This is the reflective post for the Engaged Professional section of Rudai 23. Overall, this section of Things has been particularly thought provoking in regards to a LIS career and working in the area.

Thing 19 looked at podcasts and I chose to listen to podcasts from ‘Stuff you missed in History class.’ Four podcasts caught my eye: Death at the Duomo: The Pazzi Conspiracy; Savonarola, the Unarmed Prophet; How Lucrezia Borgia Worked; and How the Dancing Plague of 1518 Worked. I found the podcasts were well but not overly detailed, providing a good foundation in the topics and of convenient and manageable times (ranging roughly from 15 to 25 minutes). I really enjoyed listening to the podcasts and to be honest it didn’t really feel like a task, it was an excuse to put on some headphones and tune out while listening to some fascinating information. I will hopefully continue to listen to the podcasts from ‘Stuff you missed in History class.’ Although, I think that in the future it would be more beneficial if I listened to the Librarian/Library related Podcasts; but I was too drawn to the history podcasts (as is evidenced by my inability to decide which podcast to listen to and review for Thing 19 and ending up choosing all four!).

Thing 20 centred on library advocacy and engagement; about the fundamental role libraries play in society and how library professionals can advocate for libraries effectively. This was a difficult Thing, not only did take me quite some time to complete but it also challenged me to think from a different point of view and imagine what it would be like to work in the LIS area and what I would do to engage with and advocate for that imagined library. I tried to answer all the questions posed in the task for Thing 20; although I was unable to complete question 9 which I found too difficult to answer as, for me, it required more in-depth knowledge of and the workings of the LIS area.  In addition to the trouble with question 9 I had to adjust my answers because of my lack of knowledge and experience in the area. Despite the issues I found this Thing to be very interesting especially as a way to start thinking about advocacy how I would and could get involved.

Thing 21 looked at Professional Groups, their role and activities, and the benefits of engaging with them. I chose task 1 which involved learning more about the roles, activities and benefits of individual professional bodies listed in the module. I chose this task because with my current situation all of these professional bodies were new to me and I wanted to learn about them. Prior to this Thing was completely unaware of the number of professional groups that existed or the kind of things that they did to promote their librarians and the LIS profession, or even that some groups were involved with other areas as well, e.g. the ARLIS and IAML. This was such an informative Thing and has opened up the wider LIS community to me. It also highlighted the importance to me of engaging with these groups in the future and providing me with a support and advice network of other LIS professionals, and the career development opportunities.

If I had the ability to create a new library related app, what would it be?  My mind boggles at this question!  I would be happy if the library apps that already exist simply worked better (Gale Access My Library for instance).

But, I have to say, this is a really interesting question.  I guess I can start out by thinking about what I would want this app to not do.  I would not want it to collect any user information at all.  It would not require a login to work correctly.  A user would be able to pick it up, use it intuitively, and set it aside when they were done.  It would probably make use of the camera, and also the microphone.  If any data needed to be transferred, the user would have the option of entering an email address, but this info would not be stored.

So, what could possibly meet these specifics?  Who would be the target audience?  What would the legal implications be?