Thing 7: Getting involved professionally

This is an easy "thing" for me to write about, because I've always been professionally involved.

1. CILIP.  I got chartered (ALA) in the Library Association as soon as I'd put in the requisite amount of experience, and written my professional development report.  Actually, it wasn't nearly as difficult as some people would have you believe, so if anyone reading this is still working towards chartership, then my message to them is, 'Please don't worry about it!'.  I'm happy to be a sounding-board for anyone with any concerns about it.  Anyway, I've been a member ever since, and I also supervised my maternity cover's chartership.  Although it wasn't easy getting away to attend events when I had young children (I only had 3 months' maternity leave after the birth of each child), I tried to keep active at arm's length, and I did write a couple of articles for Personnel Training and Development, in 2001.  I've nearly always subscribed to more groups than the minimum two, though my choices have changed from time to time.  More recently, I submitted my Fellowship application a couple of years ago.
2. IAML (UK and Irl).  I joined IAML at the same time as I joined CILIP - as a librarianship postgrad at College of Librarianship Wales, Aberystwyth.  Within a year, I was working as a music librarian in South Tyneside, and at that stage I became IAML (UK and Irl)'s Newsletter Editor and Brio Reviews Editor.  This meant trips to London for Exec meetings - which I managed until the kids came along.  If you begin to see a theme emerging, I'm afraid it's that people without children inevitably get more involved in group activities and committees, whilst full-time working mothers with three young children tend to get less involved!  I was Brio Reviews Editor from 1989-1992, but withdrew slightly from involvement in professional organisations while the kids were young; there was a dip in my conference attendances, although I did get away to day-events from time to time.  More recently I've written for the Newsletter and Brio, spoken at a couple of conferences, and written a review and a paper for Fontes (the international organisation).
3. Locally, I've represented the RSAMD (now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, since our namechange) at SALCTG (Scottish Academic Libraries Cooperative Training Group) for many years, and I've just become Convenor of that group.  It's good to be involved in something local, where you get to meet people with similar interests over an extended period of time. 
4. For quite a while I also represented RSAMD at the SCURL Disabilities Group, addressing access issues for disabled readers, but the group has disbanded now.  (I gave a paper and published an article for that, too.)
5. In 2002, I found three nineteenth century Dundonian flute manuscripts after a library refurbishment.  You might ask why I'm mentioning this here: it's because it marked the reawakening of my interest in musicological research.   In one sense, it is coincidental that this marked the start of my youngest son's school career - in another, it's perhaps just as well!  From 2004-9 I studied part-time for a PhD, alongside my full-time job.  This has led to a lot of networking in musicological circles, particularly the Royal Musical Association.  I'm currently on the Council for that, too.  I've attended RMA research students' conferences, and published a paper in the RMA Research Chronicle.  I'm also a member of the international specialist Eighteenth Century Scottish Studies Society - I've written a paper and a couple of book reviews for them, too - and I attend Musica Scotica conferences locally in Glasgow.  More presentations and another published paper.
6. I now lurk on Twitter, which is a great way of keeping abreast of professional concerns.  More so for librarianship than musicology, I have to say.  Maybe I'm just not following the right Twitter trends.  It's more vital to my day-to-day existence that I keep up with librarianship stuff.  I haven't given up on the research - indeed, I have a book at the publishers' right now - but I earn my daily crust as a librarian.

Sometimes, I feel I haven't made much progress professionally, having been in the same job 24 years.  But looking at this lot, I certainly haven't stagnated.  That's something I can be proud of, I suppose!

Thing 4 reprise (Reflection on Maslow's hierarchy of needs)

'And what kind of a day has everyone had today?', my youngest son asked at tea.  I hadn't anything interesting to tell him.  

Do they still tell you about Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, at library school?   At the bottom of the pyramid are the 'fed, clothed and sheltered' needs.  The next level is the need to be safe.  Then to be loved and to belong.  If you've got all that - and I recognise that far too many of humanity haven't got all that - then the next level is the need for esteem, and finally for self-actualization - creativity, and so on.

With grateful thanks to Wikipedia

Well, we all have days when we feel we have made a difference and even been moderately creative.  Today was not one of those days.  I changed classmarks in part of the system invisible to all but my library colleagues.  I reclassified books which are only likely to be read by a tiny minority of our readers. And I withdrew books which have never felt as though they were loved at all!  It felt sadly as though I hadn't made any difference in my organisation.  I hadn't solved any problems, and I certainly hadn't been creative.  In a place jam-packed, indeed STUFFED with creative people, this felt all wrong.

I need another research project, or something extensive to write.  Amusing little limericks, written in my spare time, aren't going to satisfy that need.  With that thought in mind, I'm going to make a cuppa and go read a deep, scholarly book.  Maybe it'll trigger some inspiration - I sadly need it!

