Thing 22: Volunteering

Have you undertaken unpaid work to further your career? 

Yes. After I finished my Master’s degree in a subject unrelated to libraries, I decided I wanted to be a librarian and applied for lots of Graduate Trainee posts.I  can’t remember how many I applied for, but it was a lot. I think I had twelve interviews, but I didn’t get appointed to any of the jobs I’d applied for. Sometimes I think it was just because I was bad at interviews, but some of the feedback I got was that I didn’t have enough experience. So, I worked for a year opening envelopes and waited for the next round of trainee posts to become available, and towards the end of the year my contract at the envelope opening place ended and I did six weeks’ work experience at the local public library. 

What was your experience? 

I really enjoyed it. The librarians I worked with were really good about letting me try out all the different aspects of public librarianship. I went to help run a book group in a small branch library, assisted the children’s librarian with choosing new stock, sorted out audio books for housebound people, helped people use the Internet, worked on the issue and enquiry desks, helped organise a day for people to try out e-books and e-book readers  (very clunky compared to the ones we have now!) and generally learned a lot about what being a librarian is really like. 

It was the first time I realised that people could have jobs they actually enjoyed doing. 

I applied for some more trainee jobs during my time as a volunteer, and I got a job. I’m sure that having some experience I could talk about helped me get the job. 

Is volunteering a good thing, or by working for free are we in danger of devaluing our profession?

I think it has its place. It can be a very valuable way of gaining experience for people starting out in the profession who are finding it difficult to get experience otherwise, like I was. It’s also useful to be able to ‘try out’ a job before you commit to it as a paid employee! 

On the other hand, I don’t agree with, e.g. public libraries being run by volunteers. This would indeed devalue the profession and make people wonder what the point of being a qualified LIS professional is. 

Thing 21: Promoting yourself in job applications and at interview

Well, this Thing is quite timely for me, as I’ve just applied for a new job, so I can honestly say I have recently updated my ‘CV database’, although it’s not a database, it’s more a very long CV with everything on it, which I then edit and tailor according to the specification/job description of the particular job I’m applying for. The principle is the same – i.e. to keep a record of everything that I can potentially use when applying for jobs. I keep copies of all my previous job applications, whether they were done on application forms, or using CVs and covering letters. It’s interesting to see how my CV has evolved over the years. I used to think I didn’t have enough to put in it, and now I have trouble fitting it onto two sides of A4!

When I started applying for jobs, I used to to the interview stage almost every time (not wishing to blow my own trumpet or anything, there’s a ‘but’ coming up), but (see) I very rarely got offered the job. I think my main problem was lack of confidence and an inability to ‘sell myself’ – I’m sure that will come as no surprise who knows me or who’s a regular reader of this blog! I have got a bit better at interviews over the years – I actually enjoyed the last one I had, and I’ve even become more confident about doing presentations, so that’s good. I still find it difficult to advertise my skills, and I still suffer horrendous (that is not too strong a word, some days) lack of confidence quite often, but I think (hope!) I can manage to pull myself together in interview situations a bit better than I used to be able to.

I think my tips for applying for jobs would be:

• As someone who’s been on interview panels and waded through hundreds of applications forms I would say, please, please, please make sure you refer to the job description/person specification and show that you meet at least each of the essential criteria – if you meet any of the desirable criteria please make sure you show this too. Please give examples, as these could make the difference between you getting an interview or not. (Obviously every employer is different, but I think this is a good general rule.)
• Also, if one of the criteria is, e.g. GCSE Maths, please show this explicitly. Don’t just say ’10 GCSEs grades A-C’ (or whatever), say ’10 GCSEs grades A-C including Maths’. I know this sounds picky, but I’ve been in situations where forms have been discarded on the strength of seemingly minor details like this, and it’s just such a shame.
• Keep copies of previous applications – for a record and also because it saves time sometimes – although obviously you do need to make sure that you tailor your application to the particular job you’re applying for.
• Prepare for interviews. Have answers to likely questions, such as ‘why do want this job?’ ready.
• I find practising a presentation about twenty times helps, but you might not need to do this if you’re more used to doing them, or just have a better memory than I do!

Here are my answers to the questions in Part 1 of this Thing:

What do you like to do?

