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…

Library move

Two weeks ago my library moved to new premises.

Locating to a new office has meant some things to get used to, not least a slightly different commute,  navigating my way through the crazy lift system and trying to avoid the crisps/chocolate/fizzy drinks vending machine that is inconveniently located about 20 steps away from my desk.

I wanted to record the library move for posterity (and to remind myself how hard it was to organise), so took some photos.

This was the library before the move:

The Library in boxes and shelves being dismantled:

The room formerly known as the Library:

Our new Library space (or a bit of it, anyway):

NB: Not actual view. We’re in the basement.

The move itself went extremely smoothly. We moved out of our old offices on a Friday and into the new premises the following day, with few problems. The new space isn’t as big as the old one and we weren’t allowed to transfer our existing shelving over (better that than no library at all) so there’s very little growing room. I’ve asked the Library Assistant to prune our printed journal holdings over the Summer, which should free up some space. I also need to do a fairly aggressive weed of our management and leadership books.

Indications are that this is likely to be another temporary home for us. Having last moved two years ago, I’m becoming used to a rather nomadic librarian. It feels like starting a new job. I’m also becoming a bit of an expert at the logistics of moving a small (14,000+ items) library. It’s not so much the big stuff you fret about. It’s the zillions of little things, like making sure that rubbish is correctly disposed of, unwanted computer equipment is directed to the right place, organising the postal redirection and making sure  that everyone involved in the move can acccess the building at the same time.

I can’t claim all the glory for the success of the move. It was very much a collaborative effort with the facilities and estates teams for the two organisations involved and the excellent removal firm.I had a fair few sleepness nights in the run up to the first moving day, but it worked out ok. In fact, it went so well that we were able to re-open two days earlier than planned.

So, what CPD lessons have I learned from this experience? Don’t sweat the small stuff (easier said than done); extensive list-making is a must; keep track of what everyone involved in the move is up to; be firm but fair when outlining expectations; plan and prepare effectively;

What would I do differently next time? Well, taking annual leave before the move wasn’t the best idea, although there was very little I could do about it. I had been told that the move was ‘likely to happen’ in March or April and I also had to fit in a holiday that suited my family. It sounds like a silly thing but take in board games on moving day. The Library Assistant and I had to be there to ‘supervise’ but we actually sat around doing nothing because our IT equipment was packed and the removal men didn’t need our help. I’d do an aggressive weed before the move. I managed to dispose of some things beforehand, but not as much as I would have liked to. Doing it now feels counter-intuitive. Bad planning on my part.

Now that the move is over (8 months of planning!) I can concentrate on other things. Namely, getting my CPD back on track. Next stop: Umbrella.