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Update catchup December 2014 / January 2015

Social media traffic this week from people pondering cancelling their membership of CILIP accompanied by statements that they had just popped another Update unopened on the pile.  I think this series of blog posts has shown that at least for this member there are always things of interest.
Who knows what will be useful in the future?  Not reading something is not going to help that is for sure.  Anyway that said, despite the double issue, this Update is not awash with articles that interested me.
There is a huge amount of news – almost half the issue.
CILIP Electionwatch was launched.  I was pleased to see this attempt to raise the profile of libraries as an issue at the general election.  Sadly the early days of the new government promise to be as destructive to library services as the equivalent period of the previous one. Hopefully the new CEO will bring continued focus on what are existential issues for many services.
The Library A to Z launch is also reported. Having backed this campaign I was disappointed that CILIP did not do so.  There were other organisations involved and I can see no reason why they were not.
There are some nice pictures of the new Uni of Greenwich Stockwell Street Library – since visited and discussed on this blog!
The book review of “The One-Shot Library Instruction Survival Guide” makes this sound an interesting read – one to recommend for the professional collection at work.
Spotted my name in the list of revalidating MCLIPs which was a nice surprise. I am waiting on this years efforts.
I liked the idea of the 23 librarians campaign to raise public awareness of the diversity of roles that librarians carry out (and their skills and impact).
Finally the article on student workers at Teeside Uni library was very relevant to developing areas at work. They used the Peer Assisted Study Sessions model which is doubtless old news to many but not something I recall meeting before.  It is great to see something building on what works.  Having looked at research literature on student roles around academic libraries there is a lot of reinventing and then not evaluating the wheel going on.  The article has what appears sound practical advice. One to share.
PS. Included in the envelope was the CILIP annual report with quote from when I submitted my first revalidation – had forgotten about being asked!

 

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Update catch up November 2014

An information management themed issue.

An article from Laura Williams on embedded information professionals is encouraging.  I would have liked to have heard more about what she actually gets up to while embedded.  I have a feel for the kinds of things embedded clinical librarians would do and it would have been good to compare with a media role.

The article on scenario planning was a helpful introduction to this activity.  I tend to spend too little time looking ahead. An approach like this may be useful in plotting potential routes forward for my service.

I enjoyed the paper by academic Prof. Clive Holtham as something to chew on with ideas of what our role should include as professionals in a society increasingly focused on a narrow rational business oriented model.

An article on the changes to the RCN Library was a welcome update on the progress of their shift in focus.  Audience engagement is being pursued to broaden the range of activity supported by them and open the RCN more to the public.  Moving from defining and targeting an audience through to engagement is something that is highly applicable.  I know I have key audiences already for maximising the reach of my work but new ways to engage them will be of value.

The case studies on makerspaces and so on were a positive quick read.

Matt Holland is a regular author in Update and his latest listicle on working solo worked for me. In a big team I am far from solo but I have to think like a solo in terms of the scope of the people I work with and the difference to the core audience for the service.

This chimed for me:

In the end there are really only two tasks. Responding to your users better and marketing to your users so they come to you in the future. Everything else is just noise.

I also liked the idea of the need for focus – there are endless projects I could be involved in and could initiate but I won’t finish things that way.

The article on peer review in public libraries had me thinking about how to do a light touch version of this and to what extent it might already be happening in academic libraries.  Certainly there is plenty of history of it in the NHS.

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Update catch up October 2014

You know the score – still not really catching up with these.

Useful article by Phil Bradley on net neutrality particularly in the light of recent undermining of this in Europe.

Good to hear from @AgentK23 on her trip to the m-libraries conference in Hong Kong. Discussion of WhatsApp usage reflects my experience that it is increasingly being used for group communication by medics. Another case of being where the users are perhaps?

