December Madness

After the disappointment of not running the New York Marathon, I needed another smaller challenge to keep me motivated until the Spring. What better way than to take part in the Marcothon. The rules of the Marcothon are to run for at least 3 miles or 25 minutes each day in December including Christmas day. It is just do-able, the hardest challenge being the time factor and the risk of injury or illness.

Normally when I am running I put the world to rights, I solve work problems, I dream up new projects, work out how these would work. During the first few days of the Marcothon however, I have been thinking of one thing only, how to stay on my feet. It has been seriously slippy. My mind has therefore been completely focused on this challenge Three miles is a perfect amount of training. It fits into the day well, doesn't take too much time. I would never normally venture out running when it is slippy underfoot, so the Marcothon has really motivated me and also given me more confidence in these conditions.

 

Day 2 slip sliding away

There was a Facebook page set up a couple of years ago and the Marcothon just took off. The power of social media in action. What started as a little challenge between a husband and wife in Glasgow has become a global event, and it seems to be growing every year. And what a fantastic community it is. It can teach us a thing or two about marketing. If people want something, you only need to connect them to each other with a shared interest and watch it snowball. There are over 1000 people doing the Marcothon now. As usual there are lessons I have learnt which I can use in my workplace, try to find a hook for people, in what may prove to be a difficult year in libraries.

 

Day 12 lunchtime run

I have heard about other races through this media, I have discovered the Park Runs which are held every Saturday for runners of any level. These Parkruns are just three miles in length, no pressure. They are free and are run by volunteers so yet another community is created. The organisers only ask that you volunteer three times a year and they can keep the whole thing going. They are held in various towns and cities throughout Britain and I can highly recommend them. I have known about them for quite some time but never thought they were for me. Too far to travel for so short a distance. However they can act as a type of time trial to benchmark your progress throughout the year. I will definitely now build the Falkirk Parkrun into my training schedule.

 

Day 29 Falkirk parkrun

The Marcothon has also helped me with my Christmas shopping. What do you get the man who has every bit of gear imagineable? Well there is always something new on the market and the posts on the Facebook pages helped me solve some shopping problems, there were even links telling me where to find the stuff.

With only a couple of days to go my Garmin watch was telling me I had ran 89 miles in December - so near to 100 miles - so I just had to run 4 on the 30th and 7 on the 31st. For the year I have totted up over 1200 miles. The Marcothon is an enjoyable and achievable challenge to undertake. The secret for me was sticking to the three miles a day whenever I could. Sometimes I felt I could have run further but to put in big mileage back to back can lead to injury

As I am coming to the end of this challenge, I am looking at the next and booking up some races for the year. This is the motivation I need for the year ahead, culminating of course in my re-scheduled New York Marathon November 2013!

Ever Continuing Professional Development

I have been getting out and about recently and I have to say I feel inspired!

I have been to two or three events and also the consultation for CILIPS' change of Rules and Regulations. It really is a very small community in libraries and especially in Scotland. I seem to have been bumping into the same people at each event.

The consultation on the change in rules and regulations was really interesting. Although I had read the papers beforehand, it was good to get some of my queries about the changes answered. The rules and regs are required to be changed in accordance with the rules of Trust status. There weren't many people at this first consultation but I urge you to go to the next planned events to find out more about these important changes.

The Mobilemeet was held in Brighton this year and I and the Mobile Library Officer travelled down by plane to see if there were any new developments in Mobile Library builds. Sadly there were not as many Mobile Libraries attending as had been on previous years.

Some of the sessions were really informative in the way libraries have been using their Mobile Libraries in the wider information networks of the communities in which they work. I came away from this day with a plan to look at our council objectives and see where our Mobile Libraries can fit in and make themselves vital to other services.

I also attended the CILIPS Autumn Gathering. Because of holidays and the Prison Library Conference (usually held around the same time in October), I have been unable to attend this. This was my first time. I really enjoyed it and thought there was a great mix of sectors and very relevant topics. The theme was Information Literacy so was relevant to absolutely everyone there . Keynote speech was by Biddy Fisher who was pretty inspirational and is legend in library world.

I attended the multiple speaker session in the morning which started with Margaret McKay, 'Supporting Literacy' (JISC RSC Scotland), which showed different ways to access technology if you had additional support needs. Plan to check out the resources back at work as we are always looking at accessible technology for our patrons and soon holding a Disability Awareness Course in-house. This Jisc Techdis Toolbox will be be very useful.

http://www.slideshare.net/rscscotland/supporting-literacy

Jude Boyd from Glasgow School of Art went through the Comic Book Communication programme they use for their induction with students.  11% of their students are dyslexic but ESOL students also benefit from this graphic approach.

Lesley Thomson and Jenny Foreman also have a novel way of engaging new users. Their user education programme uses Bingo and Gaming. 'Gaming Information Literacy' recommending Bibliobouts as something to look at.

And finally in this session Jennifer Stewart from Fife showed us how they work with their Adult Basic Education Team to engage with learners using family history amongst other methods. 

The only thing I would say about these sessions were that they were very short - 15 minutes each and I would have liked to have heard more about each - fascinating!

A very tasty but useful networking lunch followed where we discussed e-books and Adobe Digital Editions on public access PCs, Mobile Libraries (four wheel variety) and Library Apps.

