Winter 2009

Winter 2009 Volume 12 Number 4

www.cilip.org.uk/cdg/impact

Jon ScownMeet the President: CDGPresident for 2010

Barbara BlakeAttending a conferenceoutside your sector

New Professionals Conference:Call for papers

IN THIS ISSUE

Abimbola AlayoThe presence of libraries

on Facebook

Daniel ParkHow CPD can strengthen

you in an uncertain future

CDG Bursary: A chance towork in Uganda with APP

PRESIDENTMaria Cotera

Cataloguer, Library Services, UCL, GowerStreet, London WC1E 6BT Tel: 020 76792302

Email: [email protected]

SECRETARYKerry Benstead

Information manager, Library Services, KAIStrategic Analysis and Coordination, HM

Revenue & Customs, LG 75, 100 ParliamentStreet, London Tel: 020 7147 0848


FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUTTHE GROUPPaul Tovell


ADVERTISE IN IMPACTAdvertise here and reach nearly 4,000

potential customers, it’s so easy!(source: CDG membership, January 09)

If you are interested in advertising in Impact,please contact our friendly Advertising Officer

Stella Wisdom; by [email protected] or ring her on 01937

546873

2009/10 charges for advertising in Impact:Full page colour: £330Full page black and white: £230Half page colour: £200Half page black and white: £140

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ISSN 1468-1625

Impact, the official journal of the CareerDevelopment Group of CILIP: theChartered Institute of Library andInformation Professionals; formerly theAssistant Librarian, the journal of theAssociation of Assistant Librarians.

Views expressed in Impact are notnecessarily those of the CareerDevelopment Group or the Editors.

Material may be reproduced in printed andelectronic formats without permission,provided acknowledgement is made.

Copy can be submitted to the Editors inplain ASCII text format, MS Word format,or in the body of an email message.Accompanying photographs of aresolution of no less than 150dpi (mono)or 300dpi (colour) are welcome.

SUBSCRIPTION ENQUIRIESJanice McQuilkin

The LibraryUniversity of Ulster

Magee College, Northland RoadLondonderry BT48 7JL

Tel: 028 7137 5299 Fax: 028 7137 5626Email: [email protected]

Annual subscriptions 2010United Kingdom £42.74Overseas £61.22North America $121.28

Impact Copy Dates 2010Issue Articles PublicationSpring 11 Feb 11 MarchSummer 20 May 17 JuneAutumn 19 Aug 16 SeptWinter 28 Oct 25 Nov

Career Development GroupWebsite:

http://www.cilip.org.uk/cdg/

Impact Winter 2009 81

CONTENTSJON SCOWNMeet the President: CareerDevelopment Group President for 2010

TRACEY AINSLEY & CATH DIXONEvery little helps: The GhanaianChildren’s Trust Orphanage

TRACEY AINSLEYWanted! Associate International Rela-tions Officer

NEW PROFESSIONALS CONFERENCE:CALL FOR PAPERS

TRACEY AINSLEYCDG Bursary: An opportunity to work onthe African Prisons Project in Uganda

BARBARA BLAKELooking further afield: Attending a con-ference in a different sector

DANIEL PARK‘I’ll be back’: How CPD can strengthenyou in an uncertain future

ABIMBOLA ALAYOThe presence of libraries on Facebook

DATES

Joint Honorary Editors

Cheney GardnerReader and Community Services ManagerLondon Borough of Richmond upon ThamesEmail: [email protected]

Victoria McAraCommunity LibrarianBridge of Allan Library, StirlingEmail: [email protected]

Printed in England by Headley Brothers Ltd, Ashford, Kent

Welcome to the winter edition ofImpact.

In this edition the new CDG President for 2010,Jon Scown, introduces himself and tells us hisplans for the group in the year ahead. Jon willbe stepping into the shoes of 2009 PresidentMaria Cotera who will support him next year inthe role of Past President.

We have a multitude of international news foryou – not least the chance for members to applyfor a £2000 bursary to travel to Uganda and helpthe African Prisons Project with a library needsassessment in Kampala. Our Honorary Interna-tional Relations Officer Tracey Ainsley is alsolooking for an Associate to learn the Interna-tional ropes. It’s a fantastic opportunity so ifyou think it could be for you then read all abouthow to apply on page 86.

There are three great articles on ways to devel-op professionally as well. Barbara Blake hasbeen attending a conference outside her ownlegal sector and had a great time and DanielPark recommends revalidation in a difficult jobmarket. Finally there is also an exploration ofhow librarians are using Facebook from Abimbo-la Alayo at the London Library.

This will be the last edition of Impact from yourcurrent editorial duo, we hope you have en-joyed this year’s articles but it is time to saygoodbye from us now. There will be lots of newarticles and ideas to come with the new editorsfor 2010 which will keep the journal fresh andinteresting for readers.

