Thing 23

Thing 23 - Reflection week

And so things draw to a close. What a fascinating and at times challenging experience this has been. And mostly very enjoyable too, if tiring.

For me, the best thing about the programme has been getting in touch with other librarians. It's been great to have a support network of other people exploring these things at the same time so that we can encourage each other and compare notes. Without wishing to single people out embarrassingly, I've been more impressed than I can say by Annie's apparently boundless energy and enthusiasm. For the past three months she has been everywhere - not just blogging on the Cam23 2.0 site (and on her own blogs) but also commenting and tweeting all over the place. So thank you, Annie.

It was wonderful, finally, to meet other bloggers at last night's wrap party. I'm only sorry I couldn't have done it earlier. I wish all the best to those graduate trainees who are leaving Cambridge. Those who are staying around, and those who are just arriving, I hope to meet (again) before too long.

It's also been brilliant to be able to follow people who are doing CPD23. It has proved an excellent complement to Cam23, and if similar programmes run in the future I look forward to being a part of them somehow.

As for the Things themselves, by far the most useful has been Google Reader. It's revolutionised the way I manage RSS feeds. How did I exist before? I don't remember. Also delightful: LightShot! How simple it is, and how effective. It was also fun trying out screencasting. Though I try not to dwell on negatives, my feelings about Pushnote are unchanged, I haven't used iGoogle for a couple of months, and I confess I have hardly visited LibraryThing since my initial excitement wore off. I haven't got into the habit of using my Twitter account much either, though I still log in periodically, and perhaps it will become a more regular haunt now that less of my time will be taken up with blogging. But at least it's good to have tried these things out. As librarians we ought to feel an obligation to keep up with new technologies, or we will run the risk of being left behind. They may be a useful weapon if we are ever called upon to justify our existence.

OK, enough of the Braveheart stuff. I've done quite a bit of Wordling here and there in the past few years, so I thought I'd use Tagxedo, which I was introduced to by Erin's post, to add a bit of colour.

Well. Where now? I'm sure I'll appreciate the Cam23-shaped hole in my life for a bit, but those inevitable withdrawal symptoms will steal upon me before too long. I think the blog will go into at least semi-hiatus, but I won't hesitate to resurrect it if I think of anything interesting to write about. And I hope some of the other blogs will also continue. I'll keep following everyone's progress. Until we meet again.

Thing 11

Thing 11 - Reflection week

I'm on holiday this week. Sorry not to meet everyone yesterday, but we have plenty of time.

But wait! Surely my commitment to Cam23 is not so great that I am sacrificing valuable time exploring the fascinating byways of German Gothic architecture to write this drivel? Well, no. I've written this in anticipation of reflection week, and am taking this opportunity to try out Blogger's 'scheduled post' option. If I come back next week to discover it's not worked, like those desperate occasions in my youth when I would return home to find the video timer had gone wrong, I will be royally miffed.

Kölner Dom at night. Image from Wikimedia Commons

I presume this is the occasion to think about what we have liked and not liked about the course so far, whether there are things (or Things) we have particularly responded to, and how we want to progress.

By and large, this has been a very enjoyable month. The thing I have liked most of all has been the chance it has provided for me to get in touch with other librarians in Cambridge. That isn't something that I've been in the habit of doing since I started working here five years ago. Of course, I see my colleagues, and very charming people they are too, but apart from occasional meetings with staff from other colleges, and the libraries@cambridge conference each year, that's about all the socialising I do.

I think it's important to keep up with people's blogs and post comments as often as possible, just to maintain momentum. I have been trying to be proactive about this. It's very encouraging to receive comments and tweets from other people doing the programme, especially if you don't know them personally. I'm fairly good at keeping track of what other people are posting, but the problem of starting to follow lots of blogs all at once is that it takes a while before you start to remember who's who. If I haven't commented on your blog yet, it is not (necessarily) a personal affront. I may easily get around to it in the coming weeks.

As for the things themselves, they've been a mixed bag but mainly good. You don't get much time to try them out before reporting back, but Cam23 has to move at this kind of pace. iGoogle has not become a regular haunt of mine, and I suspect Google Calendar and Pushnote won't either, but I really like blogging, screenshots and RSS (as I already did), and can see that screencasts, Doodle and Google Docs are likely to be the perfect tools to use when the necessity presents itself.

I'm not quite into the swing of Twitter. I do get it, having used it for a couple of years already in a non-professional (I may say very non-professional) capacity, but I'm not sure exactly what kind of tone I want to pitch. Part of me would like to be posting very worthy stuff about new technologies and projects all the time, but I don't think I could realistically maintain the pretence. My mind is simply too trivial to be continually occupied with thoughts of professional development, and so what I have tweeted so far has been essentially light-hearted, if by and large library-related. I sort of hope that taking part in Cam23 will somehow mould me into a more professional (or at least more professionally aware) person. I know, not desperately likely, but perhaps it will have at least some effect on how I approach my work.

I am now compelled to go and shove some things in a suitcase, but I shall see you anon. Have a lovely week.

Things 1 and 2

Thing 1 - iGoogle

iGoogle is essentially an enhanced version of the Google homepage. Remember the Google homepage? I only tend to go there nowadays when there is a customised version of the logo to look at, and in the first instance always use the Google search box on my web browser when I want to find something online. But once I'd started to put some gadgets on it, it became more attractive.

A homepage that lets you see news and weather, check your e-mails and Facebook and Twitter, search Amazon or National Rail Enquiries - it could prove quite handy. Certainly the click-and-drop method of rearranging things appeals to the librarian's sense of order. I created a separate Library tab, but couldn't find many relevant gadgets to add (a search for 'library' brings up a piano arrangement of The Christmas Song and the trailer for The Terminator in the first few pages of results), so at the moment it looks sparse with only the Cambridge Libraries Widget and Copac and WorldCat search boxes.

One thing I really appreciated was the range of 'themes' you can choose from to make the header more attractive - after some experiments with musical and bookish themes I settled on the lovely picture of Clare Bridge above, which is visible from our library if you look out of the right window. It's early to say how useful iGoogle will prove to be, but I know it will continue to be relevant to Cam23, so I'm sure I will get into the habit of using it.

Thing 2 - creating a blog

I have never used Blogger before, and so was delighted to have a good reason to try it out. Over the last couple of years I have got into the habit of following other people's blogs, and I like their malleability (the blogs, not the people). A blog can be whatever you want it to be, and you can reveal as much or as little of yourself as you desire.

First impressions: Blogger is good. It seems mostly intuitive, and the process of setting up the blog was straightforward. Fiddling around with design settings is something I naturally enjoy, so it's nice to have a new toy to play with. I chose a fairly straightforward template which I then customised with links on the right-hand side, a computery font for the title, and a background photo of some piles of books I took a while ago (some of the overflow from my bookshelves). I expect the blog will evolve into something more settled and permanent in the coming weeks, but for the time being I am going to keep experimenting with widgets and changing things around. A little less pink might be a good idea.

"It's like, how much more pink could this be? and the answer is none. None more pink."

I don't know if I have any grand plans for this blog. My intention is for it to be finite, but I am aware that a number of participants in last year's 23 things have continued to blog since the end of the programme, and can imagine myself doing the same. I would like it to be a gateway to discussion and a means of communicating with other librarians and non-librarians. I would also like to keep it fairly light-hearted (occasional jokes, pictures, multimedia...). Early days yet.