Tom Roper's Weblog

The last day of Glorious Goodwood

I should be there, really, a glass of something cool and sparkling in one hand, race card in the other.
Instead I'm outside the sailing club in the sun at the start of sailing week. It could be worse.
Goodwood 205: Thunderball
Goodwood 235: Sharaayeen
Newmarket 250: Roger Sez
Goodwood 320: Midday
Goodwood 345: Colonel Mak

Glorious Goodwood day four

I did make some selections yesterday, but it's perhaps better to say nothing about them. For today, I take an interest in the three top races on the card.
200: Redwood
310: Neebras
345: Bannock

Glorious Goodwood: Sussex Stakes day

It's between Frankel and Canford Cliffs, to make a banal observation. There are only four horses in the field, but neither of the other two are in the same class After agonies, I have finally come down on the side of Richard Hughes's mount, a judgement, incidentally, I also made in the previous race, faced with a judgement of Solomon between Red Duke and Chandlery.
So:
200: Royal Diamond
235: Chandlery
310: Canford Cliffs
345: Tanfeeth

Library day in the life 7: Tuesday

I can't claim much library-related activity today, apart from writing my latest CPD23 post, on Evernote and Google Calendar.

On the career front, I ran my usual weekly web search. I have bookmarked in Delicious the jobs webpages of a series of organisations I'd like to work for, one set local to me, another set in London. There's over sixty organisations in these lists; not one had a vacancy. I tell a lie, one did, but it was for internal applicants only. So why put it on a public-facing webpage?

Nevertheless, there is hope. I had the following e-mail:

Hi Tom Roper Roper [sic]

Have you ever considered a career as a private financial trader? 
Did you know many private financial traders take home £100k to £2m per annum, with some traders starting with less than £10k in their trading accounts?

[name redacted] is Europe's largest trader coaching company (and Sunday Times FastTrack 100 Finalist) and is running some completely free workshops to show you how you can get started, regardless as to whether you choose to trade full-time or part-time as a positive addition to your income.

So that's all right then; no need for me to do anything real, like help people create and disseminate knowledge, or find information to improve their lives. All I need to do is find that spare £10k I left in the biscuit jar in the kitchen and follow in the footsteps of Nick Leeson.

 

 

 

CPD23: things eight and nine, Evernote and Google Calendar

I've been using Evernote since March 2010, if the date of my earliest note is to be trusted, and I use the web interface, the Mac desktop client and the iPhone version, and they all stay in sync beautifully. The CPD23 exercise asks us to look at this tool from the point of view of capturing webpages, and I do use it for this purpose, though I also use Instapaper. For me Evernote is useful on more or less any occasion when I want to make a note of anything. I use it for books I want to read, music I want to hear, films I'd like to see, library and swimming pool opening hours, checklists of things I need when going to a running race....so most of my content in Evernote is generated by me, not captured from the web. I've captured, as you can see, critical appraisal checklists, invaluable when practicing or teaching evidence-based medicine on the hoof. I find the ability to tag notes invaluable. I've just upgraded to Version 3.0.0 Beta 1, which includes support for Lion's favourites toolbar. I can't say that I no longer make paper notes, indeed I still feel naked if I don't have a paper notebook in my pocket and another one in my briefcase. I haven't used Evernote's collaborative tools to any great extent. I could, if I wanted, share notebooks with others, and view theirs in turn.

Update: I've just discovered that I can link my Evernote and Instapaper accounts. Hurrah!

The ninth thing, Google Calendar, is something I've used for a long time, though my main calendars live in Apple's iCal. It's only recently that iCal and Google Calendar have been able to speak to one another effectively. Now I can see Google calendars in iCal, such as the sailing club's calendar

or the CILIP in London calendar of CPD events

I haven't ever shared my Google calendar, though I have shared work calendars using Outlook, and, when at Sussex, the bizarre MeetingMaker. Since many Sussex staff are still living in the 1960s, MeetingMaker seemed to have been chosen as it was woven out hemp leaves and rattan, and powered not by electricty but by dollops of organic yoghourt.

