CPD23 Thing 5 - Reflective practice

So now on to thing 5 and time for me to think a bit more about my reflective practice. I have been participating in more reflection since beginning the CPD23 course using this blog as my reflective canvas but now is the time for me to follow a clear structure in my reflection, a consistent cycle to follow.

At present, I tend to reflect on my work quite a bit but anecdotally, developing a structured approach to reflection in my work will be really useful for me and help me develop it as a professional tool. I always find the most important element for me with a bit of reflection is the process of how the task could have been improved. I do this when I help a user in the library, after the enquiry is over I think about how the exchange went, how well I feel I met the information need and if there was anything else I could have done to improve and if there were any areas I then go on to improve my knowledge of the enquiry topic.

However, this being said, it is also a good idea for me to go over the positives as I believe they contribute to the learning experience.  A lot of reflection tends to focus on negative aspects but there is a lot to be gained from reflecting on how well we have done on any particular task.  Quality of reflection is key, having read a bit on reflection as part of CPD23 I need to put into practice a quality framework of reflective practice and learning and start to put this into practice not only in my work but also my course work and study style as a way of improving how I go about my distance learning studies, finding out what works well for me and developing it.

Image © Linda Hazle, 2011

CPD23 - Thing 4: Current awareness

Current awareness of the library field became big for me just prior to starting my Aberystwyth distance learning Library and Information Studies Msc.  But it is a minefield out there, there are just so many ways to follow what is going on and without really knowing where all the people in the know are, it is difficult to choose which 1,2,3 or more online resources to use, no one really wants to be the kid picked last for sports and that's exactly how I thought it might feel to be left on the social network sideline.  However, there really is no other way to find out where the information flow is than to just start looking, sign up and start to write, read or tweet. It's a great way to bring all the relevant, filtered content straight to you and well, in an increasingly busy society with ever increasing amounts of information available to us, this can be no bad thing.

When finding my feet in the library and information online world, I started reading Phil Bradley's blog which really helped increase my awareness of the online tools available for professional use.  I then signed up to Twitter and have found this a great way to keep up with current developments.  This is especially the case on the move, as I have found my Twitter Android app an invaluable tool in keeping posted even when I am away from my pc or laptop. The lists of people to follow on Twitter within the CPD23 thing 4 post have given me some good suggestions of others worth following in my field of academic libraries and I will go back and add others from other library backgrounds for general professional interest in libraries.

RSS feeds
I have never really gotten into using RSS, I have had a look a few times, subscribed to a few feeds and that's about as far as it ever went.  Then a few weeks ago I downloaded Google reader phone and was impressed by the ease of integration, when logged in with my Gmail account, all of the blogs I follow here were listed.  This ease of use between platforms and being able to store links and keep relevant website updates in one easy to access place has changed my mind about the use of RSS and I will be experimenting with it as a tool to keep up-to-date with library and information news.

Pushnote
This is something I have never used, so time to check it out and report back once I have experimented a bit...

Trying to pin down the most useful tool for me in terms of keeping informed of the latest developments in the library field is hard, I like to use a variety of tools, networks and platforms as I find it is the best way to get a wide and varied view of what is going on. The process of reflecting on current awareness has been a useful task for me as I have found a few more tools to use and by reflecting on current awareness I have fine tuned how I use the tools available to me for professional development in the library and information field.

CPD23 - Thing 3: My personal brand

Recent dedication and determination to complete my current Aber ILS module has left me slightly behind in completing my CPD 23 blog posts however, I told myself I was going to complete this programme and when I start something I want to see it through.  So, with this in mind, I will be working my way through the 'things' which I have missed starting now with thing 3.

Some really interesting points in the post on Thing 3: consider your personal brand which made me stop and think about how I want to convey my professional and indeed personal self to the online world.  Having studied leisure management then on to management with HR at university when completing my first degree, I have always been aware of the importance of brand identity and how important company image is as the major part of my studies surrounding branding were focused around organisational distinctiveness and corporate identity.  Now that I am 7 years into my career within the library and information profession and part way through an Msc in Information and Library Studies, it is time for me to take what I have learned about organisational brands along with what I have read on the CPD23 blog post and on other CPD23 participants blogs and apply it to my own personal brand.

Thinking about my own unique identity within the online library community and even offline within my work and studies, I guess I am part way to achieving an image, if I look back over job applications which I have completed in the past, I start to see a pattern of how I sell myself, now just a case of applying this along with an image and I am part way there.

