Summer learning journey, winter reflective practice

As someone with long experience in libraries I found it quite hard to identify areas where I need more experience. I have never actually managed a library or information unit – I seem to perpetually be a deputy or assistant, but I feel I have the technical skills in the unlikely event they are needed.

I think my development needs are clustered around social skills, self-marketing and assertiveness. This probably accounts for my lack of management experience, as well as the political naivety which lead to my redundancy. How to achieve this is the big question for me. I’ve identified that I would like to do more work for the profession and this might offer me a chance to develop in these areas.

I think it is useful to have a PDP but real life is much more random than you can plan for.  The process of going through CPD23 has been very useful in filling some knowledge gaps and in getting me to reflect on my route into librarianship. I am incredibly grateful to the team who set up and ran cpd23 – I think it really helped keep me going when I thought I might never get a job in libraries again.

Will I keep on blogging? I’m not sure, because of the strange way it mixes personal and professional which I’ve written about before. I hope so.

My 6 word story?  Summer learning journey, winter reflective practice.

Mentors and Mentoring

I've never had a mentor - this seems rather sad now I spell it out. Not sure why. Either I've worked in a succession of organisations which did not have a mentoring culture or I'm such a prickly character no one felt able to offer any advice. Or both. I think it's something I've missed and as mentioned in my post on my career path I think I would have benefited tremendously in my early career from someone taking an interest in my progression. It seems unlikely that I will find one now - but you never know.

Conversely, I've tried really hard to offer informal mentoring where I think it's needed. I am a trained CILIP mentor and have  formally mentored 3 candidates. I think I have been responsible for inspiring at least one person to take up a course in librarianship. I see this as something I owe to the profession, which by and large has been a good one for me.

Because being a mentor encourages open discussion of professional issues it can probably be as valuable as having a mentor. Your mentee can bring a fresh outlook on problems and can help you clarify your own position. A win all round.

My brilliant career (rather long)

For Thing 10 we are asked to blog about our career so far, how we got here and where we are going. I'm afraid mine is rather long, because I am old!

The blog title is a quotation from a book title by the way http://www.amazon.co.uk/Brilliant-Career-Virago-Modern-Classics/dp/0860681939/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1313497456&sr=8-1

I always wanted to work with books. My earliest ambition was to be a poet, but this was not a terribly practical way to earn a living. I did however take an undergraduate course in Librarianship at Brighton Polytechnic (as was). This course ran alongside the Library Association 2 year course for a couple of years until the profession became entirely graduate. I'm not sure at this distance of time what was in the course to distinguish it from the LA Diploma. I was accepted onto the course with no library experience and I suspect as a result of this I found it extremely dry and hard going. The course did not offer an honours option, which bugged me for quite a long time, as people tended to assume I'd failed the honours bit. 

After graduating I found a library assistant post at Middlesex Polytechnic (as was). In retrospect I was extremely fortunate but at the time I thought I should have gone straight into a professional post and was probably not a good employee. After this I did find my way into a variety of professional posts mainly in HE and Chartered in 1981. At that point you didn't need to present any evidence except getting your experience signed off by a senior colleague. I have an ambivalent attitude to this - it was easy but I think even after 4 years experience I was probably not a really mature professional and maybe having to do something like the current Chartership would have helped me.

At some point in the late 1980s I started to feel that my skills were getting out of date and topped up my qualifications with an MA from City University in Librarianship and Arts Administration. They don't offer that course anymore but I found it a fantastically enriching experience. The Librarianship bits brought my IT skills up to date and the Arts Administration bits on topics like "Audiences through the ages" and "Popular Arts" were completely new and fascinating. My dissertation was less so, but I did manage to battle through and submit.

That pass degree in Librarianship continued to niggle though so in the 1990s I decided to study something I was really interested in and started a part-time BA in English Literature at my local University. In spite of producing twins while studying I completed this in 7 years with a 2.1. I  also took a 2 year break in employment while the twins were young.

When the children started school I went back into employment in the HE sector, doing a variety of maternity cover and temp jobs until getting something permanent. I moved from being a business studies subject specialist to working at Imperial College in the post grad. biology/environmental sciences library. This enabled me to more easily try something different and obtain a post in a Healthcare Library at Wexham Park Hospital which would probably not have happened without the Imperial College experience.

While working at Wexham I was able to undertake the PTLLS and CTLLS teaching qualifications. Annoyingly, I never managed to convince my tutor that librarians undertake what they call a full teaching role so was not able to take the DTLLS which includes much of the more interesting educational theory. Then in May 2011 I was made redundant. This was a huge blow, and made me really take stock of my skills and think about marketing myself at which I am not good.

I am now shortly to start a post in another healthcare Library. I am very grateful to have a job but it does feel as if I'm starting on the bottom rung again. I am not sure where my career can go after this. Realistically, I am around 10 years from retirement, so who's going to promote me or give me a challenging post? Perhaps my role now is to encourage younger professionals and get involved in outside work stuff?