Peeping over the Fence (Week 5, Thing 6)

I sneaked a look at next week's 'Thing' and found it was all about networking:-

Week 5 (4th June) - Online Networks

• Thing 6: Online networks (LinkedIn, Facebook, LISNPN, LATNetwork, CILIP Communities)

Well, that's very handy, because I'm going down south to the Big Smoke at the end of June for a social media event - networking enthusiastically with a new group of people, and I've been asked to blog about it!   (I hope all these lovely new friends won't be looking for a wee Scottish lassie, because I may be wee, but ah'm no' Scottish, and ah'm far tae auld tae be described as a lassie!)

 

 

It's the London Information and Knowledge Exchange event on 29th June, and you can find out more about it here: the event and its blog.

As it happens, I network in lots of different circles, but the first two networks listed in Thing 6 are not my preferred ones.  And I have yet to look at LISPN and LATNetwork.  I'm not over-keen on LinkedIn - people contact you wanting to link up with you, even when you can see that your working lives are unlikely ever to intersect.  And onceLinkedIn have got you, it's very hard to remove yourself.  As for Facebook - well, I've chosen to tweet professionally; Facebook is purely for family and a very small, select circle of friends.  I don't use it professionally at all.

I'm not going to look at the other networks mentioned above until next week.  However, let me mention that I'm on the Committee of LIHG, the Library and Information History Group (via CILIP), so I participate in their online space.  I'm also a member of IAML, the International Association of Music Libraries - and am signed up to both the UK and international email lists.  As Convenor of SALCTG (Scottish Academic Libraries Cooperative Training Group), I'm in email and blog contact with other members of the steeering group, and as Committee Member of the RMA (Royal Musical Association), I'm in email contact with the rest of that committee, too.

Monday.  Back again.

So, I thought to myself, I'd better investigate LISNPN, and LATnetwork.  Well, it turns out that LISNPN is for new professionals, and I'm afraid I'm not at all new.   I'm heading towards becoming an ancient monument, and even if I stop working at 70, I've only got 16 years more to go.   So there's no point in signing up to that one!  As for LATnetwork - yes, I was aware of teach-meets,  but I wasn't aware there was also a website for librarians as teachers.  However, even though this means I've learned something, I am beginning to feel that I'm in enough networks, really.  Although I had intended to attend a teach-meet a few months ago, I wasn't actually free on the day it took place, so I never made it.  This isn't to say that I might not attend another one if it was local and I was free.

After a busy day at work, a couple of computer crashes at home, a discussion with the Man from Orange, and a bit of web-browsing, I've decided to do something traditional now, for a change.  I'm off to put the kettle on and pick up a book.  A real one, with paper pages and ink!

Thing 5 Part 2 - Reflecting on Impact

23 Things for Professional Development: librarians' career development

Thing 5: Reflective Practice

I subscribe to THE in a personal capacity, so I get my own copy to read on the subway or at work-breaks.  But my reading isn't always totally up-to-date, and that's how I came to be reading Paul Manners' article, 'Ripping Yarns' in the audiology waiting room this morning, despite it having been published a fortnight ago.*

Now, Paul Manners is Director of the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement, which 'supports researchers to develop the quality and impact of their engagement with the public'.  Impact and public engagement are therefore of paramount importance to him, and justifiably so.  And he believes that the REF (research excellence framework) process correctly asks researchers to identify the impact that their work has had, and the extent to which they have engaged with the public - which has, after all, helped fund their research.

Okay, where is this going?, you might ask.  We're librarians, not researchers.  True.  However, as I read on, I found myself asking, 'What am I?  And should I be demonstrating my impact, too?

I work as a music librarian full-time, but I'm also a musicologist.  Any research I do is done in my own time.  I have an academic affiliation, since I work in a conservatoire as a professional subject librarian, but research is not part of my job, unless it's a piece of small-scale research with a librarianly outcome - such as my recent 'Crowdsourcing the Celtic Bard' project, undertaken with the dual purpose of informing myself prior to writing a paper on a topic adjacent to but not the same as my own research interest, and to explore the merits and demerits of crowdsourcing as a modern research tool.  I gave that paper at the IAML (UK & Ireland) Annual Study Weekend at Cardiff last month, and it's due to appear in Brio, our professional journal, fairly imminently.

Thinking about impact and public engagement, I concluded that I would certainly expect to have an impact upon our readers, but 'public engagement' isn't something applicable to my librarianly role.  Engagement with the academic community that I support, most certainly, but not 'public engagement' in the sense that the REF process expects researchers to demonstrate.  Indeed, even 'impact' isn't a term we would normally use.  Nonetheless, it equates to effectiveness, when you consider the study and research support context in which  an academic librarian works.  If I am effective in my work as a subject librarian, then I would hope that my impact would evidence itself in students being better able to determine what exactly they need for an assignment; to find what they need (and know when to stop looking!); and to reference it appropriately.  Additionally, I need to ensure that the resources are there to support my academic colleagues' curriculum and research requirements, and that the catalogue is maintained to a high standard.  If I've done all that, I've demonstrated effectiveness.

