My name is Karen and I'm a CILIP Mentor

Earlier this year (2013), I attended a CILIP mentoring course.  Although I did supervise someone through the chartership process some years ago  (I was on maternity leave, and that baby is now nearly 18!), this was long before supervisors became mentors.  Somehow it never occurred to me to become a mentor under the present system.  I suppose if someone had asked me to be their mentor, it would have jolted me into action.  Anyway, now I've been a Fellow for a couple of years, and younger colleagues have expressed interest in becoming chartered, it seemed like the right time to take the necessary steps.

So here I am - a mentor at last.  I have two new mentees, another would-be mentee that I am meeting later this month, and a fourth initial approach.  I feel like 'the old woman who lived in a shoe'!  I don't know how many mentees a mentor normally takes care of - if you're a CILIP mentor reading this, I'd be interested to hear from you.

I thought it would be a good idea to put a few thoughts on this blog, since it's devoted to CPD things.  I set it up when I was participating in the "23 Things" initiative.  I won't try to cover everything in one posting, so do revisit it.

Meanwhile, I'll repeat what I've said to my mentees already.  Do keep a journal of significant achievements, or problems and subsequent solutions.  Blog about them if you like - obviously, there's no need to bare your soul publicly if something went pear-shaped and you'd rather it remained private!  Keep a record of what you set out to do, how it turned out, whether you got any feedback from colleagues or library patrons, and whether you'd have done anything differently in retrospect.  And keep a folder of any handouts, guides or reports you've written - or courses you've attended.  It's all 'evidence' for your portfolio.  If you've put things online, do keep a list of the hyperlinks.  (I use Diigo for favourites, and Academia.edu for my more scholarly outputs - the latter is probably more useful if you're in an academic environment.)  If you've written journal articles or book reviews, keep them - and make sure you keep proper bibliographic citations so they can be traced or cited later. 

Also - I'm a great one for social media in professional development, so I warmly recommend joining Twitter and following discussions like the #chartership chats that take place on Thursday nights.  You get to meet other people following the same journey as yourself, and I hardly need to spell out the benefits of that!!

ACRONYMS

Sadly, librarianship is full of acronyms.  I expect every profession has its share of them, though.  If you've stumbled across this and you're not a librarian, here's a quick key:-

CILIP  Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals
CILIPS is the Scottish branch of CILIP
CPD    Continuing professional development (in any profession!)

WEBSITES

Diigo.com (and here's mine)
Academia.edu (look me up if you like!)
CILIP chartership wiki
(The wiki is for candidates, so I haven't joined. However, it offers sample portfolios, which I think is a great idea.  It takes away some of the fear of the unknown.) 

An extra contribution: On writing readably

After my diatribe about Prezi, I wouldn't want colleagues to think I was a wet blanket!

So, since I'm not really a grumpy old curmudgeon, I thought I'd share something I wrote last night with research students in mind - a piece entitled, On Writing Readably.  If you've got a chartership portfolio or dissertation in the offing, maybe this might offer food for thought.

Thing 10: Here's where I feel old

Thing 10: 

Graduate traineeships, Masters Degrees, Chartership, Accreditation

I can complete this Thing really quickly, but boy, does it make me feel old?!

1. Graduate traineeships - Exeter 1982-1983.  (Yesterday I made my apologies to the "other" Chief Librarian who offered me a traineeship back in 1982! We expressed regret at not having had the chance to enjoy one another's company, and pleasure that I'd got my career off to a good start regardless.)
2. I already had an MA in Music before my graduate traineeship.  (It would have been an MLitt if I'd done it later - totally by research, all 60K words of it ...)
3. I chose to do a Postgraduate Diploma in Librarianship because I already had a Masters.  Then bust a gut to get a Distinction because I didn't like the idea of "just" passing it.  Luckily, the gut-busting paid off!  Although I've sometimes wondered if I should have done an MSc in Librarianship rather than a diploma, I don't really think it has made any difference.  And for my generation, a postgraduate diploma was quite normal - getting a Masters  as your professional qualification was only just coming in as an alternative route.
4. Chartership - it saddens me when new entrants to the profession agonize about chartership.  It is worth doing, in my opinion - and it isn't the big ordeal some people would have you believe.  I started preparing for mine as soon as I got my first professional job.  Seems a long, long time ago.
5. Accreditation.  I haven't done this, as such, but I've recently done a part-time PhD and gained my Fellowship of CILIP, so I think I've demonstrated commitment to CPD!

There, Thing 10 done and dusted.  Back to that bulging inbox ...