Thing 5 – Reflection, Reflection, Reflection

Image Credit:  James J. Jenkins on Flickr.

I am not, as most people who know me would probably agree, a particularly reflective person. I’m very impulsive, and tend not to labour over things. Reflective practice does not come easily to me. It is something that I do need to force myself to consider rather than a regular occurrence in my day to day life.

During the course of my Library degree at Sheffield, my lecturers were very keen on the idea of Reflective Practice, and it was a core aspect of many of my modules – with most demanding some sort of assessed or un-assessed reflection on various aspects of the course. Dutifully I complied, and to my astonishment I actually found it really rewarding, and it helped me determine why I was doing things, and what I could improve on or what interested me. In essence, reflective practice helped me determine a path forward in order to develop my skills (and also on occasion, rein in my strong personality!) so that I created a more purposeful attitude to my working relationships, behaviour and my academic progress.

I don’t really hold store with academic models on reflective practice, so I don’t really have a guide to how I reflect on my experiences. My reflections tend to be on more negative experiences, e.g. where I perhaps felt out of my depth, or an instance that troubled me in some way. I find it harder to reflect on positive experiences, as I find it harder to pinpoint why something was good. Negative experiences are easier to try to determine a way forward – for instance, what I could have done differently, or why something went wrong.

I do find reflective practice helpful, but it is not something that I do as a matter of course. I need to change this behaviour.


*By the way, if you’re wondering what has happened to Thing 4 – I haven’t done it. I’ve skipped right past it and onto more interesting topics. Unfortunately (and I did try), I can’t muster up the enthusiasm to wax lyrical on RSS feeds. Although, if you get the opportunity, do try If This, Then That, which I am using for a multiple of things. I have it set up to automatically add anyone who tweets on the #cpd23 hashtag to a special CPD23 twitter list, I use it to text me weather updates, and give me a comprehensive one page list of a core group of friends’ social networking updates.

It’s great, try it! The wonderful @meimaimaggio on Twitter gave me my invite, for which I am eternally grateful. I have three invites if anyone would like one. 

Thing 3: Consider Your Personal Brand

 Image Credit: iDream_in_Infrared on Flickr.


Personal. Branding.

Two words that make me shudder. Yet again I am late with my entry – not due to workload but simply because I didn’t want to have to deal with this topic. To me ‘personal branding’ brings to mind the idea of desperation in a cheap suit, the sort of individual who likes the sound of their own voice, who is eager to prove to everyone who gives them even the slightest amount of attention that they are in fact someone.

This sounds scathing and indeed it is. I have met too many of these individuals in my life and the idea of being such a person is too much to bear.

However, I do have a Twitter, and a Linked-In, and I used to be a Blogger on a very successful site (which was voted one of Cosmopolitan magazine’s Blogs of the Year for 2010). I have a Facebook, a Livejournal, a Tumblr and have previously been active on many an internet community in the areas where my interests lie.

My online presence then is very strong; my personal brand however is not, especially with regards to librarianship. This blog is the first truly librarian-y thing that I have ever set up. My Twitter, Tumblr and other social media outlets are not library or librarian-focused, they are very much personal. I often fear in fact, that people will be disappointed when they follow me on Twitter expecting lots of library related debate and comments – this is not the case. I have been on Twitter for nearly three years, over a number of different accounts and name changes and my account has been locked and unlocked numerous times. My Twitter is actually very much personal – I started it when I frequented a fashion-related community, then I became a shoe blogger. I then starting writing for a football website and went to library school.  In short, I have many different people who follow me for many different things. My tweets reflect this.

Sometimes I prattle about shoes, other times I lament my beloved Arsenal or Real Madrid, other times I tweet about library related things. I am loathe to start a library only Twitter, as I feel that I am not just a librarian – I am the sum of many parts. My Twitter and my Tumblr are a reflection of my whole identity and interests, rather than a specific part of it. A lot of people feel differently, but I just can’t bring myself to compartmentalise my life into different interests and use social media specifically targeted at each area.

