tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13720823767492632502024-03-06T01:26:22.295+00:00Maria Giovanna In Other WordsA blog about libraries, careers, life in a foreign Country and other things, written by a non-native English speakerMaria Giovanna De Simonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05047564106168067735noreply@blogger.comBlogger25125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1372082376749263250.post-1854679897515642382013-07-04T14:57:00.008+01:002013-07-04T15:01:26.298+01:00Unintentional leadershipIt’s happening again…<br />
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When I was 16, I joined a Parish group. Although having been in the Parish for years, I was a newcomer as I had never attended any group there, or taken any active role. The following year, I was asked to take charge of the children’s group, and I accepted.<br />
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Fast forward a decade and, after taking part in a Bible Study Group in my Cambridge Parish for a year, I was asked to be the group leader as the leader was quitting due to family reasons. <br />
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In 2011, I had barely joined CILIP, and in the bat of an eyelid I found myself in the role of Vice-Chair of the East of England branch. I thought I was going to skip the subsequent chairing task the following year, due to my maternity leave, but somehow I became, nevertheless, chair (not on my own. But still).<br />
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And some days ago, I was with my 15-months-old daugher at a playgroup for Italian children in Cambridge, when suddenly the lady running it turns to me and says: “Maria Giovanna, why don’t you take the group on next year?”.<br />
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I think there is a pattern here, and I’m going to call it unintentional leadership. It’s when you don’t do anything specific to be noticed, but people somehow see you as the most likely person to take something on and carry it forward, trusting you will do a good job. And actually I always did a good job: groups generally thrived under my lead, and people were happy. I quit when circumstances brought me to (moving to a different town or Country; organisational change; family or health reasons) or when I felt it was time to leave the group in someone else’s hands, especially as people were starting to take my leadership for granted.<br />
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Unintentional leadership is also when you don’t truly believe in yourself, but others do, and this gives you confidence and strenght. It is a gift, albeit an unintentional (and sometimes unwanted) one!<br />
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But unintentional leadership means also that you don’t really realise what you are doing; you are not fully aware of your skills and capabilities; and when you do lead, you still see yourself as the one that got the position by chance, or luck. It’s as if you are playing the leading role while at the same time believing you are playing the supporting one. You are not in tune with the situation. You learn things but they don’t stick. You let things happen, instead of driving their course. And subsequenty, you don’t fully enjoy what you are doing.<br />
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I don’t want to be an unintentional leader. I want to be an intentional one. I want to see opportunities and take them on with an awareness of my reasons for doing it, and my skills. How? Maybe accepting that I am a leader, or that at least I have some traits of a leader somewhere within me. <a href="http://stephenslighthouse.com/2013/06/17/cilip-east-leadership-and-librarians/" target="_blank">Stephen Abram would say that leadership is something you learn</a>, not something you naturally have. Although I feel that I “have” it somehow, I certainly need to learn how to 1. Recognise the skill 2. Stop shading away from it 3. Use it to its full potential.<br />
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Any other unintentional leader out there? Would love to hear from you, to know whether you are working on becoming an intentional one, and how. Maria Giovanna De Simonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05047564106168067735noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1372082376749263250.post-38679170534427887152011-11-30T12:30:00.003+00:002011-11-30T14:21:50.941+00:00To chair or not to chairThat was the question at the last Cilip East of England branch committee meeting, held in Bury St. Edmund's last week. It is a double-faceted question, in the sense that:<br />
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1. I was asked to chair the meeting as Darren, our Chair, was involved with an event the branch had organised on the same day. Being the Vice-Chair, I couldn't say no, so I feigned a lot of confidence and said "sure, no problem" as if chairing meetings is something I do every day. I studied the agenda and planned the structure of the meeting quite meticulously, and I also looked for some advice online, stumbling on this <a href="http://www.resourcecentre.org.uk/information/committee_members/info_pdf/Chair.pdf">great link</a> that gave me a lot of good points to think about. <br />
<a name='more'></a>On the day, it came out that Darren didn't need to be involved in the event (which was being held next door) for its whole duration, so he was able to come to the committee meeting and chair it. I sat back, relaxed a bit, and took the chance to observe what he was doing. I noticed that he did <strong>almost everything the link above suggests</strong>, including asking people to introduce themselves - I thought this would work for a much smaller group and I had planned to skip it, but actually we were all very quick and introductions were over in less than a minute. Moreover, we had two potential new committee members observing, and it was definitely a good thing to do. I also learnt that it is really difficult to ask people to <strong>stick to the topic under discussion</strong>, and bring them back on track once they've wandered off. Being curious, I tend to get "enchanted" by people's speeches and I risk to lose the main plot. Definitely a good point to remember. But probably the ability of the chair that struck me most was what the link describes as: "<strong>pulling together the points people are making and suggesting a constructive way forward</strong>". This is really difficult. Again, I tend to be drawn in by the different arguments people are making on a subject; sometimes I can be really biased and take sides with some people, sometimes every argument seems to make plenty of sense and I would agree with everyone. Being able to step out of the picture, look at it from a different angle and propose a solution is a great skill that I need to master. So, overall, my escape from chairing was a good thing; I observed and learnt, and now I know what I need to concentrate on. Especially because...<br />
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2. In Cilip branches, the Vice-Chair is expected to take up the Chair position the following year. If you read <a href="http://www.mginotherwords.blogspot.com/2011/10/cam23-final-post-but-not-final-thing.html">my previous post</a>, you will know that a Major Thing happened to me this Summer, a thing that is (hopefully!) going to have (good) long-term consequences, and which made me say I wouldn't be able to become Chair in 2012. It was a bad time to withdraw as we were really struggling to find an alternative. After some email exchanges, <a href="http://npagelibrarian.blogspot.com/">Niamh</a> proposed to co-chair with me. I felt unsure because, unlike her, I really don't know what to expect from what will happen to me in a few months' time, and I didn't want to dump everything on her if I found out I was struggling to keep up with things. But after the committee meeting, where - I must admit it - I loved seeing people putting ideas forward and I could see a lot of willingness to turn the branch into an active, lively and engaged group, <strong>I emailed her back and accepted</strong>. The committee seemed to like the solution too, so yes, I'm probably going to be the co-chair for 2012, and I think we can do a good job together. Including the "chairing the meetings" bit.Maria Giovanna De Simonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05047564106168067735noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1372082376749263250.post-56328418157823274512011-10-31T16:57:00.001+00:002011-11-29T14:57:02.584+00:00Cam23: the final post but not the final thing...More than a month after the final party, here I am to explain why I dropped <a href="http://cam23things.blogspot.com/">Cam23</a> and decided I wouldn’t complete it. The programme was great and I was really looking forward to take part; I started with enthusiasm but after 11 things I stopped and never picked it up again. What happened?<br />
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1. I was involved in organising <a href="http://cpd23.blogspot.com/">cpd23</a>, and in a moment of enthusiasm, over-keenness and – I must admit it – boredom at work, I decided to follow both programmes. This proved unsustainable in the end. <br />
2. I made the mistake of not talking to my boss to ask for formal permission to follow a 23 things programme. If you are reading this post and planning to jump on the next 23 things wagon, please make sure you build it in your workflow. I thought the Summer would be a quiet time, and in a way it was, but if I was blogging during working hours I would feel guilty; lunch breaks were never long enough (as they are for eating too, after all!) and when I went home in the evenings the last thing I wanted to do was to switch a computer on again. <br />
3. When this all started, my home computer consisted of an old laptop that was on the verge of crashing every time I tried to download a new programme. In July I upgraded to a new shiny tablet, which I then used only to make skype phone calls and reading the Italian newspaper online. My fault, but as a little excuse...here comes point no. 4:<br />
4. Something major happened to me over the Summer, which had an impact on my health and energy levels (it’s a good thing, don’t worry). In July and August I was barely awake, and I decided to retain all my energies to drag myself at work and do at least what I was paid for. I had to cut all the extras, and the two 23 things programmes fell in this category. <br />
<div></div><div>So, what have I learnt from this and what will I do next time? (spoiler alert: bit of reflective writing coming!):</div><ul><li>even if experiencing a moment of professional (or personal) boredom, don’t jump into a thousand of alternative things, but make a realistic plan and be selective. Consider how long it will take to achieve the results, be honest with yourself, and learn to say no.</li>
<li>making a realistic plan means taking into account the time involved to do certain things; if you work full time, make sure you ask for formal permission to embark in a cpd programme.</li>
<li>make sure you’ve got the resources required to do the new activity you are embarking on. If your home computer won’t support you, maybe it’s worth re-considering the whole thing, or upgrading your IT facilities before starting.</li>
<li>if the unpredictable happens...don’t ignore it and don’t push yourself too much, but accept it and take action as soon as you can – in my case, opt out of the programme right when you realise you are not going to complete it, and don’t wait until the very final deadline to admit defeat!</li>
