Day 4 was only a half day. I would usually have spent it in Special Collections (SCOLAR) working on the Cardiff rare books collection, which we are cataloguing to (we hope) high rare books standards, including the full range of notes on provenance, binding, former owners, &c. It's a prestigious acquisition for us, and has attracted a lot of attention already: we are working on the private press collection at the moment.
Be that as it may, I was also scheduled to take part in a two-hour test session on the new resource discovery platform, or next generation catalogue, with other colleagues, so that was how most of the morning was spent instead: exploring the potential of the new system and in particular trying to test whether certain functions work. Basically the new "catalogues" are not catalogues in the sense of lists of works, but databases. There are lots of interesting new possible ways of manipulating the information in them: there also seem to be some fairly major omissions. The session provided lots of food for thought. The scheme is not yet live and is still being developed, so I hope it is not too late to check on the reason for the omissions, and see whether this can be rectified.
Back downstairs to SCOLAR, but with only an hour left it was not really worth starting on the private press books, so I used the time to upgrade some records for some nineteenth century sermons which have thrown up some odd things on the catalogue, and to check some details for a blog post which I have prepared for the SCOLAR blog. With five of us contributing to this, we need to coordinate what we are doing, but my next contribution is (nearly) ready for whenever there is a convenient slot for it.
As I am part-time and don't work (in the library) on Fridays, that's the end of #libday8 for me. I still haven't got into the wiki: let's see if I can sign up before it finishes!
Showing posts with label Cardiff rare books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cardiff rare books. Show all posts
Thursday, 2 February 2012
Thursday, 3 November 2011
Thing 19 : catching up and fitting things together
Like quite a lot of people, I've fallen behind with cpd23, but I'm going to try to finish it by the end of the month, so I have plenty of catching up to do! I have not really reached thing 19 as I have skipped things 17 and 18, and I realise that the points where I have stalled with the programme are the points where stuff needs to be downloaded. I've been trying to do most of cpd23 in my own time as I am short of time at work, but there are some things which really require more sophisticated hardware than anything available at home (although there are some difficulties at work too - our system doesn't even like Blogger very much!)
So far, then, I've enjoyed experimenting with new things, although I have to confess that I haven't got very far with actually changing my habits and integrating some of them in practice. I was already using Twitter; I set myself up on Google Reader for RSS feeds but have not as yet remembered to use it much, and Twitter has been bewailing recent changes to it, so perhaps I am already too late with that one!
Setting up a blog, however basic, has been useful, even though I have not yet used this one for anything else - I hope I will continue with it after the end of the programme and, who knows, I may even overcome my great fear of using any images! Perhaps I should set myself the aim of going back through the posts and adding a suitable picture to each one. I have not commented on other people's blogs much recently (I started off with good intentions!) but I have been reading some. One thing which is a visible result of the programme is the blog which we began this summer to promote the work of our Special Collections. It was an idea which had been floating round for a while, especially with the major project involving cataloguing and conserving the Cardiff Rare Books collection now underway, and with several of us enrolled on the cpd23 programme we realised that this was something we could do fairly easily.
I probably won't be using LinkedIn for the time being, but will bear it in mind for future reference. I've made a mental note to come back to Evernote and Dropbox, both of which I can see possible uses for. I'm not so sure about Pushnote or Google calendar, likewise the citation tools which it is useful to know about but as my institution uses Endnote I probably won't need others at work, although you never know!
With the discussions on advocacy, professional issues and career issues, I am on surer ground as I've had broad experience in different sectors (special, public and academic libraries) and had time to reflect on a lot of different aspects. The seed of a role as a possible future chartership mentor for CILIP has been sown, especially as I'm aware of a lack of Welsh speakers available to undertake this.
I'm certainly better informed, even if not yet fully taking advantage of all the "things"!
So far, then, I've enjoyed experimenting with new things, although I have to confess that I haven't got very far with actually changing my habits and integrating some of them in practice. I was already using Twitter; I set myself up on Google Reader for RSS feeds but have not as yet remembered to use it much, and Twitter has been bewailing recent changes to it, so perhaps I am already too late with that one!
Setting up a blog, however basic, has been useful, even though I have not yet used this one for anything else - I hope I will continue with it after the end of the programme and, who knows, I may even overcome my great fear of using any images! Perhaps I should set myself the aim of going back through the posts and adding a suitable picture to each one. I have not commented on other people's blogs much recently (I started off with good intentions!) but I have been reading some. One thing which is a visible result of the programme is the blog which we began this summer to promote the work of our Special Collections. It was an idea which had been floating round for a while, especially with the major project involving cataloguing and conserving the Cardiff Rare Books collection now underway, and with several of us enrolled on the cpd23 programme we realised that this was something we could do fairly easily.