The afternoon sessions were all excellent! First up was Jennifer Jones with Gordon Hunt on all the different forms of social media and what they can be used for. Twitter, Facebook but also Audioboo for short snippets of video and YouTube for longer. These are great learning tools. Blogs were also discussed and issues around copyright, content ownership and what blogs should be used for. Blogging generates progress through a project, enables you to reflect on it. You can use Pinboard to bookmark pages and respond to blogs to make contact and create content - even interview colleagues to create content for blog posts! Blogroll is another tool which is lists of resources - a bit like scanning people's bookcases while they are out of the room!

It was fantastic seeing all these people I have been listening to on Twitter in the flesh! I felt as if I recognised everyone even though I'd never actually met them before! Serious discussion took place though, about the use of social media for work and whether to keep personal accounts separate from work accounts, which could get confusing. It only takes one single wrong tweet or post to ruin you and your career, so care is needed at all times. Dughall McCormick stated that basically he wouldn't put anything up there that he couldn't show his wife, children or mother! A good rule of thumb I would say.

Hannah Gore from the Open University took us through SocialLearn where everybody learns through somebody else. Twitter or Facebook IDs can be used to log in and use the Open University's new resource and there is no need to be doing an OU course to do so. It has a wonderful thing called backpack that layers other pages into your social learning site. To log on is easy, I used my twitter ID. You can join the learning community, browse or search YouTube sessions and look at what OU have to offer.

Aforementioned Dughall McCormick finished off proceedings with a lively, funny and really informative look at social media and how we should be passing on skills in using this communication tool to children in primary school. He started with the clip of the 1 year old who thinks 'a magazine is an iPad that doesn't work'. Every new technology creates fears of the loss of literacy and Dughall illustrated this by taking us back to when calculators were introduced and everyone thought that would be the end of us being able to count. Now they are part of everyday classroom life. Technology helps learning in so many ways and in life skills. Use of technology to help settle an argument? Tutorials to help you when you're feeling stupid? YouTube as an learning tool!
So by creating safe online spaces children can make mistakes and see the pitfalls of social media in a controlled and safe environment, so equipping them for life. Making children digitally literate and aware at an early stage reduces problems later in life. Firstly by learning that your Avatar is the first thing people see and says as much about you as your user name and interactions. You have to get that right. What goes online stays online and can come back and bite you in later life. I felt that we should have programmes like this in all our schools and get teachers on board at their in-service days.


And finally I attended an event at Scottish Government in Glasgow  'Digital Learning in Libraries; Developing the Library Learning Offer.'

Colin Cook, Head of Digital Strategy, Scottish Governement, set the scene for the day and some food for thought . The government want everyone online by 2015 and have funding to create the infrastructure and a fibre network to get everyone connected. The government also want a World Class Network by 2020 and everyone connected. They are forming a two prong attack to make this happen:

1 National campaign to help people get online
2 Get people in the digital world to create content and make reasons to go online This is already happening with theDepartment of Works and Pensions changes, where everyone will need to go online if they want to access benefits.

I believe libraries are at the core of these two activities.

Elaine Fulton, Director of SLIC/CILIPS, gave an overview for the day. While she was talking, I was transported back to 1997 to a similar event where Elaine was talking about the People's Network and the vital role libraries would play in this governemnt agenda. It was like deja vu!

We were there in 1997 for the People's Network and we are still here today as the friendly face helping people embrace technology. We have a trusted relationship with the public and we are creative within resource constraints. Funding now, as it was then, is key to our involvement as is partnership working to help deliver objectives because we are already cut to the bone as far as resources are concerned. So the scene was set for the day and the rest of the time filled in possible ways we could help and what we were doing already that could be replicated across the board.

Lindsay Hamilton from British Computer Society and The Chartered Institute for IT in Scotland showed us how to get ILA funding eligibility for our basic IT courses and Anne Owens backed this up with examples of how they offer IT classes in their libraries in Moray. They make enough money from the ILA funds to employ 2.5 tutors to deliver the classes. They start with basic IT but can take learners right through to ECDL. It was all fascinating!

John Fisher came along in the afternoon and told us that it was not just nice to go online - it was now imperative!

However figures show:

30% are willing and able
33% are willing but need support
37% are not literate in the use of computers and will require intermediaries.

Er!!! So we have a fair amount of work to do!

Case studies from libraries across Scotland and how they have been helping people of all all ages to connect online were very useful. These case studies were delivered in the form of Speed Surgeries.

From Aberdeen City showing us The Silver City Vault and how they used Ipads to engage with the elderly in Residential Homes to Digital Diamonds from West Dunbartonshire where they used cameras, Ipads, laptops, video and all sorts of media to engage with all ages.
East Dunbartonshire also go into Residential Homes and to the Housebound to get people using Ipads and other new technology. Inverclyde received funding from PLQIM to employ a tutor to help people get online and learn basic technology. Falkirk Libraries ran employment classes in partnershipo with the Jobcentre. The list is not exhaustive and I couldn't attend all sessions, but they all had a common thread and were certainly food for thought.

Getting to these events changes my perception of my working life. We get caught up in our own little housekeeping problems, the minutiae of everyday working life and forget about the whole picture. Yes these problems are important  but it is also important and indeed beneficial to look outside our own little bubble, if only to see that we are not alone. Everyone in whichever sector of Information and Library work is facing challenges at this time. If we just sit and vegetate, ruminate over our problems, we won't come up with any solutions, we won't get any ideas and we may as well lay down and expire!


