23 things for professional development, training and networking in hard times / Katie Birkwood

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A talk given to the Historic Libraries Forum conference 'Hard Times' on Tuesday 15 November 2011.

Transcript of 23 things for professional development, training and networking in hard times / Katie Birkwood

23 things for professional developmenttraining and networking in hard times

Katie BirkwoodUniversity Library Cambridge

‘23 Things’ is a type of training…

…which started at the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County (North Carolina, USA) in August 2006.

the PLCMC course aimed…

“…to encourage staff to experiment and learn about the new and emerging technologies that are reshaping the context of information on the Internet today”

new and emerging technologies

new and emerging technologies

a 23 things course gives participants 23 tools to try out and asks them to write a blog post about each of them.

things are introduced according to a schedule, but participants choose when to do each thing.

blogging is intended to encourage support and communication amongst and between participants.

23 things has been hugely popular…

23 things has been hugely popular…

483 versions have been noted by the PLCMC organisers, including:

public libraries, university libraries, school libraries, health libraries, archivists, parents, museums, school administrators, teachers…

USA, UK, Ireland, Hong Kong, Netherlands, Poland, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, Norway, Australia…

23 things for prof dev (aka cpd23)

is the same… …but different

cpd23 in a nutshell

“doing for continuing professional development tools what other 23 Things programmes have done for social media and web 2.0”

organisation

organisation

like a patchwork quilt

different people contributed different skills:

organising the course

writing the blog posts

entering data

helping with publicity

engaging with & supporting the participants

who is cpd23 for?

who is cpd23 for?

everyone and anyone who’s interested

any age, any sector, any level of employment, any level of prior knowledge, anywhere in the world

from those just starting to consider a career in libraries & information to seasoned professionals

nearing (or beyond) retirement

the things

Start a blogMeet the other participantsOnline presence & personal brand

Current awareness: RSS, Twitter, PushnoteReflective practiceOnline networksOffline networks

Keeping organised: EvernoteKeeping organised: Google Calendar

Informal trainingFormal trainingCatch-up week

Collaboration: wikisFilesharing

References: Zotero, Mendeley, citeulikeEventsPublicationPresenting information: Prezi & Slideshare

Podcasts and screencaptureIntegrating 1-19 into daily life

Career pathsJob applications

Final reflection

the things

Start a blogMeet the other participantsOnline presence & personal brand

Current awareness: RSS, Twitter, PushnoteReflective practiceOnline networksOffline networks

Keeping organised: EvernoteKeeping organised: Google Calendar

Informal trainingFormal trainingCatch-up week

Collaboration: wikisFilesharing

References: Zotero, Mendeley, citeulikeEventsPublicationPresenting information: Prezi & Slideshare

Podcasts and screencaptureIntegrating 1-19 into daily life

Career pathsJob applications

Final reflection

the 23 things chosen for cpd23 were selected to help people with their career development and also to help them learn new technological skills.

these two goals aren’t mutually exclusive, and the use of the technological tools for professional life was always kept in view.

the things fell into a number of different categories…

traditional cpd

Start a blogMeet the other participantsOnline presence & personal brand

Current awareness: RSS, Twitter, PushnoteReflective practiceOnline networksOffline networks

Keeping organised: EvernoteKeeping organised: Google Calendar

Informal trainingFormal trainingCatch-up week

Collaboration: wikisFilesharing

References: Zotero, Mendeley, citeulikeEventsPublicationPresenting information: Prezi & Slideshare

Podcasts and screencaptureIntegrating 1-19 into daily life

Career pathsJob applications

Final reflection

Start a blogMeet the other participantsOnline presence & personal brand

Current awareness: RSS, Twitter, PushnoteReflective practiceOnline networksOffline networks

Keeping organised: EvernoteKeeping organised: Google Calendar

Informal trainingFormal trainingCatch-up week

Collaboration: wikisFilesharing

References: Zotero, Mendeley, citeulikeEventsPublicationPresenting information: Prezi & Slideshare

Podcasts and screencaptureIntegrating 1-19 into daily life

Career pathsJob applications

Final reflection

technology & web 2.0

social

Start a blogMeet the other participantsOnline presence & personal brand

Current awareness: RSS, Twitter, PushnoteReflective practiceOnline networksOffline networks

Keeping organised: EvernoteKeeping organised: Google Calendar

Informal trainingFormal trainingCatch-up week

Collaboration: wikisFilesharing

References: Zotero, Mendeley, citeulikeEventsPublicationPresenting information: Prezi & Slideshare

Podcasts and screencaptureIntegrating 1-19 into daily life

Career pathsJob applications

Final reflection

Final reflection

Start a blogMeet the other participantsOnline presence & personal brand

Current awareness: RSS, Twitter, PushnoteReflective practiceOnline networksOffline networks

Keeping organised: EvernoteKeeping organised: Google Calendar

Informal trainingFormal trainingCatch-up week

Collaboration: wikisFilesharing

References: Zotero, Mendeley, citeulikeEventsPublicationPresenting information: Prezi & Slideshare

Podcasts and screencaptureIntegrating 1-19 into daily life

Career pathsJob applications

personal

cpd23.blogspot.com

venue

cpd23.blogspot.com

venuean introduction to each tool or idea was posted on the cpd23 blog.

the blog also has a list of participants, details of the organisers, extra-curricular information (e.g. meetups, conference papers…)

we set up places for participants to talk to each other:

Twitter | LinkedIn | Facebook

timetable

1 December 2011-- cpd23 blog remains available for anyone who wants to work through the course or dip into individual Things

10 October 2011 Thing 23 was posted

20 June 2011 Thing 1 was posted

30 November 2011 certificate deadline

publicity

publicity

mailing lists

CILIP branches and groups

other library associations

conferences

Twitter

blog posts

LIS new professionals

network

word of mouth (explicitly

encouraged)

mid-presentation interval

mid-presentation interval

remember to look away from the

screen now and again to prevent

eye strain!

participants

we had

participants

787we had

participants

787registered

participants

we had

787participants

there was no obligation to register to participate.

registration meant that other people would know you were participating, and could find your blog.

we created a feed of participating blogs, so that people could see who was writing what.

we kept a structured list of those taking part, tagging them according to location and sector (information supplied voluntarily at registration).

where?

