Catching up - again! Live Streaming, Reflective Practice, Conferences and Professional Organisations

Just when I'd caught up, events conspire again!

I caught the start of the hangout on Sunday but missed most of it due to my poorly wee boy thinking there were better uses for my iPad than what looked like a boring discussion to him!  I enjoyed what I saw and will be catching up with the recording this week.  From the bits I was able to dip in and out of I found myself getting annoyed with the technical side of it - there were definitely breaks in sound and picture which could well have been my broadband or interference from other things.  Like reading the other blog posts I found it useful and reassuring to find that other people are having a similar experience to me with keeping up with the pace and with some of the questions about how we present ourselves professionally and personally online.  I also need to check out how I watch and tweet at the same time on my iPad - as i couldn't figure out how to watch and participate simultaneously.

I have considered live streaming a couple of times for work purposes but haven't quite got round to doing it yet.  I definitely want to either live stream a class visit for a class that can't come into the library (some of our primary schools are a bit far out so they could pair up with another class in a different school to at least experience a bit of the library).  It's a plan that I've been mulling over for a few years now and I think I have a couple of teachers who'd be keen to give it a go so this may well have given me the impetus to throw caution to the wind - watch this space!

Conferences and Professional Organisations

I'm a fairly shy person naturally so although I've attended quite a few conferences now I always find them a bit difficult.  The first couple of CILIPS (Scottish division of the Chartered Insitute of Library and Information Professionals) conferences I attended I did so with a group of colleagues and really didn't venture away from them.  When I got serious about working towards chartered membership of CILIP, I joined the Scottish committee of the Career Development Group, one of the special interest groups.  It was very useful for making contacts, picking up hints and tips from other library authorities and library sectors and was really enjoyable.  My maternity leave coincided with changes to the special interest groups and at the moment I have less time outside work for these things but I am registered as a mentor for candidates working towards professional qualifications which still allows me to be involved in the wider profession and network in a different way.  Joining 23 things has been one of the ways in which I'm getting back to the profession rather than the day to day doing my job and its renewing my enthusiasm for what I do at a time when it's being eroded a lot by changes in our structure.  I've found things like attending conferences has helped in seeing how others are affected in a similar way and how they've dealt with some of the challenges.

At the last couple of conferences I've attended I've started tweeting during some of the sessions and although at first it seemed a bit alien and like I was ignoring the speakers, I found that I recalled far more of it than I thought I would.  It helped me to consider my reaction to what they were saying more than just sitting there or taking notes would.  The bonus was that I was an.e to interact with others doing the same and have a conversation about it - I hadn't anticipated that happening at all and really enjoyed it.

On reflection...

A lot of what I've said above chimes in with some of the questions for reflection - I'm struggling a bit keeping up as I have other commitments.  In reality, that's a bit of a cop out though.  I spend quite a bit of time in the evenings chatting with friends on Facebook, I could easily be using some of that time more constructively.  I am definitely a procrastinator - I'll be in the middle of something but a notification will come up that someone has tweeted or posted on Facebook or re pinned one my pins etc and I'll nip over to check it out.  So lesson one is must switch off notifications!  I'm also guilty of not finishing one thing before I move onto the next.  I'm really enjoying them all but I'm not good at instantly reading and responding, I like time to think things over before I blog.  Trouble is, I like shiny new things and when a new thing comes up I start playing with it instead!

So - thankfully, mostly caught up for now and lesson learned - switch off notifications and set aside proper time without distraction to work on things (and I don't just mean Rudai things but the other 3 or 4 things I seem to have committed to recently as well!)

Now it gets visual, that's more like it! Things 8 and 9 Curation Tools and Video

Curation Tools

I've said on an earlier thing that I'm probably more of a visual person so it's no surprise that I'm already a big Pinterest fan.  I'm @ehcarlie if anyone fancies having a look.  I tended to focus firstly on things to do with my toddler so it's arts, crafts and reading games for small children.  It's a personal thing but I realised recently that lots of it is very relevant to my work in a public library so I also have a Work board which for some reason I decided to make private - I don't know why and I'm going to address that soon.  We haven't gone down the Pinterest line at work as we haven't made the most of our other tools really but I have definite plans to use Pinterest in November for Book Week Scotland and we'll see how it goes from there.  

I'd never heard of Flipboard and I think I might have found a new obsession - I love the idea of having a magazine I've made to read when I like just of articles I'm interested in!  The bonus is I now have more space in my bookmarks on my iPad having removed the flow of saved articles I never get round to reading again.  

I've seen Storify used to sum up conferences I've attended and think it's a good tool for that.  I'd definitely have to explore it a bit further to see if there are any other uses I can find for myself - potentially events that we hold in libraries.