It is great to network and generate lots of good ideas that can be replicated and in some part enhanced upon. The only downside is - I often come away feeling slightly inadequate for not doing more!

Festival Fever

Stirling Libraries had a very successful Off the Page Stirling Book Festival this year. The event just grows year on year. It was a very hectic week but a really worthwhile and fulfilling one. We changed tactics this year in the way of marketing and the adult working group very much took the bull by the horns to get the message out. This certainly had the desired effect.

• We contacted the local newspaper at the beginning of the year and mapped out a programme with an agreement to meet copy deadlines.The newspaper was happy to get complete copy regularly and, even now after the festival, want our reading groups to keep submitting reader centred reviews.  
• We always produce a brochure with events listed and usually rely on a company to distribute for us, but this year we drew up our own distribution list and delivered them ourselves through the Reader Development Forum in Scotland, through our Mobiles and Outreach Services, but also through our Community Libraries and Community Librarians going out to their own outlets in their areas. This was very effective and our evaluation forms reflect this.
• We held pop up events in places like Sainsbury's, Asda, Stirling's One Stop Shop and Stirling University and MacRobert Arts Centre. Staff spent an hour in these locations and took along brochures to give out to people
• One of our Children's acts, Realm Legends, took to the Thistle Marches in conjunction with Waterstones and spent some of a Saturday speaking to children and giving brochures to their parents 
• We also had banners in one of Stirling's busiest streets advertising Off the Page
• We increased our use of Social Media this year and by following our authors on Twitter, we were able to engage with them, so reaching their followers. A Google Alerts account was set up, so we knew what they were up to and if they were mentioned in the media. We were then able to put news stories on Facebook and Twitter adding that they were coming to Stirling
• We work with partners during the week and they advertised events through their contacts. Bloody Scotland, the first International Crime Writing Festival in Scotland, advertised our events in their brochures and we advertised theirs in our brochure

Here's a run through of events at our Off the Page Stirling Book Festival and is mainly a little record for myself. I haven't included the Children's programme apart from the Julia Donaldson event I attended and which was excellent!

Day 1 Billy Letford at the Smith
Off the Page kicked off with Billy(William now) Letford at the Smith art Gallery and Museum.
Tickets had been a bit slow to begin with, it is always hard to sell poetry but in the last week ticket sales were picking up. By the morning of the event, the event was sold out! However the Smith holds more than we ticketed for so we ended up taking about an extra twenty on the door. Billy himself was excellent as usual. He is a fantastic, young, performance poet who just blows everyone away!
Our Stirling Makar, Anita Govan, was at the event too, as a guest, and Billy had brought along a musician, Eddie Gerret, to provide musical interludes. Waterstones had provided books for us to sell, but had under calculated and we sold out within around three minutes!
It was a great family feel to the event with such a diverse crowd. I can highly recommend Billy!

Day 2 Sara Sheridan at the Tolbooth
Picked Sara up from the train station in the Authormobile in the afternoon. She did her Narrative Drive for our 'How to get Published' event. She even inspired me to think about taking up the pen again!
Ceilidh at night was a sell-out with people being turned away at the door. Just shows you what targeted marketing can do - this event had sold about three tickets two previously - Amazing!

Day 3 Mark Beaumont at the Tolbooth
Mark, the adventurer, had been on the Cycle for Scotland run in the morning but looked and performed fresh as a daisy - another sell out at the Tolbooth for us.

Day 4 Big Book Exchange
Radio Scotland came along to this event that we hold in partnership with the Adult Learning Team. Fame at last - well I always say I have a face for radio!
At night we had the privilege of seeing Alan Bissett perform his latest play The Red Hourglass - fantastic. He is a brilliant writer and performer.
Marianne Wheelaghan went along to a packed house in Doune to talk about her book The Blue Suitcase. What a fascinating story!

Day 5 Sally Magnusson at Strathblane Primary then at the Tolbooth
Sally spoke about her children's book Hamish and the Haggis Hunter in the afternoon and her books sold like hotcakes. At night she spoke to an adult audience about her book Life of Pee - Yes! A look at all the uses of urine over the year. I was a bit in awe of Sally to begin with, she is on the telly every night after all, but she is a lovely personality and so natural. It was a pleasure to meet her and her husband Norman Stone.
Shari low and Carmen Reid teamed up for a cupcake and chicklit feast at Dunblane Library.

Day 6 James Robertson Chaired by Richard Smith at the Tolbooth
James talked about his book And the Land Lay Still and Richard Smith was a brilliant Chair for this event. Richard used to be Reader in Residence at Cornton Vale Women's Prison. He always researches well and asked some very meaningful questions of James which gave us a good insight into this fantastic piece of work.
In the afternoon I had been along to an Artreach event where people had been working on scripts and performed them. We worked with our partners in the Adult Learning Team and Artreach Central for this.

Day 7 Off the Stanza Poetry event
The winner of the poetry competition was announced at this event hosted by Stirling's own Makar - the wonderfully talented Anita Govan and with special guest Ron Butlin.
Crime writer, Peter May, was appearing at St Ninians Library and this event was so popular that it had to be moved into the Main Hall at the Mayfield Centre.