All that remains is to say Merry Christmas andwish you all a happy and productive New Year!

Cheney Gardner and Victoria McAra

Winter 2009Volume 12 No. 4

EDITORIAL

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I’m about to write an article that I neverthought I’d end up writing! If that soundslike a strange thing to say then let me try

and put it into some sort of context.

When Maria Cotera asked me if I’d like to beVice President a year ago I was surprised,flattered and I have to confess more than alittle scared at the prospect. I’ve never beenone to put my head too far above the meta-phorical parapet so I had to think long andhard about it before coming to a decision.My biggest concerns were - what happensif I make a monumental mess of everything(I’m following in some illustrious footstepsso I’m in big trouble if I mess up!), and howwill I cope with making a presidentialspeech! In the end I said ‘Yes’ because Irealised what a great opportunity and privi-lege it would be to lead the group for a year.

Each President brings their own personalqualities to leadership of the group and theirown slant on how to do things. I think mystrengths are that I’m balanced, consideredand take most things in my stride. I alsohave a lot of experience within the group.When my impending Presidency was an-nounced a colleague congratulated me andsaid that my ‘natural diplomacy, calmnessand laid back approach’ would be an assetto the group. And you know what – I thinkshe may be right!

I first joined the group back in the mid1990’s (I’ve been racking my brains to tryand remember exactly when but to no avail)when we were still the Association of As-sistant Librarians (AAL) and was

‘persuaded’ to attend a divisional commit-tee meeting in a dusty room at the back ofthe staff room in Bristol Central Library. Idon’t remember too much about it exceptthat I was again ‘persuaded’ to take on arole. Committee members can be very per-suasive and I’m sure many colleagues canattest to me having done the very samething to them on more than one occasion! Ifound myself being thrown in at the deepend by helping to organise the NationalConference which the division was hostingin Bristol. It was in the days when we couldafford to run a residential weekend confer-ence so involved liaison with a hotel and allthe joy that brings. Getting them to realisewe were all volunteers who had other ‘dayjobs’ and weren’t professional conferenceorganisers was one of my first and biggestchallenges! It was all good fun though andled to me joining National Council as Honor-ary Events Co-ordinator, during which timeI helped to organise our group sessions atUmbrella. At the same time I had a dual roleas divisional Secretary and then as Chair.

Meet the PresidentJon Scown

Career Development Group President for 2010


The most important skill I learnt during thistime was how to effectively juggle a millionand one tasks at the same time, as well asleaving my sanity reasonably intact.

I began my working life following my gradu-ation from Liverpool Polytechnic (rememberthem?) in my home county of Cornwall. Iwas only there for a short six-month stintwhich was followed by two and a half yearsin Suffolk, and then a move to Somersetwhere I’ve remained ever since. I remem-ber being told when I started that Somersetwas the ‘graveyard for Librarians’ and Ididn’t believe them. I do now, but in thenicest possible way! After a variety of postsworking in public libraries I now find myselfdoing a very interesting, often challengingand quite unique job. I’m Development Of-ficer for LibrariesWest, a consortium of fivepublic library authorities in the South West.I don’t have any staff or budgets specificallyallocated to the post so everything I achieveis through working closely with colleaguesacross the consortium and working onprojects that move the service forward.

As you can see I’ve always worked in publiclibraries, so being part of the Career Devel-opment Group has given me an invaluableinsight into the issues affecting other librarysectors.

I can honestly say that there are librariesand information units in places I never evenknew existed, and even though we all facedifferent challenges a factor common toeveryone I’ve met through the group is ourprofessionalism and desire to improve theservices we’re working in. Regardless ofthe sector we work in, the Career Develop-ment Group is a great way of networkingand seizing opportunities for continuing de-

velopment, both personally and profession-ally.

The last year has seen a lot of change, bothin the way we work as a group and in therange of activities we’re engaged in. My aimduring my presidential year is to build on theachievements of the past year and ensurethey work to the advantage of the wholemembership. We’ve tried to ensure a moredemocratic and transparent election proc-ess this year to encourage more membersto put themselves forward for roles at divi-sional and national level.

We’ve also tried to break down the barriers(perceived or otherwise) between NationalCouncil and the Divisions by abandoningOfficer- only meetings in favour of three fullCouncil meetings a year, and have heldmore meetings outside London. One of ourkey strengths as a group is that we have aregional structure which we are using togreater advantage by holding Council meet-ings in the divisions and rotating our confer-ences around the UK, which also has theadvantage of engaging divisional commit-tee members more in the core activities ofthe group at national level. We have ex-panded our portfolio of conferences fromone to three by working with PTEG to runan event aimed at our members in moresenior positions and by running a New Pro-fessionals conference. By ‘new profession-al’ we mean anyone who has joined thelibrary profession within the last five years,either through work or study. Many havehad careers in other professions and othersare returning after a career break. In myopinion, the ‘new professionals’ really arethe future of the group. I wasn’t able toattend the first conference held earlier thisyear, but I was hugely impressed with the

‘I realised what a great opportunityand privilege it would be to lead

the group for a year’.