Video

We haven't made much use of video, mainly a few nursery rhymes from Bookbug sessions and a bit of film from local events.  The most popular we've had is sharing a story we had readers tell during Book Week Scotland.  We've done a few now and it's always good fun: 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cM6h8rRhBGc

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cugAXjcW9l8

I definitely need to brush up on my editing skills for this year so I was really interested in options to edit on YouTube (I've only ever posted to it, not edited using it).  I'm also going to have a look at Screen-o-Matic as we've shared through the library account but mostly through my own and it would be more professional to have one platform.

Thing 7 - Podcasts

Confession time - I don't think I'm really a podcast kind of person.

I'm realising that I'm really quite visual.  I want to see images on my social media and I want to see images to go along with what I'm hearing.  It shouldn't surprise me as the only time I listen to the radio is in the car and I use music as a background mostly.

We haven't used podcasts though we did consider it at one point when we were looking into an online book group but found our council website too restrictive to use it.

I found Circulating Ideas really interesting and will check back regularly.  My experience of podcasts or at least of audio is mainly in history and archives.  I use SCRAN http://www.scran.ac.uk/ quite a lot with class visits and love the audio clips of oral history.  I can see how we maybe could use it to share some of the rhymes and songs we use for Bookbug sessions that parents don't know as well though I've shared some rhymes on YouTube from Bookbug sessions already and still think that would be my preferred medium.

Reflective Practice

I really enjoyed the reflective week.  I liked having the time to sit back, look at other blogs and find out who else was taking part and what they were saying.

From the blogs I had a chance to view I've learned a few things:

• Some people have far better looking blogs than me - the fact that I want mine to look better because of this says more about me than them!  Looking into improving the look and feel of my blog is one more thing for the to do list...
• Quite a few of us have similar feelings towards social media - do I want to put myself "out there", do I really need any more accounts, is this a new craze or will it last, how can this help me in my job?  I'm enjoying the chance to find new tools I might be able to use and I'm being choosy over wheich ones I want to sign up to, we all seem to be doing our own version of vetting a service for us personally.
• Some people have shared some great links or good articles and I've really enjoyed searching them out.  I've done a bit of reading around the subject of social media myself and am currently absorbing all I can from the brilliant Art of Social Media by Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick - I've borrowed mine from the library but you can buy it here http://artof.social/ - or use their great resources.  It's a really enjoyable quick guide to what works for various different platforms.

What Thing 6 didn't let me do was catch up - so I'm off to look into podcasts and video now!

Networking in a hangout!

As you can tell from the title I'm combining posts a bit here!

So to Google first.  I think librarians have a love/hate relationship with Google.  It's soul destroying when people just type a question into Google and think that's all they have to do to get an answer.  The thing is, we all do it too - can any of us really say we don't?

I've been with Google from very early on - I've had my gmail account since you had to be invited to have one.  I've used it extensively for work and embraced all the different adaptations so I use Google Drive, Google Forms and Google Docs and have used it to transfer work photos getting round the ever present barriers put in the way by our IT department (who still seem incapable of understanding that a public library is not an office!)  Recently Hangouts have been really handy as my brother has been working in Jamaica so we've been able to keep in touch that way rather than Skype.  I have Google+, I rarely use it as I find Facebook far more user friendly and just more popular and I really wouldn't be surprised if it disappears at some stage.

Online Networks
Since I've already mentioned it, I'll start with Facebook.  I have to put my hands up here and say that I reckon I'm a bit of a Facebook addict.  I've been on it for years and mainly had a policy of only being friends with people I'd actually met.  For many years I used it to keep in touch with people I already knew.  All well and good.  In November 2013 a seismic event occured and I had a baby.  As a first time mum who had been used to going to work full time and speaking to adults who had conversations back being at home was a scary experience.  I quickly found a group of like-minded individuals in women who'd also given birth around that time and there are now 170 of us in a group with around 70 of us regularly active.  It's been a lifesaver.  That experience of a group has also encouraged me to branch out and join groups for work purposes so it's been useful all round.
I also updated our Library Service Facebook page posting pictures of events, activities and general information.  We don't use it to the best of our ability and we really do need to improve on what we do so I'll be keeping a close eye out for any tips along the way.

I'm also on Twitter, personally and as our library service.  I have lists and join conversations personally and have done through our work account as well.  I like Twitter, I find out about lots of local events and news I wouldn't otherwise.  I've tweeted at a few CILIPS conferences and enjoyed joining the conversation about sessions I've been attending.  I never seem to be around for LibChat so I'm hoping I'll be able to take part in the Rudai23 chat.