Thing 12-Social Media

Hmm-food for thought!  There is no denying that online communities are ever growing and that there are increasing opportunities for online collaborative working.  This is all great news but a part of me feels that this needs balancing with the good old fashioned human touch.  From my experience of working with students delivering something in person is preferable and more effective than sending a video link or putting it on facebook.  However, contacting people and asking for quick feedback (or help!) is much easier via social networking.  I suppose the answer is finding a good balance of the two!
On another note I've enjoyed adding some some contacts to twitter!

Thing 11-Mentoring

I'm really glad that this has been included as a 'thing' that will enhance and progress professional development.  Having a mentor has been a massive source of support and help for myself and helped build my confidence in the early days!  It also encourages an ethos of accountability which can be challenging but can also help you to identify and celebrate achievement.  In my place of work each new staff member is assigned a mentor for their first year and it usually works well and helps the new member of staff to settle in.  If you haven't got a mentor I would recommend asking someone who you find inspirational and focused-you will learn a lot from them!

Thing 10-Career routes

As already mentioned I'm not actually a trained librarian and so the career routes as described in Thing 10 don't directly apply to me.  However, I've found it informative and useful to find out just what is involved in gaining chartership and accreditation and I have a new found respect for my library manager who has achieved these qualifications.  Thanks for enlightening me!

Thing 9-Evernote

Another great find and once again thanks for sharing it with us!   I haven't had much time to do much more than dip my toe into the evernote water but it looks like it could solve some major organisational problems i.e. "Now where did I find that picture/journal/newspaper article etc online?".  I'm planning on spending time this afternoon investigating further and planning a training session for the rest of the staff.  I also want to check out the compatability with iPads.

Thing 8-Google calendar

Well give Google a round of applause!  I really like the feel and layout of Google calendar and I think it's a massively useful organisational tool.  Perhaps the most useful feature is that you can share it with others meaning that it is also great for collaboration.  Thanks for introducing it to us!

Thing 7-Networking and organisations

Since I started working in my current post I have been aware that this is a real issue for me and something I need to work on.  As I'm a manager rather than a qualified librarian I'm not a member of any professional organisations though after looking through the list on Thing 7 there are definitely some organisations that I should investigate and perhaps become a member of.  I have always enjoyed meeting other people who work within a learning resources environment and always find visiting other institutions useful and come away with lots of ideas to try for myself.  I would love to attend more training courses and meet ups but unfortunately time (and budget) often reduce the opportunities for this!

Thing 6-Creating the links!

I spent a long time on this one as I find it fascinating to hear about other people and their own personal and career journeys.  I'm already on Facebook but I use this privately rather than for professional networking purposes.  I've created an account in LinkedIn and was surprised how many people from my work place are on there and I look forward to finding lots of new contacts I can interact in and learn from.  I've really enjoyed having a good look around the LISNPN website and wish I'd known about it before!  All in all, it's been an enlightening 'thing', now I just need to ensure that I keep building up my contacts and networks and that I make good use of these.