Central IssuesThe Newsletter of the

Career Development GroupWest Midlands Division

Autumn 2008

Editorial…

Welcome to this special edition of Central News. This is the first

electronic edition of the Career Development Group, West Midlands

newsletter. A lot has been happening within the CDG WM since the

last edition, and this special issue is bumper packed brining you the

latest news from events that have been taking place around the West

Midlands. This issue starts with a welcome from the Chair of the Career

Development Group, West Midlands. In addition two perspectives on

the Career Development Group National Conference at the University

of Wales are included.

One member of CDG, WM who is currently undertaking the

“extraordinary route to chartership” discusses her experiences of

blogging, and the success of the Hollywood Librarian screening earlier

this year is reviewed. Details of upcoming Career Development Group

events are highlighted in the traditional dates for your diary section.

If you would like to contribute to any future editions of the CDG WM

newsletter let me know. You can contact me at

wmcdgppo@hotmail.co.uk

Jess Duffield.

The Career Development Group is a special interestgroup of CILIP, The Chartered Institute of Library &

Information Professionals.Registered Charity Number 313014.

Contents…

Editorial 1

CDG WM - Welcome fromthe Chair 2

CDG National Conference -A Viewpoint 3

CDG National Conference -Report 5

Blogging for Chartership 8

The Hollywood Librarian 10

Committee MemberProfile 11

Worcester Cathedral Visit 12

Dates for your Diary 13

Career Development Group...get involved!Opportunities are now available for new members to join the friendly and informal West Midlands Career

Development Group committee. Here are several good reasons to join!

Continuous Professional DevelopmentEnhance your CVNetwork with fellow professionalsHave fun!

To find out more, why not come along to the next committee meeting on Wednesday 19th November?Contact the Chair for more details - cdgwm@hotmail.com

...to this Special Edition of Central Issues - the Newsletter of the WestMidlands Division of the Career Development Group (CDG). As you can seewe are an active committee, organising a number of events to help supportyou through your career. Whether you are looking for a formal trainingcourse, an opportunity to network with fellow professionals across everysector, or just a fun evening, we believe we have something for you. Sign upfor the CDG Bulletin (see below) to receive regular information about ourevents. If there's something you'd like to see that we're not providing, whynot contact us with your ideas or, even better, come along to a committeemeeting and talk to us in person?

We look forward to meeting you soon at one of our future events!

Georgina HardyChair, CDG WM

How to subscribe to the CDG Bulletin:The CDG Bulletin is your one-stop guide to CDG events and activitiesthroughout the UK. Go to http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/CDGBULLETIN.html,click on "Join or Leave CDGBULLETIN", and follow the instructions. It's aseasy as that!

How to join the Career Development Group:This newsletter offers an insight into the activities of the West MidlandsDivision of the Career Development Group. In addition, members of CDGreceive an informative magazine, Impact; get discounts to many of the eventshere and across the UK; and belong to a wide cross-sector professionalsupport network.

Every CILIP member can join CDG - you don't have to be working towardsone of CILIP's qualifications. CILIP membership entitles you to belong to twospecial interest groups (we are one) for free. Just get in touch with CILIP(membership@cilip.org.uk or 020 7255 0600) and request that you join theCareer Development Group. They'll do the rest. If you're not a member ofCILIP, you'll need to join first - same contact details. Meanwhile, take a lookat our website http://www.careerdevelopmentgroup.org.uk for moreinformation.

Angel Egbuji

In April this year, I along with another colleague was lucky to be sponsored by the CDG WestMidlands to the CDG National Conference in Cardiff, Wales. I had just attended my firstCDG meeting and was greatly honoured to be chosen for the sponsorship. The theme of theconference was “The Keys to Time: Workforce Development in the 21st Century. It was agreat opportunity for networking and to expand my involvement with the wider profession.Everyone was friendly and I had the opportunity to meet up with a coursemate I had not seensince postgrad in 1998. I found the entire exercise valuable and the speakers inspiringenough to create in me a desire to apply their suggestions immediately.

