Strike, the time is now.

THING 1: CPD23

I just received an email alerting me that Thing 3 is already on the get go.  Thing 3? Already?! I best get this started as not to get left behind then... If you don't already know what this 'Thing' is I'm talking about, have a little look here. 

The whole 'internet' thing still kind of scares me. 

When I Google my name (I know you've all done it) I do not come up in any results.  In fact, somebody has the same middle name as me and is the second hit (via Facebook) and it is still not me.  I like to think this invisibility is a good thing - my web presence is like a ninja or stealthy like a cat - but knowing that the library/information world is morphing digitally is becoming increasingly important.  Swinging by fellow CPD23'er Bex Without Spex she had linked to this blog which made me breathe a sigh of relief - It's not just me! What I want to get out of CPD23? Fearless cyber-networking.  Oh, and to develop library skills to help me become a better information-bod.

You may not want to know this but... 

 

I have worked in 'library services' since 2005, which actually didn't seem that long until I worked out that it's (very) nearly a whole decade.  Starting out in public libraries as a crazy (often described as 'quirky' ...shudder) turquoised haired Saturday Assistant, I moved to London to study History of Art and worked avidly between various part-time jobs in retail and temping in public libraries.  In my third year I decided to tempt myself in to the Uni library (to study) by getting a job as a shelving assistant then spending a summer tagging a huge collection for the implementation of RFID.

Phew.

In 2010 I left uni a very poor, very disheartened and very confused kitten.  I started working as a 'casual' but actual full-time (I worked 36 rather than 35 hours like everyone else) library assistant at my local library following an unsuccessful interview for a Senior role.  It was an awkward time, as most library-peoples are more than too familiar with, and as politics raged high morale was pretty low and the best thing to come out of the whole experience (to be quite frank) was meeting real-life librarian at large, (that fellow CPD23'er I was banging on about earlier) and someone who really inspires the public library advocate in me: Rebecca!  I jumped ship (so to speak) when the waters got increasingly rocky, and managed to score a support role in an academic research library.  Very different to what I was used to, but also a step in the right direction for me as someone who will always have feelings for art and culture type stuff so I feel positive bridging that gap.  I seconded to a Library Assistant at the beginning of this year to fill the big boots of Jo - and it is she whom I am to thank for nudging me to ride the CDP23 wave.

I'd promised myself I wouldn't ramble on too much, but I won't mention faltering at the first hurdle... Expect pictures. I love pictures. And blogs with pictures.