CPD23 – Page 5 – Dumpling in a Hanky

Thing numero seveno – professional networky stuff

So, for this Thing, I’m looking at my professional networks and organisations.

CILIP / CILIPS
I was never a student member, and only joined in the first place because 1) my employer paid the fees, and 2) my line manager at that time was heavily involved in the Scottish branch. The same pretty much applies now as the reasons for me maintaining my membership! Oh, and also because I’m Chartered now, and if you leave CILIP, you lose the Charter (which is fair enough – there’s no point having a qualification that shows your commitment to your own and others professional development if there’s no-one checking you’re doing what you say you’re doing) .

What do I get from CILIP/CILIPS? Well, currently, not much. As a Chartership candidate, I attended a session on the process, and I’ve attended occasional events organised by CILIP, where I could squidge them to kind-of fit with my internal Appraisal goals. I get the CILIP info email on library related news, but as my job involves keeping up to date on most news, I’ve usually already read the articles that are linked to by the time it comes in, and the journal is almost always of no interest to me, as it’s seems to be just about public and academic libraries. I know they do lots of good things, but none of them are currently of any real use to me. I think the lack of relevance of CILIP for me at the moment is because I work in a specialised sector, and other groups already fill the role for me that CILIP seem to do for public and academic librarians.

However, I’m planning to register as a Mentor for Chartership candidates soon, so by being involved in that process I may feel that I’m both more useful to CILIP, and that they are to me. As Loopy says, CILIP’s one of those things that you get back what you put in. For me, I’ve mainly not been putting anything in with CILIP.

BIALL
BIALL (British and Irish Association of Law Librarians) is an excellent and very active group. I’m a member because my workplace pays for my professional fees, which is great, as it allows me access to the Journal of Legal Information Management (lots of articles relevant to legal information professionals), the newsletter (updates on BIALL and supplier activities), salary surveys (great to pass to Higher Ups, to show where your salary sits when compared to other professionals with similar responsibilities and experience), and there’s also an email list. The email list does often seem to be the backup plan for people posting initially on lis-law, in order to try and get as many responses as possible to queries, rather than the first port of call, but this is probably because not all legal information professionals are BIALL members. Finance issues mean I’ve not been able to attend a conference since 2008, but when I have been able to attend, the conferences have been informative, fun, and given me a great chance to make contacts outside the Scots law field, and to put names to the faces of the people whose names I’ve seen around the internet.

Hopefully, I might be able to attend the next conference…or is it my boss’ turn? I may have to suggest a game of Stone, Paper, Scissors to settle matters…

SLLG
The SLLG (Scottish Law Librarians Group) group is, for me, the most useful of the professional groups that I’m a member of. Plus, I’m on the Committee, so I have no choice but to be heavily involved*! Again, my employer pays my memberships fees for this group, but seeing as it’s only £15, I would be a member of this group regardless of who paid the fees.
It’s aimed at trying to fill the need for legal-sector specific training for information professionals in Scotland, has a quarterly newsletter, a members email list, and additional regular social events to encourage face-to-face meetings. Which is lovely – letting you put a face to a name….as long as you’re better than me, and can remember which face goes with which name. This is not my strong point! Name badges are often my salvation.
Since it’s a small group, it feels quite friendly and approachable, and the email list allows members to ask each other for help on topics which may be specific only to Scots law.

Side Points
According to a Twitter post from CILIP Info earlier this week, my CILIP membership also means I’m a member of IFLA. I had no idea! I think I’m also a member of some CILIP Special Interest groups, but they can’t have made a big impact on me, as I can’t remember which ones they are!

What Do I Get From It?
So, those are my “formal” professional groups, and I definitely get different things from the membership of each one. I suppose it just shows that no professional group can ever be able to do “everything”.

I’m quite happy to be a member of all of these, although my involvement level varies significantly between none with BIALL, some (and soon to be increasing) with CILIP, and total with SLLG. I also see that, as I have progressed in my career, I’ve become more involved in the organisations I feel I can be useful in: first, with the SLLG, and now also with CILIP as a Mentor.