Day 8 Julia Donaldson at the MacRobert Arts Centre
Julia Donaldson came to Stirling as part of her British Book Tour and I went along to this event mainly because one of my grandchildren was going to it. She was one of 400 children going to see Julia. Julia signed books for them all too.
At night we held a Literary Quiz in the Stirling Burgh Coffee House with questionmistress our very own Laura Griffith. Prizes were goody bags made up of library jute bags, books donated by publishers, World Book Night books, a pen, mug and a ticket for the Literary Walk!

Day 9 Literary Walk with David Kinnaird
David of Stirling Ghost Walk fame had written a Literary Walk of Stirling especially for us. This took us around the top of the old town of Stirling and was very informative, really enjoyed it! And this was our last event.

Love Your Library days were held in our Community Libraries throughout the week and Book Exchanges, coffee, cakes and chat were involved, allowing readers to celebrate their local community libraries.

What a week! Busy but satisfyingly so. In all of this, we still had to run a very busy library service. Another successful festival, now to start planning next year's!

Post Olympia

I really hope that several clubs have been inspired to help young people embrace sport of any manner in this post Olympic period. Everyone was so happy and motivated during the games themselves and it certainly gave our country a little boost with the amount of medals that were picked up. Still being motivated by the paralympics, these athletes are outstanding!

I love all the post event interviews with the competitors and some quotes really struck a chord with me. (sorry can't remember all their names, just the events they were said at)

'I know what I can do and I never doubt myself' Usain Bolt (before the 200m sprint semi-final)

We are all filled with self doubt at some points in our life. It is usually when we have bitten off more than we can chew though. The secret is to take on what we know we can achieve. There is nothing wrong with punching above our weight as long as there is advice we can seek, a training course we can attend in order to achieve what we set out to do. I am often bustling about and think that one of these days I may drop some or all of these balls I am juggling. It never happens and indeed I thrive on deadlines! I wouldn't apply for a job I wasn't capable off though or one I though I couldn't give 100% to. If we know what we can do, we should never doubt ourselves.

'Anybody can do anything, I've just proved that' Heather Stanning (first British medal winner for rowing)

I think this is a great quote. I have always maintained that anybody can do anything if they put enough effort into it.

My own coach in Wee County Harriers said much the same to me when I was envious of someone and flattering them saying at least they had it in them. Coach said 'Everyone has it in them Liz, you have it in you. Just lift your head and think of the scenery, your dinner waiting, anything to take your mind off the pain when you are tired near the end of a run. You will get stronger, get faster.' I think of these word often when the going gets tough and it does somehow (sometimes!) make things easier.

'I just ran faster, trained harder, my body got used to it and this was the result (women's 200m)

This just repeats the message from above and shows that these athletes all have the same thing in common, a vision, a focus but also a commitment to achieve their goals. It also reminds me that the body and the mind are absolutely amazing and can endure so much. I can highly recommend Alistair Urquhart's book The Forgotten Highlander to show what the body can withstand and survive. Alistair was a prisoner of war of the Japanese and was starved, tortured and made to walk miles and work long hours with nothing but some water in his body. I have heard Alistair, who is now 92, talking at events and he was an inspiration to me. When he came back from the war he went on to be a very successful businessman and high achiever. After what he endured I bet nothing was a problem to him. It was such an honour to meet him.

'It takes hard work and grafting' Mo Farah (after winning 5000m final)

What can I say? Nothing comes easy in life, everything has its price. I was brought up with a really strong work ethic. My parents, although Scottish, were of Irish grandparents who had come across to the Borders to seek work. The Irish in Scotland at that time always felt they had to work harder than everyone else to get the same opportunities. They though everyone was down on them,  and maybe some people were. After all, they were looking for jobs and even at that time these may have been scarce. History has repeated this with lots of ethnic groups since who have gone on to be high achievers in school and in careers.

I always remember my mum saying 'hard work never killed anyone' and I always likened myself to the horse in Animal Farm whose byline in times of strife was 'I will just work harder'. I will ignore the fact that said horse ended up in the knackers yard when he could work no longer!

My son has inherited the same values and already seems to be passing them on to his daughters who are working hard in school.

'Keep focused and keep the eye on the prize' (women's 200m sprint)

This was the British athlete who was the favourite to win and was disappointed not to get a medal. And shows we can't lose focus even for a second if we want to stay in the game. It is so easy to do - Illness, loss, troubles at home and changes at work can all add to this loss of focus. Other posts have covered how I deal with this so I will not repeat. All I will say on this is that whenever I feel like slackening the reins a little, I think of what I have already achieved in life. I don't want to be like the old pop stars who regroup for anther comeback concert just for the money. I can't, I won't do that. I will stay focused and give my 100% to the end!!

'ear 'ear

Isn't it funny that we often only pick up what we want to hear and sometimes only listen with half an ear? A lot of misinformation is spread this way.


Overheard in the library
Man: Have you any local information on psychopaths in the area
Librarian: Oh I am afraid we don't keep that information here!
Man: Oh I thought you would, being an information service! I am really interested in the local area and in particular the location of psychopaths.
Librarian: Look I've told you, we would never stock that information here and I am afraid I am going to ask you to leave.
Man: (muttering 'some library this!as he puts on his cycle clips)


The above was a true story! Working with the public and getting to the root of an enquiry relies heavily on us being able to listen and work out what is being asked of us. Listening skills are probably the key to good customer service.


