“The beginning of knowledge is the discovery of something we do not understand.” ― Frank Herbert

23 Things for Professional Development has been very beneficial to me. It allowed me to reconnect to some technologies I had forgotten about and write again. It introduced me to new technologies, and as we know in this field, there are plenty of new things to learn. 

Honestly, I think this professional development project focused me to mentally prepare for a career change. So thank you very much for that. 

As for the six word story: 

Blog. What a strange word, blog. 

Standing on a high dune watching ...

Writing on the interwebs feels alone ...

Happy to be doing this job. 

“The people I distrust most are those who want to improve our lives but have only one course of action.” ― Frank Herbert

I have a few experiences with volunteering, not all good. I'll start by saying that when I was in college, my sorority had an amazing dedication to service - we were volunteering for something every month. It was a nice way to get involved in our community and we really had a lot of fun. 

Let's see .... the rundown .... I've volunteered with Habitat for Humanity a few times and they are probably my favorite organization. It's a very visceral moment when you get to meet the family for whom you are building - very sweet and powerful. 

At another point, when I was waiting for something professional to open up I decided to work non-professionally and then volunteer as an archivist for a local history organization. This was truly fascinating. It was a community I knew nothing about so accessioning the photographs of their local history was like a puzzle you could never figure out. Riveting. And yet, not really my bag. I love digging through old stuff, but I didn't really care to do it for a living .... unless it was as one of those home organizers. That would be awesome.

I do agree that if we volunteer too much, it will hurt our chances to be professional. There was one place I lived that was very hard to get a job as the economy was haggard and the jobs scarce. I walked over to my neighborhood library branch and asked about their hiring -- they said that they didn't hire anyone who hasn't volunteered for at least two years. Yes, they said that. I said, well, that would be awesome except I actually need to eat food and pay that student loan I have over the next two years, so thank you anyway, but no thanks. WTH? Really? That's arrogance at it's worst and it made me mad enough to move to a place where the industry was hiring. 

Other than these kinds of volunteering, something I love to do is charity walks and cycling events. They are fun, you raise money for charity, workout a bit, and have a really good time chatting with people you would never normally meet. I think I'm a little too selfish with my time at this point to do much else. 

“Truth suffers from too much analysis.” ― Dune Messiah

I just experienced this "thing" and I experienced it differently than I had in the past. What I mean is, it was quite successful. I had been working in a position that was stalled and I wanted to move forward in my career. But we all know what this job market is like -- either there is nothing open at all, or there is nothing you particularly want. I had been applying to some academic positions for the last few months, but you know how academic librarianship is .... you apply, then about six months later, you might find out that you didn't get it. So, in the middle of all of this, there is this job opening that sounds absolutely perfect -- like heaven -- like my life would be perfect if only I could get this perfect job. No seriously, it was that perfect. So, I decided to follow all the advice I had gotten on this job -- I catered the resume to the job posting; I completely catered the cover letter to the job posting, even though it didn't say necessarily what I thought I wanted to say; I studied for the first interview like it was my MA orals exam; and then I studied for the second interview the same way. And I got sleep and relaxed. And I knew that I had a job so if I didn't get this job, I would still be able to eat and pay my bills. (that's a huge weight off) And then, at the end of my second interview, I said very clearly that I wanted this job and that I felt I was perfect for it .... and I meant it. 

I don't know what got me this job -- but I'm just glad I made every effort because I am currently doing the things I've always wanted to do. It's a ton of work, but it's worth it -- and I love it. And once I get a little more comfortable with what exactly I'm doing, I'll update my resume. 

"You do not take from this universe. It grants what it will." -Paul Atreides

Thing 20: I've talked about my long and winding road to librarianship in Thing 10, and I think my only advice to students is don't limit yourself. I was adamantly pursuing academic librarianship when I took a temp position in public libraries because I needed a job and no one else at the time was hiring. I told the interviewer that I did not want to do anything but adult - she made me a children's librarian! Then I got a permanent position as an adult librarian. Several months later, when asked if I wanted to try being a teen librarian, I said sure! Why not? Then got into collection development for the system. In the end, I love public librarianship. I love the variety and wackiness of it. The public is very interesting ..... never boring. I'm glad I ended up having to do something that was out of my little box of expectations. I'm a better person for it. 