Glorious Goodwood: day 1

235: Slumber
310: Strong Suit
345: Stonefield Flyer

Library day in the life 7: Monday

This is perhaps an unconventional library day in the life, in that I'm not working in a library. Indeed, I'm not working at all, and haven't since the end of my job with NHS Evidence Eyes and Vision, which disappeared in a reorganisation of NHSEvidence, in which the specialist collections were reorganised and large chunks of them outsourced to the private sector.

Given that the point of library day in the life is to give the outside world, particularly those who aspire to a career in this great profession of ours, an idea of what it is we do, should I be doing this? I think I should, for the following reasons:

• many of us, until we replace an economic system driven by profit with one driven by people's needs, will experience unemployment from time to time. I don't think we should try to hide the fact
• one of the characteristics of a profession is that one is a librarian, or doctor, or nurse, or teacher, first and an employee of whatever capitalist organisation or bureaucracy second. That I am not currently working at the trade does not mean I cease to be an information professional
• it may be amusing

They say looking for a job is a full-time job in itself. It probably is. At the beginning of each week I assess the state of my applications. I track these in a Bento database. At the moment I have four in preparation, am waiting to hear from another that I was interviewed for last week, and have two others that may call me for interview. I check closing dates and decide which I'll work on. I'm helped in this by being an early riser . When I was working I was up at 5 am every day, and though I don't get up quite so early, when not working, I hate to waste the day. The rest of the family, with the exception of kittens Humprehy and Percy, don't share this habit, so I can be sure of uninterrupted time. 

Later in the day I write up the second task of last week's homework for the CPD23 programme. This one required me to think about my involvement in professional organisations; here's the results. This week we move on to Evernote, which I've been using for nearly two years, so I should have plenty to say.

I try to keep myself busy so, as well as CPD23, I'm mentoring three people through the process of acquiring CILIP qualifications. One has sent me a draft of a submission for my comments. I've also been doing things like the Brighton LibTeachMeet, and am involved in Voices for the Library. The Voices team had a busy weekend when comments on a post we'd written about the use of volunteers in libraries took off. Today there's a few e-mails between the team, but nothing as hectic. 

At about 4 pm I had a phone call from the chair of the interview panel for a job I went for last week. I knew it wouldn't be good news, as they'd have contacted me sooner if they wanted me. The chair gave me useful feedback, at least; not every potential employer does, I am bound to say. I'm more than usually disappointed. I'd thought myself into the job, could see myself doing it, knew many of the people I'd have been working with. But I knew I hadn't answered at least one of the questions well, probably more.

One of the agencies e-mails me with a job, but it's at a library eighty miles away. A train journey there would take two and three-quarter hours, a car journey one and three-quarters. I don't mind commuting, but this would take up too much time and money. As I decline it, I doubt myself. Perhaps I should take it and endure the commute. But in any case, they probably wouldn't want me.

CPD23: thing seven: professional organisations

'One who makes a habit of joining societies, etc.' Oxford English Dictionary, http://www.oed.com, consulted 24 July 2011

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The British have the reputation abroad of being great joiners, obsessive founders of clubs, associations and societies. I suppose I'm a case in point. I used to be a member of both the old Library Association and the Institute of Information Scientists; I've been an active member of several CILIP groups, and other organisations besides. Here's a list:

 

