Thing 5: reflecting makes me think of Narcissus

So, hot on the heels of Thing 4 is Thing 5. Reflective practice. I think my current volunteering stint may be suitable for this.

I am currently being a volunteer at a satellite copyright deposit library, helping to catalogue runs of journals that were placed in storage when several libraries merged. I attend one day a week for approximately 90mins.

I am given a journal title, and I wander off into the labyrinth to find all the back issues. Some are boxed, some are loose. After they are sorted, I am being taught how to create and update paper shelf lists, which is a very accurate list of a journal title (and variants), bibliographic number, place of publication, year and exactly which volumes, issues and parts are held. They are arranged by classmark, which is the ever-confusing in-house mix of Library of Congress, Dewey, and size. After the lists are created, an excel document is checked and updated to ensure the information is correct. I am then learning how to catalogue, using the Voyager Cataloguing module. Each record is updated, or created from scratch, and as much information as possible is added to the record. Once this is completed, the journals are re-boxed, and new boxes created to hold the loose issues. They are then reshelved.

I am enjoying working in a new place, and learning new skills. Although it is a slow process, I know that my contribution, small as it is, may help a researcher or student in the future to find the article they are looking for. This may even save the university money, if they had been requesting inter-library loans without realising they already had the title needed.

Although it is not relevant to my current library assistant position, I think it will give me additional skills that I may be able to apply to other jobs, and prove that I am very keen to extend my knowledge and experience, on top of studying for my librarian masters degree,

Things! 23 of them!

Thing 1: testing, testing 1 2 3... 

Hello, this is my first attempt at a real blog. I've just started on the Cam 23 2.0 thing. I regularly use facebook, mostly to discuss my allotment and cat, and am not on twitter. I hope that this course will give me more of an insight into the professional uses of social media, and not just use it to send funny pictures of animals to my friends.

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Thing 2: stalky stalky!

I'm a bit out of sequence, doing thing 2 after thing 3. But ever the maverick. A bit of snooping about brought up other people who are much better at this than me - I'm used to facebook, with its limited design and word count. And the lack of comments is weird, again, I'm used to the interactions from my assorted friends, even if a lot of it is sarcastic, insulting or completely irrelevant.

I've left a comment for someone who also has an allotment.

Can't find anyone else in Cambridge yet. The stalking must continue!

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Thing 3: re:brand

 Well, here's Thing 3. I have an exceptionally common name, so stuck my workplace (a Cambridge college) on the end. A few hits, mostly from the college website, listing my position and when I started. Tried seeing if there are any images, nope. Removed my workplace name, tried my city. Lots of hits for the Duchess of Cambridge, even though she's 'Kate' not 'Katie', but I do appear under my work details again. Tried my maiden name, turns out I'm an Australian Big Brother contestant, an architect and am on the ladies squash team in Huntingdon. Haven't I been busy!

So my personal brand is all my own, and is hidden by celebrities. You'd need to know I'm out there and how to look for me. I quite like this idea. 

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 Thing 4: feeding the tweet machine

Thing 4 has happened and I am now on twitter (@bookslinger). I am yet to write anything even vaguely relevant to librarianship or cpd23, but I have gained a whole six followers, of which two are also doing these 'things'. I am more aware that anyone could potentially read what I've said, more so than on facebook, so am being pretty quiet and just looking about. I'm mostly following comedians.

I've also joined storify (http://storify.com/bookslinger/i-like-allotments-cats-and-libraries), but my contribution is patchy at best. This may also be a thing to use in the future, just not at the moment. On to thing 5!