‘In my opinion the new profession-als really are the future of the

group’.


quality of papers presented and the ideasgenerated. I look forward to an even biggerand better ‘New Professionals’ conferencenext year.

We need to find ways of working smarterand ensure that we are being financiallyprudent so we are continually looking forways in which we can make financial sav-ings, such as increasing online communica-tion and reducing travel costs. The otherpart of the equation is finding ways of gen-erating more income. We plan to run threenational conferences next year which, aswell as meeting our primary aim of providingtraining and development opportunities formembers, will raise much needed incometo allow us to continue producing four edi-tions of Impact a year, a key member bene-fit. We also plan to focus efforts on raisingmore income from sponsorship and hope-fully relaunch our publications programme.The challenge for National Council as thegoverning body of the group is to ensure we

are being financially prudent without com-promising on democracy and our pro-gramme of activities, and I will make it oneof my aims to steer the group through thisprocess. Basically, we will not undertakeactivities we know we can’t afford, but wemay still have to take some calculated risksto move forward and raise our profile.

As my presidential year fast approaches Ilook forward to leading the group, safe inthe knowledge that I will be supported by afantastic and very capable team of peopleat national and divisional level, each ofwhom has something unique to bring to themix. One of our key strengths as a group isthat we have a relatively large number ofactivists who use the group as a means offurthering their career and giving somethingback to the profession. Whatever role youtake on within the group you can be sureyou will meet lots of new people, makeuseful professional contacts and developnew skills, many of which will help you todevelop in your career – there’s a name fora group in there somewhere….

I’m keen to ensure we carry on being rele-vant to the whole membership, so do let meknow if you think the group is or isn’t meet-ing your needs. Let me know what you thinkwe could do better. And if you think thingscould be done differently or better theneither get involved by joining your divisionalcommittee, or maybe just go along to acommittee meeting to see how it works. I’malso more than happy to chat to memberson an individual basis to listen to your con-cerns so please feel free to get in touch byemail: [email protected] or callme for a chat on 01278 451201.

Looking forward to a fun and challengingyear ahead.

Jon ScownCDG President for 2010


Thank you to all Divisions for yourfundraising activities this year with£2000 raised so far. Contributions

have been used for various projectsincluding supporting our VSO VincentMacDonald in India and continued helpwith the work of the African PrisonsProject. As well as large donations forthe above projects details below showhow even a small amount of money canchange lives.

At the Activists Day in May 2009 I pre-sented Cath Dixon, a Senior Informa-tion Coordinator at NorthumbriaUniversity Library & Learning Services,with a cheque for £100 to be used tohelp towards refurbishing a small librarythat was set upin the Ghana-ian Children’sTrust orphan-age.

This summerCath returnedto the Trust forthree weeksvolunteering inthe orphanagejust outsideKumasi, Gha-na. This is herthird visit to theorphanage. Onan earlier visit

she set up a small library for the chil-dren who previously had had no accessto books either for school work or forreading for pleasure.

The Group’s donation was spent onsome new wooden shelving, a cup-board and a wooden box on wheels forthe nursery’s oversize children’s books.The remainder was used towards paintfor repainting the classroom housingthe library.

Every little helps: The Ghanaian Children’sTrust Orphanage

Tracey Ainsley & Cath Dixon

‘Even a small amount of moneycan change lives’


Wanted!Associate International Relations OfficerThe Honorary International Relations Officer is a wide and varied role.The role involves organising the biennial study tour; fundraising; main-taining the Hosts directory; working with partners e.g. African PrisonsProject, VSO and Phi, working closely with the International Library &Information Group (ILIG).

I am looking for an associate to help me on the projects, someone whois interested in International library activities and in the future may beinterested in taking on the role of Honorary International Relations Officer.If this is you and you would like further details, please email me [email protected]

Tracey AinsleyHonorary International Relations Officer

Whilst there, Cath spent time classi-fying books that had been donatedand sent ahead in a container. Thechildren were taking them off theshelves as quickly as she could getthem on!

The Director of the orphanage, MrKofi, has asked Cath to pass on thegrateful thanks of all the childrenand said that the library has made ahuge difference in their lives.

For further information about the back-ground to the project see the Interna-tional pages of the Career DevelopmentGroup website and to find out moreabout the trust see http://www.ghanaianchildrenstrust.org.uk/

Tracey AinsleyHonorary International Relations

Officer&

Cath DixonSenior Information Coordinator

Northumbria University Library &Learning Services


New Professionals Conference: Call for proposals‘Proving Your Worth in Challenging Times: Forum and Debate

from a New Professionals Perspective’

Calling all new Library and Information Professionals to send proposals for thesecond New Professionals Conference to be held on Monday 5th July 2010, atthe University of Sheffield, organised by the Career Development Group, in part-nership with the Department of Information Studies, University of Sheffield.