Now for the vain part, the Google search of my own name, there were several results on the first page which did refer to me personally but I am perfectly happy with them.  My Facebook page is listed along with some Twitter posts.  Twitter is my main social network for professional purposes, I like to use it to follow the latest developments in libraries, technology and business and mainly use it to post about my studies or interesting library, technology or business related links.  However, after looking at the advice as part of CPD23, one thing I am going to do is work on linking the profiles together to create a consistent brand image of myself as mentioned by Jo on the CPD23 thing 3 post: visual identity (http://cpd23.blogspot.com/2011_06_01_archive.html). 

This was always refelcted in my studies of organisational brands and is something I believe is very important in the image of any individual or organisation, afterall we only have to look at the biggest and best brands of the world to see how successful this can be.  Clever marketing and strong brand image can often see people and/or organisations identified by a logo alone.  Ok, so perhaps my own brand won't go worldwide in an instant but applying the same ethos to strong marketing of my own personal brand is certainly a start to fully establishing myself in the library and information community.

Thing 2: Investigate some other blogs

As I sit down at my PC for some serious devotion to Aberils studying on the non-use of libraries, I find I can't concentrate as I want to make a start on my 2nd blog post - 'Thing 2' of CPD23. I take this as a sign I am enjoying the online professional development course, so thank you to those organising the content, I believe I am going to get a lot out of it.  It is also a sign that trying to complete a module which is delivered completely online is an enormous test of self-restraint, which I am clearly lacking today!

So, time to look around and discover other bloggers taking part in CPD23, where to begin?  There are so many with interesting titles; I could probably spend hours making my way through and still not be done with the ones I want to read.  Since my self-restraint is lacking somewhat today, I feel this is going to be no easy task but time for me to be disciplined, if not in my dedication to study on a Sunday afternoon then in my decisiveness to choose some blogs to read.

The first blog I have chosen to look at is Dreaming in the stacks I found this blog post by chance before I had even started looking through the participants list but by looking at the traffic to my own blog as I was getting to grips with all the options available to me on Blogger and the 'stats' tab.  I am glad I discovered as I related to a lot of the comments here and so look forward to reading more as the course progresses.

As I work in an academic library, I have decided to look at blogs posted by others in the same field as a starting point, I will then go on to look at other areas of interest as I think that although not in the same field, a lot can be gained from reading about others from different areas and what they are doing both personally and professionally.  After all, this is one of the reasons I decided to take part.

Having met Library Wanderer at our 2 Aber study schools so far, I have decided to read what Helen has to say about CPD23. I particularly enjoyed reading as posts are filled with wit and humour and I particularly enjoyed the fact that the blog post for Thing 2 was related to Neighbours, I used to love this show and actually caught my first episode in years just the other day. In this post I was quite literally 'meeting the Neighbours' - great writing by Library Wanderer, I look forward to reading more.

The next blog I have chosen to look at is Cat(and class)woman, I was initially drawn by the academic library tag then by the name.  On reading this blog post, I discovered that we share a similar background, first in public libraries then on to academic. I look forward to following what Cat(and class)woman posts over the course of CPD23.

The blogs I have looked at so far and decided to follow have posts which I relate to in some way - I think a theme is starting to develop here in my selection process but I promise myself that I will also look at blogs of those not in the same field of work or with the same thoughts.  I look forward to reading further posts in all areas but for now I must conclude this blog post and go read about the non-use of libraries for my Aberils coursework.

CPD23 - My first ever blog post

So...here goes, my first ever blog post.  Being a user and a great believer in the benefits of social media, it is surprising that so far I have avoided blogging.  For a long time I have contemplated the idea of writing a blog but with trepidation, what do I write about? Who would actually read my posts? What do I have to say that is even remotely interesting?!  Well, cpd23 is the perfect way for me to get writing, it will give me a clear focus on what to write and allow me to develop my writing and blogging skills for personal and professional development. 

I feel that participating in cpd23 will give me the opportunity to develop my reflective writing which I have often read about the benefits of but never fully practiced.  I look forward to reading other cpd23 blog posts and increasing my awareness of what others in the library and information profession are doing.  Mostly though, I look forward to having a bit of self-indulgent fun,  jotting down my thoughts in the hope others will find them interesting, and perhaps even share a little knowledge along the way.