Professional Development
Jen Gallagher, My Future, My Profession
Samantha Halford, Applying to Library School...and Beyond! 2012
Sam Wiggins, Thoughts on Chartership
Technology
Gary Green, Innovative Use of Technology in Libraries (guest post on the #uklibchat blog)
Information Literacy
Ned Potter, Rebooting infolit, the BATTLE DECKS way
Misc.
Brett Bonfield, Libraries: The Next Hundred Years
Ian Anstice, Make it one to remember: National Libraries Day, Saturday 9th February 2013
Saturday, 1 December 2012
Sunday, 4 November 2012
What I've been reading in October
Social Media
Phil Bradley, Should we outlaw 'social media'?
Phil Bradley, Personal reputation in a social media world
Literacy
Lane Wilkinson, Beyond 'Beyond Literacy'
School Libraries
The Guardian, Library campaigners to meet MPs
Chartership
Jo Alcock, Joeyanne McLip (one to come back to when I decide to attempt chartership!)
Events and Networking
Stephanie Taylor, #uklibchat in RL! (summary of the #uklibchat session at Library Camp 2012)
#uklibchat, Summary - 10th July 2012 - Conferences, events and networking
Publishing
Publishers Weekly, Random House, Penguin Agree to Merge
Phil Bradley, Should we outlaw 'social media'?
Phil Bradley, Personal reputation in a social media world
Literacy
Lane Wilkinson, Beyond 'Beyond Literacy'
School Libraries
The Guardian, Library campaigners to meet MPs
Chartership
Jo Alcock, Joeyanne McLip (one to come back to when I decide to attempt chartership!)
Events and Networking
Stephanie Taylor, #uklibchat in RL! (summary of the #uklibchat session at Library Camp 2012)
#uklibchat, Summary - 10th July 2012 - Conferences, events and networking
Publishing
Publishers Weekly, Random House, Penguin Agree to Merge
Monday, 15 October 2012
#uklibchat at Library Camp 2012
On Saturday I went to my second Library Camp, an unconference event held in Birmingham. While I enjoyed the whole day (and will hopefully blog about it at some point this week), the highlight for me was the I helped to facilitate with other members of the uklibchat team on the topic of careers.
After a delayed train and a half-an-hour scurry across Birmingham (I have short legs and was walking with some tall people!) I arrived at the venue in the middle of the session proposals. Luckily, Linsey and Lyle were on hand to propose the uklibchat session while I got my breath back. A post-it with our session name got stuck up on the timetable, and we were in!
We'd picked careers as it had been the most popular topic for uklibchat this year, and we hoped it would be something that plenty of people would want to talk about. Lots of people did turn up, and we had a good discussion which I was very happy about!
All the tweets are archived on Storify, and there is a post on the uklibchat blog which gathers together resources mentioned during the session, and posts from other blogs about the session.
Things that didn't go as planned:
After a delayed train and a half-an-hour scurry across Birmingham (I have short legs and was walking with some tall people!) I arrived at the venue in the middle of the session proposals. Luckily, Linsey and Lyle were on hand to propose the uklibchat session while I got my breath back. A post-it with our session name got stuck up on the timetable, and we were in!
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| Photo by Sarah Childs |
All the tweets are archived on Storify, and there is a post on the uklibchat blog which gathers together resources mentioned during the session, and posts from other blogs about the session.
Things that didn't go as planned:
- Wifi. The venue's wifi was either broken or just not equipped to handle so many tweeting and blogging librarians! I wasn't able to get a connection at all, so our grand plans of a hybrid session had to be scaled back a bit. We'd been hoping to live tweet the session, take questions from Twitter as well as the room, and set up a projector with a #uklibchat twitter stream so everyone could see all the tweets. However I was able to tweet from my phone, and we did have several people participating remotely. We'll have to try again at another event in the future!
- Sadly Ka-Ming missed her train and couldn't make it to Birmingham which was such a shame, but I thought Sarah and Linsey did a great job of introducing and facilitating the session without her. I was just desperately trying to keep up with the tweets as I'm pretty slow at typing on my phone!