The theme of the first session was self development and professionalism. The session beganwith a presentation by Lyndsay Rees-Jones on “Professionalism: who knows what you do”.She emphasised on the importance of knowledge base and how to market yourself to yourstakeholders. The question to ask yourself, Lyndsay said was, who should know what youdo? Who do you want to know? But above all, she stressed, the most important person toknow is yourself – you must be confident and have a good knowledge of your job.

What I found very interesting was her allegory to shopping bags – what shopping bags tell usabout the shop against what kind of image we portray about ourselves and our jobs. The waywe package ourselves and the profession, said Lyndsay, should be positive enough toencourage people to want to know and maybe join the profession. It was a metaphor that setme thinking and others as well judging from the enthusiasm the exercise generated. This isan idea I know I will definitely use in marketing our services within and outside myestablishment.

The next presentation, by Liz Jolly, was on supporting professional learning and developmentin an integrated information services. Liz gave an overview of University of Salfordinformation service division and how they established a thriving professional developmentand chartership scheme for their librarians. CILIP was brought in to talk to the managementand this helped pave the way. It was reassuring to know CILIP could go in and talk toinstitutions’ management about their members’ professional development. Most of us at theconference were unaware of this service which brought up a discussion on the issue of CILIPnot advertising itself properly.

Richard Beveridge’s talk on establishing your worth and proving your value struck a chordwith a lot of us. According to Richard, there are five broad principles that helps prove yourworth:

What is your organisation’s ‘Big Aim’How much do you cost?

What do you do to bring Value?What does not happen when you are not there?What do you influence and control?

Basically we need to know where we bring value in our establishments and how toarticulate it. Equally beneficial is the ability to show tangible, intangible and strategicvalues of the services rendered. This is a knowledge that will definitely be useful whenmarketing our services to the stakeholders or bidding for funds.

The second session started with an activity based presentation on competency interview byLaura Perrott of Sue Hill Recruitment. Laura talked of the importance of good preparationbefore the interview, being specific in answering questions and projecting your skills.The conference was rounded off with Lori Harvard’s presentation on “Storyboarding: Howto Plan for an E-Learning Module”. Storyboarding is a step by step method of planningwhat you want the user to understand. Lori told us how it was used to effect changes ininformation literacy tutorials in Swansea University. I found Lori’s account of how theyused it valuable. We have mooted the idea of having an online tutorial at my college. Iwill definitely take a closer look at this when the time comes.

The AGM session was a different ball game with Dr Judith Broady-Preston leading athought provoking debate on “Librarianship: a profession for the future or a futureprofession”. Judith talked about the concept of professionalism and the apparent blurringof boundaries between the professional and the para-professional in librarianship. Sheraised the question of the future of library studies in universities since CILIP seems to be incompetition with them by offering their own qualifications.

I left the conference with a lot of thoughts buzzing through my head. Paramount amongthem is Judith Broady-Preston’s talk. What really is the future of librarianship? Is it aprofession as a proper profession should be – exclusively for those trained to practice it?What benefit does one have for getting professional qualification? What is the future of“library academic qualifications” if you can practice without it? A thought fortomorrow’s debate perhaps?????

Pamela Hanney

28th April 2008

The keys to time: workforce development in the 21st Century

‘“My sister reads a lot of books but she wastes a lot of money buying them and thennever looking at them again. Is there sort of, like, a video rental place for books?” Dowe need to, like, sort of, worry about the profession’s image when the real world hasgot as bad as this?’ (Swaffield, L. (2008) Media watching, Library + InformationUpdate, 7 (4), p.48)

Dr Judith Broady-Preston was the last of the day’s speakers, but her use of the abovequotation could easily have set the tone of the conference. The focus was on what itmeans to be a ‘professional’ and how we develop and market ourselves and ourservices.This article aims not so much to summarise the day’s events, but is a personal accountof how I used some of the themes over the following couple of months.

Professionalism: who knows what you do?Lyndsay Rees-Jones, Senior Adviser, MSU, CILIP

Who should know what you do? Who do you want to know what you do?Do they see you the way you see yourself?

