Gig Review: Victoria University SIM Orientation Wellington Fri 26 Feb 2010

Kia ora koutou!

Again, another great event that I'm glad I went to. Lotsa schmoozing and networking went on and met some cool people.

I did not attend the full day that all VUW SIM students attended (involved learning about research and logon's and passwords and all that unnecessary stuff), but I did join in at 3pm when we had guest industry professional speakers talk for 15minutes about how they got to where they are and what they love about what they do.

Guest industry speakers were:

• David Jones (aka DJ) as a representative from Te Roopu Whakahau. DJ is currently the Maori and Pacific Island's Subject Librarian at Victoria University and is doing a great job developing a Maori and Pacific island collection to be housed on the main floor of the central library at Kelburn Campus.
  
  
• Paula, representative from RMAA (Records Management Association of Australasia)
  Totally engaging and entertaining speaker, who says that
  "Building relationships and relationship management will be the most important skill to learn in the Master of Information Studies and your career." Amen!
  
  
• Rachel Esson (a personal favourite of mine), a LIANZA member, and currently head of Research and Learning Services at Victoria University's Library and on the TELsig committee (Tertiary Education Libraries special interest group)
  PLUG --> TELsig workshop 18th March and
  "How to make a difference" Conference in July
  

• Joanna of ARANZ (Archives and Records Association of New Zealand)
  Started at Fletcher Challenge, was there for 10 years and established their archives and now works as an archives and records management consultant and is also doing a Masters in "Maintaining and Sustaining Community Archives".
  
  Quote from Joanna: "Your education is preparing you to enter into any sector of the profession", and this was reiterated by Alastair Smith in closing the formal part of the day for the students.

And after the speakers, there was scones, cakes, fruit and non-alcoholic liquid to be consumed in the School of Information Management communal area! Fabulous afternoon, well-spent couple of hours out of my day. And by "spent" I mean, time, because it didn't cost anything to attend!

Your grand tour of the major centres was a success Timothy, congratulations. I thoroughly enjoyed this event.

H

Gig review: Twitter Workshop @wcl_library Thu 25 Feb 2010

Kia ora koutou

Just have to say that this was an awesome workshop and I'm glad that the committee decided to sponsor it. The workshop was held by and at Wellington City Libraries on Victoria Street. I got a lot out of it and am looking forward to more workshops that Magalie Le Gac, an enthusiastic staff member of Wellington City Libraries, facilitates.

The morning session focussed on learning the theory before getting into the application.

Such things covered were:

• How many people are using Twitter? It has a pretty fast growth rate. Here's some stats I found. There's a lot of people tweeting out there! Currently around 6% of the NZ population is on Twitter. 30 Libraries in NZ use Twitter at the moment.
  
  
• There are access issues for libraries in NZ to do with blocking the website. Particular problem for council's as two attendees at the workshop mentioned it was a problem where they worked.
  
  
• Uses for Twitter for Librarians:
  Online Reference
  Professional Development (sharing links to good articles)
  Monitoring library uses
  Disseminating information about the library
  Following useful Twitterers (e.g. @Te_Ara, @NLNZ, @citygalleryWGTN, @NZStuff)
  Marketing Tool
  
  
• Advantages
  
  
• Disadvantages
  
  
• Potential pitfalls
  
  
• Different platforms to use (other than twitter.com)
  Hootsuite
  igoogle gadget
  Tweetdeck
  
  

Now I didn't attend the afternoon session but I hear it was a good hands-on one using self-directed tutorials that Magalie had compiled earlier. Magalie actually included me in the email with the links to these so I could go through them and "self-direct" myself in learning about Twitter, but I think I'm good for now.

If anyone would like to share their experience of the afternoon session that'd be way cool if you'd comment on this post!

Hope you enjoyed it, and again, I'm really glad that LIANZA Te Upoko o te Ika a Maui decided to sponsor this event/workshop. Well worth it. Cheers Magalie!

Hana

Eight Weeks to Associateship - Week 4

Week 4: Talking about professional development and contribution

Welcome to week 4! This week, we'll be looking at your professional development and contribution in part C.

Although it may not seem like it, we all undertake development activities in one form or another. While it may seem like a long time since you did your library qualification, once you start to write things down, you'll be amazed at how much training and skill gathering you've done since then.

