Umbrella 2011 – Session F: Mashed Libraries

I loved this session. I have followed Mashed Libraries events in the past on Twitter but haven’t been able to attend one myself so this workshop really appealed to me.

Key points:

• Mashed library sessions bring libraries and technology together. They are organised ‘unconference’-style meetings where librarians and techies exchange ideas and solve problems.
• We were asked to get into groups and come up with our own ideas for a Mashed Libraries event.

IDEA: Fishfingers and mash, 20^th November 2011 (International Children’s Day). Mashup = design an educational resource for children and young people experiencing life/family difficulties e.g. divorce, adoption, fostering. Needs to marry up published resources and some form of interactive online presence. Everyone brings their own cakes, cookies, muffins and biscuits to sell. Competition for the best cakes! Prizes for great mashup ideas (following the children theme) include pots of bubbles and balloons

I managed to collect up the post-it notes from the session but stupidly didn’t think to write down a list of the people that were in the group. If anyone was in that session and can help me out, I’d appreciate it as I think we might have a good idea here…

Umbrella 2011 – Session E: IT for the LIS professional

If you were following the #ub11 hashtag on Twitter, you’ll know that this one caused a fair amount of debate.  Georgina Hardy has already done a very good post on this session but I just have a couple of points to make:

Key points:

• Not everyone is as good at IT as we assume. E.g. young people use social networking but can’t understand computer filing systems.
• Do we need a ‘real’ European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) before we’re allowed to buy a computer or smartphone? There was lots of eye-rolling about ECDL. I did it years ago as part of my graduate traineeship programme but I’ve learnt far more ‘on the job’ and it is totally Microoft Office-based.
• Not everything IT-related is Microsoft or PC-based.
• Should librarians regard programming as a basic skill? I last programmed in Basic to make a swirly shape in the mid-1980s. The ability to create a website from scratch would be useful but I don’t know how to do it.

Umbrella 2011: Session D: That’s a good IDEA – using everyday research skills to become a changemaker

I managed to get completely the wrong end of the stick about this session when I read the conference programme and thought it was about enabling others to do research. How wrong I was! I had about a minute of ‘fight or flight’ when I realised but stuck it out and came away with a full-formed research idea of my own!

Key points:

I = interests, issue, idea

D = develop, discuss, define (scope and boundaries)

E = engage, elaborate, enact

A = apply, advocate, advertise

S = skills

IDEA: A piece of research on the information-seeking habits of social workers.

Why do some social workers use research in their work and actively engage in evidence-based practice? Why do others feel they don’t need to use EBP? Do they define it in a different way e.g. professional experience, gut instinct, observations, etc.

Umbrella 2011 – Session C

1. Transparency in the public sector: what is the role of the information professional?

(I didn’t make many notes on this talk, but did learn that there are only two places in the UK that you can be buried at sea. They’re both off the Norfolk/Lincolnshire coasts, in case you’re interested)

Key points:

• Data has to be fit for use ‘Out, quick and dirty’
• Info kept in Excel spreadsheets. Makes them accessible but also open to misuse?

2. From practice to publication: professional assistance from the librarian

Key points:

• Why do people publish academic research and write papers?
• What are the barriers to doing research? Time (lack of), funding, not great at writing
• Solutions – write collaboratively?
• Where can librarians help?

1. Act as the go-between
2. Provide access to resources
3. Referencing and bibliographies
4. Ethics
5. Intellectual property rights/copyright

Thoughts:

• Should librarians write systematic reviews? Are we qualified to write them as we’re not subject experts? However, we do accumulate a lot of knowledge ad hoc. How can this be documented and employed meaningfully?

IDEA: offer 1 hr sessions with the librarian to discuss research needs. Could be done over the phone or via social networking/e-mail. Might be useful for NQSWs. PQ and MA/MSc students

Umbrella 2011 – Session B – Creating a personal learning network and keeping up to date using social media

Key points:

• Websites are dead. They’re not where development is happening.
• Instead, development is happening in social media resources.
• People are cyber-nomadic now. They go where the conversations are.
• Namechk.com  – find out where you are online.
• Personalizemedia.com – Gary’s social media count.
• Facebook becoming a search engine
• Quora – a Q&A website.
• Flipboard.com – news collation service.  – getting social media to bring the data to you.
• Liking and +1ing now influencing search engine ranking. This can be seen on Google.
• Blekko.com create your own search engines. Uses slashtags to restrict searched sites to particular topics.
• Search is becoming social. The traditional idea of search is no longer useful.

