Thing 4: Current Awareness

I have enjoyed this Thing as we’ve all been able to take so much from each other, such is the egalitarian nature of Twitter.  By being on it and using it nearly every day I’ve got to learn loads.  Even by simply lurking I have picked up rules of etiquette, tips and brilliant advice. (Maybe lurking is bad etiquette?!)  For the most part though, I adopted the Learn By Doing approach and just got on with it.  You’ll see my nonsense on Twitter most days now and it helped when I got my Smart phone a few months ago too.  However, Thing 4 has really helped me think about how I should be using it “properly”.

Last week, I took a look at this excellent blog post by @medievaljenga.  It holds some solid tips and advice and further tools to use to make the most of Twitter.  Will definitely be checking out Pocket.  Snap Bird was also a revelation to me as well, thanks to @walkyouhome.

At first, like many others who have already written about this Thing, it all seemed overwhelming and I limited the number of people I followed.  However, the more I explored the more interesting and funny and informative people I found so I wanted to follow to see what they had to say.  I have spent today so far sorting out many of these in to lists as suggested by Jen in her aforementioned excellent blog post.  I have to say though that Tweet Deck has yet to reveal itself to me properly, as the app I am using. That is, I am not sure how to use it the most efficiently to help myself.  I’m still experimenting as I didn’t really have much trouble on my own timeline catching things I was interested in or wanted to contribute to.  I will persevere though, to use Twitter in such a way as to exploit its many benefits.  

(The next thing I must learn: how to “mute” certain things, for example I am not interested in every single conference that people are going to, and sometimes up to ten people are live-tweeting such events and it is too much!  Even though I don’t read anywhere near every tweet on my timeline, it would be good to have some control.)

I’m keen to stick it out with Twitter as the more I use it the more I get out of it.  There are some brilliant people out there.  Good enough to get their tweets embroidered on samplers? I expect so. Although, maybe iced on a cake might be more fitting for these LIS gurus.

RSS feeds - have been using Google Reader intermittently for a couple of years.  I usually forget all about it to be honest despite my life being basically run by Google these days.  Now though I’ve subscribed to some really great blogs and being involved in cpd 23 things is making me want to keep up so for this it’s been awesome.  I love the RSS feed for all participants in the programme, really useful!  I really enjoyed @girlinthe’s post about how it all comes together - an interesting peer in the back door.

Storify looks spiffy. I love how it looks and it has enhanced many a presentation or news article.  I haven’t played with it myself, although have made baby steps and set up an account. I’ll come back to it when I have an actual cause to use it.

Thing 3 - Considering my personal brand

Quite the debate kicked off on Tuesday regarding brand.  However, I don’t want to dwell too much on what everyone else has been saying.  Three weeks into this project and I am guilty of doing this, becoming preoccupied with a debate and not how I actually feel about it.  I reckon this will pass as I get more confident and chatty on the blogging front, but for now I will just focus on the task in hand: Thing 3 – Personal Brand.

I am apprehensive of the term and concept of personal branding.  I don’t feel like I am a brand and certainly not a fully functional person who can be defined by the tweets I send, the blog posts I attempt (hello!) or the idiotic things I post on Facebook.  (Actually my Facebook is so idiotic it’s STRICTLY personal.)  It is slightly intimidating, as a new professional, to find yourself being judged almost on what you tweet about, how your blog looks or whether or not you can even see your face in your photo.  I am very much in awe of those LIS professionals out there who have a big online presence, or who have honed and impressive knowledge and opinions, or who know where they are or where they want to be.  I am still on a “journey” (HA, sorry couldn’t resist).  I know that there are things I don’t like about the sector I work in (specifically college libraries) but I don’t feel ready to shout about them online.  Because to me at the moment, there is a lot of noise on here and you do have to shout to be heard.

When I decided to do CPD23 Things I knew that I would have to really think about the way I come across online, and what I should and should not do.  I know that I have to stop thinking and start acting, and luckily being on Twitter and starting this blog is letting me do this by tentatively joining in on one massive, long and interesting conversation with many a tangent, tip and picture of cute kittens along the way.

So, when setting up my Twitter profile I just thought it would be easier to use my actual name.  I’m happy for it to be out there and I am quite awful at thinking up usernames for anything.  I used a photo of myself which is pretty old (2008) and is only the side of my face because I don’t think I own any good photos of myself.  Plus this photo was taken in Shibuya, Tokyo so every time I see it I remember that awesome 3 months in Japan.  I also used this photo on this blog for the same reasons, and I suppose it gives a bit of consistency so that people will remember me.

The title of my blog came from my Twitter bio as I thought it formed a nice link.  It is also a cunning reference to my place of work: Corpus Christi, Oxford which has quite a lovely connection to bees, with the founder likening the college to a beehive.  The college does still have a number of beehives too and a related dedication to local eco-friendly schemes.  How civilised. 

