CIG Conference 2012 - The Round-Up

I'm still working on my write up of the CILIP Cataloguing and Indexing Conference but some other attendees have been much more organised than me! Below are some links to conference reports that I've seen, I'll try to add more as/when I see them. Hopefully at least part one of my version of events will be up sometime this weekend.

The Value of Cataloguing: CILIP Cataloguing and Indexing Group Conference 2012 / The Toast in the Machine

Quick Post About CIG12 / Blogging Cataloguing

Smug tweaking, shrinking cataloguers, and the corridor of uncertainty: CILIP Cataloguing & Indexing Group conference 2012 / dark-side-of-the-catalogue

CIG Conference 2012 / On cataloguing and the like


Most of the presentations are now available here on the CIG website

LIKE Ideas Conference - The Business of Social Media part 2

This post continues the previous post on LIKE Ideas

The first session after the break was a panel discussion with Virginia Henry, Richard Hare and Hank Malik on the subject of internal engagement. They started out by saying that we need to move away from talking about 'social media tools' and towards talking about 'collaborative working'. As highlighted in previous sessions, one of the most important uses of social media is to facilitate communication and help to solve problems. The group were asked for their opinion on the quickest way to ensure the failure of a social media project. Their answer was that there is always a danger of focusing on the technology without thinking of the need behind it. This was touched on in earlier presentations and it's sound advice that I'll take away from the conference. I think that too often there's pressure to try out the latest tool without too much thought as to why you're using it. If the latest 'it' product meets a need you have then great, keep using it. If not then get rid of it because there's certain to be something similar along soon.

Another point made by the panel was that the culture of the organisation is an important fact in the success or failure of social media tools. I know this to be true from personal experience. If the group that you work with is not 'into' social media then I find that there's very little you can do to convince them. I think that everyone has a right to make up his/her own mind about these tools but at the same time I do wish some people would be a little more open minded - at least try something before you dismiss it! The panel said that if something was tried and didn't work then it's best to confront the failure and use it as feedback rather than pretending that it didn't happen at all. In this way trying social media could be part of a valuable evaluation process. If trying to promote greater team interaction through social media didn't work then you may have to look beyond the tools to deeper problems within your organisational culture...

There was also some discussion about 'chatter' on social media sites. I know that this is one of the biggest problems that many managers have with social media use - they're afraid that people will waste time on it rather than doing anything productive. I'm not going to pretend for a moment that people won't take advantage of these tools to follow celebrities and discuss trivial things, but there's so much more to social media than this. Someone pointed out that the chatter is important since it can lead on to other things. People have to get to know you in order to be able to trust you and ask for your help. Having an actual conversation on social media, even if it is about something trivial, is a way to build your reputation so people know that they can turn to you. At the end of the day managers just have to have some trust in their staff when it comes to managing their time on these sites.

The next session was given by lawyers Andrew Soloman and Simon Halberstam and focused on legal guidance for using social media. Although I said in the previous post that it was important that people don't feel too constrained when it comes to using social media, it would be foolish not to have some guidelines in place. Social media impacts on all parts of the law but one of the key areas singled out in the presentation was defamation. It's important to remember that this can be done in any number of ways and can come back to haunt the company at any time. Just saying that something is your personal opinion in NOT enough to protect you in court! Andrew and Simon advocated having a clear social media policy in place as a matter of course - very sage advice.

The final presentation of the day was given by Stephen Dale who talked about the future of social media. He showed how in the future people will be interacting with devices in a much more intuitive way but warned that the quantity of social media content is growing at the expense of the quality. As information professionals, this gives us a key role to play. Stephen highlighted digital curation tools such as paperli and scoopit and showed how we can use our insight into our users needs to identify the best content out there. I think this is an important point to remember. Just because there is a wealth of content available on the Internet, it doesn't mean that information professionals are becoming redundant. Someone still has to be able to direct users towards the best quality content for their needs and information professionals come with the skill set to do this. If we can retain our reputation as a trusted source of information then we can still be the ones that users come to when they need advice about digital content. Of course this is dependent on us being able to use social media ourselves, yet another point I think we can make to reluctant managers!

Stephen finished by illustrating the rise of apps and showing how important they will be. Designers used to think about designing for the computer first and mobile devices second, but the computer is fast becoming an afterthought. In the next few years, sales of mobile internet devices are going to eclipse sales of the traditional computer and we have to be ready to meet this new challenge.