</ul><div>So you see, even with half of the programme completed, I’ve learned a lot, and overall it’s been a great experience, definitely worth doing, and which I will probably undertake again in the course of my working life. Finally, a big "thank you" to <a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/11431136698418636289">Annie</a> and the other organisers, and congratulations to <a href="http://gareth2point0.blogspot.com/">Gareth</a> for winning the best blog prize – well deserved!</div>Maria Giovanna De Simonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05047564106168067735noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1372082376749263250.post-19155856184108737922011-10-03T17:31:00.001+01:002011-11-29T14:56:14.441+00:00How to keep sane in Michaelmas TermMaria Giovanna In Other Words seemed to have lost words for a long time. Apologies to all my faithful readers: it's been an interesting and challenging Summer, which can be summarised in the famous expression: "life is what happens when you are making other plans". More explanations on this will follow in a post where I explain why I dropped both Cam23 and cpd23; for the time being, I just wanted to break my psychological blogging block and write a little post dedicated to all my colleagues in academic libraries, and especially in Cambridge, where our busiest term (the dreaded "Michaelmas") is just beginning.<br />
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I didn't feel like going to work today: Michaelmas is always a terrible time and we all end up in December being awfully stressed out. While sadly chewing my biscuits this morning, I thought about past Michaelmases and came up with a list of what to do to keep sane at this time of the year, or at least try. So here it is, for your pleasure:<br />
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<ul><li>Remember that it doesn't last forever. It's 8 weeks. It passed before, and it will pass again. We will survive.</li>
<li>Don't expect everything in the office (or library) to be perfect. With so many people visiting, something is bound to go wrong. This is the time when we can show our flexibility and ability to cope with unexpected issues. And of course, we will be able to cope!</li>
<li>You are nervous: your colleagues are too. Increase the number of smiles you give to people in your work enviroment, even if you don't feel like smiling. It will help a lot.</li>
<li>If some colleagues annoy you, stick with those you work best with. Try to be surrounded by a nice group of enthusiastic people, as much as you can.</li>
<li>Breathe. Get a coffee break. Get a proper lunch. Try to leave on time.</li>
<li>In your lunchbreak or at the end of the day, send a personal email to somebody outside your workplace. It helps you remember that there are other people out there who don't even know what Michaelmas is.</li>
<li>Plan to have lunch with a friend sometimes. It gets you out of the office and switches your brain off for a bit. If you go with a colleague, make a pact and do not talk about work or other colleagues! You surely have an out-of-work life to share.</li>
<li>At the end of the day, think about what went well and not just about what went wrong.</li>
<li>Plan a couple of days off. We are entitled to get a maximum of three consecutive days of leave at this time of the year: this means that we CAN take them. For example, I have my birthday at the end of October and I always take the day off. </li>
<li>Most important of all: plan something nice for the weekend. Resist the temptation to collapse on your sofa. Arrange a dinner, go to the cinema, visit a new place, bake a cake, cook something new, undertake a new crocheting project, plan a long skype call with a friend who lives abroad: whatever comes to your mind that will allow you to forget about work and re-charge your batteries.</li>
</ul>Any other tips to add to the list? Have a lovely Michaelmas term you all, whenever it falls in your workplace!Maria Giovanna De Simonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05047564106168067735noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1372082376749263250.post-28563576603995518822011-08-11T17:12:00.003+01:002011-08-11T17:25:03.814+01:00CPD23 Thing 10: Why, how, and what next (my life in libraries)<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Why</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I can’t say, like many others, that I just fell into it. If I look back, it was quite meant to be, and there have been a couple of milestones (i.e. decisions from my part) who have put me where I am now. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Risking to sound like a freak, I will confess that when I was a child, to the – slightly worried – astonishment of my parents, I used to browse the phone book<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to see how many people with a certain surname were living in my town; I loved to look at maps; I used to make lists of everything in my possession (books, stamps, coins from foreign Countries, Barbie doll clothes); I loved to investigate the history behind objects – who owned that book, who wrote that postcard, where that piece of furniture came from – not to mention old photographs; restoring my Mum’s dolls; collecting old stuff, keeping it in order, and making it usable again. These are all activities that should have shouted “libraries and information” to any good observer (I definitely wasn’t one). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><a name='more'></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">But...big confession time: I didn’t enter a library before I was 19. No, I haven’t mistyped the number. 19. You see, public libraries are not (were not?) heavily used in my Country. I was lucky as my family had almost a library at home – I have been surrounded by books all my life. But no, never went to a public library when I was at school. It was when I went to Uni and I had to find books to take photocopies from. A friend of mine brought me to the </span><a href="http://www.retecivica.trieste.it/triestecultura/new/bibliotecacivica/"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Biblioteca Civica</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> in Trieste, I got a card, and I started using it. Well, it was dreadful. Nothing seemed to work. You could request a book, wait for an hour, and then be told that you request had gone lost (no apologies, of course). The photocopier didn’t work. The staff wasn't friendly. I hope things are better now and IN NO WAY I am criticising the current staff and organisation, but fifteen years ago it was just a...well...challenging experience. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The faculty and departmental libraries were also a funny story: sometimes a dozen shelves in a locked room, guarded by extremely grumpy “librarians” (mostly university students who were working there for a ridiculously low amount of money and with no idea whatsoever of what they were doing there), opening times that used to change at random (I know, most of you can’t even imagine such a situation: you note down the opening times, get there on the following morning at the right time, and find a hand-written notice saying “today the library will be open in the afternoon only”). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Did I feel I had to be the Erin Brockovich of the library world, and woved to put it right with my life-long dedication to a LIS career? Oh no. No no no. I just escaped as soon as I could, completed my degree and forgot about these libraries.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">So, how?</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Apart from my childhood pastimes, the first alarm bell rung when I was preparing my undergraduate dissertation. It was the edition of a beautiful French manuscript (you can have <a href="http://classes.bnf.fr/ema/grands/802.htm">a glimps here</a>), and I loved it so much that I started to think I wanted to be where rare books were. And well, they are in libraries most of the time. Moreover, I also went to the <a href="http://www.bnf.fr/fr/acc/x.accueil.html">BNF in Paris</a> to see the manuscript. Oh dear that was absolutely amazing! Both the Richelieu and the Mitterand sites were fantastic. The first seed was planted, but still the idea wasn't clear.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">After graduating I spent almost a year trying to work out what to do with myself. I worked as an assistant to my professor, as a teacher in primary schools, and as a journalists. Doing a PhD was in sight but I realised I didn’t want to study for the next three years (I keep saying that my guardian angel saved me from doing a PhD). Teaching wasn’t for me – I knew that even before trying. Journalism was fun and I was pretty good at that, but when somebody told me that if I wanted to go far I had to be more aggressive with my colleagues, I understood it wasn’t my place. I looked frantically on the internet, and finally landed on an MA in Libraries and Archives Preservation and Management. I’m not going to comment on the actual course but I will say that the biggest highlight was the work experience bit. I spent two months in <a href="http://www.mairie-valognes.fr/web/bibliotheque_municipale.html">a public library in France</a>, which hosted an amazing collection of rare books, and was run by the most lovely people I have met in my career so far. Real librarians, committed to the service they were offering, promoting their activities non-stop, getting creative about initiatives and ways to involve their community, aware of their professionality and keen to share a huge amount of advice and experience with me. Yes, this was my place.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I went back to Italy after this magic spell and found jobs in libraries and archives (I was following both routes at the time) but for personal reasons I started considering moving to the UK. I looked for everything and anything that had the word “library” in the job advert and in 2006 I found the job I have now. Rare books, which had been my main reason for working in libraries, had to be put aside. For how long? I can’t answer this question yet. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">What next?</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Aha, the big question. Actually, another big moment of enlightenment came when I was (quite recently) thinking about what to do next. At the end of 2010 I started feeling professionally stuck, and I started looking for other jobs. Having lost sight of my earlier passions and motivation, I was browsing the University of Cambridge jobs mailing list and even thinking about admin jobs (departmental administrator or similar), while having this train of thought in my head: oh yes I could do that but...maybe not...not yet...oh look! There’s a library advert! Wow! How interesting! I love the job description! I could really do that! Let’s apply!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">And this is when I really, really realised that this is my profession. Nothing made me get passionate about like a library or information job. I joined CILIP and started getting involved. I registered for Chartership. I met other librarians. I felt alive again. I applied for jobs and I will keep applying until I get a new one (and I will). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">This is what comes next: something I don’t know yet, but definitely in the LIS world.</span></div>Maria Giovanna De Simonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05047564106168067735noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1372082376749263250.post-87436032673386799932011-08-08T16:56:00.001+01:002011-08-08T16:57:47.429+01:00Cam23 - The Big Catch-Up: Things 9, 10, 11<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I’m going to write very quickly on a series of <a href="http://cam23things.blogspot.com/">Cam23</a> topics as I can’t find a way to keep up with everything and I need to squeeze several posts in one. I’m also about to go on holiday so I will resume in September with even more things to catch up on. Time management skills, eh? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Google Docs: I didn’t really know what to say about this until I created my first form last Friday and discovered the magic of the whole thing. I had used GDocs before but only as a way of sharing Word documents (with others or myself, to avoid carrying memory sticks around all the time), and I had found it slow and less useful that a “real” Word doc. But the forms! And the fact that the data are automatically collected in a spreadsheet! Blessed be Google however mischievous they may be. The form I created was aimed at colleagues in other Cambrige libraries. Every year we update our publications and, in the past, we used to send a copy of each to all Cambridge librarians. This approach had two main downfalls: 1) we didn’t ask librarians if they actually wanted our stuff, thus spamming them with literature and not making sure it was well received and happily dealt with 2) the system was based on an address list that changed all the time as librarians were moving jobs and roles: updating the address list used to take a lot of time – and transform the whole thing into a very tedious task. I have now created a form in GDocs and sent an email (plus a tweet) around the mailing lists. Responses so far have been really good and the form has been filled by a dozen librarians. I can’t wait to pull it all together in September and start organising a personalised mailing service! As I didn’t trust GDocs fully, I chose a rather convoluted way of sending the form around but next year I’m going to put the link to the form straight into the main email.</span><br />