You should know what you do – you need to be confident about what you do. I think thiswas a very important point, too often I hear myself, and others, being a bit vague aboutwhat it is that we do. Lyndsay suggested having some professional visibility tools, suchas business cards (free on internet) , report writing (whether ‘they’ want one or not!),brochures, headed paper, stickers and so on.Lyndsay then brought out a huge collection of carrier bags and asked us all to chooseone that we felt would represent us or our service. We discussed designs, writteninformation – there is sometimes too much – recognisable colours, logos etc. We havesince ordered some reusable bags to give out during inductions, and have asked for helpfrom one of our Arts colleagues to help design a simple badge “Library & InformationService – Supporting Learning” to pin on the bags. Make use of professional supportmechanisms– colleagues, networks, peers (could be multi-professional) and your mentor.

Supporting professional learning and development in an integrated InformationServices Division Liz Jolly, Associate Director, Information Services Division, Universityof SalfordLiz talked about how their converged Library and Computing (Information ServicesDivision - ISD) services support professional development with the use of learningcontracts and agreed timescales.

IncentivesTwo study days allocated per annumISD meet the costs of CILIP membershipManagers must be chartered

Successes and benefitsMorale and motivation of candidatesMentor/mentee relationshipMonthly support group meetingsLearning more about ISDIncrease in professional prideDevelopment as reflective practitionersHigher profile of ISD in University – kick-started a change in culture.

Issues and lessonsAdministrationTime

As a profession, we need to be more ‘risk tolerant’, be aware of the bigger picture andembrace change. Liz’s presentation was useful to me in that we are currently thinkingabout our future library service following a rebuild. This is an excellent opportunity toreview our future staffing needs and what development will be required of existingstaff.

Establish your worth and prove your value – making a case for LibraryProfessionals Richard Beveridge, Director of Library Services, Tribal Group

Richard talked about finding out your worth as a professional by using businessstrategies. You need to find out the ‘big aim’ of your organisation, how much you cost,what you do to bring value, what happens when you are not there and what youinfluence and control.

Benefits: Tangible benefits: direct cash savings which can be measured Intangible benefits: savings that cannot be directly measured but come through

outcomes such as improved staff morale, greater flexibility. Strategic benefits: things that become possible as a result of better information

management

ConclusionDiscover your organisation’s ‘big aims’ and work to get you thereLearn your direct and indirect costs and capture income to meet themKnow where you bring value and be able to articulate how you do itCarry out a Value for Money AssessmentMake your Circle of Influence larger

Competency based interviews – getting it right Laura Perrott, Consultant, Sue HillRecruitmentI used much of what Laura talked about at a Staff Development session just a weekafter the conference. Our employer is currently investigating job evaluation schemesand this presentation was very timely. Much of what Laura said could be used in a jobinterview, or a for job evaluation, or even, I thought, for your own personal evaluation –for example to help with your annual review or appraisal.

What are Competencies?Skills, knowledge and abilities to do the jobHow does it work?Real evidence and examplesWhy and Who?Level playing fieldMore and more employers!The good news!Based on the job description and person specificationTypical wording of questionsDescribe how…Tell me about a time…Give an example of…How do you deal with…Probing – exploring your answerInitial question:Give me an example of a project you’ve been responsible forPossible probing questions:How did you plan the various tasks?How did you allocate responsibilities?How did you deal with any obstacles?

Top tips were - prepare examples before the interview; be specific not general; assumenothing; talk about you, not us (‘Me, me, me NOT we, we, we!’).And finally, use the STAR Principle - Situation, Task, Action, Result – think of asituation, what the task was, what action you took, and what the result was.

Storyboarding: how to plan for an e-learning module Lori Havard, SubjectLibrarian, University of SwanseaLori talked about the creation of an e-learning module using storyboarding.Storyboarding is ‘a way to plan out what you want the user to understand based on astep-by-step process’.This was a concept I was only vaguely aware of, but have since used it to re-design ourinduction presentation (during another staff development event) and am about to use itto revive our VLE pages, which have become a bit unfocused recently. Sometimes it isreally useful to start from scratch and get staff thinking about what it is that we want toget across to our users.