Let's go through each section of the application:

Self-development of professional perspectives and objectives through professional reading, Internet discussion groups: Most of us are subscribed to at least a couple of list-servs (NZ-Libs, SLIS-NZ, and so on), and have a few blogs that we follow. When noting these down, also think about what contributions you've made to these, such as blog comments or participating to an online discussion. How about professional reading - books, articles, journals, and links through to news stories? Also consider what you read in support of your job that may fall outside LIS and what what you learnt from these that helped you to do your role better. Did you feed these results back to a group, or implement what you'd read about? Did you find out about something in a different sector of LIS, that changed or widened your perspective? Did these change the way you think about the profession, or help you to set goals or objectives as a result? Were you able to feed that perspective back into your organisation?

Continuing education through such activities as attendance at seminars and workshops: Continuing education covers a wide variety of activities. As well as seminars and workshops (internally or externally), you may have done Certificates of Proficiency, attended Conferences, taken training in general skills to support your role (customer service, management, SharePoint, etc.), gone to lectures, taken an online course, or attended a LIANZA CPD event. If you've led training events, make a note of this too.

An awareness of professional issues: How do you keep up-to-date with professional issues, particularly in your specialty areas? You might demonstrate your awareness of professional issues through helping your work group understand the context and implications of changes or issues in the profession or outside, such as copyright, fee levying in public libraries, and creative commons licensing. Or you may be involved in working groups, discussion panels, or internal or external taskforces. Perhaps you read library journals from other countries or library associations?

Knowledge of and/or participation in the work and activities of the Association, and other relevant organisations: Do you understand what LIANZA does and how it operates? Perhaps you've been on committees, attended local CPD events, presented at conferences or weekend schools? Have you been involved in other organisations, like ARANZ, Te Ropu Whakahau, IFLA or the NZ Knowledge Management Network?

When you're jotting down your notes, use your workmates to jog your memory, check your old Outlook calendar appointments, or dig out those paper diaries.

Keep up the good work! This is the last of the 'note-taking' weeks - next week we get into the more serious business of writing up. Good luck til then!

Eight Weeks to Associateship - Week 3

Week 3: Thinking about management and planning

The focus for this week is part B, where you get to describe your "management and planning responsibilities". This may feel easier for some of you than others! However, it's not a requirement for you to have been in a traditional 'management' role (and as the application form says "Some of the categories below may not be applicable…"), but you may have to think a little more laterally about the kinds of things you have managed.

Let's look through each area. Most of us can pick out one or two areas immediately where we've had experience. Grab your notes, and start jotting things down. For example:
· Staff management: If you managed staff, what was your role, how many people were in the team, were they were permanent or contract, full or part-time, professional, semi- or non-professional roles? What were your responsibilities? Were there performance reviews, salary reviews or even (gulp), disciplinary responsibilities? Were there some things you achieved or supported your staff through, of which you are especially proud of? Perhaps a change management process or a difficult time financially for the organisation?
· Financial management: Have you looked after a budget or had responsibility for the money? Perhaps you managed the binding budget, ensured you kept inside the budget for shelvers or collections, or presented a budget for a project or your department.
· Resource management: This could cover aspects such as managing the upkeep of the collection, maintaining a particular subject or reference collection (physical or virtual), or perhaps the upkeep on the library system or website.
· Implementing and managing appropriate and/or innovative library and information services: Have you started up a new service? It might be an onsite or virtual service that's offered through the website. How about library blogs to keep people up-to-date (internally or externally)?
· Initiating or contributing to projects or changes/improvements in existing services: Are there key areas that you've streamlined? Maybe you've made something faster, more efficient, less prone to mistakes or more cost effective. How about changes in the way the library is organised, or what different roles do?
· Marketing services: What have you done in the way of promotions? Do you send out newsletters to target groups, run the library's Library Week programme, or designed posters to target a particular service? Perhaps you've written up promotions for the local newspaper or library website?
· Evaluating and implementing appropriate technologies: Have you had something automated, changed library systems, or made live reference services available online to customers? How about an online reference tracking system, or making the catalogue mobile-friendly?
· Planning your own work and that of others, setting priorities and aligning with organisational goals and objectives: If you've managed people, how did you set their priorities, and make sure that they're consistent with the goals of the organisation? Do they know what the organisational goals are? How do you prioritise your own work, and how does it contribute to organisational objectives? How do you go about long- and short-term planning for yourself or your team?

There is a lot to think about in this week's task. If you're having some trouble, try taking out the work 'management' and replace it with 'supervision' or think about what you 'look after' in your role. Sometimes we don't think of what we do as being 'management' in the technical sense.

Also consider what you've done outside of work - have you been a treasurer for a SIG? Run a professional committee? Helped to run a weekend school? These activities all contribute to your professional development and your 'management and planning' experience.

Good luck, and talk to you next week!