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Pushnote and Evernote: nothing to say on them apart that 1) I can’t download them 2) Pushnote seems not to be that useful 3) Evernote sounds more interesting and useful. I will remember their names in case my downloading facilities get an updgrade, or I manage to snatch the admin password and hack my work computer.<br />
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Dropbox is an extra-thing and actually one I wanted to try as I do have an account but I have never used it. When I’ll get round to use it, I promise I’ll blog about it. <br />
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My opinions on the programme so far: it’s very interesting and the fact that I’m not enjoying it fully is totally my fault. I just got involved in too many things when I had a moment of professional boredom some months ago, and now I feel like a fly bumping into the same window over and over again without finding a way to get out. I thought about dropping one of the two programmes (the other being cpd23) but I know I’ll regret it if I do, so I’ll keep going and you will forgive me if I’m always running late. See you in September.</span>Maria Giovanna De Simonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05047564106168067735noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1372082376749263250.post-34037885280512035312011-08-01T16:44:00.000+01:002011-08-01T16:44:10.970+01:00CPD23 Thing 8 and 9: Google calendar and Evernote<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I’m running scarily late, so I will indulge in some self-plagiarism (again). I have already talked about my use of Google calendar in a <a href="http://mginotherwords.blogspot.com/2011/07/cam23-things-7-8-doodling-googling-and.html">post written for Cam23 some weeks ago</a>. Re-reading it, I don’t find much to add, apart that I have added some external calendars to it and this works really well. Also, that post had a link to the presentation of the first Mac computer by Steve Jobs and, if you have never seen it, it’s really worth it. Expecially to anyone wanting to enhance their presentation skills.</span><br />
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Evernote: it sounds like a really, really useful tool, although the restriction on Word documents makes me feel a bit wary. I have tried to download it at work and I almost thought I had managed to get around internal IT security, when I realised this message had been on my screen for quite some time and realised also that that “1 second remaining” was destined to last for a long, long time.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIgO3jlKx7mUbMKV7PrwHa1C1o_FgMlqC32L-mTXKFQZGV97PHmf2dzdaFR9MvD1N3zrpvWrVQo6tVgMmz6Ex7olglzfdYiiqRYnYnIkLL1kejenAE6nEc1JC6LqkfxhigMvZoPlaEuOGg/s1600/Capture.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="205px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIgO3jlKx7mUbMKV7PrwHa1C1o_FgMlqC32L-mTXKFQZGV97PHmf2dzdaFR9MvD1N3zrpvWrVQo6tVgMmz6Ex7olglzfdYiiqRYnYnIkLL1kejenAE6nEc1JC6LqkfxhigMvZoPlaEuOGg/s320/Capture.JPG" t$="true" width="320px" /></a></div><br />
I have no excuses for not dowloading it at home now that our IT provision has been upgraded with a shiny new tablet, but my husband is using it all the time to read one of his sci-fi books (why oh why are they all available to download?) so I’m a bit stuck. I know, this is a really bad excuse, but don’t worry: I want that elephant icon on my computer and I’ll have it one day!<br />
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</span>Maria Giovanna De Simonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05047564106168067735noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1372082376749263250.post-67016405012804471512011-07-28T15:11:00.002+01:002011-08-01T16:23:27.622+01:00CPD23 Thing 7: Real life networks<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I wasn’t feeling much inspired for this one, but <a href="http://librarywanderer.blogspot.com/2011/07/if-only-benedict-cumberbatch-were-ceo.html">Helen’s post</a> and, above all, the comments to it woke me up. Totally agreeing with what Jo, Bethan and LJ Hutchins have said in the <a href="http://librarywanderer.blogspot.com/2011/07/if-only-benedict-cumberbatch-were-ceo.html#comments">comments</a>, 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 <a href="http://www.cilip.org.uk/Pages/default.aspx">CILIP</a> membership - and it's not an exaustive list. I wouldn't have... </span><br />
<a name='more'></a><ol><li>Joined <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/groups/CILIP-Library-Information-Knowledge-Professionals-1730267?mostPopular=&gid=1730267">the group on LinkedIn</a>, posted a message about me, and received lovely replies from <a href="http://formalshadeofgrey.wordpress.com/">Megan</a> and <a href="http://npagelibrarian.blogspot.com/">Niamh</a>.</li>
<li>Met Niamh some days later. This brought to me being involved in all sorts of things, including this programme.</li>
<li>Met <a href="http://libpara.blogspot.com/">Libby</a>. I approached her in her capacity of Candidate Support Officer for the East of England and our meeting was the most enlightening one you can imagine. </li>
<li>Realised that I could get my Masters accredited and go for <a href="http://www.cilip.org.uk/jobs-careers/qualifications/cilip-qualifications/chartership/pages/chartershipintro.aspx">Chartership</a>. </li>
<li>Found my mentor for Chartership, and several other informal mentors along the way.</li>
<li>Started feeling professionally alive again.</li>
<li>Got involved in the wider Cambridge librarians’ community. True, they do exist without CILIP and they do organise plenty of things, but CILIP is the way I met the person who introduced me to them, so my gratitude stays with it. </li>
<li>Opened the blog, got a lot of encouragement, and become a CILIP blogger. I am aware it’s not just a decorative element on the right-side bar of the page.</li>
<li>Become involved with the <a href="http://www.cilip.org.uk/get-involved/regional-branches/east-of-england/Pages/default.aspx">East of England branch</a>, and realised that I could do a lot of things.</li>
<li>Got out of the very sad echo-chamber I sometimes experience in my office, where info pros are quite stuck and there seems to be no hope for us. But there is. As long as you keep talking to colleagues, affirming what you are and what you do, and advocating for your service, there is. I was doing it before CILIP, but doing it now puts it into a wider context, and I feel that the micro-advocacy I engage in every day means also doing something for the profession on a larger scale.</li>
<li>Felt part of a community, which goes beyond the geographical boundaries of Cambridge. I might not live here forever, I might re-locate (a warmer place would be nice!) and have to start all over again. Being a CILIP member gives me a much stronger safety net than being a member of <a href="http://www.aib.it/aib/aib-e.htm3">AIB</a> (the Italian version of CILIP).</li>
</ol><div>As I explained <a href="http://mginotherwords.blogspot.com/2011/05/queen-stop-this-nonsense.html">in a post some months ago</a>, I also feel that this is one of the best times to be a member. <a href="http://www.cilip.org.uk/about-us/people/biogs/Pages/anniemauger.aspx">Annie</a> is doing a great job.</div><div></div><div>I close this post with a splendid quote from <a href="http://fraenrico.carcosa.it/">Enrico’s blog</a> on the same topic: “If you are a professional, the professional association is the place to be, and if you don’t like the professional association, that is the place where to operate change.” </div><div></div><div>Helen – these are my words for you. Looking forward to organising talks with you on the truth about the air speed velocity of a sparrow holding a coconut, and what actually happened to Agatha Christie when she vanished for a few days. :-)</div>Maria Giovanna De Simonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05047564106168067735noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1372082376749263250.post-10056089639727102542011-07-28T13:01:00.005+01:002011-08-01T16:24:42.111+01:00CPD23 Thing 6: Online networks<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Now, what do I think in particular of:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">LinkedIn: I joined in December 2010, abandoned it for a bit, and now looking at it with re-newed interest. It has put me in touch with some great contacts at Cambridge, which have become real-life acquaintances (friendships, in some cases) after meeting on LinkedIn. I feel I need to make more of it, and the action point is to improve my profile, which is still quite basic at the moment.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Facebook: only for friends and family. I know all the bad stuff about it but, honestly, I think I’m going to survive. When somebody points out that facebook users are matched with adverts, and that facebook users are indeed </span><a href="http://mashable.com/2011/06/30/users-products-rushkoff/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">the stock for sale</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> (brilliant article found on </span><a href="http://librarianbyday.net/2011/07/03/top-10-links-2-26/"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Bobbi Newman's blog</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">: see item no. 4), although I know and I agree, I still think that it’s not the end of the world. What about adverts in the street? What about adverts on commercial television? When I was a child, I used to watch cartoons every afternoon on the telly, and they were constantly interrupted by adverts targeted and aimed at children. Did anyone shout in outrage? No. We kept dreaming of Barbie’s houses and Goldrake robots and I don’t think we ended up being a soul-less generation because we were “sold” to ruthless advertisers. Anyway, I’m digressing here...</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">LISNPN: I joined at the beginning of the year and welcomed the change in layout, much more readable and welcoming. I haven’t been on there that much but I am a keen lurker. Sooner or later I will say something on there too...just give me time.</span>Maria Giovanna De Simonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05047564106168067735noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1372082376749263250.post-72930583670269151192011-07-17T18:02:00.003+01:002011-08-01T16:25:10.131+01:00CPD23 Week 5: Reflections<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">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. </span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiLVag9CA5odtwRIVHAFlbCm32wW97QUtWpGmmFFOgvFOObYkAJrwtTIPRxGJ2sP0a7xpDcC3GFE4JA9CsCCUY2k5ySplBTS4tj3rXYGY2kxDBOilk2TmmuessGrI9tt50gdfjx1yxkZ8K/s1600/Reflections+on+the+Bohjni+Lake%252C+Slovenia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240px" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiLVag9CA5odtwRIVHAFlbCm32wW97QUtWpGmmFFOgvFOObYkAJrwtTIPRxGJ2sP0a7xpDcC3GFE4JA9CsCCUY2k5ySplBTS4tj3rXYGY2kxDBOilk2TmmuessGrI9tt50gdfjx1yxkZ8K/s320/Reflections+on+the+Bohjni+Lake%252C+Slovenia.jpg" width="320px" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Reflections on the Bohjini Lake, Slovenia</td></tr>
