Thing 14 - Reference Management Systems

I was airily going to skip over Thing 14 with a smug “I don’t need a reference management system”, but then I read The Green Stone Librarian’s blog and had a lightbulb moment. Yes, I could use a reference management system to keep track of articles I want to read and those that I have read and want to re-read.

But, with Freshers only days away, I’m not going to spend a lot of time downloading and comparing products. 51^st Century Librarian has done a good job of that. I have downloaded Mendeley on to my computer, and for now will just keep in the back of my mind to put any articles/documents in here for safekeeping. I may even revisit this task in order to record if I’ve used Mendeley, and if so, how I’ve used it. But don’t hold your breath!

Thing 15, Attending, presenting at and organising seminars, conferences and other events

Much earlier in my career, I loved conferences. I just couldn't believe that I could go and stay in nice hotels (some had swimming pools!) and my employer would pay. I thought of it as a perk – a day or sometimes even more, off work and would happily go to everything possible. Later I worked for RSC Wales where attending conferences, seminars and other events happened all too frequently. I was also involved in organising lots of training and events for Welsh Video Network, so by the time I came to my present post, I was a bit burnt out from all the organising, travelling, presenting etc. I know that I tend to blame my children for all kinds of things, but they really do put a spoke in the wheels when I want to try and go away for a night or two. What I'm trying to building up to is the shameful admission that I have all but given up on conferences and events recently in the last few years.

However, I have made the effort recently to attend one event which was out of my usual comfort zone (all 3 hours out of it), because through this CPD23 lark, I realised that I needed to make more efforts to network with colleagues. And, of course, I really enjoyed it, and got a huge amount out of the day. So while I don't think I'll ever go back to those days when I was the first to volunteer to attend any kind of event, I am committed to attending at least one event a year. And now that I've stated that publicly here, I'm going to have to keep to it.

My main advice to anyone attending a conference is to talk to people. Don't stick to people from your own institution but mix it up with anyone and everyone. Think about issues at work you find difficult to solve, or would like to know more about in other institutions, and ask people about them.

Organising events can be great fun but also pretty stressful. Getting the technology right is one of the major stresses – make sure you have at least half an hour to test beforehand if you're in an unfamiliar place, and ensure that technical help to is at hand. Get presentations before the day and make sure they're on the computer ready to go. Try also to have someone to help you problem-solve. Often as an organiser, you're in demand to meet and greet, introduce people to each other, and make sure presenters have all they need. Having someone else available to find out why the tea and coffee haven't arrived, or to figure out how the fancy new light switches work, is a huge help.

There are so many events that look interesting that I can't pinpoint any that I think would be especially useful except maybe the UC&R conference. If I'm dealing with a specific issue at work, then anything that addresses, for example measuring impact, will be of interest at that particular time.

Are there any subjects on which I feel I could speak? I work in Customer Services, so anything on the student experience, managing a front-line service (combined IT and library), how to measure CS – though suspect anyone who's done Customer Service Excellence would have far more to say on this than I do; also jobsharing – how it works in real-life (keep meaning to write a blog post on this one). BUT, “could” speak is one thing, “would” speak is quite another.

If you have a burning idea for a great event, now would probably be a good time to talk about it!

One thing that has been churning at the back of my mind for a while now is holding a small, informal conference here in Aberystwyth for library staff in all sectors. While Aberystwyth may be small, you can't go anywhere without falling over librarians – the town is crawling with them. Not only do we have the university and the public libraries, but also the National Library of Wales, Bronglais Hospital Library and one of the university's departments is the Department of Information Studies. We also have CYMAL just down the hill. And of course, we never get together. So I've had it in mind to suggest a day where we invite staff from each institution to come together and present – probably on a common theme such as marketing and advocacy. Its on my "to do" list as something to explore when I have the time.

Back to school and CPD23 - Thing 13

I was doing so well, until school holidays interfered. It’s been hard to shake off that holiday feeling, but with Freshers just round the corner now, and work pressure piling up, I’m definitely getting back into the groove. However I’m so behind on 23 Things that I've been avoiding looking at the website and other people's blogs because it just makes me feel bad. Because of that, I’m going to ever so slightly skim quickly over the next few things to try and catch up just a bit.

So, Thing 13. Google Docs, Dropbox and Wikis.

Because we use sharepoint at work, I don’t have much experience of using the first 2 tools in any kind of professional capacity. Documents are kept on Sharepoint and we can control who has access to various areas. We can also give people either read only or editing rights. I now tend to keep most of my documents on sharepoint for the following reasons:

• ·         I can access them from anywhere – no more emailing documents to myself
• ·         Sharing with other people – I’ll email people the link to sharepoint, rather than emailing the document. It means that if it gets edited, everyone sees the changes.
• ·         Security – if my computer crashes, the document is safe. Our clever computer people can also retrieve old copies of the document so if someone accidentally deletes information, I can revert to the previous copy.
• ·         Collaborating – people can collaborate on a document and it’s much easier than sending the document around and then trying to incorporate everyone’s changes.

I have used Google Docs for keeping documents related to the local Cylch Meithrin (Welsh playgroup). As the committee running the local playgroup changed every couple of years (or sooner) this was an easy and convenient way to share documents between committee members. I found it easy enough to use – I wonder if they still use it or are back to 3 huge box files?

I have used Dropbox once to access a file. Someone sent me a link and I just followed it – didn’t need a password. I haven’t explored it further as I don’t see a need for it at present, and also I don’t want to download something I don’t need on to my computer.

Wikis

I don’t use, and don’t see the need for it. Only ever used Wikipedia (of course).