- There was a really good mix of sectors and experience among the people at the session, which was great for this topic.
- People who couldn't make it to the session at the time were chipping in with their opinions on chartership, recruitment agencies etc. for the rest of the day on the #uklibchat hashtag.
- In the first session of the morning a few people had pointed out that it was difficult to follow the different sessions simultaneously being tweeted about on the #libcampuk12 hashtag, so I decided to stick to the #uklibchat hashtag for our session (having tweeted a couple of times on #libcampuk12 to warn people that that's what I was doing). I think this made it much easier to follow the session as we were going along, and to archive it afterwards.
- Lots of people took business cards at the end, woohoo!
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| Photo by Sarah Childs |
Thursday, 4 October 2012
What I've been reading in September
Careers
Andrew Milne, #CPD23 Thing 10 - Train in Vain?
Maria Giovanna De Simone, Thing 21: Promoting yourself in job applications and at interview (from the 23 Things for Professional Development blog)
Siobhan Britton, CPD23 Thing 21: Promoting yourself in job applications and at interview (a lot of very good tips here)
#uklibchat, Summary - 15th May - Careers
E-Books
Ian Anstice, E-Lending: the end of the library?
Alison Flood, Ebook lending review announced
Voices for the Library, Statement on the ebook lending review
Ian Clark, eBooks, public libraries and the publishing industry
Twitter
Jo Alcock, Five free methods of archiving tweets from events - which are best?
Misc.
Clare Sansom, The Perils of Terminology (and Lunch)
Jessamyn West, How not to write about libraries - some guidelines for reporters
Lane Wilkinson, On ethical reference service (or, "Fishmongers? In my library?")
Andrew Milne, #CPD23 Thing 10 - Train in Vain?
Maria Giovanna De Simone, Thing 21: Promoting yourself in job applications and at interview (from the 23 Things for Professional Development blog)
Siobhan Britton, CPD23 Thing 21: Promoting yourself in job applications and at interview (a lot of very good tips here)
#uklibchat, Summary - 15th May - Careers
E-Books
Ian Anstice, E-Lending: the end of the library?
Alison Flood, Ebook lending review announced
Voices for the Library, Statement on the ebook lending review
Ian Clark, eBooks, public libraries and the publishing industry
Jo Alcock, Five free methods of archiving tweets from events - which are best?
Misc.
Clare Sansom, The Perils of Terminology (and Lunch)
Jessamyn West, How not to write about libraries - some guidelines for reporters
Lane Wilkinson, On ethical reference service (or, "Fishmongers? In my library?")
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| Photo by Bethan on Flickr |
Tuesday, 25 September 2012
Visiting Cambridge University Library Map Room
Last week I visited the Map Room at the UL for Cambridge Library Group's first meeting of the year. Although I've spent a fair amount of time at the UL over the last couple of years, I'd not been to the Map Room before, and was really impressed by the gorgeous items on display.
Anne Taylor and Andrew Alexander introduced us to the collection, which includes originals and facsimiles of manuscript and early printed maps and atlases, as well as modern maps, and a large collection of postcards. While a lot comes to the department through legal deposit, they also buy antiquarian and modern maps, and receive donations (in particular from the Ministry of Defence's map library, the largest map library in the country, which purchases four copies of every map and then donates three of the copies to libraries around the country when they purchase a new edition). When the Ordnance Survey maps went online and the OS archives decided not to keep their 1st edition maps, the UL purchased that collection, which showed up in three lorries rather unexpectedly one day!
Anne and Andrew had put a variety of maps out on display for our group, including a beautifully illustrated celestial atlas by Andreas Cellarias from 1661, a colourful world map titled TEA REVIVES THE WORLD! produced by the International Tea Market Expansion Board which was covered in quotes and facts about tea, and OS snapshots of the Olympic Park site taken at various points since we won the bid, showing the development there. My favourite was a map of Iceland drawn by Abraham Ortelius in around 1595, showing sea monsters surrounding the island complete with notes in Latin describing each beast (e.g. "All gristly, rather like a skate, but infinitely larger"). There's an image of part of that map on the map department's website here.