I probably won't be using LinkedIn for the time being, but will bear it in mind for future reference. I've made a mental note to come back to Evernote and Dropbox, both of which I can see possible uses for. I'm not so sure about Pushnote or Google calendar, likewise the citation tools which it is useful to know about but as my institution uses Endnote I probably won't need others at work, although you never know!
With the discussions on advocacy, professional issues and career issues, I am on surer ground as I've had broad experience in different sectors (special, public and academic libraries) and had time to reflect on a lot of different aspects. The seed of a role as a possible future chartership mentor for CILIP has been sown, especially as I'm aware of a lack of Welsh speakers available to undertake this.
I'm certainly better informed, even if not yet fully taking advantage of all the "things"!
Monday, 18 July 2011
Thing 5 : We have no time to stand and stare
For Thing 5, we are asked to consider reflective practice, and to do some.
It's never a bad thing to be self-aware, of course, but the criticisms of "vanity", "self-indulgence" and "navel-gazing" often levelled at the blogosphere are a bit of a deterrent to me. I don't really expect everyone to be interested in what I have to say about my own experience.
So far, with the CPD23 things programme, I've learned a bit about blogging, and this is soon going to be put into practice when we launch our exciting new blog at work for SCOLAR (Special Collections & Archives). I'm only a peripheral member of the SCOLAR team, doing some of the cataloguing and with a relationship with one part of its collection which goes back several years before SCOLAR was even a gleam in anyone's eye. I'm very familiar with my own bit of the collection, but I am sure that there are lots of people even within our own university who don't know what it contains, so I'm looking forward to sharing snippets about it both within our own organisation and beyond. The idea had been floating around for a while, particularly after last year's success in acquiring the Cardiff rare books collection, and it is hoped that the blog will be a way to share news about the collection with the wider world as it is catalogued. The final impetus for being able to do this came in part from the fact that three of us are doing CPD23, and suddenly what seemed difficult to set up was proved not to be.
My own blog, so far, has only been used for the CPD23 things programme, and I have not yet made it very visually appealing (I also realise that I am actually very nervous about using ANY images, and quite paranoid about copyright, but I'll get over that!) Viewing stats have declined steadily with every post - I hope that's because there are so many blogs to read and not because I'm getting more and more boring.
Social media has enabled me to feel connected at a time when child care makes actually going anywhere quite difficult, even at work. No sooner had CPD23 introduced a new set of people to Twitter than lots of people seem to have semi-abandoned it for Google+. I've set myself up on Google+ but haven't got the hang of it yet - my only "circle" is a librarians' circle, and the only people in it are also Twitter followers so far. Something else to get to grips with! Same with RSS feeds - hoping they are going to be useful but needing to remember to change habits can be a drawback.
I think, on reflection, that I have always been reasonably comfortable with the first two steps recommended : recall, evaluate. It's that third step, "apply" what you have learned, which can be the stumbling-block.
It's never a bad thing to be self-aware, of course, but the criticisms of "vanity", "self-indulgence" and "navel-gazing" often levelled at the blogosphere are a bit of a deterrent to me. I don't really expect everyone to be interested in what I have to say about my own experience.
So far, with the CPD23 things programme, I've learned a bit about blogging, and this is soon going to be put into practice when we launch our exciting new blog at work for SCOLAR (Special Collections & Archives). I'm only a peripheral member of the SCOLAR team, doing some of the cataloguing and with a relationship with one part of its collection which goes back several years before SCOLAR was even a gleam in anyone's eye. I'm very familiar with my own bit of the collection, but I am sure that there are lots of people even within our own university who don't know what it contains, so I'm looking forward to sharing snippets about it both within our own organisation and beyond. The idea had been floating around for a while, particularly after last year's success in acquiring the Cardiff rare books collection, and it is hoped that the blog will be a way to share news about the collection with the wider world as it is catalogued. The final impetus for being able to do this came in part from the fact that three of us are doing CPD23, and suddenly what seemed difficult to set up was proved not to be.
My own blog, so far, has only been used for the CPD23 things programme, and I have not yet made it very visually appealing (I also realise that I am actually very nervous about using ANY images, and quite paranoid about copyright, but I'll get over that!) Viewing stats have declined steadily with every post - I hope that's because there are so many blogs to read and not because I'm getting more and more boring.
Social media has enabled me to feel connected at a time when child care makes actually going anywhere quite difficult, even at work. No sooner had CPD23 introduced a new set of people to Twitter than lots of people seem to have semi-abandoned it for Google+. I've set myself up on Google+ but haven't got the hang of it yet - my only "circle" is a librarians' circle, and the only people in it are also Twitter followers so far. Something else to get to grips with! Same with RSS feeds - hoping they are going to be useful but needing to remember to change habits can be a drawback.
I think, on reflection, that I have always been reasonably comfortable with the first two steps recommended : recall, evaluate. It's that third step, "apply" what you have learned, which can be the stumbling-block.
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