Rudai23 2017 workbook

Experience with LAI I have been a member of the Library Association of Ireland since I graduated from UCD eight years ago. Being a member of the LAI is not a requirement for working as a information professional in Ireland but I joined to meet other librarians from different sectors, make connections, get advice on career progression and further training.  I have been an active member of several groups such as the government section, the western region section, career development group. In the last few years I have been a committee member and officer of the WSRLAI.  Through these groups I've learned about working as team for a common goal. I have gotten a charge to organise events such as seminars. I have able to take part and run CPD courses in the Rudai23 2016.  The best of what I see about the LAI is through the groups and sections doing work on their own time to further their and other careers. Courses and events such as Rudai and the Library Camps wer...

Applying for second badge This piece is for the Online networker badge. I've been using the tools mentioned in this section for almost ten years now and I have never really given much thought on how incorporate them professional persona or use them in a professional way. These last three things were quite eye opening in a way in that I have had to reassess some of attitudes and actions online.  Twitter I have long used as a networking tool for professional use. Most of the people I follow are librarians, Archivists or some other form of Information Professional, indeed I tend to avoid or block celebrities or political hashtags. I try to engage with #uklibchat each month and before that I used to join the conversation on the now inactive Irish lib chat. I use twitter to send questions to people who work in areas I'm interested in such as @iaphistorians or @irachaeology for history or @Disability&I for disability matters or @CnaG for Irish language issues. I think my p...

My most recent collaboration was with Saoirse when writing our communication strategy. We did this through email and sharing documents over google drive. I am a also member of the WRSLAI group and we use a lot of different tools to work together to organise our events. We are a geographically spread committee so use a lot of different tools to communicate with each other. For all the criticisms aimed at google it offers a lot of tools that allow that to happen hangouts allow us to have face to face interaction, google docs and google drive allow us to share and create and edit documents.  Doodle polls I have used to mostly decide when people want to meet up.  The last group project I worked on was the organising of the group seminar held in sixmilebridge.    Did you work face to face, virtually or via a combination of the two? We worked face to face by using hangouts and by meeting in person to discuss issues dole out jobs etc. It is easier to try ...

Before I read this blog post I disliked the idea of personal branding it has a business  language, right wing, corporate, privatisation, free market style connotations to me. It seems to be say that I should replace my image with a brand and brands come with slogans. Did I need to think of a tag line for myself? I think the idea of it reinforced the notion of private business outlook seeping into other areas which they don't belong. Schools no-longer produce students but units. Later the on its explained that what is meant is your professional identity. This is a much better and more acceptable term and more appropriate for the many areas of work information professionals find themselves in.  Looking at my linkedin page I think there is a few things I can change to better improve my professional identity. Reading through I don't know if my skills and experience stands out as particularly unique. I have changed the web address to give my name and title to make me easier ...

Networking tools Facebook, Twitter etc I have had a Facebook profile for at least the last ten years and a twitter for about seven. I mostly use twitter for professional networking as I tweet from most conferences and seminars I go to either as myself or from a group profile. I have been engaged in several #uklibchat over the years. I found the topics here interesting and people engaging and helpful. They always seem willing to answer questions or point you in the right direction, or on occasion disagree and have a discussion with you.  I find tweeting can be quite challenging even with the new 280 limit it can be difficult to get a complicated point across. Using correct grammar, correct spelling and good vocabulary and generally sounding professional is hard work. The point about online networking being the same as real time face to face interaction is well made. When tweeting or posting anything online it should be polite and on topic. Going to a networking event and ...

Infographics   I'm a bit late with this one and I haven't forgotten thing 7 either I just waiting for access to some photos for the exhibition I hope to make. I didn't particularly enjoy this task. It involves being creative and slightly arty which I'm not so over all I'm not happy with the results. I have used both canva and piktochat before and really like them both and can see the benefit of using them. Reports full of figures are very dry reading and can be very long which may get ignored or skipped over by management. This is a great way of giving facts and figures are dynamic presentation. While I was looking at examples for infographics I came across a few great ones. Photos are rarely used in them but the 12 classic sauses was fantastic it was readable, eye catching, everything was laid out well it was divided up clearly through a use of colour and text.  It can be seen here  The above is my effort not particularly good I not very happy with it too...

Photofunia etc  Until recently I used to own a windows phone. The selection of apps for windows was always poor but when it became apparent that microsoft were never going to compete against Apple or Android developers stopped updating or just never created apps for windows. The whole apps thing because passed me by even yet I only have ones for public transport or texting.  This "Thing" really interested me as I got to explore a few mobile apps that I would never normally have looked at.   The first one I looked at was photofunia I enjoyed using it and thought it was good fun. I created one for my nephew as a Sith Lord as he is a massive Star Wars fan and he loved it.  There was a massive amount of different styles of effects on offer from movies to art galleries.  Though I used for fun I can see how it could be used to promote events with eye-catching visuals ad special effects. Adding a jpeg of a flyer to the worker putting a billboard size ve...

Image Banks I had an idea of when I started this course that I would have a theme running through my posts that would give me a topic on which to hang the tasks around and generally make it easier for me to write a blog.  The topic I had chosen was food including gardening and cooking. It may not be very appropriate for my work but it would give me lots of vibrant pictures.  Using images can bring a minefield of problems. When making posters, writing projects in your own work or helping others with course work copyright can cause confusion. As a librarian I have had to explain to people what they can use and what they can't and how they can use items. I've had to sign agreements with the owners of photographs on how and where it will be used. I sometimes had difficulty explaining this to the person who requested the photograph.  I have used both pixabay and flikr before. I am part of the WRSLAI committee so I have uploaded uploaded photos of our events to our fol...