It was a great visit, and I ended up being one of the last hangers-on who spent so long looking at the maps that Andrew threatened to put us to work cataloguing them! Having had a taste of the confusing world of scales, projections and co-ordinates in my Cat & Class module at UCL I didn't take Andrew up on his offer, but will definitely visit again!
Anne Taylor and Andrew Alexander introduced us to the collection, which includes originals and facsimiles of manuscript and early printed maps and atlases, as well as modern maps, and a large collection of postcards. While a lot comes to the department through legal deposit, they also buy antiquarian and modern maps, and receive donations (in particular from the Ministry of Defence's map library, the largest map library in the country, which purchases four copies of every map and then donates three of the copies to libraries around the country when they purchase a new edition). When the Ordnance Survey maps went online and the OS archives decided not to keep their 1st edition maps, the UL purchased that collection, which showed up in three lorries rather unexpectedly one day!
Anne and Andrew had put a variety of maps out on display for our group, including a beautifully illustrated celestial atlas by Andreas Cellarias from 1661, a colourful world map titled TEA REVIVES THE WORLD! produced by the International Tea Market Expansion Board which was covered in quotes and facts about tea, and OS snapshots of the Olympic Park site taken at various points since we won the bid, showing the development there. My favourite was a map of Iceland drawn by Abraham Ortelius in around 1595, showing sea monsters surrounding the island complete with notes in Latin describing each beast (e.g. "All gristly, rather like a skate, but infinitely larger"). There's an image of part of that map on the map department's website here.
It was a great visit, and I ended up being one of the last hangers-on who spent so long looking at the maps that Andrew threatened to put us to work cataloguing them! Having had a taste of the confusing world of scales, projections and co-ordinates in my Cat & Class module at UCL I didn't take Andrew up on his offer, but will definitely visit again!
Tuesday, 4 September 2012
What I've been reading in August
Well, we did it! My MA class has now submitted our dissertations, and that's the end of my year at UCL. This blog has been very quiet over the summer for obvious reasons, but I'm hoping to get back into the habit of blogging regularly once more now that I have a bit more time on my hands! I managed to keep the monthly round up posts going though as they're fairly quick to put together, and here is what I've been reading in August (or in most cases this month, what I kept unread until the start of September!)
eBooks
Andy Woodworth, Libraries and eBook Publishers: Friend Zone Level 300
Marketing library services
Naomi Tiley, IFLA Conference: Marketing of Rare and Special Collections in a Digital Age
Stpehen Barr, How should academic libraries communicate their own value?
Information Literacy
Daniel Russell, Internet Search: What makes it simple, difficult or impossible?
Meredith Farkas, The devil you know in first-year instruction
Games and libraries
Lisa Poisso, Real-life librarians hit the Ironforge stacks (interview with Ellen Forsyth from the WoW guild Where is the Library, which runs regular discussion groups in Ironforge library)
Games and Libraries, Edited transcripts of talks (archive of the Where is the Library discussions)
Presenting
Bobbi Newman, 20 Things to Do After You Accept that Speaking Gig
R. David Lankes, Beyond the Bullet Points: Bullet Points (advice for developing speaker skills)
Neutrality in events and conferences
Library Camp, The Co-operative Bank Grant Application
Lauren Smith, Library Politics and Agenda-Setting
Misc.
Brian Matthews, Think Like a Startup (I haven't had time to read all of this yet, but it's good stuff. Aaron Tay's post below pulls out some of the main points)
Aaron Tay, "We're a cut-and-paste profession"
Travis McDade, The difficulty of insider book theft
eBooks
Andy Woodworth, Libraries and eBook Publishers: Friend Zone Level 300
Marketing library services
Naomi Tiley, IFLA Conference: Marketing of Rare and Special Collections in a Digital Age
Stpehen Barr, How should academic libraries communicate their own value?