Joint organiser, Brighton LibTeachMeet, 2011
Team member, Voices for the Library, 2010-
Member, National Committee, CoFHE, 2010
Chair, CoFHE London and South East Circle, 2008- 2010
Member, Editorial Board, Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 2008-
Member, Project Board, Health Library and Information Services Directory, 2006
Chair, Health Libraries Group, Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals 2005-2006
Committee Member, University Medical School Librarians Group, 2004-2006
Project Board Member, Medical Education Taxonomy Research Organisation (METRO) 2004-2006
Member, Steering Group, JISC Resource Guide, Health and Life Sciences, 2003-2004
Acting Chair, HELICON, 2002
Chairman, Animal Health Information Specialists (UK & Ireland) 2001-2002; committee member 1997-2002
Chairman European Veterinary Libraries Group, 2001-2002; committee member 1998- 2002
Chair, Scientific Programme Committee, Third International Conference of Animal Health Information Specialists, London 2000
Member, BIOME Steering Group, 1999-2002
Chair, Project Board, ASVIN Project, 1998-2001
Member, Editorial Board, Health Information and Libraries Journal, 1997-2007 
Committee Member of the Health Libraries Group of the Library Association, 1993-5 and 1995-7; Assistant Secretary 1995-96; Group Information Technology Convenor 1993-95

Some of the best have been organisations that have nothing to do with CILIP: Animal Health Information Specialists (AHIS) UK & Ireland, for example or the European Veterinary Librarians Group (EVLG).

At the moment, until I know which sector my next job will be in, it's a little hard to know where I should direct my networking energies. I enjoyed CILIP's recent Umbrella conference, and will write more about that in due course. My heart remains with the Health Libraries Group, since I have been part of it for so long,  and, like many British librarians, I'm also a member of the Medical Library Association or MLA, not to be confused with the soon-to-be dissolved quango of the same name. From time to time I and others have wondered if there might be any mileage in turning the British MLA members into a chapter of the main organisation.

I'm not one of nature's networkers, I suppose. In the days before laptops and mobile devices, I'd be the man with his head who would bury himself in the crossword at the start of a conference session, rather than have to talk to someone else. Nowadays we have Twitter, which is a much better way of avoiding embarrassing face-to-face contact with other human beings. But, once I take the plunge and begin to talk to fellow-delegates, conferences and seminars become a thousand time more interesting. Judicious amounts of alcohol help, of course, but perhaps not before the first session of the morning.

King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes

240 Ascot: Russelliana
305 York: Dominant
315 Ascot: My Freedom
340 York: Entitled
350 Ascot: Hawkeyethenoo
430 Ascot: Rewilding

CPD23: Thing six: online networks

In thing six, we're asked to compare and contrast some online networks: LinkedIn, Facebook, LISNPN, Librarians as Teachers on Spruz and CILIP Communities.

I can be found on all of these with the exception of LISNPN, the new professionals' network; I might set up LISOJC, the network for Old Jaded Cynical library and information professionals, as more suitable for people of my generation. If you're curious to see my profile on these services, the links below will take you there.

LinkedIn: I've been on LinkedIn since 17 May 2007, though I have to say I don't use it a great deal. The theory, as I understood it, was that lucrative contracts and job offers would come my way from my contacts. Apart from the obvious ethical objections to this, in fact it hasn't happened, at least yet. It has a very corporate feel, which doesn't really suit me.

Facebook: I've used Facebook since it was first opened up to users outside US universities; I tend to use it mostly for trivial, or social activity, and I find myself running the Facebook pages for my sailing and running clubs, Newhaven and Seaford Sailing Club and the Seaford Striders, as well as being a joint, not very active admin for Voices for the Library. When I worked in further education, it was a useful tool to reach students, but I can't say I've used it professionally to any great extent.

Librarians as Teachers [NB link goes to the homepage; it doesn't seem possible to link to my profile]: I came quite late to this group. The Spruz platform is clunky, but the network was useful when preparing for the Brighton LibTeachMeet in May. I can't say I visit that often.

CILIP Communities: I have to say I use these rarely these days, to the extent that I had forgotten my login details and had to request a reminder; I see I last commented on something in February. The Communities have always had a very 1990s bulletin board feel, and there are some petty annoyances, like the inab ility to control how my name is presented to the world. I tend to read the RSS feeds of topics, and stay away from the web version. That said, comments on the Visibility, value and volunteers post have taken off in the past twenty-four hours.

I have recently signed up to Google Plus, but have yet to use it in anger.