Eight Weeks to Associateship - Week 8

Week 8: Making the final touches

This week we'll be rounding up the last pieces of information and sending off your Associateship application. Some of you (me included!) might find this a high-anxiety week - have I done enough to answer the questions that the Credentials Committee wants answers to? Have I missed anything out? A final review, and the collation of all your materials should help you put your mind to rest.

Having put your personal statement away for a few days, take it out and give it another read over. Make any tweaks that help it to flow, or to highlight your achievements better.

Now, get yourself a big envelope, and assemble the following:
1. Your personal statement
2. The LIANZA Associateship application form
3. A cheque for $50
4. A passport-sized photograph
5. 4 copies of your evidence of written work (and a bibliography, if you have enough)

These needs to arrive at the LIANZA office by 31 MARCH 2010, so get down to your NZ Post shop asap!

Also, email your referees to remind them about the deadline for the referee's report - 14 APRIL 2010

Just in case you thought this was the last post - fear not! Now that you application is away, in a month or so we'll be looking at the presentation to the credentials committee.

But for now, you can take a breather and give yourself a pat on the back. This is a process of detailed and thoughtful self-examination, and it doesn't come easily to most of us. Many people will choose to never apply for an Associateship because of this. So, good on you! I hope to see you all at conference receiving your awards!

Best of luck,
Laurinda

Eight Weeks to Associateship - Week 7

Week 7: Polishing and Professionalism

By now I hope you're all feeling like your application is beginning to take shape. We'll be completing the last piece and sprucing things up this week. So, let's get into it!

Part C looks at professional development and professional contribution. The requirements are:

(i) Self-development of professional perspectives and objectives through professional reading, Internet discussion groups

(ii) Continuing education through such activities as attendance at seminars and workshops

(iii) An awareness of professional issues

(iv) Knowledge of and/or participation in the work and activities of the Association, and other relevant organisations

You should have a good list of your activities from week 4. You might want to tie aspects together, for example, how has your self-development informed your awareness of the issues? Has this changed anything you've done or how you approach things? What are the professional issues that are most concerning to you, or that you're most involved with? What are your regular LIS must-reads or must-attends? How do you keep up-to-date? What about professional networks, either personal or association-based?

There are a range of thing that could be included under continuing education, so you may choose some highlights, or showcase a range of courses, workshops or seminars you’ve attended (some of these might fall outside of LIS, but be part of the sector you're in).

Once you've done that, take your whole application and give it a good thrice over!

1. Read it through for flow. Does it read well? Have you repeated anything?
2. Look at your formatting. Is there anything you could do to improve the presentation on the page, or make it easier for the credentials committee to identify how you fit the criteria, such as headings or new paragraphs to separate key points? Don't be afraid to use white space on the page and have an appropriate font size. Steer away from serif fonts or anything too flashy - they are more difficult on the eyes. Stick to a nice sans-serif!
3. Give it a good spell check and identify any sloppy punctuation. This can be very distracting to the reader.

Now is a good time to go over the checklist of things that you need to supply to the committee so that we can put everything together next week. Well done - you're nearly there!

Eight Weeks to Associateship - Week 6

Week 6: Showing off your skills

Management and planning responsibilities are the name of the game this week. Take out your notes from week 3, and remember as you're going through to think of management in a broad sense, since our job descriptions don't always use that word. This week's section is quite a chunky one, so get yourself a cuppa and a biscuit before you get going.

We're working through part B in much the same way as we did with part A. The tricky thing here I think, is to get down all the main points succinctly. Resist the temptation to exhaustively list every little thing you've done, but rather try to hit the high points. There are a couple of ways you could tackle this. You may want to start with a job where you demonstrated several of these skills and write briefly what your role and responsibilities were in the different areas. Or, you might choose one area and talk pick out a couple of significant examples from your working life. Or, if many of the examples are from the same project for example, you may want to talk about the project you worked on and describe the responsibilties you had within it.

Remember, they're looking for the following:
(i) Staff management
(ii) Financial management
(iii) Resource management
(iv) Implementing and managing of appropriate and/or innovative library and information services
(v) Initiating or contributing to projects or changes/improvements in existing services
(vi) Marketing services
(vii) Evaluating and implementing appropriate technologies
(viii) Planning own work and that of others, setting priorities and aligning with organisational goals and objectives

Don't worry if you don’t have experience of all of these, the application does state, "Some of the categories below may not be applicable to the applicant. This will depend upon the applicant's work."

While the emphasis is on seeing that you've had responsibility in some of these areas, if you can, pick out achievements you've had or show the impact that you've made as well. These show that you have moved into mastery of the area, rather than just competence.

Best of luck this week with your write-up. Next week we'll be looking at professional development and contribution - one of my favourite topics!

Finally - an apology for the lateness of this column. Despite my best intentions to get this out by Wednesday, events overtook me! I hope y'all have ploughed on ahead anyway!

Associateship Event - Cancelled

Unfortunately, due to a lack of RSVPs, we're decided to cancel our Associateship event this evening (4th March). We're hopeful that we'll run the session again, but perhaps towards the end of the year instead.

