Rud 11: Reflective Practice Mark 2

Keep Calm & Blog
Am I up-to-date with my blog posts? Em, no!
Did I skip any and keep meaning to go back to them? Em, yes!

How did you know I'd get stuck on Thing 3? Next time I do a 23 Things I'll do part of Thing 3 at Thing 3 and then revisit it each time there's a reflective practice week. That way I shouldn't stall on Thing 3.

River Lee by Clarke's Bridge

Time Management
I rarely have time in work for Continuing Professional Development unless I'm going to a course. I don't get to go to every course I want - I have to find a way to make it relevant to my job and even then it depends on how much interest there is from other people at work. I suggested this 23 Things to my staff at work and I know one other person, not in my section, was doing it at work but they gave up as they didn't think it was relevant. I don't think this is so much a time management issue so much as a disconnect from what it is that we do. How do we make 23 Things relevant to all library staff?

I do get to blog as part of my job but even that is tricky. I tend to do a lot of the preliminary writing elsewhere and some of the editing later as well. I find train journeys very handy - the only trouble is my laptop is a little unwieldy. I've tried using a tablet but you know #FirstWorldProblems!

I try to juggle blogging at work with one activity outside of work. This year it was doing a Certificate in Teaching & Learning. I've done various types of courses before: full-time by day, part-time by night, distance learning and online learning. I was surprised at how much time it actually took - I thought that because I've done two other teaching qualifications that I'd be quicker at but there was a lot of reading and even more reflective practice and well it's the reflective practice that gets you.

And so, before I knew it, I'd fallen pretty behind! It didn't help that October - November coincided with preparing two presentations but again I can only blame myself. No one else forced me to apply for the seminar and conference!

Sometimes at the end of the day, one where you've spent a lot of time typing, the last thing you want to do is type some more. Sometimes you just want to read, or watch TV or go to sleep.


I read Michael Stephen's article and while I don't agree with everything he said:

• ( It pains me when I encounter librarians who refuse to share their photo online or wear a name tag while on duty) as I think we can still be librarians without sharing a photo of our faces - sharing a photo of something is still a valid choice
• I do like (As such, you may find yourself in a library job doing things that you did not anticipate you would do) as I think it ties in with Chris Hadfield's philosophy: 'Think like an astronaut.' 

For anyone who's interested in working with special collections it's not about dealing with old books all the time. There's a substantial part of my week spent crawling around on the ground:

• Where is the book I have to retrieve? On the bottom shelf?
• What do I have to dust? The end of an exhibition case? The inside back of an exhibition case - impossible to reach unless you're on the ground.
• How do I put the barrels of the exhibiton case locks back in? On the ground! 

Doing an exhibition is like being on a children's programme but that's never mentioned in the job adverts!