CPD23 Thing 7: Real life networks

I wasn’t feeling much inspired for this one, but Helen’s post and, above all, the comments to it woke me up. Totally agreeing with what Jo, Bethan and LJ Hutchins have said in the comments, and bearing in mind that I know everyone is different and at different stages of their career / life, this is what wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t signed up for CILIP membership - and it's not an exaustive list. I wouldn't have...

CPD23 Thing 6: Online networks

Online networking: there are two sides of my personality clashing here. As a child of the Eighties, when all this stuff didn’t exist and we communicated in person, by letter (oh yes!) and by phone, I’m still a bit wary of all of it. Moreover, my husband and most of my Italian friends are social networking haters or strong sceptics. As and adult of the 21st century, however, I have embraced social networking as I think that, if this is the way to communicate, let it be it. It’s like using a different language: I wouldn’t be speaking Italian to English speakers, expecting them to understand me and reply in Italian; if everyone was just looking at Twitter feeds, I wouldn’t be sending emails to them, expecting them to reply by email. Thankfully, variety is the rule here; I love the idea of having more than one tool to communicate, and being able to choose the appropriate one according to the person I’m trying to communicate with. Also, I don’t think that secluding yourself in a disdainful ivory tower, declaring that new developments and technology are not for you and will never win you over, is a great favour you do to yourself. We would still be riding horses and litting candles if we hadn’t embraced technology and change.

CPD23 Week 5: Reflections

Not really knowing what to invent for this post, I started reflecting (!) on the meaning of the word reflection. You know, I love Latin, and every chance to talk about it doesn’t go amiss. The word is composed by re-, indicating repetition, and –flectere, which means “to bend”. Basically, reflection is the process of bending something over and over again in order for it to become flexible enough to take a different shape. It is an essential skill to apply to our actions and thoughts: taking them, twisting them in order to see where they might bring us, and then follow through.

Reflections on the Bohjini Lake, Slovenia

Cam23 Things 7-8: doodling, googling and extra-thinging

Thankfully this week is about tools I already know or use, so I will write only a few observations on them, leaving proper reflections for the cpd23 post (which I totally overlooked, thinking the reflection week would be a free week…I was slightly wrong!). 

Doodle: oh the wonder when I saw it being used for the first time! I haven’t had the chance to use it myself yet but I’m very keen. I will also do some pioneering work and try to introduce it in my office, where finding a convenient time for everyone to meet is a real challenge sometimes.
Google Calendar: I have been using it for some months now and I must admit I have almost abandoned completely my paper diary, which is a truly fundamental evolutional switch. As a child of the ’80s, who had her first computer in 1990 – we were among the first to have one; it was the Mac Steve Jobs had launched a few years earlier (if you haven't seen it already, watch this video. Seriously) – I always thought I would trust paper forever. I still have my little diary and I will keep it somehow alive for the rest of 2011, but I see that Google Calendar is quickly replacing it. It’s easy to use and I like the fact that I can create as many different calendars as I need, colour-code them, and switch them on and off. I have one for work and one for my extra-work life, and I love switching the work one off when I finish my day in the office. Also, seeing that big chunk between 6pm and 9pm gives me the impression that I’ve got a lot of time in front of me after finishing work. I know this is not very scientific but it’s the feature I probably like most at the moment.
Regarding using it for work, this would require an extremely long post, and probably written under a fake name!!! I loved reading the post on how libraries use it and I will keep it all in mind for when the chance for a change will arise.

Thank you also for the link to the http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/libraries/calendar.html, I have now added Librarians in Training and the Brown Bag Lunches to my calendar. This counts as my extra thing!

Cam23 Things 5 and 6: Screenshots and -casting

I'm late again, still talking about screenshots and screencasting, but hopefully with a new tool to share with you, as I haven't found it mentioned in any of your posts. I've never been a great fan of the Print Screen button, and for some reason Microsoft Paint has never been my favourite image-manipulation option; if I have understood it correctly, LightShot is available only for Firefox and Chrome, which I haven't got, so what am I going to do? I'm going to share with you the amazing power of the Windows 7 Snipping Tool, plus Microsoft Office Picture Manager. Excited? Wait and see...

Self-plagiarism (CPD23 Thing4)

So it appears that cpd23 Thing4 corresponds more or less to Cam23 Things 3-4: what a shame! ;-) Will have to resort to self-plagiarism and link back to my post below. Apart from going to the Take That concert, I’m running a bit late because I’ve been quite busy with setting up some little projects before our brains switch off and, following our users, desert the library for the Summer. This is because I just CAN’T sit at my desk and enjoy a quieter time – I have to find things to do and yes, you are right, I can be an absolute pain for my colleagues what with projects, developments, changes, improvements, etc. etc. Well I guess I’m paid to do something in the Summer too, otherwise I would stay at home and take care of my garden (or something like that).

Just one more thing to say that I can’t try Pushnote because I don’t have all those alternative browsers at work. Of our two home laptops, one is almost ten years old and already suffering from overload (when we tried to download IE8 it all failed and left us with the message “your browser is obsolete – install IE8 again”), the other is the Sacred Computer My Husband Uses for Work, which I can’t use much: apparently, every time I touch it I revert to the clumsier IT person in the world. On the contrary, when I use my laptop, I’m an IT geek. Neither is completely true, but my husband seems to think so. Mysteries of the human psychology!
So enough for this week, sorry Pushnote but I might give you a try when you too will have been swallowed by Microsoft (or at least made a sort of agreement with them!).

Cam23 Week2 – Sorry I’m late

Dear oh dear, what a hectic week last week! At the Careers Service Library we were busy catching the last finalists before they left for good, and when they did leave, we were literally invaded by not-so-new and potentially-new employers who all wanted to visit the library and browse our resources [I'm not complaining, just making excuses for being so late!].