For years I thought that the NYPD Choir were singing 'Go away' (Fairytale of New York) and my better half always thought that REM were singing that it was the greatest thing since Britney Spiced??? instead of Bread came sliced in 'Imitation of Life'.

In the past I failed in quite a few interview situations too, when I did not listen to the question properly therefore didn't answer it effectively. Now as an interviewer I see this is a common failing. I will often repeat the question if I think someone is off on a tangent.


There is a statistic somewhere on speaking and listening and percentages of each. I know that while mentoring the mentor listens 90% of the time, speaks 10% of the time. Mentor/mentee relationship always makes me think of psychology and the psychologist's relationship with their client. Often while mentoring the first 15 minutes is taken up with the mentee getting whatever is bothering them off their chest. This is fine with me. It relaxes the mentee so that after that initial burst they are more receptive and can think clearly. A productive session will follow.


In conversation with colleagues when I have a problem or thinking through a new project, at some point I will have a lighbulb moment. I will thank said colleague for coming up with a great idea only to be told it was my idea!??! Quite often I merely need a sounding board to bounce ideas off and don't realise that I have been doing most of the talking. Listening skills are so productive and a good listener is a great friend and colleague to have indeed!

further information:

www.mindtools.com/CommSkll/ActiveListening.htm

Sunshine After the Rain

'The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.'

W.H.Auden Stop all the Clocks


Having always been one who was self motivated, I am finding myself in a strange place at the moment. I've lost my Mojo, as they say. And I need to get it back!

Close family bereavement which followed losing the best boss I have ever had has left me 'sailing up the Clyde without a paddle'.

So how am I going to get out of this one? Probably time for reflection.

The last time I had a life changing event, I was forced to take a long hard look at my career. I needed to support my family and couldn't do that in the position I was in. I embarked on several years of study gaining an honours degree. It was a difficult few years where every spare minute was spent studying. Not quite sure where such positive action came from, but it certainly worked to my benefit.

All my working life I have always striven to give service users I was providing for the best service possible. Whether that meant creating  a reader in residence project  helping prisoners in three different prisons, or a project offering Internet training to the Housebound, or helping form the marketing and reader development policies within my library authority - the end result was to improve services.


Helping new professional librarians through the Chartership process as CSO Candidate Support Officer or as a Mentor to them has given me insight into other sectors and has had reciprocal benefits. It has helped me keep up to date with issues affecting the profession. So I am not usually one who lies down and gives up. As I am on holiday, this is as good a time as any to re-assess what I want to do, where I want to go, make a plan and work to it.
Again using my marathon training as an analogy - a plan is in place for this, which clearly sets out week to week what I have to do. If I want results, if I want to reach my goal, I have to put in effort and pain. If I want to be comfortable in the final stage, I have to put in the ground work, no escaping it.

As with running the same applies with career. You may come across many hurdles, but the key is to get over them as quickly as possible to get on with the race. Rosie Swayle Pope said of hills 'Don't stop until you reach the top'.

Recently I have been training for a special event which included lots of hills and tracks and this has made my running really slow. I have been taking in some beautiful scenery along the way. It is good to slow down and take time out, but not for too long or you lose momentum. I can't afford to be taking in scenery now. It's time to knuckle down to some hard work!

My training schedule also includes health and nutrition and this is equally important in my work. Plenty sleep and a good diet are needed to keep a healthy body and mind. I am keeping a food diary and planning what I need to eat for performance and weight management. I also cannot perform without sleep, whether  in work or play. Sleep keeps the mind healthy just as running levels out thinking and keeps the mind focused. Inspirational people really get me motivated and for this reason I am really looking forward to watching the Olympics this year. Reading inspirational books by great people also works for me and I have a list of books I have read and a list of books still to read.*

So what's the plan and can I make it work?

• Send off my Re-validation for Chartership. It's all there, just needs put together. Chartership was my motivation years ago when all I wanted was to be a professional librarian. How can I expect to motivate others if I can't motivate myself?
• Look at my work practises, look at my current remit and see where improvements can be made.
• Don't worry about work situation politics. Trust in my work, I have a long standing reputation. Just do what I have always done, work hard and recognition/rewards will come.
• Restart making my lists. A plan for time management.
• Make time for leisure activities including exercise (not to mention fiddle playing!)
• Look at the big picture and the service wide remits.
• Stop being so introspective. Think of others, my service users for example, my volunteers (get investing in volunteers in the bag). Get my team together and re-motivate, get ideas generating and act on them! Get working groups I lead on motivated and getting results. Teamwork is key. You can be the best at what you do but it is not made possible without a team to support you. Just been watching the Tour De France and these guys can show us what teamwork is all about and what can be achieved in a good one.
• Keep a track of my plan as I do my training plan but don't beat myself up if it doesn't all work out, give myself plenty time to get over my current trauma!!

