Twirling like a Top?

I didn't blog here in April, but on reflection, it's hardly surprising! I took a fortnight off over Easter, when I worked on my submissions for the Teaching Artist course I'm currently pursuing.  During that time, I also met another two of my chartership mentees, which was lovely.  It's great to see people develop in the profession, as they gain understanding of their role and contribution.

Then I went to Cambridge for the IAML (UK and Ireland)Annual Study Weekend - the Whittaker Library won an Excellence Award, and I received a Personal Achievement Award of my own.  It was a bit of a mad dash - I needed to be back to play the organ at church on Palm Sunday!

Back to Glasgow for a few days, then down to London for a IAML Executive meeting.  

Home to Glasgow, and then the Musica Scotica conference in Aberdeen last Saturday.  Another made dash - church organist duties beckoned again.  And it's only another couple of weeks before I'm off to Aberdeen for another day-trip.  

Between-times, it's the day-job, whether in the library or the research base.  And in my spare time?  The church choir, the Teaching Artist course, and anything else that I can't fit in during the day!  Here's my Teaching Artist reflection for today: reflecting on my teaching practice as an academic librarian.

Mentor, Mentee, (CILIP) VLE

Mentor, Mentee 

I spent some time with one of my mentees yesterday - it was great to catch up with each other, and I gave her the Grand Tour of first our Library and then the rest of the Conservatoire.  After that, it was on to visit a neighbouring library - quite a busy few hours for my mentee!

VLE

Having jointly set the world of librarianship to rights yesterday, I decided that I had better set a good personal example too, so this afternoon I logged on to the CILIP website, and started using the e-portfolio to monitor my own professional development too.

CPD 2013

Although  it's based on Mahara like the portfolio side of the VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) that we use at work, I am still fumbling around the CILIP one a bit, so I haven't got far yet.  I must look at the screencasts that are there to help!  However, I've noted my key CPD activities for 2013, and it looks as though I was reasonably busy in that regard.  My next challenge is to work out whether I can create a new section for 2014, or just keep adding to the 2013 box and change the name of the box!

CPD 2014 - a Course and 4 Conferences!

I'm looking forward to logging my 2014 CPD, because I'm doing a short credit-rated postgraduate course entitled 'The Teaching Artist' as evening classes at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, from February to May.  I was lucky enough to get a Creative Scotland bursary towards the fees.  Now, I've given countless talks, lectures and seminars, but I've never really gone into the pedagogy behind teaching, so although it's a bit of a sudden gear-shift for me, it's certainly thought-provoking, and it's particularly interesting being in a small class of teaching artists, all of whom bring different backgrounds and performing arts to the discussion table.

The week after next, I'm flying down to Cambridge for part of the IAML(UK and Ireland) Annual Study Weekend, so it'll be nice to catch up with old friends, new trends, and join the Executive as a Committee member for the first time.  In my case, it's because I've agreed to convene a working group to initiate a new corporate website.  (I'm also practising what I preach: volunteer to get more involved in your sector!)  And I'm talking at the Academic Music Librarians' forum on the first afternoon, so I'll be killing two birds with one stone by talking about the Teaching Artist course!

There's a Musica Scotica conference in Aberdeen a couple of Saturdays later; and I'm off to give a paper at the International IAML conference in Antwerp in July - the first time I've 'been abroad' to give a conference paper, apart from one I gave in Dublin.  I know that Dublin is in Eire, still another country, but somehow it still feels more a Celtic neighbour, than truly 'abroad', so I am quite excited about spreading my wings further afield.

Finally, I heard yesterday morning that I'm one of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland delegates to an international conference that's coming to Glasgow in November: ELIA is the European League of Institutes of the Arts, and this will be the biennial international conference.   The conference theme is LOCATION/AESTHETICS, which might not sound like the kind of thing a librarian would be drawn to, but at the moment I am 60% librarian and 40% musicologist researcher, so believe me, I find this a very exciting theme indeed.  I can get very excited about discussions of nationality, nationalism, geographical borders and cultural perceptions of borders, so this conference might get me quite fired up!

Mentoring Tips from the Guardian Culture Professionals Network

I love the Guardian Culture Professionals Network - there's almost invariably an article that catches my attention. 

Today, the digest included an article about mentoring. Since I'm a CILIP mentor, I immediately favourited it and will probably share it with my mentees:-

'Mentoring tips: how mentor and mentee can make the most of it' (Tuesday 11th March 2014)

'Peter McLuskie is a project manager at the Institute of Creative Enterprise – follow him on Twitter @petermcluskie'

Follow me on Twitter @karenmca if you're interested in librarianship training, mentoring or the creative and performing arts.

Early Career Music Librarians! E. T. Bryant Prize - Deadline 10 January 2014

If you recently qualified as a librarian and have written a dissertation or thesis on music librarianship, then this prize is both worthwhile and valuable.  But you'll have to hurry - the deadline is 10th January 2014.

http://www.iaml.info/iaml-uk-irl/awards/bryant.html

Please do share this link widely.  The prize is sponsored by the UK and Ireland Branch of the International Association of Music Libraries, and they're keen to ensure that anyone eligible has the chance to apply. 

IAML (UK and Irl) Homepage

The E. T. Bryant Memorial Prize, for early career music librarians

Do you know any early career music librarians, or early career librarians who did a dissertation on music librarianship? The E. T. Bryant Memorial Prize is prestigious and valuable, but hurry! Deadline is 10 January 2014. And here’s the link:-
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http://www.iaml.info/iaml-uk-irl/awards/bryant.html

CILIP Professional Knowledge and Skills Base, and Vitae Researcher Development Framework

A couple of years ago, I helped a research supervisor colleague plan some research skills training for doctoral students.  The framework was based on a handy diagram, available from the Vitae website.  (Vitae is a research support organisation, and their diagram is called the Vitae Researcher Development Framework.)

Now, here I am in my librarian capacity (and a CILIP mentor), looking at CILIP's new Professional Knowledge and Skills Base.  It's a great idea.  And guess what?  We have our own circle too, now!  Here's a brochure about it - you have to be a CILIP member to download the fuller document.

All about professional knowledge and skills in librarianship:-
http://www.cilip.org.uk/cilip/jobs-and-careers/professional-knowledge-and-skills-base

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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.)