So much for Karen the librarian.  However, Karen the musicologist, private researcher or otherwise, is very much concerned about public engagement.  My PhD topic was deliberately chosen to increase my expertise in a subject taught at our institution.  It was self-funded; I don't have an obligation to provide value-for-money now the graduation photo is on the wall, but since my own motivation was to undertake research in a subject that would be useful, then unless I share that knowledge, much of the effort has been in vain.  So, let's do a little reflective analysis on my success in that area.

I graduated in December 2009.  What have I achieved in the past 29 months, in terms of public engagement?  Actually, quite a bit!  I've done ten undergraduate lectures or seminars in three institutions.  Five research seminars within my institution, nine conference papers and seminar presentations outside my institution, two talks to historical societies, three 'proper' journal papers, three shorter articles and four book reviews.  (Some of it was on my research topic, some on librarianly topics or 'merged' papers on research and study skills.)  Oh, and I submitted my commissioned book manuscript on time, a month ago.  My research has given me something to write and talk about authoritatively, and I think I can safely say that I've found my voice. (I wish the same could be said for my singing voice, which sounds the untrained organ that it is!)   I've spoken to librarians, researchers, performers, and local historians.

So, actually, I think I've demonstrated substantial impact and public engagement.  It's reassuring to quantify it all.  When I first attempted a PhD, a quarter of a century ago, I used to wonder privately what use it would be to anyone else.  Indeed, I didn't finish it because I rashly started my librarianship career before writing up the doctorate, and the thesis was never written.  The 2009 PhD was a far better piece of work - and demonstrably more useful.  Not what they call a 'professional' doctorate, but a plain, ordinary research one.

I'm just metaphorically taking a breather right now, before deciding in which direction my research interests are going to go next. 

* Paul Manners, 'Ripping Yarns', in THE (Times Higher Education), 17 May 2012, No.2, 050, pp. 44-47.

Thing 5: Reflective practice

Treading cautiously!

I think I probably am quite analytical in my approach to my work, but I must confess I don't feel terribly comfortable reflecting publicly on a blog.  I mean, if I've interacted with individuals or groups, be they colleagues or readers, then this isn't the place to reflect on those interactions.

My CILIP Fellowship application a couple of years ago was the biggest personal "reflection" I'd done for a while, of course.  Then earlier this year, we applied for - and achieved - a IAML (UK and Irl) Certificate of Excellence for the Whittaker Library at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.  This similarly involved a fair amount of reflection on the part of myself and my line-manager.

Right now, I suppose it's fair to say I'm reflecting on my progress both as a subject librarian and as a scholar (musicologist).  I try to keep up to date in both the day-job and the research.  This is a continuing excellence thing, rather than a finite project.  And I do, constantly, ask myself the key questions: What am I doing?  How is it going? Have I achieved what I set out to achieve?  What could I be doing/ have done differently? 

THURSDAY. 

Paul Manners' article, Ripping Yarns, in THE (17 May 2012) got me very excited in the audiology waiting room this morning. (I took THE with me, I hasten to add - the Southern General doesn't have an especially highbrow waiting room for hearing-impaired scholars.)  Scholarly impact and  professional effectiveness are surely two sides of the same coin. I shall blog about this shortly! 

Thing 4 (better late than never)

Thing 4: Current Awareness, RSS feeds and Storify

Right, this is my teabreak - it'll have to be a quick Thing!  (My wifi is down at home, so it's now or never.  A whole blog on the android would be a footer, to say the least.  "Foo-ter": Scottish for "fiddly".)

Twitter.  Ah yes, Twitter.  I've got a couple of hundred followers, so I'm fairly au-fait with Twitter, but you're never too old to learn, so I learned about lists, and following other people's.  If I follow you - watch out.  I now know where to find your LISTS!  (I'm @Karenmca, by the way.  Yes, I was gratified to get there early enough to snaffle it!)

RSS feeds.  Now, I must confess I get a bit confused with RSS feeds.  However, I've made a policy decision: from now on, I'll only use the Google one.  It's far too confusing using more than one of them!  I did set up a couple of feeds to fulfil the Thing requirements, though.

And then we come to Storify.  I wrote a story in my lunchbreak, and here it is:-

Musings on Creativity  It's a book-review of a book we recently acquired, The Fiddletree, by Otis A. Tomas.  But I won't tell you about it here - you'll have to visit my Storify story.  It's quite easy to use, and I can see myself using it again.  It's rather like blogging one-off blogs, I suppose.  Fun.

Thing 3: my brand admits a little entertainment occasionally!

Feeling fairly secure in my branding, I decided to let my hair down this evening, and write a few limericks for Whittaker Live, the performing arts blog I author for the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.  (There's no harm in a few innocent little verses for musicians, is there?!)  Actually, I wrote a few for my cellist son last week, but I'm working my way down the score; I've done woodwind and brass on Whittaker Live so far.  You can click on the link if you like!

Now I'm going to go and sort out other aspects of my life, so 'bye for now ...