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!