Librarianship: a profession for the future or a future profession? Dr JudithBroady-Preston, Dept of Information Studies, University of Aberystwyth, Leader ofCILIP CouncilJudith Broady-Preston’s presentation followed the AGM, and unfortunately there waslittle time left for debate. Issues raised included current concerns such as‘Googlisation’ and the concept of professionalism, and the ‘skills agenda’ in which shereferred to the Leitch Review of Skills, Lifelong Learning and Work Based Learning,and the shifting focus of education. She ended the day by emphasising that, as aprofession, one our key strengths is adaptability and that the Library brand is still astrong and positive one.

I am really grateful to the CDG-WM for sponsoring my attendance at this national event. It was areally great day, not only for the presentations, but for the opportunity to meet such a broadrange of library folk. It was especially interesting to talk to staff from the National Library of

Wales about disaster planning following the closure of one of our libraries after a fire just a fewdays before the conference. If you get the opportunity to go to an event like this – grab it!

Katharine Widdows

As an “extraordinary” chartership candidate I am going to have two wholeyears worth of evidence to transform into a portfolio in February, and so atthe beginning of the Chartership process I was a bit daunted by the idea ofhaving to keep track of all that information. (I still am – but don’t tellanyone!).

The idea of a blog to record information chronologically, in an easilytaggable, searchable, librarian-y sort of way, really appealed to me so Iemailed the LIS-REG crowd, early on in my Chartership to see if others wereusing blogs and to encourage candidates to read each others blogs andcomment. A lot of LIS-REGers were already blogging, and many morestarted blogs after the email discussions. I now have quite a long blogroll ofchartership candidates, and still there are occasional emails flying aroundLIS-REG flagging up more chartering bloggers. If you would like to see thelist of those I am currently aware of please visit http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/kwiddows/ or if you would like to flag up your blog with others then feel freeto send the link to an appropriate email list – it’s not just Chartershipcandidates getting in on the action.

As a result of email discussion, and later blog discussion, various issuescame up about the use of blogs for Chartership:

Advantages: Entries in chronological order Opportunity to get into the habit of reflective practice Opportunity to encourage discussion on what you are doing/what is

going on in Libraries It boosts your confidence when you can see that other people are

interested in what you say Easy sharing of information and support between candidates, with your

mentor, with other professionals etc. This could also lead to professionalnetworking

Blog entries are taggable and searchable – better than flipping throughendless paper notes (tags can be set up to reflect the BPK, theassessment criteria, your PPDP headings, or whatever will help you toorganise the information later)

Concerns (and responses to them): Not wanting thoughts to be made public – blogs allow for private entries

too, or you can even keep your whole blog private Concern that anything written should be well thought out and formalised

– the blogosphere is not strictly a formal arena, but, again, entries can bekept private, or in many cases shared with a selectfew individuals, such as your mentor

Usage of time – blog entries can be as short, infrequent, and hurriedlywritten as you like. I also think that the blog will save me time in the longrun, partly because of its search functions andpartly because it is a source of potential evidence so I wont have to writeadditional reflections whilst compiling evidence for the portfolio.

Other things to note: As a direct result of my blog I have been referenced in a book, and I am

not the only one. It is easy to monitor how many people are reading your blog by using a

free web statistics tool, such as Google Analytics, or you can registerwith Technorati, or similar, to see how many people link to your blog –you might be surprised by how much attention you are getting!

Getting into the habit of reflective practice is advised by all kinds ofpeople for use throughout a career in LIS, and it is also a usefultransferable skill.

So how about it? Blogs are free and easy and loads of librarians are alreadydoing it online. . .

A screening by the Career Development Group - West Midlands.Tuesday 29 July 2008, Library Theatre, Birmingham

Lesley Allen

Thirty four of us gathered in anticipation in the library theatre in Birmingham for a screeningof The Hollywood Librarian. After a shaky start caused by a technical hitch, ably dealt withby Abbi Williams and helpers, the screening was underway.

The Hollywood Librarian: A look at Librarians through film, by librarian and film maker AnnSiedl, took five years to make. It is the first documentary to look at the work and lives oflibrarians (in the United States).

Taking a wide historical view of the development of written communication fromhieroglyphics to its present form, it then went on to show clips of librarians as depicted infilm; Katherine Hepburn in Desk Set, and The Music Man for example, amusing butstereotypical images of librarians.