</tbody></table><a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I heard about reflective writing for the first time when I embarked in the <a href="http://www.cilip.org.uk/jobs-careers/qualifications/cilip-qualifications/chartership/pages/chartershipintro.aspx">CILIP Chartership</a> process. It was a slightly dreaded subject, mainly because everyone seemed to struggle a lot with it, and statements like “if your pieces are not reflective enough, your portfolio might be rejected” made it sound like a truly hard task. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">When I went on to a course organised by my local CDG, I found out that reflective practice is a powerful tool to use in your life generally, and I liked the idea of putting some efforts into it. Reflective writing comes next, and here I welcomed the idea of having a way of expressing the (sometimes confused) bundle of thoughts nested in my restless brain. <br />
<br />
Basically, I do reflect, and quite a lot, maybe too much at times. I always felt the need to find a way of expressing what I was mulling over and over, and transform it in some sort of action. It is what, as a child, I called “being an artist”. With the subsequent observation that I am not an artist, and therefore I was always frustrated in my attempts of expressing myself. [Here I can hear a wide group of friends and family members pointing out to the fact that I talk a lot, thus express myself enough… ;-)].</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
Everything sounds good so far, but…I’m still reflecting a lot, and not writing enough. I opened this blog in order to have a place to reflect but I must admit that I still feel a bit awkward about expressing my thoughts in such a public place. And time is an issue, although I know that if I manage to build a routine for this task, I solve the problem in one go. This is my good resolution for now.<br />
<br />
To end this post on a positive note: I love the “What-So what-Now what” scheme. When I first heard of it, it was really enlightening, and I realised that I was already doing a lot of “so what”, but not enough “then what”. I think that some of the things I have accomplished in the last few months have been a result of my realising that I needed to step into “then what” land more confidently. It’s really worth giving it a try.</span>Maria Giovanna De Simonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05047564106168067735noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1372082376749263250.post-82766228995146239652011-07-16T17:30:00.004+01:002011-08-01T16:25:57.116+01:00Cam23 Things 7-8: doodling, googling and extra-thinging<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">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 </span><a href="http://cpd23.blogspot.com/"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">cpd23</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> post (which I totally overlooked, thinking the reflection week would be a free week…I was slightly wrong!).</span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><a href="http://www.doodle.com/"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Doodle</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">: 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.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">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 </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">was </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbrdnsPHMWA"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">the Mac Steve Jobs had launched a few years earlier</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> (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.</span> <br />
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Regarding using it for work, this would require an extremely long post, and probably written under a fake name!!! I loved reading <a href="http://musingsaboutlibrarianship.blogspot.com/2010/04/libraries-and-google-calender.html">the post on how libraries use it</a> and I will keep it all in mind for when the chance for a change will arise. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Thank you also for the link to the <a href="http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/libraries/calendar.html">http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/libraries/calendar.html</a>, I have now added Librarians in Training and the Brown Bag Lunches to my calendar. This counts as my extra thing!</span></span><br />
<a name='more'></a>Maria Giovanna De Simonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05047564106168067735noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1372082376749263250.post-55154039283722765832011-07-12T17:47:00.003+01:002011-08-01T16:26:35.189+01:00Cam23 Things 5 and 6: Screenshots and -casting<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">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, <a href="http://lightshot.skillbrains.com/">LightShot</a> 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...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Given that the challenge was to produce a video, I have tried <a href="http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/">Screencast-o-matic</a> and produced the video below. BEFORE watching, please bear in mind the following:</span><br />
<ul><li><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">It is the first draft. I know the screen area is badly arranged, I know how to do it better, next time I'll do it better, please trust me on this.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I recorded it after work <strong>but</strong> in my office, i.e. with the department's director walking around the library at unpredictable times: this is why I'm whispering and you will need to set the volume quite high. This will make you hear all my breaths and gasps unfortunately, please be merciful.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">It is the first time I heard a recording of my voice speaking English! I was quite appalled by the strong accent but everyone has accents in this Country, right? ;-)</span></li>
</ul><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">So, just for you cam23-ers, this is The Amazing Snipping Tool, and The Most Amazing Picture Manager, Whispered in a Deserted Library by MG:</span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dyh7jhMjcRGgC-xjJC08yb_nWY1GiLXPLMkg-HtAKBzJ6rJo2-gshJoDHCvHkYj3H9Xr7He_lXjWd3f85Mgrw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">If you want to see something a bit more professional, look for Snipping Tool on YouTube - there's plenty of videos there.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">I'll just add that I loved <a href="http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/">Screencast-o-matic</a> and I'm definitely going to use it for the library - there is a series of web pages that would benefit enormously from an explanatory video on how to use them.</span>Maria Giovanna De Simonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05047564106168067735noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1372082376749263250.post-74236358795017541142011-07-07T15:37:00.001+01:002011-08-01T16:27:05.575+01:00Self-plagiarism (CPD23 Thing4)<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">So it appears that </span><a href="http://cpd23.blogspot.com/2011/07/thing-4-current-awareness-twitter-rss.html"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">cpd23 Thing4</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> corresponds more or less to Cam23 Things 3-4: what a shame! ;-) Will have to resort to self-plagiarism and </span><a href="http://mginotherwords.blogspot.com/2011/07/cam23-week2-sorry-im-late.html"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">link back to my post</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> 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).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">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! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">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!).</span><br />
<a name='more'></a>Maria Giovanna De Simonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05047564106168067735noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1372082376749263250.post-58232593156898516392011-07-06T10:32:00.006+01:002011-08-01T16:27:38.493+01:00Cam23 Week2 – Sorry I’m late<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">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!].</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I’m back, and this time I’m starting with </span><a href="http://cam23things.blogspot.com/"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Cam23</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">, because this is were I’m running terribly late</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">. So while you are all having fun with screencasting, I’m going to write my observations on </span><a href="http://cam23things.blogspot.com/2011/06/week-2-thing-3-rss-feeds.html"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">RSS feeds</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> and </span><a href="http://cam23things.blogspot.com/2011/06/week-2-thing-4-twitter.html"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Twitter</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">. The latter being also the theme of <a href="http://cpd23.blogspot.com/">cpd23</a> this week, it’s all going to be very confused in these posts. I hope you’ll bear with me!</span><br />
<br />
<strong>RSS feeds</strong><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I wasn’t using them much until some months ago, when I realised that in order to follow everything I was interested in, I had to find a convenient way. I read </span><a href="http://mashable.com/2011/04/17/digital-life-spring-clean/"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">this article</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> and set GoogleReader up. It worked really well until the blog list started to grow and grow. Now that I end up with at least 15 new posts a day, I’m struggling. I had also put the Reader feed on my iGoogle page, which was giving me a slightly nagging feeling every time I saw a new post popping up. I have now removed it from there and decided to open GReader <strong>only</strong> when I know I have the time to read the posts there – and click on each in order to read them in their appropriate visual context (I don’t like the fact that GReader shows just the text without the formatting. Expecially after all those discussions about online branding and visual identity we had for </span><a href="http://cpd23.blogspot.com/2011/06/thing-3-consider-your-personal-brand.html"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">cdp23 week 3</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">). We’ll see how it works. In the meantime, I have to give Netvibes a try. </span><br />