It’s also meant that my CV, which might otherwise just have shown very little other than the work I do in my firm, could now show me with extra professional qualifications (yay for gaining extra bits of the alphabet after my name!), the skills to organise training events, lots of great contacts throughout the legal and general information profession, and a commitment to helping others develop the skills they need to progress in their careers. Quite a change from “I do this at my desk all day” I think.

*Also, I’m therefore contractually obliged to report that it is The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread. And actually, I do pretty much think that. Apart from the fact that we don’t usually have any home baking activities in the SLLG. Yet.

Thing 6, online networks, and how I’m using them (or not)

Okaaaaaaaaaaay, Thing 6 is it then!

Of the various networks suggested, I’m a member of Facebook, LinkedIn, LISPN, and CILIP Communities…please note though, that there’s a big difference between me being a member, and me actually participating in all of these!

I have to confess up front, that I don’t ever actually go onto either LISPN or CILIP Communites.

LISPN I signed up to when it was first launched, as I wanted to help build the momentum to get it going, and be involved, but it moved way past me needing to be there as an encouraging body long ago! Also, it’s not really a network that I feel I need to be actively involved in at this point – I feel I’m at a stage in my career where I’m experienced, established in my role, and happily settled in my workplace. This means I’m not greatly in need of the resources available there, which are more suited to those moving to/from library school, first/second/third jobs/contracts, and trying to establish professional networks and contacts. The “new” part is perhaps something I’ve moved beyond.

Oh lordy: I’m old.

CILIP Communities is also not something that it ever occurs to me to visit – I know that there are interesting discussions going on over there at times, but I only find that out when links to them are posted on Twitter by other info professionals. I find it quite hard to navigate, and I don’t like having to be “me”, rather than the semi-anonymous me I can be here and elsewhere.

Facebook, I’m pretty much solely personal on there. I don’t allow current workmates to add me (apart from my boss, but that’s because we have more of a Friendship With Occasional Line Manager Aspects When Needed relationship than a Strict Boss Supervising Daft Minion At All Times While Using Stern Face thing going on), other than a few of the people in work I am closest to, and am happy to let them see me personal life. I don’t talk about my work on Facebook, or any of the people there. In fact on Facebook I don’t list: my full name; my date of birth/age; my place of birth/hometown; any of my educational history; my employer; what city I live in; my relationship status etc…basically, I give FB as little as I can get away with. I also never post anything serious about me or my life on Facebook: I post (hopefully) amusing status updates, and comment on other peoples stuff in a lighthearted way. This is my entirely personal and unprofessional world.

I do allow people to add me on FB that I have got to know through other means – friends who I met via this blog, or Twitter, mainly. They are the people I feel know me, and that I’m comfortable with having access to my photos, silly status updates etc. Many of the people I’ve added in this way are also professional contacts on other networks like Twitter, so there’s an element of “I first knew them elsewhere, but I like them enough to let them see how I really am” 😉

The other extreme of this is LinkedIn. This is the only place, anywhere where I am purely “grown up, work me”. My employer, job title, responsibilities, work and educational history and professional groups membership/activities are all listed there. I am connected to workmates throughout my firm, from all different departments, and I have connections in all sorts of professional fields.

My LinkedIn profile does link to this blog, which I quite often swither about – this is quite an informal blog, but my LinkedIn profile is quite formal. Do I want workmates following that link and seeing how daft some of my posts are? Do I want them knowing I have this blog at all? I don’t say anything terrible about my work or workmates, but will they assume any oblique references are about them? Currently, I’ve gone with “well, most other professional contacts can read this, so workmates should be fine”, but I’m frequently considering whether to de-link this blog from there – is it a good or a bad reflection on my “purely professional” LinkedIn profile to have this semi-professional blog associated? Is it better to give an idea of the real me from a link to this blog, or leave it as plain and professional?

Hmmmm.

