Am I an engaged professional? After working through
and reflecting on this last section of the course I would say yes, but with
room for improvement both with being involve with CILIP and being a better
advocate for my library and libraries in my local area. I have become aware
through looking at my own experiences and talking to other librarians that people’s
engagement and level of involvement with professional bodies will change
throughout their working lives. And this is OK. It’s OK if the only way you
engage with CILIP, is to read the ‘Information Professional’ magazine. You may
be on 2 committees and attend every conference. That’s great. What’s important
is that you are part of a professional organisation and supporting it in
whatever way you feel you can – and this may change. I would also say you
should challenge them on issues and topics where you feel more should be done
which is something I need to get better at doing. Professional library
organisations are here to represent us and the profession, and if we don’t
support and tell them who we are and what we need, they can’t effectively do
this, and support us and our careers.
Interacting with podcasts was a totally new
experience for me and I loved it! The Podcast
software on the iPad work well, with the only negative being the limited
choice of categories options which I initially chose to look through, and in
one case my bad judgement of a podcast. The ‘Out Here in America’ series though
has bee a real find for me and I am still enjoying the episodes. With the range
of topics and themes of podcasts including library related issues and news, I’m
starting to see that podcasts could be another way to engage with the wider
library world and keep informed about library news or new titles etc. They
could also be used as accessible teaching tools and resources too at work. I
didn’t manage to make a podcast due to lacking both time and equipment but reading
the instructions again I started to think about uses for creating Podcasts at
work. And I feel this could be a great opportunity for me and the pupils to
engage with technology and digital media (so developing their digital literacy
skills), to create programmes about happenings in the school library, new
titles this month or our reviewers recommend. Why not. It’s an exciting
prospect. Don’t Vlog – Pod!
In the past six months I have been involved with
more library advocacy work that for the entire 4 years I have been a school
Librarian. Faced with halving the number of school librarians in Moray from 8
to 4, my colleagues and I set out inform, educate, and alter mindsets about the
values and work of school librarians. Local Councillors were contacted with
data highlighting the impact of school libraries on pupils learning,
professional library organisations and literacy groups were also contacted to
ask for their support in retaining school librarians and be our advocates as
were authors we had worked with. Staff
and Parent groups too received information about our work too. Ultimately, we
failed to reverse these cuts. On one hand it was clear we should have already
been promoting and advocating our service to local politicians and community,
but I and my colleagues are also now very aware of what we can to promote
school libraries and who to contact and the kind of support they may be able to
give us, as well as information we need to provide. Having to work through the
library advocacy section has made me
realise that though I have a greater
awareness of contacts and support for school libraries in Moray, I need to have
information and evidence to hand about my service (statistics, footfall, annual
report, infographics etc) to regularly share with my school and the wider
community to show the value the school library. Evidence is part of the key to
this process. Feeding this information
to professional organisations like CILIP and CILIPS will also provide them with
evidence to be better able to advocate on the sectors behalf. The more people I
can engage about the value of my sector and service, the more (I hope) they
will become advocates for the service. I think the Cork City Council Library
development document I mentioned in Thing 20 gives a clear example of the work
that needs to be done to engage the community, and its clear vision for the
service is inspiring, and I will use this to see if I can take ideas (scaled
down as I am a library one man band) in inform my advocacy and library strategy
that I will have to make.
I have had a mixed relationship with CILIP as I
discussed in Thing 21, though now we are over the rocky ground and relations
are more harmonious, with a few niggly issues remaining. Reflecting on this
relationship and looking at where I am now from seven years ago when I had
stopped being a member, it is clear to me that I am in a more engaged place
professionally than I was, with a real positive impact on my CPD, and this is
down to me being a member of CILIP and seeking CILIP Chartership status that
this has happened. I’m now a conference convert and have realised all I have
missed by not attending them sooner, gaining ideas and insights into the
profession to inspire and influence my work. I’ve discovered Webinars as
training tools, I’m actively looking to be involved with re-starting the CILIPS
North branch and I want training and committee meeting delivery altered to
allow me and others living in more rural areas be able to engage further in the
life of CILIP and CILIPS. I’m now realising the more I feel involved in the
organisation the more I want to get involved and support it. Not everyone will
feel like this and that is fine – I certainly didn’t seven years ago. I’m
enjoying the opportunities that being a member of CILIP has given me.
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