<div><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>Twitter</strong></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">I signed up about three months ago. I was talking to </span><a href="http://npagelibrarian.blogspot.com/"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">Niamh</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia;"> and desperately trying to sound aware of events and news in the library world; when she said, for the third time in ten minutes, “I know, I’ve seen it on Twitter”, I decided I was sounding like a person boasting about how quick her bike is to somebody driving a car. Time to leave the bike and buy the car. </span></div><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><strong></strong><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br />
<div><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">A brief summary of Twitter ups, off the top of my head:</span></div><ul><li><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">the amount of useful information you gather there is unbelievable. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">it gives you the chance to contact people you don’t know in an informal but still professional way: it is the perfect place to take a “<a href="http://www.facebook.com/Profersonal">profersonal</a>” approach to relationships, expecially if compared to Facebook, which I see mainly as a personal media, or LinkedIn, which goes in the opposite direction.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">whenever I advertise a new post on my blog on Twitter, the stats go up considerably. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">it is a great way to build personal relationships with people you only meet for work-related reasons. For example, when I was brave enough to say I was going to the Take That concert in Wembley, I discovered that </span><a href="https://twitter.com/#!/lemurph"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Helen</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">, </span><a href="https://twitter.com/#!/LibraryLJE"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Lisa</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> and </span><a href="https://twitter.com/#!/jenn1k"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Jenni</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> were all fans. You see, librarians don’t talk just about obscure classification systems. ;-)</span></li>
</ul><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">And a brief summary of Twitter downs, from the same place:</span></div><ul><li><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I follow 39 people at the moment but I don’t think I can do more than 30 actually. I really struggle to keep up. If I don’t look at it for a whole hour, when I come back I have to spend ten minutes reading all the new tweets. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">It is very distracting. And I’m a curious person, which probably makes me the ideal Twitter user, but not in my own views – I really can’t keep checking it every five minutes.</span></li>
</ul><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Overall, I think Twitter is a great tool. I keep saying that technology is what you make of it, and this is very true in the Twitter case. After trying it for personal reasons, I have opened an account for the Careers Service Library (</span><a href="https://twitter.com/#!/camcareerslib"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">@camcareerslib</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">). It’s still at early stages, but I hope we will get many followers when Michaelmas Term starts. It’s been the first breach into social media for our library and I really hope it will help us to gain a more relaxed approach to these tools (after the Twitter leap, my boss has also mentioned the possibility of having a Facebook page: watch this space!). I have not been tweeting very regularly on there, but I found </span><a href="http://laurawaldoch.blogspot.com/2011/07/organisational-twitter-how-to-tweet-for.html"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">these great guidelines</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> by Laura Waldoch a couple of days ago which give some interesting tips, expecially regarding timing. Guess where I found the link? Yes, you’ve got it... ;-)</span></div><br />
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<div><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">No extra thing this week but I’ll just mention </span><a href="http://twitpic.com/"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">TwitPic</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">, which I have used for our library account.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span></div>Maria Giovanna De Simonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05047564106168067735noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1372082376749263250.post-31650533810441248282011-06-29T10:02:00.008+01:002011-08-01T16:28:10.960+01:00CPD23 Thing 3: Branding myself<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong><span style="font-family: 'inherit','serif';">Part I – My brand</span></strong><span style="font-family: 'inherit','serif';"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'inherit','serif';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'inherit','serif';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I let a couple of days pass since </span></span><a href="http://cpd23.blogspot.com/2011/06/thing-3-consider-your-personal-brand.html"><span style="font-family: 'inherit','serif';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Thing 3 went up on the cpd23 blog</span></span></a><span style="font-family: 'inherit','serif';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> and, in the meantime, I had a look at what other people were saying about their personal brand. The thing that struck me most was the exercise mentioned by Tina in </span></span><a href="http://tinamariereynolds.blogspot.com/2011/06/cpd-23-thing-3-personal-brand.html"><span style="font-family: 'inherit','serif';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Tina’s Library Related Stuff</span></span></a><span style="font-family: 'inherit','serif';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">: define your brand in six words. Come on – I told myself - six words, it can’t be difficult! Well, I have been thinking about it for three days now, and haven’t come up with ANYTHING, so I will be using this post (and your patience) for a bit of self-brainstorming. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'inherit','serif';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Honesty...down-to-earth...action...living not surviving... libraries and information...expat / Italian / living in a foreign Country...</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'inherit','serif';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Oh! They are six, although they are a nice mess! Let’s try to turn them into adjectives: </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'inherit','serif';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Honest down-to-earth motivated Italian librarian.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'inherit','serif';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">What do you think? I’m not sure it says everything there is to say about me, and I might get rid of “honest”, not because I’m dishonest (!!!) but because something like “keen” or “passionate about my work” might give a better idea of what I was trying to say.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'inherit','serif';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The idea of having a personal brand is appealing, and when I started this blog I did put some efforts into it. I never thought about expanding the style to the other online platforms I’m on (Twitter and LinkedIn) but I’m definitely going to personalise them too now. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'inherit','serif';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The blurb I wrote for the “This is me” section in Blogger contains a professional statement but also loads of non-library related interests: this is because I like the “profersonal approach” Jo mentioned and I don’t think that showing just one side of the story is fair. I’m a complex person, and I aim to be well-rounded; moreover, if you meet me in person, you want to be prepared – if you expect a very serious, quiet, peaceful and slightly boring librarian you might be very disappointed! ;-) </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'inherit','serif';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">To answer some more points mentioned in Thing 3:</span></span><br />
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<ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'inherit','serif';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Name: don’t worry, I’m not giving you another </span></span><a href="http://tinamariereynolds.blogspot.com/2011/06/cpd-23-thing-3-personal-brand.html"><span style="font-family: 'inherit','serif';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">lecture on my name</span></span></a><span style="font-family: 'inherit','serif';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> (!), I’ll just say that I like to keep my maiden name even if this complicates things, and that I chose Maria Giovanna In Other Words (mginotherwords) because I really wanted to give justice to my first full name. I’m also </span></span><a href="https://twitter.com/#!/mginotherwords"><span style="font-family: 'inherit','serif';"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">@mginotherwords</span></span></a><span style="font-family: 'inherit','serif';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> on Twitter and it seems to be working well. I need to add a reference to it on </span></span><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=97355537&locale=en_US&trk=tab_pro"><span style="font-family: 'inherit','serif';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">LinkedIn</span></span></a><span style="font-family: 'inherit','serif';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> too. MG is actually my first real English nickname and I quite like it. Nice and short, plus tied with the English habit of using loads of acronyms.</span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'inherit','serif';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Photograph: miraculously, I happen to love the one I’ve got at the moment – it’s a self-portrait I shot in San Sebastian (Basque Country, Spain) last April. I don’t love my photos generally, so I hope my face won’t be changing much because I want to keep this one for as long as possible. The pink / lilac coat is one of my favourites. And there’s also the sea in the background, which I love.</span></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-family: 'inherit','serif';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Visual brand: I guess I’ll need to go pink / lilac everywhere! It’s one of my favourite colours and although I try to change it every now and then (with good resolutions along the lines of “this year I’m not buying anything with that colour!”), I never manage to get rid of it, so I’ll just embrace it for good.</span></span></li>
