrella. By following the #UB11 Umbrella hashtag prior to the conference, I made Twitter connections leading to in-person meetings. Along with other attendees, I tweeted seminar content to help people follow the discussions, whether they were at other sessions or at home. Twitter is a great tool for conference awareness!

The hardest part about social networks was choosing the right one for follow-up communications after the conference. In my conversations I discovered that everyone has a preferred method for maintaining professional contacts, whether LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, Facebook or email. Despite the effort of maintaining multiple social networks, staying in touch with new library contacts is worthwhile. It is helpful to have sounding boards and brainstorming partners outside your organisation and area of expertise.

Don't be afraid to step up and attend a conference like Umbrella – I enjoyed learning from a variety of people, including students and heads of services. Whatever your background, you will have something to offer and will find a new perspective to bring to your work and professional development.

at the intersection of 23rd and Thing

CPD23 completed. A six word story as requested:
Gotta Plan; gonna use my Things.

Which is code for: My Chartership PPDP is underway. Several of the 23 Things filled gaps in my knowledge and have been incorporated into my work practice with desired outcomes. Score! Still more gaps, but mainly in library operations.

I do have several technical Things - Prezi and screen casting - which I wish to wrestle with and demonstrate to my colleagues. Refining the PPDP and meeting with my Chartership mentor in November is top priority for professional development, then I will return.

I confess, I volunteered!

Ah, this is almost the last item to be explored and written about for CPD23. A hot topic locally and nationally - volunteers.

In December 2007 when I had recently moved to the UK from the US I wrote:
"On volunteers in Libraries Based solely on my inquiries, the London libraries do not use volunteers to help complete routine responsibilities (shelving books, making up labels etc). Given the library funding crunch in many councils, I wonder why? Some reasons may be: fear of further deprofessionalizing library work, UK socialist desire to pay everyone, concern over the management of volunteers."

Flash forward to October 2011: the issue of volunteers in libraries is being forced at the same time as huge budget cuts. I've gained respect for the (endangered) UK social welfare practices which show respect for human lives and potential. Other than that my views are the same - good idea, bad timing: .

I have worked as a volunteer in libraries three times:
1) in a public library in the USA., doing shelf-reading on a weekly basis. This was prior to starting my Master's degree and just after I'd moved house. The library seemed a good place to reconnoiter my new town and I made friends with other volunteers. The schedule was based around the volunteers' availability and we checked the shelves to make sure the books were in correct order, also pulling out books that needed repair or replacement. There were a number of volunteers doing this task, so it was not an inconvenience to the library if one or more of us couldn't work as planned. As it was a small library the manager trained and supervised the volunteers.

2) as an intern in a larger public library in the USA, during my Master's degree.  While this was work experience and a requirement of my Master's degree, I consider it volunteer work. I was not being paid, and I carried out three projects which the library had outlined but did not have staff available to complete. I surveyed teens on social media and used the result to create a teen blog. I wrote and taught a teen class on creating web pages and researched foreign language collections at area libraries. These projects were all at a professional level of work and helped me to win my first professional library job.

3) in a primary school library in the UK, after my Master's degree - while trying to find a public library position. The school library had 80 boxes of books starting to mold in a storage shed while they waited for staff to find time to merge the Key Stage 1 and 2 collections. A crash course for me in early education curriculum and school libraries, with lots of reading and consultation with the local public librarian. My work was primarily behind the scenes; weeding, repairing, working on displays and ordering furniture, as well as training other volunteers. The funding from the parent association covered materials but not staff and although I recommended it the school did not want to hire the local Schools Library Service. I put a great deal of time into the project and earned a reference which was a fantastic help to me. The improved library saw much more use; when the funding improved a part time staff position was added to maintain and develop the collection.

I think volunteers in libraries are a fine idea if there are well-defined unmet needs in the library, organised infrastructure to support volunteers and the net effect on resources and services is positive. Having benefited socially and professionally from my volunteer experiences I would be hard-pressed to deny others unless it was endangering jobs in the foreseeable future. In a public library, the community-building mission of the library can be supported by including volunteers. My pessimistic (perhaps short-sighted) view is that given technology and social change, the future of libraries is too cloudy to worry about five or ten years hence.

covering the gaps in your employment history

Gaps in employment are tricky to handle in job applications and interviews (from both side of the desk). Your prospective employers want to understand your work history, but they certainly don't want to ask any unlawful or inappropriate questions. And their curiosity is understandable - one thing I learned in  interviewing training is that past actions are the clearest indicators of future actions.