The discussion of her event amplification through live tweeting is a good reminder to the non tweeps of what people are up to when they are tapping away. You still get some anti tweeting / mobile feeling from time to time at conferences.  Great when this is done well – I was sat near @ilk21 at the recent UHMLG Summer Conference (post to follow) and she is great at adding value to what is being said.

Another article on RDA that I dutifully read but cannot say I understood.

I particularly enjoyed the report by Charles Inskip from Digital Libraries 2014. I do not recall seeing much about this at the time and the article really sets the talks in context. Paper books for long term preservation of records!

With the Radical Librarians having gathered in Huddersfield lately I picked out the report of Dave Greene from EFF talking at IFLA.  I like his idea of libraries providing secure private internet connections as part of a wider role for protecting privacy of access to information.

 

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Bad pharma is good reading

Another book recommendation as I belatedly read books I should have read when they came out.

Bad Pharma is a book health librarians must read (anyone with an interest in how decisions are made on medicines would do well to do so) (wikipedia has a summary for the tl:dr crowd).

During the period I was reading it I ran more than my usual number of critical appraisal sessions and the book was a great source of new examples to call on as I discussed bias, ethics and the niceties of what gets published.  It does cause some issues as the picture of the extensive failings of our publishing system may leave people feeling somewhat deflated (it did me).

The chapters “missing data” and “bad trials” offer the richest source for improving understanding and helpful stories.  The final chapter on marketing is depressing in the extent of the work of drug companies in this area. More money is spent on marketing than research. Medical education is reliant on drug marketing money.

Very few of my trainees had read the book (though that might be why they were at my training) which surprised me given the profile of the author and the subsequent media coverage of All Trials.

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Update catch up September 2014

On we go with another issue…

I was interested in the report of Arts Council research on the impact of automatic library membership. Sadly it seemed the research was a bit patchy with issues in getting going at many pilot sites. I can see similarities to work that has gone on in the NHS to blanket sign people up for eresources. The conclusion point to this being a boost to awareness but needing follow up to take advantage.

I liked the idea of the Random Coffee Trials (see what they did there?). This is a NESTA initiative to encourage knowledge sharing and networking within organisations. This could be worth a try as we look to work more closely across a large directorate.

Glad to see tales of a successful reinvigoration of a school library service thanks to a Foyle Foundation grant and the input of Librarian to make the most of this. You can read the article here. I am glad CILIP campaign on the importance of school libraries.

Also heartened by tales of CILIP Member Network in Yorks and Humber in the light of my muttering over the London MN and the need to find a way to drive more engagement and involvement in this.  We are helped in London by good transport links, hugely diverse professional environments and lots of people. Getting more of those people participating could do great things. The article on SLA ECCAs chimes with this – the vibes from SLA Europe people seems to often be more positive than that around CILIP. How to replicate some of that?

A last highlight was a piece on neogeography by a student. I hadn’t heard the term before but am very interested in the kinds of things it describes. I was fascinated by GIS in my first degree and will read more on this (see also volunteered geographic information).

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Reflecting on Lean in

Nearly two years ago the Library Leadership Reading Group (steered by the super Jo Alcock) read Lean in By Sheryl Sandberg. I did not have access to a copy at the time but read commentary on it and watched her Ted video.

There was a really good twitter discussion in the group that you can read here.

Thanks to the serendipity of wandering the shelves at the Public Library I have finally got hold of a copy and read it (sadly the period between me borrowing it and reading it encompassed the death of the author’s husband David Goldberg). I am glad I took the time to read the book and would recommend it to all (it is a value packed 170 or so pages).

I am very aware that any comments from me come from a position of privilege. I also do not wish to share too much of what is not mine alone to share. Suffice to say that I recognise my own failure to do all I can do to advance equality at home and work.

The book strikingly presents some of the ways gender impacts on how people are perceived, treated and work. It places a challenge to men and women to address imbalances that remain significant. We need to talk about these issues and we need to work on addressing them.  I plan to do both – at home and at work.