We invite proposals for contributions from colleagues who have joined theprofession, either through work or study, in the last 5 years. First-time presenters,current LIS students and individuals from diverse backgrounds are especiallyencouraged to apply.

There will be a prize for thebest paper, as voted for bydelegates on the day - £100and a bottle of Sue Hill Fizz,generously sponsored by

A selection of papers will be published in the professional journals. Help preparingthe presentations and standard travel and accommodation expenses can beprovided. Take advantage of this excellent opportunity for continuous profession-al development!

‘Since I decided to answer the call for papers for last year’s conference, ahuge amount of great opportunities have opened up for me. The contacts Imade and the people I met have made my professional life a lot moreexciting, and more fun too…’

Ned Potter, LIFESHARE Project Officer, University of Leeds Library, winner of2009 New Professionals Conference Best Paper prize.


Deadlines:� Proposal abstracts (no longer than 300 words) must be submitted by

5pm on Friday 26th February 2010.� Authors of accepted proposals will be contacted by Wednesday 31st

March 2010.� Full proposals must be submitted by Tuesday 1st June 2010.

Conference Theme and FocusWe welcome papers sharing experiences and exploring issues relevant to theoverall theme: Proving Your Worth in Challenging Times, including:

� Making yourself visible: How can new professionals stand out during re-cruitment and in the early stages of employment?

� Knowing what employers want: what skills, experience and motivationare New Professionals bringing to the world of libraries and information?:

� Life skills� Career changes� Collaborative projects in and outside the workplace� Understanding and experience of new technologies

� Advocating your worth: How are New Professionals networking and mar-keting themselves for success?

� Enriching the profession: What do new professionals from diverse back-grounds bring to the profession?

Questions/CommentsThe organisers are happy to receive and respond to questions or comments.For further information please contact the Career Development Group New Pro-fessionals Coordinator:Christopher Rhodes, House of Commons Library, Statistical Resource Unit.E-mail: [email protected]

Seal of Recognition: The Career Development Group has been awarded theCILIP Seal of Recognition,which recognises high stand-ards in the content and rele-vance of its training events:

http://www.cilip.org.uk/qualificationschartership/seal


CDG Bursary: An opportunity to work onthe African Prisons Project in Uganda

Tracey Ainsley

This is an exciting opportunity for a librarian wishing to play a part in contributing tointernational development through libraries and information.

The African Prisons Project (APP) is dedicated to achieving Dignity and hope forprisoners through health, education and justice. Its principal projects are the creation orrefurbishment of prison clinics and libraries. The Career Development Group has beenworking with APP since 2007 supporting its activities with advice, raising awareness andproviding funding. The partnership is entering a new phase and a bursary is available toa Career Development Group member to visit the project in Kampala, Uganda and workwith APP project staff to conduct a needs assessment for the prison libraries project.

The bursaryThe bursary is offered to cover costs of flights, accommodation, travel and subsistenceduring the visit to Uganda, to a maximum of £2000. Timing of the visit is subject to furtherdiscussion but applicants should be prepared to undertake the visit sometime during themonths of March/April/May 2010. A programme for the visit will be provided by APP andwill be refined in consultation with the successful candidate.

Application criteriaInterested candidates must be:1. A member of The Career DevelopmentGroup on application.2. A qualified librarian or have relevantexperience3. Self motivated and have a flexible ap-proach to work4. Broadly knowledgeable on internationaldevelopment issues

5. Able to demonstrate the following skills· Effective written, verbal and listening

skills· Project management· Ability to work effectively as a member of

a team as well as alone· Ability to deal with and respect all individ-

uals with whom they have contact

Experience in Prison Libraries is desirablebut not essential

New APP library at Luzira Remand Prison

British High Commissioner formally hands overthe library


SelectionApplications must be submitted in writing in no more than 500 words providing evidenceof suitability for the bursary. Please also include details of two referees.Deadline for applications: 15th January. Shortlist drawn up by 22nd January. Successfulcandidate informed by the beginning of February.

Successful candidate must agree to publicity surrounding the bursary.

Applications will be judged by a panel consisting of the:· Career Development Group President;· Career Development Group Honorary International Relations Officer;· Director of Phi (Partnerships in Health Information)· Senior Ugandan librarian

Visit to be completed by: May 2010

Project deliverables:

A written report on the needsassessment, with detailed re-sults and recommendations,submitted within one month ofreturn to Career DevelopmentGroup and APP.

An article for Impact: the journalof the Career DevelopmentGroup, reflecting on experiencesand professional developmentgained from the visit.

