Podcasts - Thing 7

So I ambled towards Thing 7 instead of hurtling towards it as I had promised myself. Thing 7 was all about podcasts.  It was useful that Rudai23 included the information re how to produce, edit and host your own podcast but I'm not brave enough to do that so I opted for the second (and potentially easier) option.

• Listen to some of the podcasts in this article.

So I did listen to the all of the podcasts mentioned in the Thing 7 post. Ok, so I didn't listen to them all in their entirety but at least I listened to the start to see if it was something that interested me. Actually listening to the podcast was very straightforward. I'm not sure how I would do this on a phone or I-pod; perhaps use the SoundHound channel but it was good to be able to listen to the podcast on the PC while getting on with other things.

I listened to Circulating Ideas which was one that Rudai23 recommended and that I had seen on other sites. I have to say that I wasn't taken with it. It lasted nearly an hour and although it is related to librarians, professional issues etc; it primarily deals with libraries and projects in America. I know that ideas, projects and skills can apply anywhere and can be transferred based on how others found the experience, but all in all, I'm not that interested to hear what's going on in libraries in America (potentially short-sighted of me, but sorry!).

I also listened to Longform but again I wasn't taken with this one.

However, Serial had me gripped.  I had seen some tweets coming through about it so was interested to hear what it was all about, and I wasn't disappointed. Shame it didn't seem to be anything related to libraries unless there is some sort of plot twist halfway through. This is definitely one that I'll be coming back to.

I also listened to T is for training but thought the sound quality wasn't that great. Having to strain to hear what was being discussed put me off from continuing with the podcast. Isn't it funny how first impressions can make or break something like this?

I also stumbled on the Happier podcast by Gretchen Rubin on Bookriot (tweeted by Rudai23). I had read The Happiness Project by Gretchen and thought it to be quite inspiring (and I don't say that often). I was interested to hear what she had to say on her podcast. She didn't sound anything like I thought she would! It is one that I will probably come back to and explore a bit further - the only negative thing was having to listen to information about her sponsors - slightly irritating.

I'm not sure how I go about searching for other podcasts - I tried a simple search on the internet but the results coming back weren't that inspiring. I'm not actually sure that podcasts are that relevant to the my daily work. It would be hard to set aside an hour in my day to solely listen to the recording so it would have to be on in the background while I got on with other tasks - I wouldn't be giving it my full attention then so could easily miss something. We don't currently use it in the library I work in, but I wonder how it would work for library tours?  Something kind of along the lines of the recorded tour you get at national attractions like Stonehenge. Different tracks could be recorded to be played at different points in the library, and given that the university I work in has a fair number of international students, it could be recorded in different languages. Is this a podcast or just a series of recordings?

Open Clip Art

Reflective Practice - Thing 6

www.unsplash.com  / Leah Tardivel

Ah, reflective practice. The opportunity to sit back and reflect on what we've been doing. Not something that comes naturally; rather it doesn't come naturally to type up your reflective thoughts.  I've had some experience of this as part of my chartership journey many years ago. As I've just started the revalidation process, I've been trying to be reflective throughout Rudai23.


Thing 6 gave me the opportunity to look at other Rudai23 blogs. Something I had been meaning to do since the start of the course, but here was a golden opportunity to do so. Part of the course. I found the delicious link invaluable for this. I'm not sure I would have found the blogs otherwise. I thought it was really interesting to see which platforms people had picked and how they had set them up.  Obviously the platform affects the display and tools available but some participants had used some added extras while other blogs were quite sparse.

I've obviously been a bit hesitant using images without knowing where to get freely available ones and/or how to attribute them correctly. I read some blogs where images had been used and it was quite refreshing to see the mixture of text and image. I think my blog posts are a bit text heavy (hence the picture for reflection above), but not everyone had attributed their images which I found worrying.

I commented on some posts; currently waiting moderation, though I didn't always see how to do this easily. It now explains the influx of comments I got on some of my earlier posts - other people had reached Thing 6 before me. I'm glad to say that I replied to most if not all of the comments coming through on my blog. It's always nice to know that someone is reading.

Having read through some of the blogs, I found it quite insightful that we all face the same challenges no matter where we happen to be working. We all have similar traits and worries about using social media. We all seem to have signed up for at least 1 social media tool, only to have discarded it by the wayside. Rudai23 has forced us to pick that tool up again and dust it off. I also found that the majority of us have fallen into librarianship or working in libraries. Few of us have ended up in libraries from the outset first time round. It has all been by accident rather than design. I don't regret my path into librarianship as I'm doing something I love. It turns out that everyone else feels the same.