Information Literacy
Daniel Russell, Internet Search: What makes it simple, difficult or impossible?
Meredith Farkas, The devil you know in first-year instruction
Games and libraries
Lisa Poisso, Real-life librarians hit the Ironforge stacks (interview with Ellen Forsyth from the WoW guild Where is the Library, which runs regular discussion groups in Ironforge library)
Games and Libraries, Edited transcripts of talks (archive of the Where is the Library discussions)
Presenting
Bobbi Newman, 20 Things to Do After You Accept that Speaking Gig
R. David Lankes, Beyond the Bullet Points: Bullet Points (advice for developing speaker skills)
Neutrality in events and conferences
Library Camp, The Co-operative Bank Grant Application
Lauren Smith, Library Politics and Agenda-Setting
Misc.
Brian Matthews, Think Like a Startup (I haven't had time to read all of this yet, but it's good stuff. Aaron Tay's post below pulls out some of the main points)
Aaron Tay, "We're a cut-and-paste profession"
Travis McDade, The difficulty of insider book theft
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| In the Ironforge Library by Tourach |
Sunday, 29 July 2012
What I've been reading in July
Mashcat
I found Mashcat a really interesting unconference. I won't pretend to have understood everything that was talked about, but I definitely learnt a lot! These are the slides/blog posts from my favourite sessions.
Ed Chamberlain, Text to data [slides]
Gary Green, A Travellers Map in Yahoo Pipes (Really cool visual way to search subject headings referring to places)
Owen Stephens, Boutique Catalogues (Includes demonstration of how a catalogue could be customised for musicians, creating faceted indexes for key, bpm and time-signature)
Presenting
Ned Potter, Good presentations matter
Libraries and the Internet
Lauren Smith, Internet Access and Public Libraries
Phil Bradley, Libraries charging for internet access is wrong
Voices for the Library, Free internet access should be a cornerstone of every public library
Ian Clark, Barking libraries - tiny cuts or massive scars?
CILIP, Act risks limiting internet access in libraries, schools and universities
E-books
Alison Flood, Call to 'move libraries into 21st century' sparks ebook lending review
Volunteer libraries
CILIP, Value of staff at heart of revised volunteer policy
Dalya Alberge, Authors face royalty threat from volunteer libraries
Ian Anstice, Surrey chooses volunteers over paid staff at the same cost
Online learning
Emma Cragg, Where next for 23 Things? (I've heard a lot about coursera lately, and I'm definitely going to look into it when I finish my MA. One course at a time though...)
I found Mashcat a really interesting unconference. I won't pretend to have understood everything that was talked about, but I definitely learnt a lot! These are the slides/blog posts from my favourite sessions.
Ed Chamberlain, Text to data [slides]
Gary Green, A Travellers Map in Yahoo Pipes (Really cool visual way to search subject headings referring to places)
Owen Stephens, Boutique Catalogues (Includes demonstration of how a catalogue could be customised for musicians, creating faceted indexes for key, bpm and time-signature)
Presenting
Ned Potter, Good presentations matter
Libraries and the Internet
Lauren Smith, Internet Access and Public Libraries
Phil Bradley, Libraries charging for internet access is wrong
Voices for the Library, Free internet access should be a cornerstone of every public library
Ian Clark, Barking libraries - tiny cuts or massive scars?
CILIP, Act risks limiting internet access in libraries, schools and universities
E-books
Alison Flood, Call to 'move libraries into 21st century' sparks ebook lending review
Volunteer libraries
CILIP, Value of staff at heart of revised volunteer policy
Dalya Alberge, Authors face royalty threat from volunteer libraries
Ian Anstice, Surrey chooses volunteers over paid staff at the same cost
Online learning
Emma Cragg, Where next for 23 Things? (I've heard a lot about coursera lately, and I'm definitely going to look into it when I finish my MA. One course at a time though...)
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| By Guillermo Esteves on Flickr |
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