But never fear! We'll continue to bring you the Eight Weeks to Associateship series to support you on your application journey, so stay tuned in!

Eight Weeks to Associateship - Week 5

Week 5: Telling your story


Congratulations - if you've made it this far you're well on your way to completing your associateship application! A lot of the hard work and thinking has been done, and now it's time to tell your story in the application process.


Take out your notes from week 2. We're going to start shaping them into your application. Although 1000 words can seem daunting, many of you will find that once you start writing it's an easy target to reach, so you will want to be fairly concise.


We'll focus on part A this week, which looks at "Practical knowledge and skills in providing library/information services", in particular "Competence and achievement in some particular aspect(s) of library and information services" and "a well–demonstrated understanding of the information needs of clients, and the delivery of services to meet those needs".


Firstly, you'll want to choose which aspect of library and information services you want to focus on for this part of your application. From your notes there might be a one very clear frontrunner (reference services, circulation or systems for example), or you may choose two or three where you can measurably demonstrate both competence and achievement.


For each area, briefly discuss your roles you've had, including levels of responsibility, and what higher level tasks were undertaken. From your list of achievements pick one or two, summarising the aim, implementation and outcome of each. You may want to select achievements or projects which tie into the second part, demonstrating a knowledge and delivery of service to, client needs. Also outline what additional work you do in this area to keep up-to-date or to spread your knowledge to others.


If you haven't addressed it in the first area (or maybe even if you have), you'll now want to demonstrate that you understand client needs, and can deliver services to meet those needs. Again, examples are the most informative, discussing the needs of your client base, how you keep abreast of their needs, what you've done to address these, and the outcome.


Don't worry too much at this stage if you find you've written quite a lot. We'll have a chance to revise and pare things down a little later. As you're writing up the next sections, you may find that many areas overlap, and that one example provides examples that fit several different criteria.


As you write things up, remember to take a little time to enjoy your achievements. Best of luck, and see you next week!

Thinking of applying for an Associateship? Let our panel show you how!

LIANZA Te Upoko o te Ika a Maui (Wellington) Regional Committee has organised an opportunity for you to hear more! We've brought together some inspiring Wellington librarians– Sue Sutherland who has served on the Credentials Committee and Moira Fraser, Rachel Esson and Kareen Carter who were the Wellington 2009 Associates – to tell you all about their experiences and why you too should apply to be a LIANZA Associate.

Where: The Moot Room, Level 3 Old Government Buildings, Bunny Street Entrance
When: Thursday 4 March, 5.30pm-6.30pm, nibbles & networking from 5pm.
RSVP: gabrielle.hikaka@tpk.govt.nz by Wednesday 3 March 2010

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!

On Becoming an Associate

Recently a lovely friend of mine asked for advice about the process for becoming an Associate of LIANZA. It made me reflect on how beneficial I actually found the whole experience. So when we were planning this Blog I decided that this could be a good thing to share with you.

I became an Associate in October 2007 (that's me in the shiny red dress) and I didn't find it an onerous process at all.

So what do you have to do?

Note: you should read the full requirements for the nitty gritties.

But in short you need to:

Step 1:

• Fill in a form that states your career details, length of LIANZA membership and qualifications
• Write a statement about your skills and competence as a professional librarian
• Pull together a portfolio of reports, articles, bibliographies, guides, publications, that you've written.
• Arrange for 3 referees to write really nice things about you and your career. ; )
• Pay a very reasonable fee of $50 to help cover the cost of administration.

Step 2
If your application gets through to the interview stage you need to:

• Prepare a 10 minute presentation on your career and present it to the interview committee (made up of 3 or 4 members of the Credentials Committee).
• Then you have an interview with 3 or 4 senior, talented people where you get to talk about your career and your thoughts on the library profession and how you to contribute to it.

So what do you get out of it?

There are tangible benefits to becoming an Associate ( a pin, a lovely certificate, a citation, and the awards ceremony that gave me the chance to wear my shiny red dress) but it is the intangible ones that stand out for me. In fact it was the application process that I got the most out of. It provided the satisfaction of bringing together the things I've done in my career into a portfolio and then sharing it with the interview panel. Then during the interview I had the wonderful privilege of conversing with some interesting, talented, senior members of our profession. I got to share my thoughts, ideas and hopes for our profession with them and, best of all, I got great advice from them. I think they asked me a few tricky questions too but I don't really remember what they were. What I do remember is that it was a very positive and affirming experience. It is the most enjoyable interview I've ever done!

So why do it?

When I try to think back on why I applied for it I came up with this:

I applied because I am committed to the library and information profession (and everything we do) and also because I am proud of contributions I have made (and will continue to make) to it.

Being an Associate of LIANZA is official recognition of this committment and I'm really proud of that.

Well this is all my own personal experience and thoughts. If you're thinking about applying next year then I'm happy for you to contact me. Also, perhaps some of my fellow associates could share their experience in the comments?


Cheers

Fiona ALIANZA