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<strong><span style="font-family: 'inherit','serif';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Part 2: what does Google say about me?</span></span></strong><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'inherit','serif';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Google UK:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'inherit','serif';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">"Maria Giovanna De Simone": 8/10 on the first page is me; LinkedIn first, then the guest post about cpd23 on </span></span><a href="http://tametheweb.com/2011/06/20/supercharge-your-cpd-23-things-for-professional-development-a-ttw-guest-post-by-maria-giovanna-de-simone/"><span style="font-family: 'inherit','serif';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Tame The Web</span></span></a><span style="font-family: 'inherit','serif';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">, Facebook, the CILIP East of England committee, my blog, my husband’s page on the college website (where he says that he is married to “a humanist with negligible inclination to science”...!), and a link to Tame The Web again. Good.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'inherit','serif';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">“Maria G. De Simone” brings up Twitter and links it to mginotherwords. The rest is not me. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'inherit','serif';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">“Maria Giovanna De Simone” library: 10/10 on the first page is me – great.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'inherit','serif';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Google Italia: </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'inherit','serif';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">“Maria Giovanna De Simone”: 8/10 again. Something I did for the National Archives of Florence back in 2005, Facebook, LinkedIn, Tame The Web, an article for an Italian newspaper, and the work for the National Archives again. The funny thing is that the second entry is about a hairdresser, and number 8 is about a pizza-maker. Unfortunately I am neither able to put my hair together decently, nor make a pizza. ;-)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'inherit','serif';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">So, results and actions after the vanity check: 1) change my name on my Twitter account 2) write something in Italian too. I have promised a couple of Italian cpd23-ers I would write in Italian, so you see, I really have to do it now.</span></span><br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: 'inherit','serif';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Part 3: Feedback!</span></span></strong><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'inherit','serif';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">If you managed to get to the end of this huge blurb, now it’s your turn to let me know what you think. Too pink, too personal? Or about right? If you only know me via this blog, what impression do you gather? </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'inherit','serif';"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Feel free to fire...I look forward to reading your comments!</span></span><br />
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</div>Maria Giovanna De Simonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05047564106168067735noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1372082376749263250.post-84083156067140128302011-06-27T14:01:00.003+01:002011-08-01T16:29:05.588+01:00Cam23 Extra #1: ImprovingHello again Cambridge! <br />
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I will be with you from Wednesday onwards, but I'm publishing a quick post just to say that on Saturday I spent some time improving my blog with the excuse of the extra thing number 1. <br />
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I took this chance to fix some things I wasn't happy with, first of all the fact that the picture of the marvellous Biblioteca Foral in Bilbao was mis-aligned with the "About me" blurb. After some fiddling, I finally managed to make it look like I wanted. <br />
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What did I learn from this? The usual golden rule for dealing with computers: if you are trying to do something over and over again, and it doesn't work, stop and think about the only thing you haven't tried yet. It's generally the one that works. ;-)Maria Giovanna De Simonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05047564106168067735noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1372082376749263250.post-78553365472697593522011-06-23T17:14:00.006+01:002011-08-01T16:29:38.674+01:00And also Cam23 Thing 2: Blogs and social media<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I have talked about my relationship with blogging in the <a href="http://mginotherwords.blogspot.com/2011/06/cpd23-thing-1-blogging.html">CPD23 first post</a>; and I have partially covered social media in <a href="http://mginotherwords.blogspot.com/2011/06/cam23-thing-1-igoogle.html">Cam23 Thing 1</a> (see the paragraph about my scattered brain!). I’ll just add that I tend to use Facebook for personal reasons, and Twitter for professional reasons. I’m working my way around LinkedIn. I am a huge fan of Flickr, first because I love photography, and second because it allowed me to set up a beautiful image library for my department (password-protected too – I’d love to show it to you). Twitter was difficult at the beginning – it takes time to adapt to that kind of communication.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">My idea is that technology, and all things technology, make sense as long as you use them in a healthy way – whatever healthy might mean for you. For me, it means that every now and then I have to switch off (maybe because I remember living without all this stuff, and even without mobile phones! Eeek!). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Also, from a librarian’s perspective, I think we need to communicate with our users. If our users communicate on Facebook, and we want to talk to them, we need to be on Facebook. If they all move to Twitter, let’s go Twitter then. If some of them are here, and some there, let’s be in both places. Basically, we need to be everywhere our "clients" are. And as long as I get somebody through my library’s doors, I will provide materials on paper – physical stuff for them to interact with. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Hopes for Cam23: getting more involved in the Cambridge library community. I know some of you in person already, and I look forward to meeting the others (personally and/or virtually). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">See you next week!</span>Maria Giovanna De Simonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05047564106168067735noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1372082376749263250.post-42946870224495174492011-06-23T16:57:00.006+01:002011-08-01T16:30:05.864+01:00Cam23 Thing 1: iGoogle<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Hello Cambridge! Here I am with my first post for <a href="http://cam23things.blogspot.com/">Cam23</a>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">In a bit of a hurry, I have created my first <a href="http://www.google.com/ig">iGoogle</a> page. Why on earth nobody told me about it before? ;-) I was franctically jumping between GoogleDocs, Reader, Gmail, Calendar, etc. etc., without knowing I could have them all in one place. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">In terms of gadgets, however, I haven’t found my must-haves yet. I've got the weather, the calculator, and the <a href="http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/toolbox/camlibwidget.html">Cambridge Libraries widget</a>, but I was looking for something different, and I’m not sure about the opportunity to have my Facebook feeds there. I used to have a mind which worked in fairly closed compartments, and now I have scattered my brain all over this social media stuff; although I love it and enjoy it more and more, my poor old thirty-something full-of-information object-in-the-skull is getting a bit lost. The solution will be, as ever: give it a try. Get the Facebook feeds there, and if you don’t like it, delete the feed. Will let you know how it goes!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I have created a tab for library-related things and I am in the process of populating it. I do miss the possibility of adding websites though. I have been using <a href="http://www.tizmos.com/">Tizmos</a> so far (but it’s been quite stuck in the last two days) and I’m going to explore <a href="http://www.netvibes.com/en">Netvibes</a>, which everyone seems to be very enthusiastic about – <a href="http://cam23annie.tumblr.com/post/6798296721/thing-1-in-which-i-prove-i-am-not-a-slave-to-google">Annie’s</a> being the latest review I’ve read.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">In terms of using all this marvellous stuff for the library, I am trapped. The website of the library I work for at the moment is hugely password-protected. No easy way to get out, folks. But I love knowing about all these possibilities, and I’m ready to get them out of my magician’s hat if the possibility arises. In the meantime, I lurk and watch what you are all doing – for example, I loved to explore <a href="http://judgebusiness.info/">the new library website for the Judge Business School</a>, which is actually a blog on Wordpress. Brilliant.</span>Maria Giovanna De Simonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05047564106168067735noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1372082376749263250.post-51258556343758662072011-06-21T15:48:00.004+01:002011-08-01T16:30:22.668+01:00CPD23 Thing 2: More blogging<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">As promised, today at lunchtime I went blog-hunting to find other CPD23-ers and see what they had been up to for Thing 1. I based my search on the conversation on twitter (#cpd23) and visited almost all those who sent a proud tweep about their first post yesterday. I also took a quick look at the <a href="http://cpd23.blogspot.com/p/participants.html">Participants</a> list and <a href="http://www.delicious.com/cpd23/participant?setcount=100">the tags on Delicious</a>, to pick some interesting titles. Like I do with books, I choose bloggers on the basis of catchy titles – well done to <a href="http://skywalkerchick.blogspot.com/">Conan The Librarian Strikes Back</a> who had me looking at that blog even if there was no CPD23 post on there yet. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">So, here I am with my observations for today:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">1. All praise to the honesty of <a href="http://libclare.blogspot.com/">Jill of all trades, master of none</a>, who made me laugh out loud when I read her reason for not being a confident blogger. No, I’m not telling you what this is – go and see for yourself. I’m just adding that I totally agree with her, and share the same feeling, as I said in the comment box.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">2. It was a real pleasure to visit <a href="http://fraenrico.carcosa.it/">Mind Matters</a>, also because it gave me the possibility to comment in Italian (laziness, I know!). Enrico – you are doing a great job there and I really look forward to starting a conversation with you. <a href="http://fraenrico.carcosa.it/?p=1040">Your first post</a> (it's in English: you can <strong>all</strong> read it!) was brilliant and I’m so glad I can read all your blog. Going bi-lingual will benefit your blog immensely but keeping the core in your native language, for the reasons you explain there, is a very interesting idea. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">3. I’m so glad I set up Google Reader some weeks ago.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">See you all next week! I’ll be blogging for <a href="http://cam23things.blogspot.com/">Cam23</a> for the rest of the week. If this won’t put me in blogging mode, what will? ;-)</span>Maria Giovanna De Simonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05047564106168067735noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1372082376749263250.post-56538170486248372192011-06-20T18:10:00.005+01:002011-08-01T16:30:40.239+01:00CPD23 Thing 1: Blogging<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Finally, the day has arrived: here we are with some 23-things related posts. I will try to keep the <a href="http://cpd23.blogspot.com/">CPD23</a> and <a href="http://cam23things.blogspot.com/">Cam23</a> separated and blog on different days, ideally CPD23 on Monday and Tuesday, Cam23 in the rest of the week. Sounds feasible, doesn’t it? ;-)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">So, why am I taking part in the course? Well, being a member of the organising team, I suppose I couldn’t keep my place behind the scenes, and just watch all you people having fun with our programme. Besides, to overcome a sense of being stuck that was starting to haunt me, I have been thinking a lot about my career in the past few months, so this seems to be the perfect chance to gather my thoughts together and transform them in some form of action. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">How do I feel about being a blogger...to be honest, when I read <a href="http://cpd23.blogspot.com/2011/06/thing-1-blogs-and-blogging.html">Katie’s sentence</a> about feeling a bit awkward, I thought “that’s me!”. So, being in a group of <a href="http://cpd23.blogspot.com/p/participants.html">almost 400 bloggers</a> really feels reassuring – thank you guys for being out there! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">However, I must also say that I have gathered some thoughts on how blogging has been beneficial to me so far, and here they come for your pleasure:</span><br />