For further information and an application form, please contact Tracey Ainsley – HonoraryInternational Relations Officer at [email protected] or Jon Scown –Career Development Group Vice President at [email protected]

For further information see also:

Career Development Group:http://www.cilip.org.uk/specialinterestgroups/bysubject/careerdevelopment/whatwedo/international.htm

African Prison’s Project : http://www.africanprisons.org/

Tracey AinsleyHonorary International Relations Officer

Prisoners celebrate the new library


I'm a confirmed Legal Eagle, having donemy pre-Library school training at a lawfirm, then working for the last 4 years in

the library of a busy legal practice in theCity. However, starting Chartership andconsidering broader professional issues,along with regularly scanning the calendarof events in CILIP's 'Library and InformationGazette', recently inspired me to attend aconference outside my sector. One of thereasons I went into librarianship was be-cause it offered the chance to work in somany different settings (universities, profes-sional bodies, government, the BBC) so isit beneficial to attend events outside of yoursector, and are transferable lessons onoffer? Is it really worth giving up you owntime, and possibly money, as few employ-ers will pay for something that isn't directlyrelevant to your work, and how can you getthe most from the experience?

To begin with how do you choose what toattend? Issues of time, location and cost willcome into play but my first lesson or pieceof advice is to choose an area that genuine-ly interests you. A long-term curiosity aboutthe role of librarians in a more artistic set-ting, far away from issues of tax or insur-ance, made me choose a conferenceorganised by the London Museum Librari-ans and Archivists Group (LMLAG) called'Not Museum Pieces?: The DevelopingRole of Archivists and Librarians in Muse-ums'. This was a day-long conference beingheld at the National Gallery and cost £30. Itshould be noted I could make the time and

I was willing to foot the bill, but there areplenty of shorter, cheaper or even freeevening events run by CILIP groups andlisted in the CILIP Gazette.

However, it was only on the journey therethat it occurred to me that choosing a 7-hour conference over a 1-hour seminar maynot be the best format for the outsider.What if the day consisted of interactiveworkshops and I was expected to contrib-ute? Would people actually be interested intalking to me as I didn't offer any obviousnetworking advantage – was I the libraryequivalent of the 'catering guy' in ‘Ugly Bet-ty’ that Mark and Amanda mock Betty forwasting 20 minutes talking to? When Iexplained my motivations for attendingwould I seem like an interesting novelty ora plain oddity? And, to cap it all had Ichosen the right thing to wear? I was prettysure my usual corporate suit wasn't right butwas the safe bet of the Next smart-casuallook too boring for the arty crowd? I wasgetting more and more nervous as I ap-proached the Gallery. Lesson two: take intoaccount the length of the event, and try toobtain a programme beforehand (all ofwhich seems so obvious in hindsight).

The name badges at the reception deskwere a little reassuring. There were repre-sentatives from so many different kinds oforganisations – museums and archives todo with art, transport, medicine, war, evengardens. The diversity of collections anduser communities involved suggested the

‘Issues of time, location and costwill come into play’

Looking further afield: Attending aconference in a different sector

Barbara Blake

‘Was I the equivalent of the‘catering guy’ in Ugly Betty?’


‘It’s unlikely I will ever have to facethe practical or ethical issues

around archiving artefacts contain-ing human blood’

programme would offer generic lessons onmaking information accessible no matterwhat its content. Lesson three: try to findout if the content is appropriate to non-spe-cialists and how likely it is there will beothers attending.

Luckily the Welcome Pack revealed that theday consisted of presentations, with only aninteractive plenary discussion at the endinvolving the whole conference. The organ-isers had structured the day so well andincluded such a range of talks that thetransferable lessons promised by the namebadges soon became a reality. The openingkeynote speech was ideal for a non-special-ist as it gave an orientating survey of cur-rent issues within the museum/archivesector. Further sessions on 'Collective Col-lections' (addressing how to collaborate ef-fectively), Web 2.0 technologies, and onmaximising professional training, gavetransferable insights applicable to most li-brary sectors and were delivered free fromspecialist or exclusive jargon.

Granted the presentations on 'Special Col-lections' did describe challenges totally dif-ferent from those in a law library (it'sunlikely I will ever have to face the practicalor ethical issues around archiving artefacts

containing human blood as Jo Elsworth,Keeper of the Theatre Collection at theDepartment of Drama at the University ofBristol, had to do when receiving the artistFranko B's Archive). However, these talkswere delivered in such an engaging manner

that I felt inspired and re-energisedabout the possibilities involved in aLIS career. Also, being unfamiliarwith a subject can really highlightwhat makes a good presentation. Allthe talks, including that from GunterWaibel, co-author of the strikinglyentitled report 'Beyond The Silos ofthe LAMs' were so well designedand pitched to their audience's con-cerns that I will use those lessons toinform my own training talks, al-though in a completely different field.