Singing, listening to music, taking photographs, reading, knitting, walking in the countryside, writing, proof-reading, going to the theatre, eating, cooking, tidying, organising,  cataloguing, planning, listing (!), listening, observing, following instructions, learning, helping, teaching, investigating, discovering.

What do you dislike?

Confrontation, rudeness, too much social interaction, too much physical contact, not being in control, maths (I find it interesting, but I’m not very good at it), boring meetings, indecision (although I’m terrible at making decisions myself), pointlessness, wasting time. I find it hard to be spontaneous.

Do you remember the last time you felt that feeling of deep satisfaction after creating, building, completing something? What was it about?

I made a calendar out of some of my photos and gave one to my mum and one to my granddad for Christmas (shameless self-promotion!), and they really liked them. That was good. In a work context, I quite often feel satisfied after creating a good catalogue record.

What skills do you need to do the things you like?

For some of the things, like walking in the countryside, you don’t really need any skills. For other things, like singing, I’m not sure you necessarily need skills either, unless you’re very serious about it. I have music-related skills. I can listen and learn things that way, and I can sort-of read music. For things like singing, and knitting and photography, you need to have the ability to practice and not get bored too easily. I’m not sure what the name for that skill is – tenacity?

I suppose quite a few of the things I like require some sort of organisational skill, and perhaps a more methodical or logical mind is required for things like cataloguing, or at least it probably helps. Someone once told me I had a logical mind, and I was surprised, but perhaps I do have one really, despite all my irrationality. I suppose one can be logical and irrational at different times, according to the situation! Attention to detail is also important in cataloguing, and also in knitting!

Thing 18: Jing/screen capture/podcasts (making and following them)

I’ve been putting this one off because screencasts and podcasts are not something I’m very familiar with, either in terms of making myself or following them, so I wasn’t sure where to start! They’re not something I would use in my current role, but I can see how they would be useful in various areas of library work. For example, screencasts could help students and  staff navigate electronic resources, and podcasts could be used to introduce learners at a distance to library services. I know our Faculty Liaison Librarians (FLLs) already use screencasts and such like in their work, particularly with students who aren’t based on campus, and have found them to be very helpful.

I tried out Screencast-o-matic at home, and it seems to work well, although my skills with it are not great at the moment. I think it would be a good tool to use if I ever did need to create a screencast, which I may well do one day, who knows!  I didn’t try Jing as I didn’t want to download it on to my computer at home if I wasn’t really going to use it. I didn’t even try downloading it at work!

I’ve never followed or listened to any podcasts before. I did download some podcasts of Mitch Benn reading A Christmas Carol last Christmas, but never got round to listening to them! Like screencasts, I think podcasts can be a useful means of conveying information to library users, particularly those at a distance, but also those who actually visit the library. For example, an audio ‘tour’ of the library could be recorded as a podcast, downloaded by students and they could then visit the library at a time of their choosing, for a podcasted library tour. I’m sure I’ve heard of this happening at some university libraries. Podcasts could also be used to help communicate information about the library to students and staff with visual impairments.

Although the FLLs in our institution use things like screencasts and podcasts, I think it would be good if other teams within the library also made use of them, or even did things like creating videos for YouTube and uploading them onto the library’s website/BlackBoard to show people how to use the self-service machines and move the dreaded compact shelving! (A few members of library staff did record a video to this end when we first moved into our new building, but were never allowed to do anything with it!). There’s a lot of technology out there that’s really useful, and it’s a shame we don’t do more with it to help students and other users of the library.

Things 20: The Library Routes Project

I blogged about my route into librarianship for Thing 10, so for Thing 20 I had a look at other people’s blog posts about their ‘library routes and roots‘ to see how their routes compared with mine.

So I’ve done that, and it seems that quite a lot of people’s roots into the library and information world were fairly similar to my own – degree, no idea what they wanted to do, work experience/graduate traineeship, postgraduate qualification in LIS, struggle getting first job, getting first job, etc. Unlike me, some people were sure from an early age that librarianship was the career for them, and, also unlike me, some people started out in other careers before they realised that library work was actually what they wanted to do.