Thoughts:

• The idea is to create a personal learning network, but who (realistically) has the time to do that?
• Can the librarian take on this work – aggregating searches and creating bespoke (subject specific) search engines so that the end user doesn’t have to?

Umbrella 2011 – Session A – Skills and Professionalism

Key points:

• You have 6/7 seconds to make an impression on a first meeting
• Reputation is built up piece by piece
• Respect is also something you build up. How am I valued by others?
• Intangible skills e.g. self-belief. All skills are transferable.
• Your CV needs to show that you are the best at what you do. It must include examples and you have to treat it like an advertising and sales package.
• Use ‘I’ not ‘we’ (no I in team?). Banned words: ‘only’ as in ‘I only do..’ and ‘them/they’.
• You need a Plan B – an escape route out of the profession.
• Write down what you’re good at and what your dream job looks like

Questions:

1. What is this thing we call a ‘profession’?

• We’re connectors of information. We enable people
• We’re great at customer service: reading people, employing psychological techniques.
• Are we ‘the beating heart’ of the organisation?

2. How do I document my abilities, competencies and skills?

• Do I have more skills than I recognise? What are my weaknesses?

3. Professionalism – what is it?

• Attitude
• Behaviour
• Character

Thoughts:

• Is an employer outside the sector really going to consider someone for a non-library/information post that has always worked in LIS settings? Do we get pigeonholed and is that unfair?
• Isn’t it enormously arrogant to tell an employer why we’re so great and not to address why we should work for the organisation? I always look at the job spec, do some research on the organisation and tailor my application to the job and the company, rather than write a self-promoting ‘pitch’. Am I getting it wrong?

Umbrella 2011 – Plenary session

Keynote speaker – Gerald Leitner, EBLIDA President and Secretary General of the Austrian Library Association

Key points:

• Copyright law in England is still aimed at printed material. This needs to change.
• Advocate of the hybrid library. Sees a need for a mixture of printed and electronic materials
• E-books – could we use them in our library? What’s the take-up of handheld reading devices, e.g. Kindles among staff?
• National libraries form a digital memory
• Without research libraries, research would not happen.

Thoughts:

• Very user focussed. Thinks about the needs of the end user and aims to meet them, rather than running off with an idea and expecting the end user to keep up…or risk losing out.
• As an advocate of evidence-based practice and CPD, I was heartened to hear someone senior saying that research libraries matter

Umbrella 2011 overview

This is going to be a (personal) overview of the conference. I’ll post some notes, thoughts and ideas from the sessions I attended in separate posts.

It’s rare to leave an event and feel that you did everything you set out to. I’ve lost count of the number of times over the years that I’ve sat on the train home and thought ‘Damn! I really should have spoken to X and Y’. I spoke to everyone I wanted to and felt quite happy going up to someone randomly in the exhibition, sticking my hand out and saying ‘Hi…’. The me of 12 years ago would be rather shocked at the boldness of her older self.

I even managed to rescue a situation where I got one person confused with another and (after dying inside for about 30 seconds) had a nice conversation with them about their work. Long story, don’t ask…

Wearing a name badge helped and saved a couple of seconds at the introductions stage. The first thing that everyone asked me was what my workplace acronym  stood for.  It often led to an interesting conversation about my work, why it was different to lots of other library jobs and the old ‘making a real difference’ chestnut. By day 2 of the conference I had developed a natty little patter to regurgitate when the question arose.

I was really struck, particularly on the second day, by how downbeat lots of the attendees were. That in turn impacted on the mood of the conference. I think many of us are feeling battered and bruised, particularly if we’ve been affected by restructures and redundancies over the last couple of years. Maybe I’m being a bit soft here (it’s my age) but I would’ve really appreciated someone senior standing up and thanking us for all that we do and to keep fighting for our libraries. It may seem like a silly gesture but a simple word of thanks can mean so much.

The workshops and talks are the major feature of the conference (of course) but as a solo professional I really valued the chance to network. It’s something I do so rarely ‘in the flesh’ and I was pleased to see that my brain hadn’t completely atrophied in the two years(!) since I last attended a library conference. It was good to have conversations about libraries without sounding like a massive geek (not that there’s anything wrong with a. Talking about libraries and b. Being a massive geek).

It was also fun to put faces to names and find out if the Library Crowd on Twitter matched their online personalities. For the most part, they did. Goodness knows what they made of me with my grinning, hand-flapping and gabbling at 100mph. Oh well, to quote an Apprentice candidate, I am what I say on the tin.

An Umbrella of anonymity

Ela-ela-ela (just getting it out of my system before tomorrow)

I have been allowed out of a. Work and b. The House of Twins to attend the bi-annual library conference, Umbrella.