Networking might not be one of yourobjectives in attending this kind of

event, and indeed the event may not facili-tate it. Lots of factors outside your controlwill affect how easy it's going to be to talk toothers: the number of tea-breaks, whetherthere is a sit-down lunch, the venue and itslayout.

Due to a technical hitch the organisers hadnot provided me with a name badge, and inretrospect I feel these do facilitate network-ing as making the name of my employervisible may have been an ice-breaker, in-triguing some of the other delegates (wasthis rather corporate sounding name a col-lection of trendy Young British Artists orsomehow related to arts patron CharlesSaatchi of Saatchi & Saatchi?). Also youmay find yourself adopting strategies withalmost military intent to try to engineer con-tact – I initially sat in the middle of a row to


try to maximise my 'targets' on either side,only foolishly to move at the last minute tothe end of a row near another solo dele-gate, who was so engrossed in their pro-gramme that I couldn't 'pick them off'.Timing issues became critical too – shouldI arrive early or late to pounce on otherdelegates?

Overall, my experience at this event wasthat coming from another sector did notprevent networking. I actually ended upswapping details with someone who hadbeen trying to make contact with businessorganisations holding documents relatingto wills and probate. This query even end-ed up giving me a greater understanding ofmy own collection and its history. Indeed,even if you do not wish to network, talkingto others may be unavoidable at a smallerevent so my next piece of advice is torehearse how you will explain why you areattending, and to formulate questions to askothers so that you are not caught off guard,and feel more confident in what is alreadygoing to be unfamiliar terrain.

In conclusion, attending an event outsideyour sector can inform and inspire you. It'stoo easy to become locked into the immedi-ate concerns of your workplace. In a legalsetting research and retrieval sometimesdominate and this conference reminded meof the other factors that help users, theimpact of building and space, the impera-tive to market services effectively, the op-portunities in new technologies. Removingthe familiar can help you see things anewand the conference reminded me that al-though our collections may be differentwhat unites us as information professionalsis a common aim to harness the best avail-able methods and technologies to offer ourusers the wealth in our collections. Howev-

er, next time I would definitely do moreresearch beforehand as I suspect my posi-tive experience was due more to the qualityof the event than being well informed orprepared myself.

Before going clearly formulate your ownobjectives – do you want to be a fly-on-the-wall and listen to a talk on an interestingsubject, or do you want to actively networkand talk to others? Then find out as muchas you can about the format, content, lengthof the event, and the likely attendance num-bers (will you be able to hide yourself, andlack of specialist knowledge, and listen-in ifthis is your aim?). Is there a free eventrunning if you do not want to risk your owncash on something that may not be rele-vant? Then give yourself every opportunityto make your objectives happen – arriveback early from lunch if you want to net-work, choose a seat at the back if you wantto observe. More than anything I wouldadvise choosing a subject that interests youanyway as this is the only factor you canfully control – through the conference Ilearnt about a forthcoming exhibition on theauthor of the fabulous 'Meg and Mog' booksand frankly this would have been amplebenefit of attending apart from all the otherlessons learned!

Barbara BlakeInformation Officer

Norton Rose [email protected]

‘Attending an event outside yoursector can inform and inspire you’


There’s been a lot of ink spilled in thename of continuing professional de-velopment (CPD). I dare say you

could spend a lifetime trying to define it. Butlearning is not something to be preservedand mounted, or collected for its own sake.CPD is always growing and changing. It is,by it’s very nature, continuing and develop-ing. It’s what you make of it; it is a means toan end, the vessel by which you reach themany destinations of your professional ca-reer and beyond.

That I undertooktwo periods ofrevalidation isnothing special initself. It was myconstant strengthand companionduring a very diffi-cult period in myprofessional ca-reer. Having beenmade redundantfrom a long-termjob at the time Isubmitted my firstsuccessful revali-dation in 2006, Iembarked uponthe second periodwith gusto, under-standing how the

portable skills I had learned in my firstrevalidation would empower me when itcame to writing application forms and sub-mitting myself to the scrutiny of interviewpanels. It succeeded, but the position I tookwas a challenging one with a fixed termcontract.I felt strong enough to take up that chal-lenge, even though I knew I would be jobseeking again, because I believed theproject would strengthen and sharpen myskills. A couple of months after this, I wasselected for an information and research

‘I’ll be back’: How CPD can strengthen youin an uncertain future

Daniel Park

‘For me life is continuously being hungry. The meaning of life is notsimply to exist, to survive, but to move ahead, to go up, to achieve…’

Arnold Schwarzenegger


‘Revalidation gave me the back-bone I needed to keep going’

position with asmall start-upconsultancy. Theexperience wasvery exciting, andafforded me theopportunity towork with all sortsof interesting cli-ents. Money wastight, as it often isin start-up opera-tions, so I madesure that my col-leagues and I gotthe best fromreading, network-ing, job shadow-ing and attendingfree or subsidisedseminars. CPDcan mean many things and let me tell youthat an hour reading (or writing) a goodarticle can be as enlightening as a wholeday marking time on a course you’re merelyattending for the bourbon creams!