So how to satisfy the reasonable concerns of the employer, without getting mired in the details of your personal life? Here are my tips:

1. Don't lie.
2. Make sure your employment history is a story with a plot that the interviewers can follow. The activity during employment gaps may provide needed information about your career moves and ambitions. 
3. Keep it simple: child or elder care, education, illness, relocation for family or financial reasons, travel. You and you interviewers may both be uncomfortable if you share too many details and it will likely take the interview off-track.
4. If you can (without breaking rule #1) reassure the interviewer that this situation is unlikely to recur.
5. Non-chronological CVs highlight employment gaps, rather than hiding them. The CV reader will immediately start trying to assemble a timeline in their head, which is annoyingly hard to do.
6. When possible, insert a line or two in your cover letter or personal statement explaining the gaps. Some applications will require you to do this, but otherwise imagine the shortlisters scratching their heads when they read your employment chronology.
7. If you did something during the gap that is worthy of note, try adding it to your CV in the correct chronological space. Worthy of note activities include formal and informal volunteer work and professional development/education. Now take another look at your CV and decide if the new version is stronger or weaker.
8. Bottom line - you can't hide them, so take initiative to present gaps in the best light.

Other suggestions?

Add it up

 Here are my cpd23 inspired behaviours:

• organized a social/networking event for library staff from two different types of libraries (public and academic) located near each other. Event happens in November, so will report back on its usefulness. This required a bit of courage and carefulness over workplace political issues. Hopefully I have negotiated them correctly and if not will fall back on "bull in a china shop American" excuse.
• tweeted and blogged regularly, rather than only taking information from the stream. I will probably discontinue the blog, but will continue tweeting. The experience was valuable as I will become active in social media on behalf of my organisation this year.
• not sure about the chicken and egg here, but cpd23 encouraged me to apply for an Umbrella sponsorship as I was aware of Twitter cpd23ers who planned to attend.
• reengaged with podcasting. Armed with knowledge from Thing 18, I've worked with my manager to map out a way to build organisational expertise in creating quality recordings from live talks in the library.
• went back to my Google Reader account. I will add and delete feeds regularly and read weekly as I enjoy the mixed bag of mail on my doorstep - Succentorship without Sneers' writing, the cartoons of BitBookish and ridiculous high heel fetish of The Sartorialist among others.
• shared the good news about cpd23 in my workplace. At least one person has started cpd23 since then and I've been approached about mentoring.
• become more feisty and informed about library-related political and regulatory issues. I've enjoyed listening to newer voices in librarianship and educating myself through the open debates around advocacy, volunteers and publishing.

While cpd23 distracted me a bit from working to the letter of my PPDP for chartership, it has pushed me into exploring technology and testing practical library applications for technology. The other aspect of cpd23 is social; cpd23 has encouraged me to connect virtually and face to face with a wider range of library people.

Thing 18 - getting back on the horse

Having failed earlier this year in my attempt to make a podcast of an author talk, I am glad Thing 18 is here to help me back up on the horse!

Thanks to travelinlibrarian's six steps to podcasting I've been able to find a solution to one of my podcasting woes. Full disclosure requires that I share all the pits I fell into, in hopes of sparing someone else.

• lack of background in A/V and failure to consult experts (such as the Communications team at my organization)
• not enough time set aside to research and test recording and editing process with the actual equipment
• wrong microphone set up: tried to use a standard microphone set on a table near the author
• hadn't heard about Levelator, which travelinlibrarian uses prior to editing recording in Audacity. Because my audio levels were so up and down it was impossible to filter out the bad noise from the recording when I went to Audacity.

Luckily when I asked the author for written permission to record and distribute the recording of the event, I warned her that it was a trial run. Back up I go and hopefully will make a satisfactory podcast in November...Audacity is a great program.

Love Jing as well! Did a quick test and again there are microphone issues to be aware of. I am going to make a screencast for PC users who have trouble setting up the scanner software...

it's not easy being early

Isn't it fun to be an early adopter? Other people stand on the street near an Underground station, wondering which way to go while you stride confidently along with your smartphone showing the way.  Or your app ensures that all the pubs you stop in have a fabulous selection of real ales. Or perhaps the audience for your presentation is tickled by Prezi and your content glows in the reflected glory.

