Monday 25 June 2012

Thing 7 - Real-life Networks

I am a member of CILIP, and get regular e-mail updates from them, and have online access to their website, which are both good ways of keeping professionally up-to-date.  There's been a lot of discussion lately about the library closures and CILIP's response to this, and the voluntarisation of library staff, which has been fascinating reading.
I attended a CILIP conference in May, which had a leadership theme, and plenty of talks and discussions about the state of the profession.  I was also able to meet a number of colleagues who I'd previously only known online, and just generally get to know some new people!  I also met a couple of people who are on my MSc course, and was able to have a lunchtime chat with one of them.
I'm fortunate that my dues are being paid by my employer, but I still think it would be worth being a member even if they weren't.

Thing 6 - Online Networks

I'll just have a quick skim over this, as I previously completed it, and don't have that much to add.  I  previously joined LinkedIn, and it is very business oriented, but a good way to connect, as I've joined the CILIP group, amongst others.  I don't use it a lot, though.
LISNP (LIS New Professionals) is another group that I'm a member of, but don't really use that much.  I look in from time to time, and there is some activity, in particular about meetups and Library Camps, so it's worth a glance.
LAT, or Librarians as Teachers network is not at all busy, and not really related to my work, so not of interest to me.
CILIP Communities - I am now a member of CILIP so can access and post on these, but haven't really done much.  I do get email updates which are of interest, though.  Having a quick glance at the latest updates, there are a few discussions going on, and useful professional information being posted, so I will try to have a more regular look.
Facebook - as I've mentioned previously, I use Facebook for my personal life, although I do have some professional connections on there, but not of work colleagues!  I prefer to keep it that way.
Google+ - I have joined this, but not a lot of other people have, so I haven't used it that much.  I did try to use a Google Hangout, as Skype has gotten harder to use since being bought out by Microsoft, but it kept crashing. It really needs to get more popular, I think, before it's any sort of Facebook competitor.
Pinterest is one I haven't tried yet, I may give it a go as it seems very popular at the moment.

Thing 5 - Reflective Practice

Just to follow on from my last post, I tried Storify at home, and had a look at what is being produced, and tried it out myself.  It does require a certain amount of editing yourself, and some people will be better at making a story more interesting in this manner, but it's a great way to bring together tweets and other social media in an accessible, readable manner. 

Onto Thing 5, Reflective Practice.  With this blog I do this already, to a certain degree, and I can see how it helps me to improve, by considering what is useful to me and what isn't, in this case with Social Media.  I can also see how in general Reflective Practice is a good idea - I may consider quickly how things are going, but properly looking at your activities and if they are achieving what you want is a positive activity.  It really is one I should consider doing more of!  I'm not sure that another blog would do the trick - perhaps a simply handwritten diary might be a better idea.  I was never very good at keeping a diary, despite plenty of encouragement at school, but with a more narrow focus on what goes into it, I can see it as a genuine tool for improvement.

Monday 11 June 2012

Thing 4 - RSS Feeds, Twitter, Storify

Firstly, I love Twitter!  I tried it years ago, and it seemed pointless, then as it became more popular I tried it again a couple of year ago and really got into it.  I have two accounts, a private one and a work account (@SiobhanWGLib), which I have on my smartphone.  I do like the spontaneity of it, although some people have had issues with this!  It's good for conferences, and generally getting the zeitgeist of whatever subject you may like.  There is also plenty of nonsense, as well as Justin Beiber, for some reason.  So, swiftly moving onto RSS feeds - I have set some of these up, and they are a great idea for keeping track of loads of different websites, without having to visit each one separately.
Storify is something that I hadn't tried before, and it reminds me of paper.li, which creates a newspaper out of your twitter feed.  This is even better, though, as you can add all sorts of social media and other websites to create your story.  Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to work on my work computer, but I will try it at home, because it's the sort of thing that I may find very useful in the future.