The consultancy closed unexpectedly whenmy employer very sadly passed away. Youcan imagine, I have no doubt, how disap-pointing and de-motivating this can feel. Iam keenly aware that many people readingthis article will have been through, or are infear of going through, precisely the sameemotions. In the current economic climatewe are all facing an uncertain future. It wasthen that revalidation gave me the back-bone I needed to keep going. I felt likeArnold Schwarzenegger in ‘The Terminator’

– no matter how many times I was blownup, I was determined to ‘be back’!

To do this, I really needed to explore theportfolio of skills I had gathered togetherthrough a quite bewildering variety of meth-ods. Who was it that said, ‘The strongestmemory is weaker than the palest ink’?Well, getting this all down on paper meantthat I could look at what I had done method-ically and apply myself to really stressingthese skills in my job-hunting. Sure enough,a few months later I was back in a greatposition, carrying out some really interest-ing primary research projects, and embark-ing on more continuing professionaldevelopment. Sure, this job is also fixedterm and ‘I’ll be back’ hunting for the nextposition, but that’s just like CPD itself,you’re always hunting and hungry for thenext opportunity.

Daniel ParkInformation and Research Officer

Bradford LINks


My initiation into Facebook was en-tirely due to a stretch of boredomwhen maternity leave had not been

all I had expected it to be. After weeksbecame months of isolation, I turned toFacebook as a way of keeping in touch withcolleagues and lo and behold I started tocome across friends who I had not seen orspoken to in over ten years. Information onthe site spreads by word of mouth so Iestablished a group of friends in the com-munity quite easily. For every application Iused, a news feed was sent to all my friendson Facebook and vice versa. I rememberthinking at the time that this is really cool butlittle did I know that I was still scratching thesurface of the potential of this social net-working site.

Facebook was founded on the 4 February2004 by Mark Zuckerberg as a local net-work, ‘thefacebook.com’, with the aim oflinking students at Harvard University, Mas-sachusetts. It has since grown rapidlythroughout the United States and all overthe world. It has over 300 million activemembers with more than 70 translationsavailable on the site. Its mission is ‘to givepeople the power to share and make theworld more open and connected’.

Facebook has many library related groupssuch as ‘Librarians and Facebook’ and‘Libraries using Facebook pages’ with11,314 and 1,135 members respectivelyand library related pages such as ‘Library101’ and ‘Association of College & Re-search Libraries’ with 3,391 and 2,672 fansrespectively as at the 7th November 2009.Whether as a group or a page, librarieshave also been making their presence felton Facebook.

Facebook Pages was launched in Novem-ber 2007 and means any public figure ororganisation can join the conversation withFacebook users. A number of libraries cre-ated pages almost immediately and sincethen, libraries have been progressively us-ing a wide variety of tools on Facebookpages to promote upcoming library events,enhance and promote library services andprogrammes via status updates, run socialads for the library, and build the librarycommunity through discussion threads. Li-braries have the opportunity to design theirown applications and customise their pagesthrough the Facebook Platform. Fans andmembers receive a news feed each timethe status of the group or page changes.

Librarians have been building and maintain-ing Facebook pages, or public profiles asthey are now called, for their organisationsand these pages usually feature Libraryinformation such as the address, openinghours, contact information, library links,subject guides, and library news. Some ofthe library pages I visited were also able tocreate their own catalogue and databasesearch functions, create videos of the li-brary or on library related topics, modifychat applications, add applications such asthe Lib Guides Facebook Application totheir page, and even import contents intoapplications.

A library’s Facebook page can be promotedby putting the ‘Find us on Facebook’ buttonwhich you can download from Facebookonto the library website’s homepage. Dis-cussions in the ‘Facebook Pages / PublicProfiles’ page and groups like ‘Librariansand Facebook’ and are also really usefultools for building a presence on Facebook.

The presence of libraries on FacebookAbimbola Alayo


The main obstacle I have encountered inthe creation of Library Pages is that organi-sations are not allowed to register and apage is tied to the account of the personwho originally created it. This broaches thequestion, what happens if the creatorleaves the organisation for any reason?Groups, on the other hand, allow the crea-tor to promote other administrators of thegroup and remove themselves. It is alsoimportant to note that Page administratorsare unable to view the profile of their fanswhile Group administrators can view theirmembers’ profiles.

