Thing 2: investigating other blogs

Wow - there are so many blogs out there. I really was not sure where to start. I have to admit that I am a bit of a lurker, I read and do not post comments. I suppose that is a nice way to hide, so I will admit that I did try and leave some comments on wordpress, but as I do not have a wordpress account it did not seem to work. But I have been able to follow people and comment on some blogger blogs.

As I am based in Health library, I decided to focus in on this area, just to make it easier for me to find people. I suppose it is not so important to follow professionals in your sector, but I suppose it is good to get started. One of the things which is not worrying me, although I know that it is still early days, is that other people's blogs look so much better than mine. I suppose that this should give me some encouragement to look at the features and see what else I could add onto my blog.

It is reassuring to find out that alot of people are having the same thoughts and comments about joining this course. There is such a wide range of blogs that I will continue to work. I while ago, I asked a couple of colleagues how they manage to keep on top of blogs: there were numerous answers, the most popular were:

• Take time out once a week to look through blogs and search for information
• Use twitter to follow interesting people and then read what they have written (looking forward to the twitter piece which is coming up soon)
• Create searches which will appear in your inbox, from google alerts.

One thing is very clear from this activity, the information is out there - you just have to search and find it - as a librarian, this is something which I am familiar with:)

Thing 3: consider your personal brand

This is a very interesting topic, as the Internet has made everyone more searchable. I will admit that I did google myself and wow,up came the reports and articles which I had written appear. Although some of the results do not include me. I had some business cards printed lasted year and I was not sure what photo I should use on the front of the card. It took me ages to work out which one I wanted to use. I am not the must comfortable of people and I do prefer to stay out of the limeline. My twitter account has a avatar rather than a photo of me. My linkedin profile does have a photo of me, but it is a couple of years out of date, so this post has made me realise that I do need to do some updating.

Last year at the CDG New Professionals Suzanne Wheatly spoke about the importance of your online presence, as a way for employers to do some "research" on yourself. So it is important to ensure that everything is upto date and correct, it is also important to make sure that all of your online persona say the same thing. She also commented that it was important to keep your personal and professional life separate

I do have a very clear line between my professional and personal life. My twitter and linked in account is for professional purposes and my facebook account is for personal use. I am now going to investigate how my blog can be used as a promotional tool. So there maybe some changes, watch this space.....

CPD23 - second time lucky

I am going to attempt to complete CPD23 again, last time, I found that work, home and life got in the way of trying to get myself through the 23 weeks. I also found bloging really difficult - mainly because I thought who would want to listen to my thoughts and comments about the library world and my experiences. But actually I have over the last couple of months realised that my own thougths are just as valuable.

I have now over 10 years of working in libraries - wow - that was a bit of a shock when I realised this. I have worked as a library assistant, librarian, trainer and now I am an e-resources co-orindator. So there is lots and lots of knowledge and experience from all of these years. I do feel that I have not learnt everything that there is and that there is still so more to learn. I am a chartered librarian since 2007, and I am embarking on my revalidation, something which I am hoping undertaking this online course will help me to complete. After all the use of the reflection is something which blogs can be used for.

Over the last ten years things have changed dramatically, the use of blogs, twitter and the internet has made the library world so much smaller. I signed up to email discussion lists, the knowledge and friendliness of other professionals who had been there and tried that, was incredible. This was very much a push experience, as the information came directly to the inbox and their the information is still invaluable. Now  this information can be found on blogs, searching and finding this information is a bit alien to me so I am very much looking forward to learning how to do this.

I am looking forward to finding out about the different social media and useful tools which will help me in my working life - as well as a way of finding new networks.

So here goes.....

First post

So with nervousness I am creating my first public blog, there are a number of reasons for why I have not started one before. I suppose the main one is that I have dyslexia and therefore my spelling (although greatly improved by spellchecking) maybe not always be great and the same goes for my grammar. So please forgive any mishaps.

This year as part of the CDG National Co-oridnator's role, I helped to organise the New Professional Conference 2011, and it was here that I came across CPD23. This I thought was an excellent idea, for  a number of reasons,

1. It is a manageable way of undertaking CPD, as you can be flexible in when you can undertake the tasks.
2. It gives you the chance to experiment around colleagues and peers, so I am hoping to learn and get more confident in using these new technologies

I am going to be undertaking this as a way of keeping up to date with new technology and I am hoping to learn new skills. As well as following others, learning works and what does not. I am hoping that it will give me a chance to express my own opinions and develop my writing skills, something that Suzanne Wheatley commented on during her workshop.

I am also planning to undertake my revalidation and this would be an excellent way of being reflective and having all my thoughts in one place.

Looking forward to all of the activities and finding out new ways of doing things.
until next post
Nicki