Thing Eight: Google Calendar

After spending a few hours playing around with Google calendar I have come to the conclusion that the calendar on my Blackberry serves me much better. The idea is that I have access to my calendar on any computer in any place in the world. But I already have that on my BB. I don't always have access to a computer, on the bus, in town, etc. I carry my Blackberry literally everywhere with me. If I'm in town and I need to know who's birthday card to get next, I just look in my pocket and get the appropriate card. The only advantage Google calendar can offer me over my current system is the sharing functionality. At the moment I do not need this function. I am neither far enough in my career, or have that many networking buddies who would want to share my events. However, I will keep it in mind for the future when perhaps my career will progress and I will become increasingly more Librarian-esque! One can but dream.

Thing Seven: Professional Organisations & Face to Face Networking

Being a Mommy to a one year old little boy means I don't get much time to actually get out there and meet other professionals. Online networking is fantastic for me as I can do it after William has gone to bed and I have a few hours spare before going to bed myself. Saying that, I am still a member of both SLA (schools library association), and CILIP. I keep my eye out for any events that may be worth going to, but tend to be limited to day time events when I would normally be at work. Arranging child care for any other time would be a nightmare!

Thing Six: Online Networks (Part II)

LISNPN
I have signed up to LISNPN and had a look around. Everything looks great on here and I will be sure to dig down and do some serious reading and discussing on here in the future.

Librarians as Teachers Network
This is not something I'm going to join at the moment. Although I do teach library and information studies, I only teach roughly 6 lessons a fortnight, and only to 11-12 year olds. I hope to expand our library studies sessions in future and then I will return to the LATN to further my skills etc.

CILIP Communities
Having already been a member of CILIP for a few months I am ashamed to say I've never looked at the communities section. I have now created a small profile for myself and uploaded a profile picture (the same across all social media sites - my son and I with purple hair lol).

I will look into all of these more in the future. At the moment I think I'm suffering from social networking information overload!

Thing Six: Online Networks (Part I)

"Facebook is the backyard BBQ; LinkedIn is the office", Reid Hoffman, I totally agree.

LinkedIn
I just had my first experience with LinkedIn and felt like I was applying for a new job. It's horrible recalling previous employments, education, etc. I wrote my CV a few years ago and simply add to it when I need to. LinkedIn was like creating a whole new version of my CV in a social network environment. I feel I cannot be "profersonal" on LinkedIn, as I feel I can on Twitter and Facebook. I have joined a few groups, and this seem the most interesting feature. I will continue to use, and further explore, LinkedIn. But I am not sure how much I will use it in future.

Facebook
Facebook is where I express my opinions that may not be appropriate to post on a more professional social media space. I post photos of my family, and lots of my little boy! Facebook is where I connect with friends and family, and keep up to date with what people are up to. It's where people go to be nosey!

Facebook relaxes me, LinkedIn makes me tense!

Thing Five: Reflective Practice

I have struggled with what to write for my reflective practice entry. And I still don't really know what to focus on. My last week at work prior to the summer holidays was when I conducted my stock check, so I guess I will focus on this.

What?
Each year I conduct a stock check within the library to see how many books have been lost, possibly stolen, withdrawn, etc. It gives me a good idea of what our weakest stock areas are, and gives me chance to clean the shelves and identify stock that may need to be repaired, or may need to be withdrawn.

Scanning the barcodes took me 3 days in total from 8am - 4pm. A few years back we purchased a usb barcode scanner that can be plugged into the library laptop. I used this set up on a wheelie trolley to move around the shelves and scan each barcode. I took each book off the shelf, scanned the barcode on the inside cover, then put the book back on the shelf. The stock check showed we had almost 6000 items - that means I did this 6000 times - omgosh no wonder my arms hurt when I finished!

On the 4th day I uploaded the data and analysed my results.

So What?
From the stock check, I identified roughly 30 books that needed repair, 5 DVDs that needed cleaning, and 200 books that needed to be withdrawn, either due to severe damage to the book, out of date information, or simply because the book hadn't been taken out in 28 years (yes REALLY!)

While going through each book I noticed some barcodes had been stuck a few pages in, under the date label (so that it had to be lifted up before accessing it), or even inside the back pages in some books. Although at the time of cataloguing, the positioning of the barcode must not have seemed like such a big deal to the person doing it (these were catalogued before I worked here), it actually slowed the stock check down quite substantially.

Now What?
When cataloguing in future I will ensure the barcodes are stuck on the first page, directly below the date stamp label for ease of access.

I have set to work on cleaning the DVDs and repairing the books. All stock should be in excellent condition by the time we open again in September.