I believe that libraries should be kept rele-vant and made accessible to patrons via avariety of methods. Facebook is fast be-coming one of those methods. I could nothave anticipated the presence librarieswould have on Facebook. They can easilyassess their growth, popularity and useful-ness to patrons by measuring things likeuser statistics, number of fans / membersand frequency of wall postings. The site’ssearch engine returns more than 500 re-sults for Facebook Library Pages. Below isa list of some of the library pages andgroups that I came across on Facebook andtheir fan / member base as at 7 November:

· Biblioteca Nacional de España (The Na-tional Library of Spain) – 15,469 fans

· The Library of Congress – 8,423 fans· The British Library - 6,869 fans· Seattle Public Library – 3,683 fans· Manchester Library & Information Serv-

ice – 994 fans· National Library of Scotland – 624 fans· The Library, Birkbeck, University of Lon-

don – 424 fans· The National Library of Wales (Llyfrgell

Genedlaethol Cymru) – 358 fans· Iraq National Library and Archives – 347

members· Library of Virginia – 174 members

With statistics like these, I wonder why alllibraries do not simply take the plunge andsee how it goes. Although I will admit thatnot all the Library Groups and Pages Iencountered had as much success asthose listed, it is very important that theypersevere. There is a need to understandthe culture of Facebook to keep the Groupsand Pages interesting and up-to-date.

I had not expected Facebook to have sucha profound effect on the way I socialise, myprofessional networking, and professionaldevelopment. A very high percentage of theFacebook population are students whowould probably find libraries more appeal-ing when accessed via Facebook Groups orPages. As the younger generation particu-larly continues to be captivated by and evenaddicted to this social networking website,libraries need to adapt to their needs andinterests. Libraries should view this as anopportunity as well as an avenue to reachout to them.

Abimbola AlayoReader Services and Cataloguing

The London Library

References:About Facebook. [WWW]http://www.facebook.com/facebook?v=info&ref=pf[Accessed October 20, 2009]

The British Library Facebook page. [WWW]http://www.facebook.com/britishlibrary [Accessed Oc-tober 29, 2009]

Facebook Factsheet. [WWW]http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?factsheet[Accessed October 29, 2009]

Facebook Page/Public Profile. [WWW]http://www.facebook.com/facebook?ref=pf#/FacebookPages?ref=sgm [Accessed November 10, 2009]

Facebook Statistics. [WWW]http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics[Accessed October 29, 2009]


DatesDate: Friday 8 January and Friday29 January 2010Event: How to write a successful re-search proposal - 2 linked coursesDivision: ScottishTime: 10.00am - 1.00pm both daysVenue: Strathclyde University, 26 Rich-mond Street, GlasgowCost: £25 (CDG members); £50 (non-members) per session; For attendingboth seminars: £40 members; £75 non-members. Includes refreshments Further Information: A series of 2 semi-nars designed to provide an opportunityto learn and practice writing and devel-oping a research proposal. Jointly organ-ised with LIRG. Email Alison Brettle formore info [email protected] to book: Alan Poulter byWednesday 6th JanuaryEmail:[email protected]

Other dates and venues:Session 1: University of East London,Docklands Campus - Tuesday 12 January.Birmingham Central Library - Friday 15January.Session 2: University of East London,Docklands Campus - Tuesday 26 January.Birmingham Central Library - Friday 29January.

Date: Wednesday 20 January 2010Event: Preparing for Certification andChartershipDivision: Yorkshire and HumbersideTime: 1.30pm - 4.45pmVenue: The Library, Central ServicesBuilding, University of Huddersfield,Queensgate, Huddersfield, HD1 3DHCost: Free Further Information: Margaret Chapman

will give a very informative presentationon the CILIP Framework of Qualifications.This will be followed by Certification andChartership portfolio workshops allowingyou to pick up handy hints / ask searchingquestions of the CSOs and volunteers forthe individual qualifications. Recentlysuccessful candidates will also be on handto share their experiences Contact: Julie Smith Email: [email protected]

Date: Tuesday 9 February 2010Event: Reflective WritingDivision: East MidlandsTime: 1.30pm - 4.30pmVenue:Ilkeston Library, Market Place,Ilkeston, Derbyshire Cost: £20Contact: Carol BrooksEmail: [email protected]

Date: Tuesday 9 February 2010Event: Bidding for FundsDivision: Devon and CornwallTime: 10.00am - 4.00pmVenue: Exeter Central Library, Castle St,Exeter, Devon, EX4 3PQCost: £180+VAT (Non-CILIP members),£150+VAT (CILIP members), £130+VAT(CDG members), £50+VAT (students /unwaged)Further Information: Course to be pro-

vided by CILIP trainer Kathy Roddy.Kathy is a librarian and information man-ager with considerable experience ofworking in public, academic and special-ist libraries. This course is designed forlibrarians needing to raise funds for theirservice or project development.Contact: Ellen BuckEmail: [email protected]

Winter 2009

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