Interestingly though, the people that added me and followed me for very different reasons are now becoming aware of my job and my interest in libraries, and I have had a number of things tweeted in my direction from people who think I would be interested in library related news they have come across on the web, which pleases me immensely. Not only am I bringing my interest in the world of libraries to a wider audience, but am also being introduced to things that maybe people in the library-bubble wouldn’t come across.

I am aware, despite my dislike for the idea of ‘personal branding’ that it is something that I need to consider. This is partially the reason that I am doing these 23 Things, to start getting me more involved with the online information community. This is a start anyway… right?

Thing 2: Explore other blogs and get to know some of the other cpd23-ers.

Well, I've spent an interesting and engaging hour working my way through the Delicious CPD23 bookmarks. I visited blogs without any real rhyme or reason, instead choosing to peruse the list and click on blog names that amused me. Never underestimate the power of a good blog title!

While sitting in front of my increasingly toasty laptop is not exactly the best way to spend one of the hottest days of the year, I have enjoyed reading other people's thoughts and opinions on CPD23 and found that there was a resounding theme throughout the blogs I visited.


#1 The Importance of Feedback

One of the most prevailing topics blogged about was that it is important to not just read and quietly mull over what you have read during your explorations, but instead offer feedback or some form of greeting before exiting to open up a dialogue, or just to welcome someone new into the blogging fold.

Not only does this provide a morale boost to the individual, but also opens up the line of communication. This is especially important after the recent allegations of cliquishness within the LIS NP community. I love receiving comments, no matter how (seemingly) random or off topic. They always brighten up my day and make me feel that I'm not just shouting in the dark and that people are out there too.

So don't be afraid to just say hi, or that you like someone's blog layout, or that you've been stalking them on Twitter :D. It's all welcome, and I'm sure it's not just me that feels this way.

#2 Branching out from your area of expertise / comfort zone

I have to admit, when scanning through the list of participants on Delicious, it was very tempting to click on the legal/law tab and merely peruse the people working in the same library sector as myself. I also had to stop myself from just visiting my real life library friends' blogs, many of whom are participating.

Despite the randomness of my CPD browsing, I did still have to make an initial effort to step out of my comfort zone and to reach out to new individuals who I haven't spoken to before. It is very easy to stay within your sector, or your friendship group, and while this is safe and secure, and can offer interesting insight into your particular job role, I don't feel it is entirely inkeeping with the spirit of the CPD project.

To me, part of continuing my professional development is to experience other sectors of librarianship that are completely removed from my own work in the legal sector. I was especially interested to read the accounts of current and future library school students and find out what their take on this experience is, as well as engaging with people in specialist libraries and schools - as I often think school librarians are under-represented, with many of the people I have come across at various events and on Twitter being from the legal or academic side of libraries.

I think the more we know about our profession and what other people are doing, the better really and I can't wait to find out more as I progress.

I hope this wasn't too rambling, I am rather warm right now!

Image Credit: Kristina B on Flickr

Thing #1 - What do I expect to get out of CPD23?

Image Credit: Striatic on Flickr

Late again, as per usual. Although I do have a good excuse for once, having been on holiday for the past week, and sadly I, unlike some of my more focused librarian friends, am not dedicated enough to post blog entries when I could be relaxing and generally distracting myself instead.

So I've signed up to CPD: 23 Things in an attempt to continue my professional development, which I've found has slacked hugely since I got my first library job. It is very easy to fall out of the habit of self reflection and engaging with issues within the library world, and I hope that this blog will force me to engage with my fellow librarians and do more, which I definitely feel I should be. Hopefully participating in this project will assuage the huge amounts of guilt I feel when I read about people on Twitter doing way more useful things with their free time than I, because now I too am taking part in something.

Phew, finally proof that I'm not completely lazy!