Reflection on Thing 5

Thing 5 wasn't such a hard task to complete - which is good as I was falling a bit behind.

As with many tools and platforms, I don't explore everything and will often only find out about functionality when I try to get said tool to do something. This is the case with both Facebook and Twitter. However Thing 5 highlighted the groups and pages option on Facebook, and the lists or chats on Twitter.

I've started to gather a small number of groups/pages for Facebook - only a small number to begin with to see how it affects my feed. I've already mentioned in my post for Thing 5 that I found it difficult to find lists that I wanted to subscribe to in Twitter so I'm waiting for someone to tell me how to do this easily. I'm also not great at chats on Twitter; mainly because I forget the time of the chat or am involved with something else at that precise moment in time.  I never go back to look at the hashtag of the chat but this is something I could try and do. Also it looks likely that a Rudai23 twitter chat will happen in the near future so that will definitely have to go into the diary.

I also had a look at the Rudai23 pinterest page for Thing 5. Lots of useful things here. The one I found most telling was the UKEdChat session 263 on the power of twitter for developing teaching practice. The point that stuck with me was 'think before you tweet' - wise words because once it's out there, there's no taking it back!

Now moving onto Thing 6 which ironically is about reflection.

Best wishes,
A.

Online Networks - Thing 5

Thing 5 is about online networks or rather using online tools to network with friends, family and like-minded individuals. Two of the most popular were highlighted in this Thing: Facebook and Twitter.

I have an account on both tools but I use the Facebook account for personal, family and friends interaction. I have only recently started using Twitter so thought it might be a good one to have a closer look at.

I find the number of characters a challenge in twitter but that's part of the fun. Can you get your message across in 140 characters or less? I also wonder about whether people really want to read what I'm tweeting about, but my followers are continuing to increase so I take that as a good sign. I've also found out about things that I wouldn't have been aware about if I hadn't been looking at twitter - that's been really helpful. For example, I have to follow a gluten free diet and I wouldn't have been aware of cafes and restaurants in my locality that serve gf food and perhaps more seriously about recalls on gf food if it hadn't have been for twitter. I'm sure I would have found out about the recalls eventually but twitter was so speedy at getting the message across.

So this week I was tasked with:

• setting up a twitter account
• following @rudai23
• sending a tweet using #rudai23
• finding a list and subscribing to it
• and then writing my blog post

Well it was all going swimmingly until it came to finding a list to subscribe to. I have successfully followed three lists; rudai23, librarians in Ireland and networks (another list by Rudai23) but I found it difficult to find lists that I was interested in. I looked at the people I was following in order to see what lists they had subscribed to but the vast majority didn't use the facility so I don't know how useful it is. Do most twitter users get by without lists? I also found this way to be a particularly long-winded way to find lists so I'm sure that I have missed some search facility on twitter to do this easily.

All in all, I'm beginning to enjoy twitter. I frequently lose time in the mornings by looking at twitter (not so good as I should be getting ready to go to work). I don't stay on it all day, nor do I have it up on my PC during work as I don't get paid to look at twitter. I tend to sculk a bit in the background in Facebook even though it's with family and friends. For some reason, I interact a little bit more on twitter - that can only be a good thing.

Reflection on Thing 4

www.unsplash.com / Luis Llerena

I've had a bit of think over the past couple of days about Thing 4 and how I found it. And to be honest I found it to be one of the easier Things to do so far.

For a start I already had a gmail account and a Google+ account so it wasn't a huge step to brush up on the settings and profile. I've joined a number of communities and tried to set up some circles. So I've hit a bit of writer's block about how to reflect on this (hence the blank page above). Thanks to Niamh and Stephanie for pointing me in the direction of images that can be used.

As I mentioned in the post about Thing 4, not alot of my friends use Google+or gmail so it may eventually be something that becomes more of a professional tool rather than using my personal email. I haven't tried hangouts nor have I posted anything so my work isn't completely finished here .... yet.

One thing that does strike me is that even though I'm only at Thing 4, I seemed to have gathered up a number of social media accounts:

• Blog
• Linked In
• Google+

It might not seem like much and I already had a Linked In and Google+ account so it isn't the fault of Rudai23 but given that there are many more Things to come, I can only imagine how many I'll have at the end of the course. I already have a facebook and twitter account and I've just signed into pinterest so for someone who is a bit nervous around social media, I already feel a bit over-exposed. I just wonder at the end of the course, will I be able to manage so many profiles or will Rudai23 point me in the general direction of a handy tool to manage everything at once?