* Inspirational books I have read:

Lance Armstrong, It's not about the bike
Rosie Swale Pope, Just a little run around the world
Bill Cullen, Golden apples
Susan Jeffers, Feel the fear and do it anyway
Haruki Murakami, What I talk about when I talk about running
Richard Askwith, Feet in the clouds

Planning to read:

Bradley Wiggins, In pursuit of glory
Chrissie Wellington, A life without limits
Chris Hoy, The Autobiography

There's No Place Like Home

Scottish Book Trust have a new project called 'My Favourite Place' where writers and members of the public can write a poem, short story, article about their favourite place. A difficult one because I have been many places that could be classed as favourites and that I go back to time and time again.

From around 1994 to 2009 I was a Munro bagger - I climbed all 284 (now 283 because one was demoted) mountains in Scotland over 3000 feet and took great pleasure in ticking a list of them. I went from Skye to Mull to Loch Ossian. I slept in tents, bothies (shared space with mice!), bunkhouses, mountain huts and once even the open air in pursuit of my hills. The best holiday I have had was when I went wild camping in Achnashellach, Wester Ross, enjoyed a four day heatwave then travelled to Fort William where for the first time ever was able to sunbathe in the park. There's no better place than Scotland when the weather is even half decent!

Some of the Munros are quite spiky and scary, especially the Cuillin in Skye and so I had to learn how to rock climb too. Rock climbing took me to rural Spain, Sardinia, France and the Alps to improve my rock climbing skills.

But to choose just one favourite place.... has to be The Ochil Hills

The heart of Central Scotland is a mini Scotland. Hills, rivers, forests, castles, monuments and villages. At the foot of the Ochil Hills is where I spent many happy years bringing up a family, struggling yes, but safe and comfortable. The Ochil Hills hold all the same attractions as some of the bigger hills and Munros but, quite apart from being on my own doorstep, they are also beautiful and accessible.

I have run up in the Ochils all year round, in snow drifts, gales, rain, hail or in blazing sunshine with sweat dripping off me. I have even experienced all these climatic changes in the one day! I have seen birds of prey, foxes, deer, rabbits, sheep and of course cattle on them there hills. The views from the tops are spectacular. You can see the winding Forth, Stirling Castle and the Wallace Monument. You can see Ben Lomond and the Arrocher Hills on a clear day.

I am not a writer by any manner of means but wanted to highlight the Scottish Book Trust project to encourage people to put pen to paper. SBT are running writing workshops around Scotland to provide help and inspiration.

http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/myfavouriteplace/
http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/myfavouriteplace/writing-workshops

No Such Thing as a Free Lunch

This phrase came up again just recently. A Services gathering and several library staff members were asked if they would like to attend. I was asked to represent the library and there would be a free lunch. Hmph! Aye right!

A few days before the event the crunch came. I was asked to talk up the library services and to make it humorous! I may even like to deliver this in rap form!! As in Eminem, TinieTempah. My retort was 'I don't need to do rap to be humorous! I don't need to do rap to keep people interested in our library services. My enthusiasm for libraries and what we offer should be enough!

Anyway this 'elevator pitch' was to last two minutes and I reckoned it would be timed. I listed all the things we do and put the most important things first. I condensed what I had to say to keep it snappy and interesting and I timed myself using the timer on my cooker - several times!! By the time I delivered the pitch it was timed to perfection and the buzzer pinged just as I finished!

I have always sang for my supper, or lunch or overnight stay at a conference. It has been a way for me to take part and to attend events without costing my organisation anything. I have been to courses and conferences I wouldn't normally have attended.

Chairing an event is a good way to get started on the road to presentations. You do need to prepare a little and you are in the public eye, but you don't have the responsibility of running the show or providing the content. You get used to that feeling of nerves on the way to events, the sick feeling in the pit of your stomach, the feeling of 'why do I get myself into this situation when I could sit back and enjoy like everyone else?' But it gets easier each time you do it. You do get a little nervous - only natural - but you learn to accept this and to know that once you get started the nerves will leave you. When it is your turn to take centre stage and do the presentation with your own content, the road is much easier.

I apply the same principles to my hobby of running. You need to prepare/train. You wouldn't expect to start a race and finish easily without putting in the groundwork. You need to time yourself according to the race entered, if you want to get a good result. But with all this preparation you will still be very nervous on the day of the race. And again as soon as you start running and get in the flow, the nerves disappear.

So now before an event or talk I ask myself if this is preferable to standing at the start of a Marathon race with 26.2 miles ahead of me? Or vice versa at the start of a race with sunshine and fresh air I say to myself, would I prefer to be speaking to 150 colleagues at CILIPS conference with the possibility of ending up with egg on my face? Works every time either way.

The pessimists among you would say 'why not just give up both if it is that bad?' But the point is that it is not bad at all and I have met some lovely people and been to some fantastic places with both activities. More importantly I have gained so much knowledge and experience along the way and that is worth so much more than any free lunch.

Next event is Corrieyairak Challange on Saturday 30th June!!


 http://www.corrieyairack.org/index2.html

Events Planning - tick

Just had a couple of days off to run a little party for my 13 year old granddaughter's birthday. A party was all she wanted from me for her birthday this year, says she. Ok, lets make it a good one. This got me thinking about my LinkedIn profile and my hesitation at ticking the Events Planning box under Skills and Expertise. How dare I? But look at the definition of Events Planning in wikipedia.


