A new adventure: cpd23

It's been a while since I last did any blogging. My previous flurry of activity was due to my participation in Cam23, a 23 Things programme which encouraged the investigation and evaluation of various online and social media technologies. I got a lot out of that experience and feel that taking part in cpd23 will be another valuable opportunity to try out some new tools. I am also attracted however by the Things that are less "technology-focussed", things that should prove really useful in thinking about career development. In particular, Online presence, Getting involved, Careers, and Promoting yourself really stand out. I hope through the course of the programme to develop my (currently low-key) online professional presence. I was rather timid about my online voice during Cam23 and now feel that I would really like to raise my profile. I would like to get more actively involved in online library discussions and activities as they provide a great opportunity for sharing ideas and knowledge and are a great arena for learning and meeting new people. I hope that cpd23 will spur me on to achieve this. Am looking forward to the challenge!      

Reflection

Image by jsmoral on Flickr

So this is Thing 13, and that means I'm just over the half way point of the programme! What have I thought so far, and what have I learnt?

Without a doubt the programme has increased my confidence in using new technologies and exploring what is out there. I'd heard about a lot of web 2.0 tools, but never had the time or inclination to explore them for myself. By reading an introductory outline on what a tool is all about, and being given step-by-step instructions for signing up and getting started, I've had a great push in the right direction from the Cam23 team that has given me the confidence to give new things a try. It's also been extremely helpful to read articles, views and opinions on the various Things (tagging was especially thought-provoking), and to see real-life examples of how libraries are putting the tools into practice: great inspiration and food for thought!

I have been thinking about the usefulness of each of the Things in a personal and a professional capacity. Many of the tools already are, or have the potential to become, extremely useful for my own daily activities or as an aid to my general career development (e.g. keeping up-to-date with developments and news in the library and information sector)-Google Calendar, Doodle, Delicious, and RSS all spring to mind, and I would certainly recommend these to others.

In a professional, work environment the tools seem to divide between being internally useful among colleagues (e.g. Doodle, Google Calendar), and as new ways to reach out to users and promote services and resources. In terms of the latter, the time input required and the potential outreach of the tool would have to be carefully considered. For example, I don't think Twitter would be particularly useful for a College library, firstly because I don't get the impression that many young people/students are on Twitter, and secondly there would not be a huge amount of information to communicate in the Twitter format (which is particularly geared to speedy updates and news items). Emails, posters and the library website would cover the ground pretty well. Learning about Creative Commons on Flickr has been extremely useful, and I now have great hopes that my posters can become stunning works of art that will be much more eye-catching! Slideshare and Delicious are both great potentials, the former in particular for library induction information. I really like the fact that the two can be integrated into the library website. I don't think there's much point having information spread out all over the place because students just wouldn't have the time to go round looking at them all. But bringing things together on the library website would make them much more accessible.

I am very excited about web 2.0, and I think there is a lot of possibilities for libraries to take advantage of the free tools that are available to reach out and connect with users. Web 2.0 is certainly very trendy, but I think a lot of thought has to go into which things are most useful for an individual library and the community it serves. Because I had only used web 2.0 technologies in a personal social environment before, I now feel more confident to suggest them in a work setting.

As for blogging, I'm feeling more comfortable about writing something that is publicly viewable on the web. I wouldn't say I'm a pro, and I'm not sure that I'll continue blogging once the programme comes to an end. But I am finding the process of writing each post extremely productive-it forces me to evaluate the tool and to really think about it. The process of expressing my thoughts helps them to gain some clarity and leads me to form opinions that I hope others will find of some interest.

I'm looking forward to exploring the next 10 Things and considering their potential utility both for myself and the library world.

Blogging

So I've been visiting and reading lots of the Cam 23 blogs, and I must say I'm very impressed! It's great to see such a wide variety of styles and designs. Each blog is very unique, and I've enjoyed reading some very insightful thoughts and views on the potential use of the different Things in the library world.

I was hugely proud of myself that I had got my blog up-and-running. I then sat back for a bit, content to visit it and edit it a bit here, and add something extra there. But I then realised that standing on it's own, my blog doesn't really have much purpose...Aha (the light bulb flicked on), I get it now! Blogging is about being part of a community. And bloggers need to interact with each other in the virtual online world. Right! So whereas initially I was quite happy for my blog to just exist, and was really quite content that noone should read my posts, I now recognise that it's all about getting out there and following and commenting, and starting conversations that could have real meaning. So I've made a start. It's still slightly daunting, but I'm sure as I get more practice it will all start to come much more naturally. And who knows, maybe I'll get so hooked by all this blogging that by the end of the 23 Things programme I won't want to stop!

I was very excited to hear about the RSS feed for all the Cam23 blogs. However, I have Bloglines instead of Google Reader, and haven't been able to subscribe to the feed through Bloglines which is a shame. Another problem I have encountered is adding a picture when I follow another blog. I thought it would use my profile photo, but it didn't, and when I tried to upload the photo I use on my profile it told me that the file was too big. So I just have the standard photo-less picture, though I see that others have managed to use their own photos. Anyway, I am learning a huge amount and am looking forward to gaining more confidence in the blogging world.