But, despite having joined a couple of years ago, my profile LinkedIn still isn’t fully complete: I don’t have a photo. Photos – yuck! I don’t have many “proper, grown up” me photos, and it’s not like I can use the “official” work photo – that’s 6 years old, and I look a tad different now. I’m still debating with myself whether I ever want one on there, because, to be honest, I only have a LinkedIn page because I feel like I should have somewhere that the Professional Version Of Dumpling could be found. I’m not looking to move employer, I don’t need a professional recommendation, I don’t use it to advertise my expertise, I don’t use the groups (other than joining them, and then forgetting they exist), or ever contact anyone through it for help in something they’re expert in. If I wanted my friends help (which is what most of my non-workplace contacts are), I’d just ask them directly. It’s not really much use for me, to be honest.

So – I’d say LinkedIn is definitely the place that I’m still most unsure about how to best “be” on there, but otherwise, I hope the division between entirely professional (LinkedIn), semi-professional/personal (Twitter) or entirely personal (Facebook) networks is clear enough for people to see.

Thing 5 – mirror, mirror

For Thing 5, we’ve to reflect: on what we did, what we learned, and what we can take forward from it.

So…what have I learned so far?

To be honest…not a huge amount, yet. As an active blogger, Tweeter, and user of RSS feeds, the only thing new to me that the programme has thrown up so far is Pushnote, which I decided not to trial for the reasons I stated before.

Is this a bad thing though?
No – every new activity needs to build up its participants from basics, and I knew when I signed up that the early stages were unlikely to provide anything new for me. It’s the later Things that I expect will be more relevant to me, so this will still develop into an interesting activity to be a part of.

Although I have noticed that I’ve already slipped back into “minimal commenting” mode again – after the second cdps23 post, which encouraged comments on posts, I’ve not really been posting many comments. This is probably because I don’t really have time to do much more than skim through them in my feed reader during breaks – it’s only posts that really catch my eye that make me click through to the actual blog in order to make a comment. But that’s fine with me – I’ve now got more interesting library feeds in my reader than I did before this, and they’re a manageable amount for me.

But, how am I at being reflective anyway?

Although the material from it doesn’t appear here, I do already take part in my employers appraisal system…this involves identifying me and my service’s development needs, deciding how to meet them, and providing regular updates on my progress towards those goals. This system supported and helped me to manage my activities when compiling my Portfolio for my Chartership submission, and is also helping me as I work towards Revalidation. The need to identify issues, act on them, and produce supporting documentation on the outcome (including any problems) mean I’m constantly assessing where I am, where I should be, and how I’ll get to where I should be .

I’m also working with Bethan Ruddock on a wiki we set up to allow us to informally mentor each other (for Revalidation for me, and eventual-Chartership for her), and help manage our professional activities….and make sure we manage to schedule in time to reflect on what we’re doing professionally (or not doing!), why we’re doing it, and we write up the evidence of the process soon after we do it. Working like this also allows the other wiki participant to give suggestions and feedback, which can be incorporated into further professional activities and materials.

So, I feel like I’ve got both a formal, employer-based system that encourages me to reflect in order to provide evidence of participation in that system, and an informal, voluntary system that does the same.

And with the informal system, I get chocolate when I’ve been a good girl 😉

The fourth thing….eventually.

Ok, I’m late, but I was on holiday last week – I reserve the right to pay not the slightest bit of attention to work-type things while I’m meant to be relaxing. Or in this case, painting, birthday attending, painting, sanding, painting, cleaning, painting, carpet shampooing, painting, and home-for-sale-listing.
I was a bit busy.

So, Twitter, RSS feeds and Pushnote, eh?

Twitter
I think I’ve pretty much got a good grip on Twitter – I’ve been on there 4 years or so, and have built up some good relationships through meeting people on it. From the start, my account has been a protected one, so only those who I approve can read what I tweet, and I don’t use my real name, or identify my employer. I did this deliberately – I don’t want the personal account that I created (where I am very informal, and more “personal” than anywhere other than Facebook) to be linked to my workplace. I like to have a slight disconnect from my work life: you can find this blog from my Twitter bio, but not the other way around, so you can’t find me professionally (here) and then try and know me personally (Twitter).