Overall LIKE Ideas was a really interesting day which left me with lots of food for thought and promoted many stimulating discussions. I'll be keeping a close eye on their calendar and I hope to attend many future events that they run. I advise you to do the same!

photo credit: nan palmero via photopin cc

LIKE Ideas Conference - The Business of Social Media part 1

Yesterday I went to what was apparently the first conference organised by LIKE. I would never have known that  since everything went so smoothly! It was a really enjoyable afternoon and I came away really enthusiastic to get started on some social media projects of my own. As some of you may know, I'm currently writing my dissertation on the impact of social media marketing and so the conference was a great place to pick up a few extra points for the literature review. There's too much to fit into one post so I'm going to spilt my thoughts in two. This first post will cover the first three conference sessions.

The conference opened with Bertie Bosredon talking about his experiences of managing the social media efforts of Breast Cancer Care. When the organisation came to review its web presence it noticed that people were talking to each other to get information as much as they were talking to the charity. Users stayed active on the site forums for a few months and then moved on, often taking their new online friends with them to their next discussion space. The organisation saw this as an opportunity and offered training to its staff in how to use social media tools. The audience were already familiar with these tools so the organisation went to the places that they frequent in order to maintain a presence. I think this is a very important point. All organisations, including libraries, need to go where their users are going to maintain a dialogue with them rather than relying on users to come to the organisation. This is an advantage of social media that I'm not sure all people pick up on (especially those who see it as a waste of time).

Breast Cancer Care actively tries to maintain a conversation with users on its social media sites which I think is so important. The whole point of social media is that it enables contact and if it's just used to push messages out there then it's no better than a traditional webpage. I think that too few organisations miss this about social media so it was nice to see it being brought up here. Bernie highlighted how all social media developments were made organically rather than being forced. Whilst having a social media guidance policy in place is definitely a good idea (as was shown later in the conference) it's important not to be too rigid with it. This can put people off contributing as much as anything else which defeats the whole point of social media. One of the main things that I took away from Bernie's presentation is how important it is to empower the people within your organisation to use social media. Give them training if they need it, let them experiment. Have some guidance in place but don't be too strict since this can damage the flow of the conversation you have with your users.

The next session was by Noleen Schenk on how to use social media to support research. Working in an academic library this was a very interesting topic for me. She outlined how collaboration and social interaction run through all aspects of the research process - making social media an ideal medium to use. Noleen talked a lot about how important social networking can be to the research process - it can strengthen existing networks and lead to the discovery of new information. One of the most important things that social media can be used for is giving researchers access to their networks network. I know from personal experience that asking a question on Twitter leads to no shortage of answers. Different social media tools can be used for different parts of the research process, such as those for which enable collaboration and tools which can be used to store citations (something which I personally couldn't do without!). The key point that Noleen stressed was social media is not the only tool that you can use in the research process, but it's something to have in your toolbox. You don't need to use all of the tools all of the time but find the one(s) that work for you in your research.

In the final session before the break James Mullan talked about how social media tools can be used internally to enable communication throughout the workforce. He talked about enterprise social networks which will enable employees to engage both with each other and with the company's networks. When 'selling' social media tools to other employees and especially supervisors who may be sceptical, James highlighted the importance of explaining how the tool can help them. By explaining how something can make someones life easier you are much more likely to get them on board.  This is especially helpful if you can find a tool which fulfils a specific need within your organisation. Another interesting point that James made about encouraging use of social media was to make the entry point low. People just don't have the time to learn lot's of new things, especially when they are already sceptical about them in the first place. Choosing a complicated bit of software which takes hours to master will only put people off, so it's important to experiment and find something fit for purpose which is simple to use. It's also important to remember that what works for one group or set of circumstances may not work for another. There are plenty of tools out there - experiment and find the right one for you!

That's the end of part one! Hopefully I will have the write up of part two up in a couple of days.

photo credit: nan palmero via photopin cc

Can You Ever Be TOO Professionally Developed?

Last week I was asked by a colleague to make a list of any professional development activities that I had taken part in over the last few months so she could report them back at a divisional meeting. I got out the diary and made her a list, but even I was a little shocked at the length of it. I have something on most weeks but I didn't really add it all up until I saw the list in black and white and found that there were about twelve events/courses on there. This got me thinking (hence this blog post!)

