Integration

Thing 19 - reflecting on what's been covered so far and how I have integrated the Things into my work flow

Reflection
I am now a regular user of Twitter, I have found that to follow trends and people more effectively I have had to download Twitter to my phone as this is the quickest and easiest way for me to access Twitter. I now monitor who I follow to unfollow the people who post random nonsense to better control what I can see in my feed.

I am much more confident at blogging and make more of an effort to follow blogs, this is useful for current awareness in areas I am interested in. I find Ned Potter's blog to be particularly informative, and from comments I have read on other posts so do a lot of other people.

As far as events go I think I am still more comfortable attending them I feel like I lack enough experience to consider presenting at one although I often man a stand at events and this is building my confidence.

Volunteering is something which I will consider, I am fortunate that my employer is willing to let me volunteer for events which are usually staffed by a different department, this has allowed me to work at open days and events like Mini Umbrella. I will continue to actively participate in CILIP SIGs to improve more professional skills like networking and liaising.

I have already identified my strengths and ways to improve my weaknesses as part of the many job applications I have made so I was already happy with Thing 21. Although it never hurts to revisit it!

One drawback I find from CPD23 is that it could have been split into 2 sections, one which was aimed at people at the start of their career and were looking for ways to gain skills to advance in the field, and another aimed at people who were already at a higher level and wanted to increase their awareness of what was available to them. I have managed to create development opportunities as best I can and have managed to volunteer for library events and provide training after developing a training checklist, but, there is only so much I can do and I worry that if I push too much then the answer might become 'no'. There are Things which I won't get the chance to use as part of my job if I don't advance soon such as Prezi and Jing, even the personal brand would be more advanteous to those in a professional post, although it is useful to consider at this point. Thing 20 on library roots/routes was interesting and gave me things to consider for advancing in the field.

Integration
Twitter has been the most integrated Thing as it was something which I had not liked to use previously. I quite often check it out on my breaks now if something I want to follow is happening.  I will continue to attend events and volunteer for CDG and UC&RG. I have considered my personal brand and changed my online presence to reflect this. I have used RSS feeds to set up alerts for new jobs so I can be more aware of them and save time.