The nice thing about reading about other people’s library roots/routes was that most people who are now working in LIS seem to really like it, and feel that they’re in the right job for them. It’s good to know there are people out there who are happy in their work!

I’m still not entirely sure what the right job for me is. My current job is the first library job since doing my traineeship that I’ve enjoyed (most of the time!), and even now I don’t feel massively fulfilled in my work, or particularly valued by the organisation I work for. So, I wonder if I’m really in the right career, or whether I’m just working for the wrong organisation!

Because of the way my career path has gone I quite often feel like a failure, even though I know that taking the steps down the career ladder was the right thing to do. I worry the profession doesn’t want people like me anymore – I’m not dynamic or extrovert. I’m rather like a stereotypical librarian, in fact. How ironic that this might now mean I’m in the wrong career!

Thing 18 is still on its way!

Thing 19: Catch up on integrating ‘things’

A look at how I’ve been integrating the ‘things’ I’ve learned about into my professional life…or not. Thing 18 will follow at some point!

Blogging

I’m continuing to blog here (obviously), mainly about the 23 Things, and over at my other blog, mainly not about work. I still haven’t been all that good at reading other library-related blogs, apart from the ones I follow using iGoogle.

Current awareness (Twitter, RSS feeds, Pushnote)

I still use Twitter, but mainly just for tweeting my own blog posts. I’m still not very good at tweeting on a regular basis, and, as we’re still not allowed to use Twitter for official work purposes, I don’t use it for official work-related things. I’m still finding it useful for current awareness, and I’ll try and get better at contributing my own tweets.

As mentioned above, I’m still following various library/information blogs using RSS feeds through iGoogle.

Evernote

Evernote is still proving to be a really useful tool, although I mainly use it for non-work purposes. I’ve found it helpful for writing draft blog posts, or just noting down ideas for posts, and for keeping people’s contact details and bookmarking websites, among other things.

Referencing tools

I haven’t needed to use RefWorks since I did the ‘thing’ about it! I’m sure its time will come, though.

Thing 17: Prezi

I’ve never used either of these tools before, so I thought I’d better try at least one before writing about it, otherwise I wouldn’t have much to say! I gave Prezi a go, and it was an interesting experience! It was quite different to what I’d expected, which I think was just more of an online PowerPoint type thing, but it’s not that at all, really (although I suppose it can be, depending on what you create).

I’m afraid I probably didn’t spend enough time looking at the instructions, which perhaps didn’t help, but it was fairly intuitive, although I did have a bit of a problem when I tried to edit my prezi again after going into the ‘Show’ view. I think I’ve worked it out now, though.

I really liked the creativity Prezi allows. Although PowerPoint is a lot better than it used to be in this regard, it’s still very much a slideshow-type effort, whereas Prezi allows for a completely different type of navigation between words and images, or whatever you want to put in your presentation. It’s very wizzy, although I did find the way things zoom up onto the screen to be a bit vertigo-inducing at first!

I can see that Prezi would be really useful for anyone who gives presentations on a regular basis, particularly if you want to do something a bit different – to keep students a bit more engaged, for example. Although I don’t think I will use it in my current job (although one never knows) it’s a good tool to add to the tool-kit of things to have handy for potential future jobs.

Unfortunately, I can’t embed the presentation in my WordPress blog. This is an issue with WordPress, rather than with Prezi, as WordPress doesn’t allow embedding of anything Flash-based. It’s rather annoying. If you really want to see my test presentation (which is very short and not very exciting) you can do so on the Prezi site.

Thing 16: Advocacy, speaking up for the profession and getting published

Oh dear, I haven’t been looking forward to this Thing. I feel like a terrible advocate for librarianship. I used to be someone who would wax lyrical about how important libraries and librarians are and I wrote one or two small pieces for CILIP about the image of the profession and tried to argue with Tim Coates (once) and things, but that was a long time ago, when I was young and enthusiastic. I still believe libraries are important and librarians are great (and important) and librarianship can be a brilliant (and important) profession to be a part of, but I’ve spent so much of my ‘professional’ life over the last few years trying not to keep my head above water and not go mad with frustration or stress or whatever that I haven’t given much thought to being an advocate for my profession, apart from knowing that I am a terrible advocate for librarianship. I already said that, didn’t I?