I attended the 2009 conference and had rather a good time. I suspect that this one will be a bit different. Back in then I was completely and utterly anonymous in the library world. Ok, not totally anonymous. There were a few people there that I knew from courses, other conferences, previous workplaces and the #oxfordlibrarymafia.

Two years on….

I actually don’t know. I’m not arrogant enough to believe that even a third of the people there will know who I am, but I reckon that I’m probably going to at least recognise approximately 20-30 people and a few of them might recognise me in return.

I’ve done a little bit of self-promotion in the last two years. I started engaging with fellow professionals on Twitter and (bloody) LinkedIn and I started Librarians with Lives. I don’t put my full name or my workplace online but my social networking profiles have a picture of me and it probably isn’t that hard to work out who I am and where I work if you were nosey enough to want to.

Preparation-wise I haven’t done a huge amount. I have already decided which sessions I’m going to attend, with the exception of Session E on Wednesday morning. I think I’ll just make a last-minute punt and go for something unusual. Other than that, I have largely focussed on professional development; social networking in the workplace; and IT development. I’m also looking forward to the exhibition (not just for the freebies); the poster sessions; the chance to catch up with a few people and the social aspects of it.

I’m not taking my laptop. It’s too big to lug around for two days. I’m going to rely on my iphone, pen and notepad for notes. I don’t have personal cards but do have business cards so I’ll take a few of those. I think I know what I’m wearing (my outfit for the gala dinner is sorted) and I used to spend a lot of time travelling for work so I’m pretty adept at fitting everything I need into a small wheely suitcase. I have joined the Umbrella Spruz network. I need to pack my gala dinner ticket and joining instructions.

Now, a word about the social events. I actually think they’re almost as important as the conference itself. Unless something terrible happens I’m not planning on having an early night on Tuesday evening. I can (and often do) go to bed early so, as a parent of young children, the chance to stay up a bit later, socialise with grown-ups and have proper conversations appeals hugely. I’m not exactly going to be dancing on the bar at 1am (I’ll leave that to the other party animals) but I hope to make a decent show of being sociable.

Finally: a visual clue if you’re not sure who I am. I will be sporting very interesting nails.

Hope to see you there…

Guest Post #9 – Following events from afar

Jo Alcock is an Evidence Based Researcher at Evidence Base in Birmingham City University. This basically means she’s a librarian without a library who spends her time on research, evaluation and consultancy for the library and information community. You can find Jo on Twitter @joeyanne and blogging at Joeyanne Libraryanne. Here, Jo introduces the concept of ‘Event Amplification’ and demonstrates that even librarians with the most active of lives can still find ways to participate in CPD:

I’m not at the stage of my life yet where I have delightful children who take up all my spare time (though our two cats can be demanding little fusspots at times!), but I do like to think that I have a life outside of work, so I consider myself a librarian with a life. I also have a few professional plates to juggle; I’m still completing my MSc dissertation, I’m a member of two different CILIP committees, and I write a blog.

CPD is important to me. I love to attend events, but it’s not always possible to attend the ones you’d like to – sometimes for financial reasons, or lack of time, or maybe it’s during the day and you have work commitments. But nowadays you can often still follow the event without physically being there.

Event amplification is a term which is being used more commonly now – it refers to the event being amplified beyond its physical barriers, often by utilising technology such as Twitter, live blogging or live streaming. Many event organisers are starting to utilise these technologies to enable people to follow the event from afar. It helps the event get more publicity and could mean more people attending their next event – I’ve certainly earmarked a few events I’d like to attend based on the information I have followed.

Through my Twitter connections, I’ve been able to follow events from all over the world. Sometimes it might not even be an event you’re aware of, but if you spot a tweet from someone and it has an event hashtag, you can then set up a saved search to see all the tweets with the hashtag.

More and more, event amplification information is publicised on the event fliers and emails, so you can even set it in your calendar and try to set aside some time during the day to catch up on the tweets from the event, or watch a particular section of the event when it is live streamed if it’s something you are interested in.

So, if you want to follow events from afar and help others do the same, here are some quick tips:

• join Twitter and follow people within the community with similar interests to your own – they will be most likely to tweet from events that you will also be interested in following
• keep an eye out for details of a Twitter hashtag for events or details of any live streaming or live blogging for events you are interested in – add them to your calendar with appropriate URLs where applicable
• if you attend an event and are able to tweet, explain to your followers what event you are at and include a hashtag if there is one (if there isn’t, consider creating your own to keep all tweets together and make it easier for people to follow)

Here’s to more event amplification enabling us to follow events whilst sat at home in our jim jams or drinking wine – cheers!