So, don't limit yourself. Try not to limit yourself geographically either. Just go get a job. Get three if you have to. Just do it. 

"Ideas are most to be feared when they become actions." -Paul Atreides

Thing 19: Reflection .... I've started an internal library blog at my new job, still using RSS, still using Twitter - more for work now as I got a bit bored with my personal one, still on LinkedIn and Facebook, attending the CLA conference next month and will come back to present what I learned - maybe I'll use Prezo to create something more interesting, I've got Microsoft Exchange at my new job (goodbye lotisnotes!) so I'm up and running on my iphone with both calendars (microsoft and google) sending me notifications - very nice! I'm happy that my new job happily uses mobile tech to work on a daily basis - it's really nice to be part of a team that's not afraid of technology.

I think that's about it.

"An object seen form a distance betrays only it's principle. That which is dark and evil may be seen for evil at any distance." -Scytale and Farok

Thing 18: Jing and Podcasting. I've done neither of these -- the concept of Jing is intriguing but I have to try it out at home where I have the admin priviliges I need. As for podcasting, I've never done it. I've listened to quite a few - when Battlestar Galactica was on, I would listen to the Ron Moore podcast every Friday night after the episode. I know several people who podcast, but frankly, I don't see it as relevant to what I do right now. I'm just not sure anyone around me uses it - I haven't heard anything about podcasting for several years.

"I've loosed the wolf among the sheep." -Paul Atreides

Thing 17: Powerpoint presentations are the bane of our existence. We've learned to winnow-down the amount of information we need to present to several bullets thus making what we are saying little more than the summer reading project of a third grader. And if you read Edward Tufte, space shuttles have been downed by bad Powerpoint presentations. 

As for Prezo and Slideshare.....I've used Slideshare a couple of times and didn't find it to be all that great. Just slides -- don't a little differently. But I really like Prezo and am looking for a project to try it out. I may try to do something with my resume. How fun! 

Visually representing our ideas is so much faster, more fun, and creative. I like playing around with my ideas and seeing if what I'm coming up with is a viable, understandable representation. 

"You should never be in the company of anyone with whom you would not want to die." ~God Emperor of Dune

Thing 16:  Advocating for your library's very existence is, sadly, not limited to the UK. In America, we are experiencing the downsizing of governments where most of the downsizing falls to schools, libraries, rec centers, and other services that support society - and where the economically challenged are the hardest hit.

"Empires do not suffer emptiness of purpose at the time of their creation. It is when they have become established that aims are lost and replaced by vague ritual." --Words of Muad'dib by Princes Irulan

I've taken a bit of a break from this blog over the last month or so to concentrate on my new job. I'm a little more settled, so I'm finishing up my 23 Things.

Thing 15: I've attended a number of conferences in various capacities: one-day passes, exhibits pass only, a wandering attendee, a serious session-oriented attendee, a poster presenter, and a research assistant working to get as many presenters to upload their presentations to me for a digital library.

It's way more fun to be relevant at a conference than to just be wandering the edges.

I've always been interested in sitting on a panel at a conference - I think I have a lot to say on many different topics (collection development, staffing, library school, working within your larger organization, marketing) and would love to add to a group discussion.

As for planning - I've never planned a conference. I have gotten a few groups together but they always ended up falling through at some point - busy schedules, reassignments, loss of interest. I am now head up a committee to plan a staff day for my library and I'm so excited about it. Staff days are a luxury now that many libraries have given up trying to schedule, plan, and implement such an undertaking with staff shortages and no budget. But it's still important to come together and re-establish yourselves as a team, do fun things together, laugh, and do some good work.