Thing 10 - routes into librarianship

I started to work in libraries as a way of supplementing my income whilst studying for my Environmental Science degree. I finished the course and stayed on for one of the Library's summer projects and haven't left the academic library world since.  I moved from project worker to Library Assistant, working at the issuing desk and as part of the acquisitions team. It was only 7 years after graduation and 3yrs after my son was born that I decided to go for the MA in Information Services Management.

My second son arrived right at the end of the MA which meant a temporary break from CPD/job hunting (librarian post). It was time to develop new networks - baby groups, the playground gang, and some evening volunteering in a Law Centre. It was in the Law Centre that I finally understood the mechanics of faceted  classification.

Once back at work,  I started cataloguing and was offered the opportunity to work with a special collection, (TUC material) before moving into the Women's Library. After a few unsuccessful attempts to get a librarian position, I decided to register for the Chartership programme, to make my CPD more official and give me some sort of a structure to it, albeit a very loose one. 

Getting the Personal Professional Development Plan (PPDP) together for the Chartership took a while - not easy to incorporate "Chartership-level" projects into a LA's work schedulle.  Having joined CPD23 has given me some great ideas to explore, just wish I could go a bit faster....

Thing 9 - Evernote

I've started using Evernote some time ago and more so when I got my first smart-phone.  That's where I keep photos, sites that I want to go back to, my notes about them, etc.  I'm sure there are many other ways to achieve this but by using Evernote saves me having to go through my "mini-peadia" of tags, I can select what I want to use in a particular piece of work/reminder and save them here. It stops me from getting distracted.

I just hope no one pulls the plug and it all vanishes....

Google calendar - thing 8

I've just got Google calendar at work. It's potentially a great tool which can allow different teams find out about each others activities. Signing up has been slow but I'm sure that by the end of the month we'll all get over the stumbling blocks and be using it for all sorts of things (home, work wardrobe renewal ...).

I've got a home and family ical (google) and love it - have created separate ones for the children and can have them superimposed onto mine. At a glance I can remind myself of what to expect on the coming day/wk. My older son (11yr) can add events to his and keep me update, great!