I know that there has been discussion recently over why some librarians feel the need to get involved with so many things outside work - and become the so-called "uber librarian". I've seen arguments both for and against and I think a lot of it depends on your personality or work situation. Personally, I have had to really fight to get the job I'm in now and I think this has influenced the amount of 'extra-curricular' activities that I take part in. When I was working part-time I needed something to fill those spare hours which made me feel like I was still connected to the profession, and I was also preparing for job interviews. I've lost count of the number of times I was told I was unsuccessful because the other candidates were doing library courses or taking part in conferences, rather than that they had specific job related skills that I didn't. There has been a lot of speculation recently over whether extra activities have any bearing on whether you get the job or not. I think it depends a lot on the organisation you are applying to, the role you are applying for and the mindset of the people conducting the interview. If there are two candidates with a similar skill set then I would like to think that being professionally involved gives you a little bit of an edge but I could be wrong. My main question is this - how much involvement is too much?

What worries me about taking part in any or all of these activities is whether a future employer will see my participation as a good thing or as something which takes me away from the job that they are actually paying me to do. Personally I think that a professional interest is very important. Why spend most of your waking time doing a job if you are not going to be 100% committed to it? I am well aware of the fact that sometimes I need to learn to say no, but there just happen to be many things that interest me just now. I'm lucky enough to be able to attend many of the events that I would like to, so I feel that I would be missing out on an opportunity if I didn't. I also think that both my professional involvement and my library course have given me more confidence - both inside and outside my job. Surely this can only be a good thing?

Another issue that has arisen recently is whether I should be using my annual leave to take part in some of these activities. I have been told more than once recently by various people that I shouldn't be taking leave to attend events etc. since professional development is part of my career. I can understand where they're coming from but when you're doing something every week, and sometimes more than once a week, when does it become unprofessional to keep asking for time off? My personal philosophy is that if it's directly related to my job, organised by the university that I work for or I've been asked to go then I should ask for time off. If it is something that I've found out about and want to attend, then why should my employers have to give me time off when I could take it from my leave?

I really just wanted to canvass some opinion on the topic of professional development. What do other people do? Does anyone feel the same as me or am I just being over cautious? I think what it will come down to is a balancing act, but I just need a little help on where to hold the pole (or in the case of the picture, the fan)! All opinions gratefully received...

Photo credits:
Google calendar: Spinstah
Tightrope walker: Korea.net

Penumbra visit to Homerton Library

My second Penumbra placement was at Homerton College library. Although the college started out as a teacher training college it is now a full member of the University of Cambridge and is not to be confused with the Education Faculty.

My day started out with a tour of the library. Set in a light and airy building, it makes an attractive study space and is well used. The library is open 24 hours and the current exam term means it's very popular with revising students. I learnt that there are plans to refurbish the library over the coming months in order to keep it up to date, for example installing tables with integrated power sockets for laptops. One of the most interesting things about the library is its extensive children's literature collection. The library tries to keep up with the latest trends in children's and young adult literature and preserve these for future study. This struck a chord with me since it is similar to my work with the Tower Project. When material was received on legal deposit in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries it was put in the tower if it was considered to have little or no academic value. Today these items are valued for those studying literature, children's literature and social history to name a few. By building a collection of today's children's literature, Homerton library is helping to ensure access to these resources for future generations. This collection isn't weeded meaning that it can be preserved for the future.

Next up was a session on blogging. The library maintains a successful blog which functions as a way to share news and general announcements with users. As well as the main news page, the blog contains a number of sub-pages with FAQs and a guide to the library. One of the things which most impressed me about the blog was its resources page. Not only does this provide links to commonly used library and information resources, it also provides guides to the local area and transport. This is an extremely handy thing to have on a library website, especially one with so many visiting scholars who may not know the local area. The library is the knowledge base of the university but it is all too often forgotten that this extends beyond teaching and research needs. If the library can provide information which people find useful then they are more likely to see it as a useful source of information. For example, if the library can give a student clear information on bus routes into town then they will see the library as a good source of information. The next time they need to do research for an essay, they are more likely to use the library since it provided them with valuable information before (albeit of a different sort!).