If I Google myself, the first few results are not me.  The first few results are other Hilarys on LinkedIn and Facebook, including a one-woman band from the US.  This is cool, but not me.  My Twitter page shows up quite far down the list, as does my very first blog post for the Oxford Libraries Graduate Trainee blog.  If I then add “library” and search again, the first four results are me!  My Twitter page, followed by the library contacts page from the college’s website, then my Trainee post, and then the Oxford Library Teach Meet where I gave a little presentation last summer (I’m really pleased that showed up).  On the whole, I am pretty happy with these results.  My Facebook doesn't appear immediately which I am glad about because it is not a professional thing at all.  Not that I have anything to hide from prospective employers or colleagues, I just have quite a strict personal Facebook "policy" and will really only be friends with someone on there if we are "real-life" friends, or actually hang-out and interact fairly frequently (online or in person), or are related. Anyway, that was a weird aside, apologies.

As far as the whole “profersonal” thing goes, I hope I am balanced.  That said, I tend not to tweet independently about libraries and issues that often, but will reply to others who do.  I tweet a lot of nonsense with other folk I know, both library and other friends so that side is very much personal.  I think I actually prefer to see a library professional tweet both personal (although, let’s be honest, no one wants intimate) and professional things.  This must just come down to nosiness!  No, really, I like seeing the types of people I share a profession with as often we have similar world viewpoints, things in common, the same typing quirks..  I’m not convinced my blog tells my readers who I am, because it is still very much in its infancy.  Backgrounds and layouts are kind of a side issue for me, I’d rather let my posts tell you all you need to know.  But no doubt one day I’ll want a big ol’ bumble bee banner or something.

Thing 2 - Exploring the blogosphere

I’ve read some fantastic posts and discovered some really interesting voices out there already and am only 2 things and 1 week into the programme!  Thanks to everyone who has made me laugh, agree, disagree, nod and enthuse – way too many to list here but I am gradually overcoming my fear and starting to get the hang of this.  Although starting off is hard!  I’m still learning how all the bits and bobbins of blogger and RSS feeds and Readers and such actually work but hey, that’s what we’re here to learn right?

I didn’t address the schedule in my first post but I am looking forward to the taking part-ness of physical networking – Thing 7 falls the week after I plan to attend my first CILIP branch event so that is good.  It will be good to put some faces to names/profiles and nice to physically feel part of a network.  I am such a quiet tweeter and have minimal online presence that at the moment I feel like I’m the one lost and wandering round out the back looking for somewhere to hang my coat and fix my hair before making an actual entrance.

It is really Things 15 onwards that fill me with a sort of dreadful enthusiasm.  I want to take them on but it will be scary!  I am aware of the bun fight that occurs when newly qualified Librarians start looking for all the jobs and the competition will be fierce but personally I need to make sure I don’t quit before I’ve even started.  These last few things will help to, I’m sure, instil confidence and help me to make the correct decisions and really get to know myself professionally.  Still scary as hell though!  Thing 20 will be good for some moral support and I love the Library Day in the Life project, having taken part when I was an Oxford Library Graduate Trainee!

Anyway, in the meantime I will continue to read your posts and comment where I can!

First, break your eggs

Pretty stressful finding a name that wasn’t taken, but here I am!  Just signed up to this year’s CPD 23 Things!

I’m doing it this year because the re-launch this week coincided rather well with my last deadline for library school until September.  This means that I have the summer to make a good stab at this and hopefully by the start of the new term I will be so good at blogging that it will be a fairly normal part of my routine, ha.  

I have actually been toying with the idea of whether I should set up a blog for a while now as I’m halfway through my MSc and working at a nice place and generally having quite a lovely time so it would be good to challenge myself to really dive into my profession.  My main reason for not doing so though is the ever-present worry of does the world really need my ramblings on yet another library blog?  I’m worried I don’t have the “right” things to say and a lot of it comes down to old fashioned shyness!  I’m not comfortable with talking about myself in “real-life” but this programme is awesome and will encourage me to start reflecting and, I hope, help me find my niche, find the issues I’m interested in and feel better connected.  So CPD23 is giving me the impetus to ignore all these silly worries and just get on with it!

So, background.  Am halfway through the MSc ILM at UWE and working as part-time Senior Library Assistant in a college library in Oxford.  I’m really keen to get going and explore, learn some new things and maybe meet some new people along the way.  I’ve had quite a few nods and prods of recommendation so I’m hoping this just doesn’t fall off like that pair of Fairisle mittens I started and never finished because I screwed up my gauge and have one enormous mitten that I can’t bear to unravel and start again…anyway.  (Yeah, I knit too. Surprised?)