Interspersed with the clips and narrative were interviews with librarians from many spheres.The interviewees were all proud advocates of their profession and had many examples toshare of their daily activities and problems. These included James Larue on what made himbecome a librarian, and an interview with Katherine Hepburn’s sister on her many years inlibraries. Personally I found the school librarian very inspiring; she clearly loved her work.

Rather surprisingly perhaps, there was little mention of how librarians and their services havebeen transformed by the use of technology in all its guises. Given the technological advancesthat have impacted on all of our lives at home as well as work, it seemed like a big gap insomething that had taken so long to make.

It is also interesting to note that there were no real examples of younger librarians in the film.All of the interviewees had worked in the profession for many years. I wonder how or if thefilm would have differed had there been a different age mix in the interviewees?

It was sobering to read at the end of the documentary that the United States spends more inone day on funding the conflict in Iraq than it does in its funding for all public libraries for ayear.

Overall, I enjoyed the film, but felt it was too long. It could have lost quite a chunk withoutlosing significant content. The part about the opening and closing of the library in Salinas wasfar too long, for example.

The CDG were raising funds for the Zambia Prisons Library Project and were successful inraising £83 for the project.

Following an eleven year career in nursing, I threw caution to the wind and left to

undertake a full-time degree course at Keele

University. Four years later I took the first

step towards a new career and began my first

post, as a Library and Information Assistant, at

Staffordshire University.

The next eleven years at Staffordshire

University were extremely varied, starting

with experience at the issue desk, learning

the basics of classification, and assisting with

inter-library loans. Promotion to the post of

Information Services Assistant, working

mainly on the help desk, broadened my

experience of answering subject-related

enquiries. I also wrote web pages using

HTML, edited a newsletter, and assisted in

the setting up and running of the e-helpdesk.

This was followed by a temporary promotion

to the post of Learning Support Librarian,

working with the Business, Computing and

Engineering teams across two sites. It was at the end of this temporary post I decided

that I needed to take more control over the direction of my career.

I subsequently took the post of Library Resources Manager at Stafford College and am

still here after almost six years. This time has flown past – the transition from higher to

further education was a huge cultural leap, but one I have never regretted. I do have less

time to spend on specialist subject responsibilities, but I have gained much experience in a

greater variety of areas, such as staff and resource management, and I have a better

overview and understanding of the organisation as a whole.

I have been a member of CILIP and of the Career Development Group, for more than ten

years now, but have only relatively recently become more involved with the CDG West

Midlands. I wish I had become more involved earlier in my career!

This picture taken during the visit to Worcester Cathedral Library inSeptember. The report will follow in the next issue of Central News.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

CDG WM Committee MeetingWednesday 21st January 2009 18:00-20:00Venue: Birmingham Central Library

Why not come and find out more about the committee? For further detailsplease contact the chair - email: cdgwm@hotmail.com…………………………………………………………………………………………

CDG WM AGM in conjunction with CILIP West Midlands Members’ Dayand AGMWednesday 28th January 2009Venue: Coventry University.

Includes a tour of the award winning library at Coventry University andpresentations by Peter Griffiths (CILIP President 2009) and Ayub Khan (Headof Libraries (Strategy) for Warwickshire County Council)

Further details to follow.. Please register your interest with Georgina Hardy(g.c.hardy@aston.ac.uk)…………………………………………………………………………………………………………...What’s happening in health information (a study day for non-specialists)?Thursday 12th February 200909:30 – 3:30Carrs Lane Church Centre, Carrs Lane, Birmingham B4 7SXCost: Career Development Group Members £41.13 (Including VAT) CILIPMembers £47 (Including VAT) and Non-members £52.88 (Including VAT)There are a number of free places for students or the unwaged, please makecontact below.

A one day workshop run by West Midlands Career Development Group,CILIPHealth Information is a fast changing environment where it is often difficult forthe non-specialist to keep informed. The West Midlands CareerDevelopment Group has a workshop running on the 4th November 2008 sothat Library and Information professionals who work outside of the healthenvironment can see how this specialist area is changing and developing.

To book a place please contact Catherine McLaren, Library ServicesManagerEmail: catherine.mclaren@geh.nhs.uk, Telephone: 02476866564,

Dates for your diary