Best wishes,
A

Google - Thing 4

Well it appears that we are being asked to become friends with the librarian's Nemesis for Thing 4: GOOGLE. I mean who hasn't used google for one thing or another, and who hasn't come up against that age old phrase 'I just googled it'. But it appears that Google is much more than just a search engine....

I already had a gmail account for various reasons so it wasn't too hard a task to set up a Google+ account. I set up my profile and added a photograph, but again, I was put off about handing over too much personal information, Firstly I'm not sure I want Google to have more insight into my life than I do, and secondly, there is such a thing as identity theft. So my information on Google+ is brief and to the point to say the least. I did run through all the security settings, and I did find it slightly comforting that Google holds your hand every step of the way.

Once I had figured out the difference between circles and communities (only second to my problem understanding companies and groups in Linked In), I added a few people to circles and joined a handful of communities. However, apart from the Rudai 23 community, I have turned off the notifications option. I don't really need another email address to become bogged down in notifications that I don't have time to read, The Rudai 23 one is the one I'm interested in, and the others I'll dip into when I'm that direction. One of my other issues is that a lot of my friends don't have Google+ accounts or have and don't check them very often. I don't want to put a lot of effort into something if no-one is going to see it.

I haven't had a hangout chat yet, and I'm not sure I want to. I'm not a big fan of Facetime and I'm not convinced that I want to have a go at the Google equivalent. For me, this is something that they could definitely drop from the Google suite of products. I mean, what's wrong with picking up the phone?

Google also offer a photos option which is something I'll explore. It would be useful to be able to share photos with family or to store photos for the eventual decline of the photo album. It's something to look into on a rainy day and with plenty of those to choose from in Ireland, I'm sure I'll get to it sooner rather than later.

So Google does have much more to offer than just searching the internet. I'm already using Gmail, Maps and Blogger. I also used Docs on a much more low-key basis, and as I'm an android user, I'm already up to speed on the Play store. Without reaslising, it turns out that Google and I are already friends.

#thing4

Reflection on Thing 3

Ok, so I have some catching up to do.  I have just finished Thing 3 while the most recent topic is Thing 8. I'm hoping that the initial Things are close together to get everyone up to speed with the basics and then the subsequent Things have a bit more time between them.

Thing 3 was all about the professional brand. As mentioned in my post about Thing 3, I wasn't sure that I needed a professional brand of my own. Does the label 'librarian' not speak for itself? Does it not indicate what I can do, my skills and my professionalism? In short, I was a bit dubious about the need for any professional brand.

Maybe the point is not to be tied down by a label. The word librarian sends out one message but in actual fact, I might be able to do a huge number of other things; be offered more opportunities based only on my skills if I didn't use the word librarian. The word librarian has a stereotypical image attached to it: tweed, glasses, hair in a bun, stamps books and says 'shush' alot.

In actual fact:

• I've been known to wear the odd bit of tweed
• I do wear glasses; but only when my eyes are too sore for contact lens
• My hair no longer can be put in a bun
• I don't stamp books 
• And the only time I have shushed someone was in the local cinema (it was effective though)

In 'Not Your Ordinary Librarian: debunking the popular perceptions of librarians' by Ashanti White, it is noted that 'the librarian is one of the most visible yet misunderstood professionals in the world' (p174). Is that why I need a professional brand? In actual fact, it was a recent article in the magazine 'Feel Good You' that hit home. In 'Time to rebrand you!' (p132, Summer 2015), some of the reasons for creating a "me" brand are listed as:

• to build confidence
• to help you get what you want
• to help you get better at your job, promotion or changing careers

Now, this isn't the normal sort of magazine I read and I can't even remember why I bought it, but I was impressed that rebranding appeared in it. The article contains contributions from Jennifer Holloway, who happens to be the author of 'Personal Branding for Brits' and she says that 'having a strong personal brand means you know exactly who you are and what you're about'. In essence, 'your brand is what people are saying about you when you're not in the room'.

And that's why I can now see the importance of a personal brand. It's what you can say about yourself, your skills, abilities, values, behaviours and image without having to utter a word. It can also defend you when you aren't there to defend yourself; to speak up on your behalf. I'm still wary about Linked In. I don't think it's very user friendly but similarly, I don't want to have to learn About.Me. Further on down the line, I may go back and brush up my profile but at least now I'll understand why I'm doing it.

Best wishes,
A.