<ul><li><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I have a place to record the activities I am undertaking. Like Katie says, writing helps reflecting on experiences, and building a virtual folder will come useful in job applications. How many times did you think “I did that too, I should have mentioned it, shame I forgot!”? It happened to me quite a few times, expecially when firing off job applications in a hurry, or writing the tenth job app with always the same old stuff in it.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I have found out that, although I am not a native English speaker, I can actually write in English and people seem to like my style. Huge, much-needed confidence boost!</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">It proved that my years in journalisms were useful after all. Admitting this has made a big chunk of my family quite happy (along the lines of “I told you so! Why did you leave it for libraries?” Aehm...because I deeply, truly, madly love libraries! Journalism wasn’t such a love story for me).</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">It helped me make a case for my name. I have put </span><a href="http://mginotherwords.blogspot.com/2011/05/personal-post-1-call-me-by-my-names.html"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">a link to this post</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> underneath my signature and you won’t believe it if I tell you how many people are using my right name after reading it. The power of social media!</span></li>
</ul><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I will be off looking at your blogs tomorrow and I would love to hear you comments on mine – also regarding its look and features. </span><br />
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<div><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Happy CPD23 everyone!</span></div>Maria Giovanna De Simonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05047564106168067735noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1372082376749263250.post-23913500651195099452011-06-15T09:46:00.003+01:002011-07-06T15:33:04.997+01:00CPD23: will you?<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Back in January, I had a nice talk to myself and decided to stick to the following rule for the first half of 2011: don't turn myself down and don’t prevent me from doing things. This is mainly why I now find myself running like a hamster in a wheel to keep everthing going...but feeling more alive than ever. When I was asked to be part of the CPD23 organising team, I said "yes" without even knowing what a 23 Things programme was.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">To understand how it works, I read all about the first 23 Things programme organised in Cambridge last year - which I missed out completely - and I also discovered that they were planning to run a <a href="http://cam23things.blogspot.com/">Cam23 2.0</a> in 2011. I decided I would take part and patiently waited for the Summer to arrive. This programme, covering social media tools for Cambridge librarians, will start next Monday, so we are nearly there.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">In the meantime, I got more and more involved with organising the <a href="http://cpd23.blogspot.com/">CPD23 programme</a>, which mixes social media "things" with careers and professional development "things", and therefore adds a different twist to the whole story. The sign-up form was made live in the last week of May, and we have already reached a stellar number of 260 <a href="http://cpd23.blogspot.com/p/participants.html">participants</a>. We have people signing up from the all over the world (US, Australia, Thailand...); the buzz on twitter (<a href="https://twitter.com/CPD23">@cpd23</a>) has been quite "noisy" so far; we have been invited to talk to the Nebraska Library Commission (if you want to hear Niamh and Charlotte going live on Wednesday 22nd June, <a href="http://www.nlc.state.ne.us/scripts/training/eventshow.asp?ProgID=10562">sign up and tune in</a> - it’s free); and we had a guest blog post on the <a href="http://communities.cilip.org.uk/blogs/update/archive/2011/06/09/supercharge-your-cpd-23-things-for-professional-development.aspx">CILIP Update blog</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Can I miss out on this? Of course not! It's too cool, too interesting and, above all, a great chance to get in touch with all this amazing library bloggers out there, share ideas and learn from each other. There are also three bloggers from Italy, and I can't wait to find out more about them. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">So, I signed up and from next Monday 20th June I will be taking part in CPD23 too.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Want to do the same? <a href="http://cpd23.blogspot.com/2011/05/how-do-i-sign-up.html">Go to CPD23 and find out how to sign up</a>. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">See you there!</span>Maria Giovanna De Simonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05047564106168067735noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1372082376749263250.post-82944427115903627082011-05-23T09:36:00.007+01:002011-05-24T09:28:01.408+01:00Personal post #1: Call me (by my) names<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I stated under the blog name that this is a place where I’ll write about “libraries, careers, life in a foreign country and other things”: the reason being that, although I am an information and library workaholic, this isn’t everything that there is to say about me...and somehow it doesn’t sound right to give you only that side of my life. If you are very focussed librarians and really, really don’t want to know anything else about me, you are welcome to stick to the professional posts – I will clearly mark the personal ones, and I promise I will take no offence. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">This first personal post is all about a very basic fact: my real, full, first name is Maria Giovanna. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">A first name composed by Maria + something else is quite common in Italy so apparently there’s not much originality in this choice, but the combination of Maria and Giovanna is indeed quite rare and I have met only two people with the same name in my life so far. Maria is basically Mary – I know, you are clever and you already got that. Giovanna (to pronounce <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Jovanna</i>) corresponds to Joanne or Jane. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The problems with this name didn’t start when I moved to the UK. It was a difficult name in Italy too. It’s long. It’s complicated. And the fact that my surname is also composed by two parts (De and Simone) doesn’t really help. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">But the problem really escalated in the UK. Nobody seems to get it right – everybody assumes that Giovanna is a middle name and therefore ignores it completely. I don’t mind being called with nicknames or shortened versions of my name, but what really annoys me is people ASSUMING that my name is just Maria. It particularly drives me mad when I sign an email with my full first name and I receive a reply saying “Dear Maria”. Argh. So, <strong>request number one: check other people’s signatures</strong>. Make sure you address them the way they want to be addressed.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I do understand that remembering and pronouncing my name is difficult for an English speaker; and as I said, I don’t mind nicknames, so here’s a list of the names I have been given by my friends or family during my life. </span></div><ul><li><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Mari (to pronounce: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">maree</i>)</span></div></li>
<li><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Marigio’ (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mareejo’</i>, with an accent on the last “o”)</span></div></li>
<li><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Mary Jo (you know how to say this one!)</span></div></li>
<li><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Giovanna (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">jovanna</i>)</span></div></li>
<li><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Gio’ (= <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">jo</i>)</span></div></li>
<li><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">MG (pronounced the English way-phew!)</span></div></li>
</ul><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Feel free to choose the one you prefer. I’d say MG is by far the best for an English speaker and I might adopt it as a real name one day (J.Lo, brace yourself!). So, <strong>request number two</strong>: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">ask for the owner’s permission before shortening a name</b>. If the name is long, the owner will be more than happy for it to be shortened – and will love to hear new ideas about it too!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Now you will be wondering: why not "Maria"? And why don’t you just shorten it yourself, and maybe even use your husband’s surname (Colli), which is shorter and easier? Well, "just Maria” feels somehow reductive. Moreover, both my grannies were called Maria, and this makes me feel a bit awkward. I must admit that for quick exchanges (booking the hairdresser; signing for deliveries; etc.) I do use “Maria Colli”. However, for some reason that would require a psychologist’s help to be detected and fully explored, I can’t dump my full first name. It’s long, complicated, terribly Italian, and I didn’t like it when I was younger; but the older I get, the more attached to it I feel. So, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> request </span>number three</b>: <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">call me (by my) names</b>, and don’t get offended if I correct you. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Thank you!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">*This post is dedicated to Niamh and Katie, who encouraged me to fight for my name; to my husband, who has never shortened it; to the colleagues who make an effort to use it (some of them do!); and to my Mum, who chose it and thus started the whole story.</span></div>Maria Giovanna De Simonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05047564106168067735noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1372082376749263250.post-80540825602720970242011-05-17T12:20:00.014+01:002011-07-06T15:33:51.977+01:00Queen: stop this nonsense!*<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 11pt;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Having been "caught" taking loads of notes at Annie Mauger’s talk at the UL yesterday evening, here I am, with my thoughts and observations. First of all, I must thank </span><a href="http://intothehobbithole.blogspot.com/2011/05/our-professional-future-is-looking.html"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Annie Johnson for writing a very well structured blog post</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">, that gives a perfect summary of the concepts touched by the CILIP CEO in her talk: if you don’t know what I’m talking about, please read that post first and then come back.</span><br />