Anyway, moving on. I need to stop using my old job as an excuse for being rubbish.  I should try to be a better advocate for the profession and do more advocate-like things. I do tell people what librarians actually do all day, if asked. Does that count?

This one is going to be filed under Must Try Harder.

Thing 15: Conferences and other events

Apart from training courses, the only library events I’ve ever attended are Umbrella in 2007 and the Library and Information History Group  (LIHG) AGM in 2009 (?).

I remember enjoying both events very much, but as both of them were quite a few years ago now,  I don’t really remember much else about them, although I did write a blog post about Umbrella, which you can read on this blog, if you want to. I remember spending most of Umbrella feeling quite lost, as I didn’t know anyone else there apart from my Head of Library Services, who was busy talking to lots of other people. My networking skills were, and are, not amazing.

I made copious notes at the LIHG AGM, but the only thing I really remember about it was how fascinating everyone’s presentations were. It made me want to do more research. I’d done a library history-related dissertation for my MSc., and the conference inspired me to try and make my dissertation into an article for Library & Information History but I never got round to it.

Engaging

I’ve never been all that good at engaging at public events, particularly ones where I don’t know anyone, so I don’t think I ever asked any questions or anything at Umbrella or the LIHG AGM. I have got a bit better at speaking up in staff events at my own workplace, which is something.

The future?

I’d like to attend Umbrella again, but there is very little funding available for staff development from my work, and I don’t think they would be willing to let me go to Umbrella, as it’s not directly relevant to my work, and I’ve been before. I think I only got to go before because I was doing my chartership!

Advice 

Do what I didn’t do, and engage more! I know this is easier said than done, especially if you’re among a load of people you don’t know at a massive conference like Umbrella. If you’re in touch with other LIS people on Twitter, or via an email list, this could be a way to organise a meet-up of people you at least are vaguely aware of, which might make things a bit less scary.

Thing 14: Referencing tools

I’ve only played a bit with online reference tools before – just saving a few references – but I know they’re very clever things. I thought that, rather than starting with one of the tools suggested for this Thing, I’d try and get to know RefWorks a bit better, as this is a tool we have in our e-Library (RefWorks 2.0), so it’s more likely that our students would use this than anything else (?).  The only thing I’d done with RefWorks before was to save some references, and I’d actually forgotten I’d done this, so it was a surprise when I logged in and found I had some references in there already!

I’m afraid I cheated, and decided to use the help sheet written by one of our FLLs to help me, as I didn’t find RefWorks particularly intuitive to use (but then again it was evening and I wasn’t very awake). I can see that it is a very useful tool for students and academics. I only wish it (or similar) had existed when I was a student!

Although I no longer do any academic writing as such, I do occasionally write articles for things like a heart patients’ association newsletter. Also, I still like to study things, even if I’m not writing essays about them, so I can use RefWorks to save references of journal articles I like the look of. In terms of my actual job (which is of course what I should be thinking about most), knowing something about RefWorks will hopefully help me to help any students or other library users if they ask me questions about it.

Thing 13: Google Docs, wikis and Dropbox

I’ve used Google Docs to work on documents on different computers when I didn’t have an external drive with me, and found it very easy to use. I can’t think of anything I didn’t like about it, but it has been a while since I’ve used it. I think I once used it to work on a rota from home (even though I wasn’t supposed to be working on the rota from home), but that’s the only time I’ve ever used it for work purposes.

I’ve used wikis through participating in both the Library Routes project and the Library Day in the Life project, and also as part of a group researching Resource Discovery tools for use in our library. This latter is using a wiki set up on the university’s VLE.  It has worked quite well so far. The people in the group are based in various teams and campus libraries and we don’t meet together very often, so it’s been a good way of recording our findings so that everyone can see them, and then we all know what we’re talking about when we get to the next meeting.  I’ve just looked it up, and it seems I also submitted a report to the Umbrella 2007 wiki – I think that was my first experience of using wikis and it was obviously fairly stress-free as I couldn’t remember it!

I used to have a Dropbox account, but I deleted it, as (like many things I sign up to on a whim, I must stop doing that) I didn’t really use it. I still don’t think I would use it now, although I can see how it can be useful, especially for people working away from the office.