Event planning is the process of planning a festival, ceremony, competition, party, concert, or convention. Event planning includes budgeting, establishing dates and alternate dates, selecting and reserving the event site, acquiring permits, and coordinating transportation and parking. Event planning also includes some or all of the following, depending on the event: developing a theme or motif for the event, arranging for speakers and alternate speakers, coordinating location support (such as electricity and other utilities), arranging decor, tables, chairs, tents, event support and security, catering, police, fire, portable toilets, parking, signage, emergency plans, health care professionals, and cleanup.

I have been organising the Off the Page Stirling Book Festival adult events for the past six years. Mind you I have a brilliant team working with me! And other teams are supporting us too e.g. Design Team, Young Peoples Team, Marketing Team. We organise the Festival in addition to carrying out our 9-5! After an initial shaky couple of years without funding and little experience apart from organising author events, we are now in the position of putting on a good festival for people; with authors and attendees alike having a good experience at our shows.

All this experience has given me the confidence to organise my own events without getting into any kind of fankle at all. (ok well a little - only natural). Hence the 13 year old's party with eighty 13 year olds in attendance and my own wedding three years ago with about one hundred and twenty guests.  I organised the wedding from January to April whilst training for a marathon which I ran a week before I got married! The things you do to fit into a dress!
So how do we go about it?  Well the principles are the same:

• Look at your budget and stick to it - be realistic
• Look at diary for best date or dates in the case of Book Festival.
• Look at best times
• Decide on numbers of attendees
• Organise the venue
• Market research as to what people want to listen to, hear, see (we always evaluate our events and act on responses)
• Organise the act/author/band/disco (based on market research as to what they want)
• Organise the catering - look to your market audience - what will they expect? Buffet for 13 year olds comprises of sweets, juice, lollipops, crisps, but you still have to have some real food too. People coming to author events don't really expect a glass of wine or a coffee but it would be an added bonus. And if there is a bar in the venue all the better...
• Marketing well ahead - in the case of parties/wedding - let people know the date (people have diaries filling up). Then at least they can keep the date free. In the case of author events and book festivals give little tasters in newspapers, Twitter, Facebook, word of mouth just to get the expectation and interest rising.
• Nearer the event, let the marketing kick in with the invites, direct target marketing, tickets, emails, flyers, brochures
• A week or two before - check everyone e.g.authors, disco, band are ok, happy, remembering they are coming!
• Check on cake, catering, sponsors, booksellers etc.
• A week or two before - visit the venue to finalise arrangements re. lighting, seating, access
• On the day get entry to the venue early to make sure it is decorated (in the case of a party) and comfortable, allowing easy access for wheelchairs etc.
• Make sure enough people are on hand to help on the night - in the case of 13 year old party this meant enough adults to cover door- gatecrash prevention, and toilets - drink, smoking or damage prevention - could apply to most events come to think of it!
• Clean up afterwards - or arrange for this to happen
• Thank people for coming
• Thanks to acts, authors for coming and prompt payment of bills! 
• Evaluate and act on success - Facebook, Twitter posts, photos and newspaper articles - or things that could have gone better - fix for next time

What I aways like to see is people going away from an event with smiles on their faces and looking for more. In other words - customer satisfaction - which come from - Good Customer Service! Oht oh another blog post coming up maybe!

This year's Off the Page Stirling Book Festival runs from Saturday 8th September to Saturday 15th September (guess who's training for New York Marathon on 4th November).

http://www.facebook.com/offthepagefestival

http://www.linkedin.com/profile/edit?trk=hb_tab_pro_top

VIRGIL

I attended my first meeting of VIRGIL today (Visually Impaired Reading Groups In Libraries). This is a collaborative project of some Scottish library authorities who got together to share resources for visually impaired (vip) reading groups. The visually impaired want to have the same benefits as other readers by being able to read/listen to the same book at the same time. Quite an expensive option with talking books at £60 a time. Up until now I have been running a visually impaired reading group using Calibre, an organisation who use volunteers to record talking books. This in itself is a great service to subscribe to.

Funding
With VIRGIL each authority commits  to buying one set a year at a cost of around £600. Initial funding was put in by the Scottish Government's Public Library Quality Improvement Fund to buy 33 sets of 10 cd talking books and 2 large print copies. Stock can move between the authorities freely through Articles for the Blind. The books and cd talking books can be bought through the library suppliers and all talking books are read by a professional actor. Funding has also extended to the groups attending the Aye Write Book Festival in Glasgow.


However, similar to the Scottish Reader Development Forum, another benefit to being in collaboration with others is the meet up to organise and run it. So today, apart from coming away with a full set of A Thousand Splendid Suns for my group, I also have information on PENfriend - a pen that reads blurbs on talking books for visually impaired library borrowers - and information on events for Make a Noise in Libraries Week. I also got roped into starting a wiki for all the vip reading groups to contribute reviews to. And we discussed various routes to more funding. In other words another great networking morning!


http://www.slainte.org.uk/news/archive/1104/1104.htm
http://virgilbookgroups.wordpress.com/

Dangers of an innocent social media player

I have had to change the name of my Blog - why? Because the title seemed to be attracting the wrong sort of attention. Internet security was going haywire! Couldn't understand why!

Until a kind group at work, the Stock Promotion Group I lead, pointed out that it may have something to do with having 'Nocturnes' in the title. So okay I said 'what else goes with 'Ouch'. Now Ouch is my Twitter username and comes from Outreach as in Community Outreach Librarian? Works ok as a Twitter name but it was suggested I may have to ditch this part of my name too!