Early adopters have their ears to the ground for what is becoming possible.  Some of the possibilities may cost money (i.e. iPhones), other require a time investment to get through a steep learning curve and some ask for both. The early adopter inventories resources and needs, estimates the potential payoff and then places a wager.

23 Things has been a great way to trail around some early adopters, though I find my resources aren't always comparable. After spending several hours working on a Prezi it still did not satisfy basic design criteria. I think a background in design or a better spatial sense would help. On the bright side, there may be some evil application for a presentation that causes nausea!  In the case of Prezi, while the software is free, the time investment is too high for me to try adopting it. My work doesn't require many presentations, so I don't estimate a high payoff.

Isn't it hard to be an early adopter? Wagering your time and money on possibilities that are often dead ends. When you succeed, you bring other people along, demonstrating and teaching the useful new technology. Then you start testing the next possibility.

Shout out to all the early adopters in the library world who've been sharing their knowledge in cpd23.

Getting the Money - how to pay for conferences

Most of us work in libraries, right?
a hugely remunerative field, leading to the acquisition of country homes, right?
so we can pay up front when we want to go to a conference of our peers, right?

Let's get real and talk about how to get to money for conferences.
(You know you want to go! If not, read Mind Matters cpd23 blog)

You're going to have to ask for money.

Ask your employer.
Try this first. I know it sounds crazy as most of our employers are strapped for cash, but it worked for a friend of mine. Take a look at your goals for the year,  think of three reasons why attending the conference will benefit your employer and help you meet your goals and then share those reasons with your manager. Even if the boss says no, the conversation highlights your interest in CPD. If you're able to come up with the cash from another source, management is more likely to be onside with helping you get time away.
Remember that the ways of Management are mysterious and miracles do happen, especially at the end of the financial year.

If that fails, you need to take a look at yourself and pick option a or b. If you're an outgoing type or excited to share success stories or research with your peers then:

a) Ask the conference organizers
Try this if you want to present a paper or a poster or live near the site and can volunteer to work at the conference. Read the conference website and see what the opportunities are, then telephone the contacts listed and tell them you're interested. Don't skip this step as contacts are hoping for lots of valid submissions and will be glad to give you insight into the selection process and timing. Check out the cpd23 posts on submitting papers and preparing presentations by thewikiman and others. Good luck!

if you want to network and learn, but aren't ready to present at the conference, then:

b) Ask the professional organizations you belong to, your religious institution, your parents.
Okay, maybe not your parents. But do think who else might have a vested interest in seeing you succeed. Do you work in a special library supporting accountants? Maybe the Association of Chartered Accountants will sponsor you, or maybe your CILIP/ALA special interest group will sponsor you.
Keep in mind that your sponsor will expect you to thank them profusely and publicly. Your pitch to a sponsor should include 1) how the conference will help you meet your goals 2) how your conference attendance will help meet the sponsor's goals and 3) how you will report back to the sponsoring organization. Be sure to follow through.

Best of luck, and if I can't get money for conferences from now on, I'll know you've been busy.
xx

hardcore cpd23'ers only - Thing 14, referencing software

Doggedly devoted to each and every Thing, I surveyed the blogs of academic librarians and student cpd23'ers and decided to download Mendeley. It took an hour or two to understand the options in Mendeley. By the end of my trials I was able to import PDFs and their reference data from the web at large and academic journals (via CILIP). I could also collect reference data only by copying the DOI (digital object identifier). The Watch folder makes the procedure seamless as you can toss anything you're reading into the folder on your desktop and Mendeley picks out the reference information while running in the background.
There was a payoff - I've realized that Mendeley is a good way to organize my chartership background reading and then pop out a reference list when I'm ready. While I don't plan on having 100+ references in my chartership portfolio, now I understand how other people have amassed such lists!

this is my fourth career

Librarianship in the U.S. is often a second career - somehow heading straight for the Masters Degree in Library or Information Science directly after paying for four years at University doesn't hold broad appeal.   Library science lacks the $$$ promise of law or business school or the cool factor of doing a PhD in Linguistic Forensics.

Long story short, I graduated university with a degree in psychology and got a job where I could wear suits, stockings and heels to work in a skyscraper in New York City. There were cockroaches, but not at work. I was a recruiter, then an IT trainer and finally systems manager at an entrepreneurial company - a very 90's progression of working hard and harder until I burnt out.