Eight Weeks to Associateship - Week 2

Week 2: Starting on the detail

This week we're focussing on Part A, which talks about your "Practical knowledge and skills in providing library/information services". As we work through these areas, the idea is to make lots of notes as they come to mind. These notes will form the basis of your application, which we'll start to write up formally in a couple of weeks.

So, here's what they'd like to know about:

(a):
(i) Competence and achievement in some particular aspect(s) of library and information services
(such as circulation services, book selection, collection development, cataloguing, reference and
information services, response to community/user needs, specific services, e.g. Bi/multicultural,
young persons, outreach, special needs, archives, records management, research, user surveys,
etc.).
(ii) A well–demonstrated understanding of the information needs of clients, and the delivery of
services to meet those needs.

Let's start with part i. Sometimes, when you're so close to what you do everyday, it's hard to recognise it as a 'competence', so take out all those job descriptions that you collected last week and give them a read through. What kind of jobs has your library career been characterised by? Are there one or two areas that you'd consider a speciality, or has it been a more of a mixed bag? What did you enjoy doing the most, and where did you feel the greatest sense of achievement? You can pick a few areas if you think you have strengths in several places.

Once you've got your list of competences, for each one, ask yourself
· What were my greatest achievements in that area? It could be a new system of training you devised, a way of making your workflow more efficient, a particular promotion that got lots of good feedback from clients or staff or finding a specialised need and filling it. Take out your performance reviews, and see what you've achieved over the years.
· What other activities have I done in support of this area? Have you done a course or attended training, read specialist magazines, presented at conference, received an award (internal or external) served on a related SIG or working group?
· How do I know that I'm good at this? Perhaps you're the go-to person in your area, you've trained others, or provided support or advice to other libraries. Take out your performance reviews again, and look at your managers comments. How did they say you did the job?

Part ii is about looking at the needs of your clients, and how you deliver a service that fills those needs.
Firstly, think about your clients. These might be your colleagues, your customers, the public, and other libraries. What are their top priorities when they come to the library, or ask you to provide a particular service? Are they looking for speed, efficiency, customer care…? How do you contribute to those needs?

Ask yourself:
· How do I know what my clients want? This might be informal feedback, formal requests, or surveys.
· What areas of my role impact on the stakeholders I serve? Is it speed, efficiency, good knowledge of the library or resources, or doing my role in a thorough way?
· Have I been able to improve on these areas?
· What feedback have I received? Have I had comment on the service, internally or externally? How about positive feedback from a manager or customer? You might be able to see a tangible change, such as increased visitors, or more users of a particular service, or something less tangible, such as a decline in complaints, a better working environment or quicker turnaround time. Or perhaps you know what you're doing works because of your repeat customers!

Hold on to these notes! Again, you might like to keep them close by in case you think of additional ideas during the week. Until next week, happy associating!

Eight Weeks to Associateship - Week 1

Welcome to the "Eight weeks to Associateship" series.

2010 is a great year to apply for an associateship. It's the 100th anniversary of LIANZA, and what better way to celebrate than by recognising your achievements and seeing how far you've come?

The aim of this series is to break the process of applying for an associateship up into easy chunks, a little bit each week. You may also want to find yourself a buddy or mentor (maybe your manager, another applicant, or a person who has their associateship already). It's always good to have someone to bounce ideas off.

Week 1: Gathering yourself

There are three tasks to do this week:

1. Read through the associateship documentation


2. Start assembling your evidence


3. Decide on your referees

Step 1: Read the documentation
The application process is well documented on the LIANZA website. Have a good read of the definition and requirements to make sure you fulfil the criteria, as well as reading the Information and Application form to see what kind of information you need to supply (you may want to read this one twice!) Also take a look at the Guidelines for Referees - this should help you choose who you'd like as your referees.

Step 2: Assemble your evidence
Evidence here is not just the 'publications' that you might include with your application, but also the documents that will jog your memory as you write everything up. That could include your CV (new and old), job descriptions, performance reviews, certificates or notes from training courses, as well as documents that you've written in the course of your job. During the week, keep a notebook next to your desk and jot down any other 'evidence' that comes to mind, for example committees you've been on, awards from inside or outside your institution, achievements you've been particularly proud of, and so on.

3. Choose your referees
The associate application requires reports from three referees. Think about who might be suitable as you're reading the Guidelines for Referees, and choose these early on. You may want to approach them first to explain the process and see if they are willing. The referees reports have a later deadline than the associateship application, but do make sure that you give them plenty of time to write up the report.

While the first week requires a bit of hunting around for documents and brainstorming, next week we'll get into the nitty gritty of addressing the Application Form - one step at a time!