This was followed by a session on book selection. Homerton is independent in its books selection. Although it receives recommendations from staff and students, which it accommodates, it is able to chose the items which it thinks will best fit its remit. The system used for these items allows books to be bound etc. at the point of order which is an added bonus. At the UL we have an in-house bindery but I do appreciate that not everyone is lucky enough to have this facility! The staff at Homerton were very patient when explaining the book ordering process to me. I had never realised that it was this complex and it's given me a new appreciation for colleagues who do this as part of their jobs. Items are instantly available on the catalogue after ordering so that users can see exactly what the library holds. These basic records are updated as needed but this instant availability important for both the user and the library. If an item is on order this is shown on the record to prevent holds being placed on items which are not actually in stock yet.

My morning at Homerton was very informative and enjoyable and I want to say a huge thank you to the team for sharing their time with me. I apologise if this post doesn't go into as much detail as some of my others (I've left my notes at home and want to get the post out, so this is being done from memory!). I would encourage anyone in University of Cambridge libraries who is thinking about taking part in the Penumbra scheme to do it - it's a very worthwhile and rewarding experience. I've had a few people ask me questions about the scheme in the last week or so which is a really encouraging sign. I would also encourage any libraries thinking about offering a placement to do so, you can get as much out of it as the participants!

Picture credits: treyerice (Homerton College), Paul Watson (books)

'Making CILIP Work for You' - a CILIP East of England Event

Last weekend I attended the CILIP East of England event 'Making CILIP Work for You' which was held in Cambridge. The afternoon featured talks on CILIP and social media by CILIP president Phil Bradley, feedback from the recent survey of CILIP East of England members and group discussions.

After outlining the structure of CILIP and his duties as president, Phil went on to talk about new developments within CILIP. He highlighted the need to make CILIP seem like less of a London centric organisation, a decision which is reflected in the fact that this years AGM will be held in Newcastle. This is something I hadn't really considered before. I live in Cambridge so it isn't that much of a hassle for me to get down to CILIP HQ in London, but I do appreciate that this would be difficult for others who live further away. There was general acknowledgement from around the room that this was a positive step.

The point was made that although at times CILIP is an organisation, it is made up of people and these people are the key to its success. The organisation is there to represent its members so it is vital for us to tell them how they could best do this. This is the aim of events such as this one and all members are encouraged to have their say. If people don't, then they can hardly complain that they aren't getting what they want! Events like this enable Phil to find out what members are doing in their libraries and then share this knowledge with other librarians who may find it useful, as well as putting it out into the wider world.

The second part of Phil's talk focused on social media in libraries. Since this is my current research topic my ears pricked up! Phil made an excellent point which I've seen mentioned a lot on Twitter lately. He argued that although there is resistance in some places to social media use in the workplace, as information professionals we should be able to argue that social media IS an information resource and therefore it's part of our job to know about it. This really stuck a chord with me and is an argument that I intend to pursue in the future. In addition to this, using social media shows that the library is involved and proactive when it comes to their users. Social media is where users are so this is where the library should be to. If not, then we're missing out something huge!

Phil is adamant that CILIP should be well represented on social media for these very reasons. His philosophy is "it's not a question of IF we get involved in social media but HOW we get involved" and he recommends that libraries think very carefully before deciding not to use it. Libraries have traditionally been the 'keepers' of information but we all know that this has changed. We still need to be the people that users come to for information and if social media is where the most useful information for their needs is then we need to know about it. Librarians and other information professionals need to aid users in finding quality content amongst the sheer amount of information available today. The goalposts haven't really changed, they have just moved a little bit to include new formats. With so much information present, someone needs to tell users which is the 'best' information to use - librarians.

The power of the individual on social media was also discussed. Phil pointed out that users often don't go to the webpage of the company anymore, they look at the social media of the individual who works for them. The company can actaully get authority from the individual instead of the other way around, which is an interesting shift. It also means that I might have to dust off my slightly neglected LinkedIn profile...

The main focus of the afternoon was small discussion groups which were held on various topics. I took part in the groups on advocacy and training. Live blogs from these groups and the others can be found on the CILIP East of England blog so I won't cover the same ground here. One issue that came up again and again in our advocacy group was the issue of volunteers in libraries and what is seen as the consequent 'de-skilling' of the profession. Whilst people praised the work that volunteers had contributed to libraries that they had worked in, there was a definite air of caution. This is something which seems to have been echoed on Twitter in recent days and I'll be interested to see what feedback comes from this. Another issue that was discussed was how CILIP could aid in small scale advocacy. The example used was social media and it was suggested that a sort of 'fact sheet' of reasons why libraries should be using it should be put together in order to aid individuals in putting their cases forward to their managers. This would be really useful and would certainly be applicable in many other similar situations.