Looking for something less grinding, I found an HR job at The New York Public Library. Actually, there were two jobs on offer, one in recruiting (hiring) and one in employee relations (firing). Went for the job that allowed smiling.  Carefully built relations with intelligent and fierce librarians - I was lucky to be at NYPL when the highest level managers had worked there forever. NYPL was not a place where you would ever doubt the value of public libraries or librarians!

Some life happened, with babies, and I moved to a beach town where everyone knew my grandparents. Learned to live with sand in the books. I got bored after a bit and worked for a community organization that provided food and basic support to people in need (migrant workers and long term locals). Wrote cool job training/computer training curriculum and got some big grants. Installed a community IT centre,  taught classes and recruited staff and volunteers. Learned a valuable lesson about when to say no to grant money.

Life happened again - this time we ran out of dosh as a family and moved back into the NYC orbit. Deep in the paradisaical suburbs, I needed a calling, a career, a meaningfulness that would offer money and make the world a better place. Of course - Librarianship, in public libraries!

This was a perverse career choice; even in 2005 I thought that 10-15 years might see the decline of public libraries. But perversity is my middle name, so off I went to Syracuse University's Information school as one of the earlier distance learning cohorts.

I enjoyed formal learning as a mature student in a way I never had as an undergraduate. Some trying moments with distance learning group projects and a team member who plagiarized from Wikipedia, but that was real learning. Got a paid weekend librarian job and a work experience gig in public libraries, graduated and was ready to start work.

omg, this is such a saga. Because wanderlust took hold of me and my partner. We wanted to be somewhere other than the Northeast Corridor - the metropolitan blur stretching from Boston to below Washington D.C. With diploma in hand I found promising work in Washington State, near Seattle, but my partner couldn't get a good job there. He did have opportunities in London, so we decided to move to the UK; trading in the certainty of work for the fun of exploring.

If you are curious to know what I thought of UK libraries when I was freshly arrived, please read the 2007 section of this blog. I had a lot to say about volunteers and duplication of efforts.

Earning a librarian position in the UK took patience: school library volunteer work, CILIP membership, completing the ECDL, begging my way into a work experience placement in public libraries, temp work and working as a library assistant.
All the prologue to my fourth career, which I love.

No digressions!

No time to digress from cpd23. If I don't soldier on I'm afraid I will drop it all together. Sitting in the sun and listening to bands is rightfully taking up all my spare time

Thing 3 is to examine personal brand on the web. Browser searches contain more about my real estate transactions than I'd like, but otherwise nothing too odd or self-contradictory. No dopplegangers to contend with.

Twitter: My twitter account is linked with my full name, so I need to be even more careful than I realized in my tweets. My workplace doesn't endorse professional tweeting on its behalf, but my tweets are read by other library staff. Outcome: boring tweets. Ah well, not sure I could offer any other type...

Linkedin: The browser searches revealed that my Linkedin account was too secure!  I've opened it up to appear on public searches for my name. As this is the social network I am most comfortable with, I am going to spend time fleshing out my profile. I also need an updated picture across all my social networks. If my twitter feed is going to be professional, I could attach it to Linkedin.

Facebook: aside from my postings on group pages I've been keeping security tight. Vigilance is the byword for my personal/family social network.

Blog: this blog is almost invisible, i.e. not read and not obviously linked to my full name. I will endeavor to keep it so by maintaining it as a Chartership/CPD blog. If this was a Jasper Fforde novel the characters would have plenty of spare time to sit in the sun and listen to bands :-)

Chartership and cpd23

Q: why am I resurrecting this corpse?
A: I've been a librarian in London public libraries for a few years and have decided to work towards Chartership.

For those of you outside the U.K., Chartership is a professional qualification earned by practicing librarians. Chartership used to be a ticket to the big bucks, but as jobs are de-professionalizing and operational areas merging it is more about the activity than a financial payoff.  Blogging is one approach to the reflective writing requirement of Chartership and also the first task in the online course 23 Things for Professional Development that I've begun.

I have some questions about blogging
1. Can I write interestingly and analytically about my library life without causing trouble?
2. Isn't blogging old-fashioned?

The corpse is re-animated and will move in an unpredictable fashion. Next time: anecdotes about author events