It is a dangerous business, this Blogging, Tweeting and Facebooking. Need to be watchful at every move. I am often posting comments and Tweeting, then immediately removing the Tweets again on second thoughts. Can't even repeat the 'gaff' I made at Christmas when I commented on one of my son's photos and had to remove the next day. Fine if you catch them on time, but if you get retweeted before you get the chance, your faux pas could be out there forever! We have Social Media Guidelines in place for the Library Service and this certainly helps, but a lot of common sense and 'savvy' are needed too - the latter not always there in my case!

The Stock Promotion Group did get through lots of work today apart from the advice on my name change. Set up for all things Reader Development a few years ago and working alongside the library design team, it has helped change the look of our libraries and the way we promote stock, develop our readers and attract new readers.

Today we were discussing the Reading Relay Challenge we are taking part in as part of a national promotion in Scotland. The council website was also on the agenda and how we are going to populate our Books and Reading pages of the library section.We'll do this with lots of reading group information, readers' reviews, reading group collection lists and how to choose your next read. Also spoke about putting up Readers' pages on the new website, a forum or blog - which was why I got on the subject of my blog in the first place! Blog is probably easier to get onto the website as it can be an external link, whereas a forum may not pass our council website security. Still under discussion with our group. No denying though that we are going to have to get even more interactive than at the moment if we want to keep up with our readers and keep them with us. 

Body Of Professional Knowledge

The new draft CILIP Body of Professional Knowledge and Skills(BPKS) is out for consultation and comment.
As Candidate Support Officer for Chartership candidates from 2001 until around 2009, I constantly had to explain and direct people to the Body of Professional Knowledge, showing the relevance of it to candidates. I had to outline the reasoning behind the BPK. How it came about? Why it was needed? And how it could be used in the new professionals' everyday life? In particular how to use it in the Chartership process when working on the Personal Professional Development Plan (PPDP). It was a difficult task for me as I had a little trouble working it out myself at times!
However the new draft Body of Professional Knowledge and Skills is so much easier to understand and therefore use. The online version, which is planned, will bring it all up to date and even more accessible for new professionals already used to using that media.  As a Mentor now for Chartership candidates, I look with interest at the draft document. The PPDP is usualy the first piece of work to be done in the chartership process and this BPKS has everything clearly laid out under headings, well organised and explained. It gives something to work towards and easily identifies gaps. It is very comprehensive, bringing in new skills and knowledge, and I believe it is also a great toolkit for any reflective practitioner.
I myself have been planning to re-validate my chartership for several years, have registered and never got around to submitting. Looking over the new BPKS, it is easy to see what skills I have, what skills I forgot I had or didn't realise were relevant skills and what gaps I need to work on. If indeed I need to work on them. Are they relevant to my career at the moment or will I need them in the future? The BPKS is adaptable to the role you are in. You do not need an in depth knowledge of all the skills within it, these skills will vary depending on which level you are at or which sector you are in. The new document make this clear. I believe it will be a good tool to use:

For Employers/Managers

• in conducting PRDs and identifying training needs
• in mapping out training courses
• as a guide to write job descriptions 

For Employees

• writing cvs and marketing ourselves
• in PRDs
• as support for Chartership candidates to write PPDPs and identify gaps
• as a reflective tool e.g for re-validation of Chartership, career changes
• as a checklist of skills and gaps
• in identifying training courses

Included within the new BPKS will be a list of resources and guidance for gaining the skills and knowledge identified as gaps. This will be a useful resource, especially if affordable training courses are planned and in central locations for more people to access.

I have replied to the draft proposal for the Body of Professional Knowledge and Skills, identifying a few gaps in the detail skills sitting below the high level skills and knowledge. I don't profess to have knowledge of all the skills in the LIS, so have a look at the document yourselves and have your say at www.cilip.org.uk/futureskillsproject !

Social Media Workshop

I have created this blog after attending a really informative social media workshop, 'Social Media; tools for reasearh and collaboration' at Edinburgh University. Speakers Lesley Thomson, a Knowledge Manager from Scottish Government and Helen Muir, Research Support Librarian at Queen Margaret University, gave excellent presentations and specifically spoke about using Social Media for research and collaboration. Phil Bradley was the afternoon speaker that day and he went over the use of Social Media and search facilities. How we use social media, how we now use websites, ways to search for information and ways to store information for later consumption. Everyone now talks about 'Information Overload'. Phil pointed out that we have always had too much information. All that is wrong nowadays is that the filter mechanism has broken down somewhat.

Phil spoke about blogs, not only for research purposes, but also to share good information and best practice. If we have good information, information that people are interested in and can trust, then we will get more followers and we will become more visible in our professional capacity. Our organisations will therefore benefit too.

Although I keep a daily personal journal, I have always resisted what I thought of as the 'me, me, me' of a blog. People often e-mail me about this or that project I have been involved in, best practices in my day to day work. I now realise that in order to be more visible I need a blog and that blog needs to be populated with lots of good content, sharing of best practice and hopefully some humorous anecdotes.

However this may need to wait for another day as I have been called to 'get the curry on'! Trying to be creative here too and not in the culinary way!