USA (182)

UK (511)

Australia (22)

Trinidad & Tobago (1)

Canada (9)

France (1)Germany (1)

Hungary (1)

India (1)

Ireland (24)Israel (1) Italy (8)

Latvia (4)

Netherlands (1)

New Zealand (15)

Phillipines (1)

Serbia (1)

Spain (1)Sweden (1)

Sudan (1)

Thailand (1)

Belgium (2)

types of work?

advocacy (4)

architecture (2)

archives (4)

arts (1)

automation network (1)

careers service (2)

charity (11)

church (1)communications (1)

consultant (2)

corporate (33)

digital repositories (4)

EU information (1)

FE (74)

freelance (2)

government (11)

graduate trainee (11)

health (57)

HE (316)

historical society (1)

information centre (1)

information management (1)

IT/systems (4)

law (15)

learned society/professional body (3)

library association (2)

media (1)

military (1)

museum library (6)

national library (4)

newspaper (1)

prison (1)

private library (3)

public (135)

rare books/special collections (5)

student/researcher (27)

retired (1)

research library (5)

school (61)

school library service (1)

social care (1)

special (13)state library agency (3)unemployed (12)

volunteer (6)

relevant to the Historic Libs Forum?

HE (316)advocacy (4)

architecture (2)

arts (1)

automation network (1)

careers service (2)

communications (1)

consultant (2)

corporate (33)

digital repositories (4)

EU information (1)

FE (74)

freelance (2)

government (11)

graduate trainee (11)

health (57)information centre (1)

information management (1)

IT/systems (4)

law (15)library association (2)

media (1)

military (1)

museum library (6)

national library (4)

newspaper (1)

prison (1)

public (135)student/researcher (27)

retired (1)

research library (5)

school (61)

school library service (1)

social care (1)

state library agency (3)unemployed (12)

volunteer (6)

charity (11)

church (1)historical society (1)

learned society/professional body (3)

private library (3)

rare books/special collections (5)

special (13)archives (4)

cpd23 in statistics*

participation:

780+ registered

78 completed evaluation survey

54 registered for completer’s certificate

most useful Things:

consider your personal brand, creating a blog, meeting the participants, reflective practice, job applications

*numbers as at 8.11.11

highlights

There were hundreds of brilliant blog posts written and dozens of consistently amusing, thought-provoking or just plain helpful posts.

Here’s an exceedingly edited selection taken from comments on the evaluation form…

highlights Helen Murphy’s posts are always funny, liberally sprinkled with attractive photos, and have plenty to say about the Things in question.

highlightsNikki was described as “a very interesting and generous blogger”

highlights A lot of personalities shone through…

highlightsSeveral posts discussed issues that are central in current debates about the profession and stirred up plenty of discussion themselves.

This one considered the value of professional organisations such as CILIP…

highlights…this one sprang out of disagreements about just what ‘advocacy’ means, and how central it is (or isn’t) to professionalism.

so, did people enjoy cpd23?

we asked participants to sum up their cpd23-experience in a six-word story.

here are a few of them…

I registered, I blogged, I grew

useful, informative, flexible, enjoyable, quality resource

always challenged. sometimes overwhelmed. never bored.

jumped in, learnt loads, shared loads

a positive, career-focused professional experience

made me do; made me think.

sharing begets sharing. everyone wins: result!

I feel part of a community

Complaints?

“I was slightly disappointed that there was less 'new to me' content. But the new stuff was interesting and I'm using some of it in my work routines.”

“Some things were a bit tricky to use because they were filtered at my place of work and I

wanted to see how I could use them in a work context, e.g. dropbox and Evernote”

“I struggled to keep up-to-date”

so what?

why is the ‘23 Things’ model of use or of interest in hard times?

it’s free

bite-sized

time it to suit you

time it to suit you

dip in and out

make use of small amounts of time

take time off when you’re busy and come back later

contacts and support

contacts and support

social media fosters communication, collaboration, learning, understanding, recommendations, current awareness, friendships...

tips & tricks: participants

it’s not a race

engage with other participants: ask for advice, comment on their posts, share your thoughts

or don’t: several people took part ‘silently’ by reading and thinking about the Things but not blogging

work with colleague or friend to help each other out and keep motivated

you don’t have to like every Thing: keep the good ones and bin the rest.

tips & tricks: organisers

use online tools to manage your workflows, organise your material, share ideas, hold meetings and to get help

ask for help when you need it

embrace the unexpected and the serendipitous

do plan, but don’t try to be perfect

all images adapted from Creative Commons photographs found on Flickr

Leo Reynolds (1-2, 4-5, 7-9, 12-14, 17-20), Simon Scott (3), CarbonNYC (6), greenchartreuse (11), always13 (10), opusinfinity (15), duncan (16, 21), Leigh Harris (22), & fraumrau (23)

See http://bit.ly/ttIvzu for details

‘wip’ by Christiane Struck

‘Free stuff’ by Lee Bennett

‘designer’ choloates by Alex Gaylon‘Highland Theatre’ by lesley middlemass

’57 reasons to rob’ by Niecieden

‘puppies’ by Muchał Grajkowski‘One Pound?’ by Tom Lynch

‘Mankind’ by Éole Wind ‘clock stencil’ by Dan Machold