<a name='more'></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I have been a member of </span><a href="http://www.cilip.org.uk/Pages/default.aspx"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">CILIP</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> for less than a year, and my involvement started to take shape when I got to know other Cambridge librarians who were actively involved with the East of England Branch and the CDG Group. As it often happens with me, I found myself at a branch committee meeting in March, and by the end of that same day I also found myself volunteering for the position of Vice-Chair – yes, people like me sometimes do take scary plunges just because we feel it’s right and it will bring something positive to our lives. Carefully thought decisions? Weighing all aspects of a choice? Balancing all pros and cons? Oh, come on.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I was really looking forward to Annie Mauger’s talk – and I will be honest with you: I was hoping to understand something more about the structure of this fairly complicated professional body. Coming from a Country that basks in complexity, I naturally dislike complicated structures that block people’s initiative and frustrate whoever tries to make a change.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">It therefore was a real pleasure to see this amazing lady clearly trying to shake the organisation, and at the same time struggling with cuts, pressures from all over the Country for more advocacy, stronger actions, and for a magic wand which would solve all librarians’ problems at once (I agree that would be nice but, although Harry Potter does look like a stereotyped<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>librarian with those glasses on, I don’t think he will ever step in to help us – we’ve got to do it ourselves!).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I believe in the power of the human being, and therefore what struck me yesterday was the human focus of what Annie said. A few data and numbers, and loads of enthusiasm and warmth – you could really feel there was passion in what she was saying. Some quotes and examples:</span></div><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br />
<ul><li><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">CILIP<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>should give a “sense of home” to all info pros, even if they don’t see themselves as librarians and their job doesn’t look like the one of the librarian.</span></div></li>
<li><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">CILIP money is the members’ money. We need to feel accountable. If people pay, they must feel they are getting something back – this is the key to a better offer and also to a better relationship with members.</span></div></li>
<li><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">We all share the same basic set of values: our aim is to get the right stuff to the right people, to help them with their life.</span></div></li>
<li><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">It’s important to talk to everyone, from the Women’s Institute to the new government; to whoever is in charge, to whoever can do something for libraries. The key is to develop relationships.</span></div></li>
<li><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">CILIP must be based on grown-up professional relationships. Groups need to talk and collaborate.</span></div></li>
<li><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Branches might be called the Regional Members’ Network. If somebody moves to start a job somewhere else in the UK, they must be able to knock on the door of the regional network and find the same “homey” feeling. </span></div></li>
<li><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">The aim of CILIP and its future changes is to make members feel part of something; to give them a sense of belonging to a strong and powerful organisation.</span></div></li>
</ul><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Have you noticed the abundance of words like “home”, “feel”, “relationship”, “share”, “help”, “life”, “talk” “belong”? Annie Mauger was speaking my language yesterday evening: now I really look forward to getting more involved with CILIP in the years to come.</span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">* “Queen: stop this nonsense!” is how Annie described the fact that all the structural changes she is hoping to implement in CILIP must get Royal approval, as the Council is set up under the </span><a href="http://www.cilip.org.uk/about-us/governance/constitutional/pages/charter.aspx"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Royal Charter</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">. </span></div></div></div>Maria Giovanna De Simonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05047564106168067735noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1372082376749263250.post-32534036757890832732011-04-28T17:41:00.010+01:002011-07-06T15:34:20.051+01:00Under a cataloguing spell<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Walking over to the UL this morning, heading for a course on AACR2, I met one of my colleagues who kindly asked me where I was going, and then was brave enough to even ask what the course was about. I mumbled the words "catagoguing" "librarian" "tech stuff", and thus scared her off. I met her again when I came back and she asked how the course was. Well, there was no way of lying: it was great. So, with a big smile on my face, I told her that I liked it a lot, and probably put her off for good (!).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Now, given that You My Lovely Readers hopefully share my (profession and) passion, here's a little blurb about my reasons for attending the course, and the highlights from it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">History:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I've had two cataloguing spells in my career so far: the first in France, cataloguing the most amazing hidden collection of early printed books at the </span><a href="http://bib-valognes.dnsalias.net/"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Bibliotheque Municipale Julien de Laillier</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> in Valognes; the second in Italy, working at the retrospective conversion of the </span><a href="http://www.khi.fi.it/"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">KHI-Florenz</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> catalogue, where we were using German rules. For obvious reasons, neither of these libraries used AACR2 and MARC21. When I moved to the UK and was looking for another job, I managed to get hold of a MARC manual and I remember reading it - and trying to make sense of it - while packing all my belongings at the same time. However, the job I found didn't require the use of national cataloguing standars, so I put everything on hold and almost forgot about it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Now, after five years of user interaction, in-house cataloguing, filing, devising ways of attracting users, web work, outreach events and all sort of not-purely-library-work-but-still-library-work, I'm trying to get my librarianship career back on track and I'm finally filling the gaps.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">What I got from the course:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">1) Most of the people attending were working at the UL, so it's not true that to pass those gates you have to be The Perfect Cataloguer - this was quite reassuring as I always tend to think in terms of "everyone else knows everything already and I'm the only one who doesn't". I know it's a wrong idea but it's always good to have proof of that.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">2) Rules are the way they are because they were created for card catalogues. Funnily enough, I had never thought about that before. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">3) AACR2 are organised wonderfully. Flicking through the manual, I loved the labels (printed on both sides!) and the indexes. The idea that once you've got the structure you are half-way through the bulk of it was really reassuring. And...do I really need to tell you that I love systems and structures?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">4) A fantastic quote from J.H Bowman, author of "Essential cataloguing", who apparently used to say that a good cataloguer must have sense of humour; and must pretend to believe that what s/he is doing is the most important thing in the world. I'm very good at pretending this, so good that sometimes I DO think that what I'm doing is going to save the planet from chaos and ignorance, so the good resolution coming from this is to keep cataloguing in perspective.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Additional highlights: Anne Hughes lent me a manual on early printed books cataloguing, which I can't wait to put my eyes on; and one of the attendees was also my neighbour! We see each other in the garden all the time but I didn't know she was working at the UL and didn't even know her name. She is also the owner of </span><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/52355315@N08/5279780849/in/set-72157625645404488"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Betty The Neighbourhood Cat</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Many grateful thanks to You My Lovely Readers from my husband Alan, who - thanks to this blog post - has been spared a full description of the AACR2 course.</span>Maria Giovanna De Simonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05047564106168067735noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1372082376749263250.post-21911823745705452612011-04-24T21:08:00.006+01:002011-05-17T17:27:00.021+01:00The first post<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Hello folks</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">I'm aware that I'm talking to myself right now, but I have to give it a go nevertheless. I have been playing with Blogger for some hours and I'm pretty confident I'll manage to make it look like I want it to look...at some point soon.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">It's a brave new world out here and I'm quite daunted, so I'm summoning my journalist skills (I used to be a newspaper journalist in one of my previous lives) and plunging into the blogging world.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Wish me good luck!</span>Maria Giovanna De Simonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05047564106168067735noreply@blogger.com2