This means the people I have a relationship with on Twitter are those I feel I can trust, and I can get on well with.

So, when I get follow requests, I go look at their profile, and assess a few things:

Do they have a picture?

No picture, they’re just a faceless blob/egg? Marked down!

Have they filled out their bio?

Have they given me some sort of information to say who they are/what they like/if it’s a work or personal account?

Do we share contacts?

If we have mutual contacts, I’m far more likely to allow a follow request, as they’ve effectively been vetted by others first.

Do they actually tweet?

Twitter’s a social tool. If the requester’s only posted 3 tweets in a week, how am I meant to develop any sort of interaction and relationship with them? If I’m not online when they tweeted those occasional tweets, I’m never going to get the chance to start to chat to them.

Do they have a sense of humour?

I talk a lot of nonsense on Twitter. If people want to follow me, they can’t be too serious, or they’ll end up unfollowing me in irritation at my waffling, and then I’ll find out weeks later when I do my occasional check if I’ve been unfollowed (no point in talking to people that you don’t realise can no longer read what you’re saying), and I have to unfollow them. Easier to save all that effort by just rejecting the initial request.

Twitter’s excellent for me in terms of picking up information: I immediately know the top news and political topics, I follow various useful local information accounts, and I have asked for (and got) some excellent help when needed…but it’s not where I go for my professional and in-depth information. For that, I use RSS feeds.

RSS Feeds

I’ve been using RSS feeds for a few years now, and I pretty much spend a large amount of my day working with them. I currently use Google Reader, after the demise (and too-late rebirth) of Bloglines. I currently have 76 work-related feeds, 40 library feeds (with more library feeds in a second, non-work RSS reader account). Monitoring and using the information from the work feeds takes up a large amount of my work time, as this information forms the basis of our internal Current Awareness service, a supplement to those provided by the subscription services we purchase. After my week off, my unread items count is sitting at 1000+ (Greader stops listing at 1000, so I have no idea how many actual unread items there are above that), so keeping on top of them is a demanding task.

The feeds are split into Government (a priority to deal with), Legal (second priority – covers Law Society news, legal reporting and discussions etc), Intellectual Property, and Library. Library feeds are read only in bursts, or in breaks – the work items come first. That’s also why I moved some Library feeds into a personal Greader account that I use at home…but by the end of a day wrangling feeds, I don’t tend to want to look at more at home, so I’ve started shifting these back to my work Greader account.

I am always looking to find new, useful and reliable source feeds to add to my RSS subscriptions, but I also have to be careful about how I manage them. When I do manage to get it down to zero unread items, within minutes a new item will have appeared, so the temptation to sit and do RSS feed material non-stop to keep the unread items count clear is strong. I have to make sure I don’t spend all my time dealing with the constant influx of information there, and ignore it once I’ve done a certain amount in the morning, and again in the afternoon. In this case, there’s no option for me to “mark all as read” (which I do in my personal Greader when they get overwhelming) – I must check all these feeds for relevant information.

RSS feeds are great…as long as you remember not to let them overwhelm you!

Pushnote

To be honest, I’m not even going to look at Pushnote in any detail, it just doesn’t have any appeal for me. I’m not a big “work related” websites sharer: perhaps this is a tool more suited to an academic library environment, rather than a commercial one, where the emphasis is on getting things done fast rather than sharing reading material.

I also don’t like the idea that Pushnote could share my comments via my feed on Twitter or Facebook. If I occasionally post a link in Twitter or Facebook, it’s usually for light entertainment. I don’t look at the Shared items option in Google Reader, and I get irritated when other users start bombarding Twitter with their shared items. If I want to know what things and webpages other people like, I’ll go looking, or ask them – I object to others choices being foisted onto me, and have unfollowed people on Twitter who did that, so I sure as hell ain’t going to start “pushing” my recommendations on anyone else.
I’ve also read that it’s hard to get your account deleted or removed, so for someone who likes to shut down unused accounts, this does not inspire confidence or trust in me. So sorry, but no ta!