#thing 13

Thing 13 is the Reflective Practice for the Online Networker section of Rudai 23.

For Thing 10 I was working on Networking Tools. I chose Twitter to try and develop my networking skills and followed a few Libraries and Information Services pages. Thing 10 was very good for me in terms of ‘getting my foot in the door’ as the saying goes, and taking my first steps into the LIS world. As of yet I have not actively engaged with the LIS community and this is something that I would like to work on in the future. I know that there is a Rudai 23 twitter chat next week but unfortunately because I have a part-time job in retail I’m unable to join the chat. I think this really highlights the difficulties that I face at the moment, as I am in somewhat of a ‘limbo’ space trying to transition into the LIS community while not actually studying or working in that area at present. This will hopefully change with time but right now it is something that I have to work at.

Thing 11 focused on Your Professional Brand. As I already had a LinkedIn account I chose to update and highlight aspects of my personal brand to create a more professional online presence. This Thing was probably the most beneficial to me as it provided the incentive I needed to relook at my LinkedIn profile as a professional image and brand and to develop it so that it would be something that I wanted others, for example professional colleagues or future employers to see.

Thing 12 was based on Collaborative Tools. Part of the task for Thing 12 was to think and write about the last time I had to work on a group project. My experiences with group projects so far have been limited to college projects which generally are quite challenging in terms of what work some students are willing to put into course work. I hope that any future group projects that I take part in will be more positive than what I have experienced so far. Thing 12 also outlined some useful tools to organise and schedule work tasks, some of these I was familiar with and others I was not. This was very helpful as it introduced me to some new tools that I can use in the future while also refreshing my memory on the advantages of the other tools which I had not used in some time.

These last few Things have been very beneficial to me, particularly in preparing for a future career in LIS. I have not used twitter much and that is definitely the area that I will need to work on the most in the future. I mentioned before that I am not a very outgoing person so online networking and engaging with the community will be a challenge for me but I feel it is one that I can do, especially once I start studying in the area. Developing my LinkedIn page has been great; prior to Thing 11 I was not very aware of my personal digital footprint or my personal brand, but as I am moving away from the ‘college student’ phase of my life and into a ‘professional working’ phase I have had to become more aware of it and these last few Things have definitely done that. I have begun to update and or improve my brand as well as becoming aware of the different ways and tools to manage workflows and collaborate with others.

Khan Academy is interesting.  I downloaded it to see if it might be something of value for my 2nd grade daughter and even for myself.  I liked how it explained basic concepts of addition and subtraction, but she is already beyond it and really just needs more practice than instruction.  Maybe it will be more useful as she gets older and I need a refresher on how to do the math she’s learning. 

I liked the history section (being a history major) as it had text options, which I prefer, and wish it had been around when I was in college as I could have used it for help coming up with my senior thesis!  Oh well.  Now I get to have fun rereading about my favorite parts of history.

I know I could let you go if I tried, but these thoughts get dismissed by a fractured mind when I contemplate a different you & I.

Twitter has always seemed kind of silly to me.  Perhaps the name is too whimsical for me to take seriously.  Maybe it is because so many celebrities use it to fight with one another.  Regardless, it seems as though Twitter is here to stay.  In fact, after we post on Twitter, the Library of Congress will archive our Tweets.  So in the future, people will be able to know what I ate for lunch, or how my day is going.  Seems rather mundane to me, but maybe it will interest someone some day!

I started my Twitter account in grad school, and recently recovered my password.  I was surprised that my account had not been hacked!  I scrolled through my previous tweets, and I saw that the last time I bothered to post something was in 2010 after attended the LITA forum in Atlanta.  This was a library-related technology conference, and everyone was encouraged to live-tweet the conference, using #LITA.  All was fun and games until I noticed that conference goers were using the hash tag to insult conference presenters!  That seemed so rude to me, but I guess even librarians can grow too big for their britches. 

I don't really use Twitter very much in my personal or professional life.  I could see it being useful if I had some big research project I wanted to promote or gain research subjects for, harnessing the power of the re-tweet.  Libraries could use it to promote events or spread the word about new materials.  Relevant news stories or video clips can be shared via Twitter.  It is really just another way to spread information.  I like that it forces users to stay brief.   I could use it to share my haikus with the world, but I wouldn't want to submit everyone to that!  Which reminds me, I haven't written one in awhile...

Filesharing/Collaboration: Google Docs, Wikis & Dropbox

I have been filesharing with my friends for a while, but I tend not to use it in a professional capacity at work because I can save my documents to the "Library" drive, which can be accessed by my colleagues in different branches. Occasionally external websites such as Dropbox are blocked on our school system so it makes life easier if I know I can rely on our drives rather than taking the risk that the external provider is mysteriously blocked the day that I need it. 

I did set up a wiki on WikiSpaces when I was trying to improve our catalogue. The wiki can be edited by any of my colleagues and it aims to streamline the cataloguing process when adding different resources such as textbooks. This was due to the fact that the catalogue is updated by four different people and the process did not seem to be set. Over the years a variety of different cataloguing processes has left us with a catalogue which is all over the place! I am hoping that the wiki will be updated and amended by others in the future to prevent this from getting worse.

As I have already mentioned, Google Docs and Dropbox is extremely useful for planning and filesharing in my personal life. I organised a hen weekend using spreadsheets on Google docs with the other bridesmaids and a friend has recently shared his wedding photos on Dropbox meaning that everyone who signs up can share their own photos without having to all be friends on Facebook.To be honest, I am not that keen on Dropbox because I am not able to access it at work and would probably only use it occasionally.

I have started to use Google Docs Drive quite a bit more when I have been preparing to do my Chartership. It is useful as it means I can access my documents without using a memory stick. I also didn't have Microsoft Office on my laptop until recently so it meant I could word process documents at home and still access them at work. A colleague who is currently Chartering pointed out that Jo Alcock has shared useful documents about Chartering reading on Google Docs too which I intend to look at and amend where relevant.