We then moved on to discussing training and there was a definite discrepancy in training budgets across the libraries represented. Some had the freedom to attend pretty much what they wanted whilst others had to fight to attend even one training course. Whilst CILIP can't do much about the policies of individual employers, the East of England group are intending to try to fill a little of the gap left by the closure of the official CILIP training programme. It was pointed out that just because the event is for East of England members, this doesn't mean that it has to be held here. If it easier for everyone to get to London then why not hold it there? Other points raised included the cost of training. There seemed to be equal numbers of people who would be happy to pay and those who wanted free training and events. I would personally be happy to pay an affordable amount for training and events, but I did raise the point that travel costs need to be taken into consideration when setting the budgets. Another topic discussed was the possibility of a virtual learning environment which is apparently something that CILIP are actively working on. I'll be interested to see what they come up with. Having an online learning environment would certainly solve the problem of securing time off work to attend training sessions! 

Overall it was a really interesting and stimulating day. I came away feeling positive and inspired about the profession in general and eagerly looking forward to the next CILIP East of England event.

Photo credit: joeyanne

Penumbra visit to Selwyn Library

Last week I went on my first work shadowing visit as part of the Penumbra programme run by Cambridge University. This first visit was to Selwyn College Library and I was very lucky to have the wonderful Sarah Stamford and her team show me round.

My day started with a quick tour of the college. I’m slightly embarrassed to admit that I’ve lived in Cambridge all my life and barely know which college is which, never mind visited many of them. This was my first time inside Selwyn and it’s a lovely looking place. Our first stop was a trip to the archives and a quick chat with the archivist Elizabeth Stratton, who was putting the finishing touches to an exhibition of college history. I was surprised to see artifacts alongside the traditional documents and photographs but Elizabeth explained to me that items like this helped to set the more traditional items in context and it made sense to house them both together.  We also discussed how Selwyn are encouraging today’s students to contribute to the archives of the future, a very important point that often gets forgotten. Even recent students are asking to see photographs and documents from their time at the university, but this is largely dependent on the donations that the archives receive.

Next I was given a tour of the library. Despite being somewhat smaller than the library I’m used to, it was a very warm and welcoming space. I especially liked the silent study room where not even computers are allowed. I was impressed that this was an idea which came from the students themselves. I think that the idea of the library as a space to study in peace is often overlooked. I know that I've been in to the library on my days off just because I know that I can get some peace to get some work done. There is a lot of emphasis right now on how libraries need to adapt to accommodate changing study patterns such as group work and whilst this is important, I think that the need for a quiet place shouldn’t be overlooked. There are precious few places that people can go to get true peace anymore and I’m pleased that the students (and the library) recognise this.

The remit of the library is to support undergraduate teaching and it relies on reading lists and recommendations when selecting stock. Since I work in a legal deposit library, it was nice to see how books are selected rather than the way they just seem to magically appear at the UL! With a stock of c.40,000 items the point was made that the staff could look and see what is being used. Purchasing decisions could then be made based on this. This would be somewhat difficult in a massive library like the UL but it was very educational to see how things happen in a more traditional college library. Another part of the remit of the library is to foster a good relationship with students. By working with the students to provide them with what they want and need the library is setting a good grounding for students future relationship with the college.

Sarah also took me through some basic classification, which is an area I am very keen to get more experience in. I have to say, she explained it a lot more clearly than any of the books have been able to! One interesting point that Sarah made was that the book should be placed in the section where it will be of most use to users, regardless of where the ‘politics’ dictates it should be placed. The library uses a Dewey system which is different from the in-house system that I’m used to but the session provided a lot of useful theory for me to think about. Hopefully one day I will have a chance to put what I’ve learnt into practice...

We also talked a little bit about the library’s social media presence. This was of particular interest to me since my dissertation research is in this area. The library’s Facebook page is targeted at students rather than other librarians and aims to be an informal way of sharing news and events. The staff tries to keep the page people focused and light-hearted. Official communication is still done via email meaning that the Facebook page is a supplement to communication rather than a replacement. Based on my research this is the best way to go since not all users respond to social media. It is a good way of enhancing relations but it shouldn’t be relied on.

I really enjoyed my visit to Selwyn and would like to extend a massive thank you to the team there. I only wish the library (and librarians) had been this wonderful when I was at university!

Photo credit: qatsi.