Additional Reading for Week 3

Recommended reading from cpd23 page
I feel I should go through all these and review them at some point, but here's what I've done so far...

• The Practical Librarian - Manage your brand as a librarian 

Well, this had made be think a little - how do my ramblings on this blog look to others in the outside world?  Do they portray a negative image?  It is positive that I am taking this course, but I have been very honest so far... should I think more about the future and how long this blog will stay for and if I am happy for these posts and comments to remain, and what they say about me? 

• Danah Boyd - Controlling your public appearance 

Interesting, especially this sentence "Have a genuine all-accessible identity online that you’re cool with grandma and your boss reading. Don’t make it uber drab, but do provide context for who you are, what you do, what you’re passionate about, etc. Think of it as a digital body and dress it up as if it were going into a job interview." - Yes, I should remember this for future blog posts... 

• Dave Fleet - How to ruin (or build) your personal brand 

Again, interesting.  I think I need to ponder on this point:  "Ignore the Internet and lose the opportunity to manage other peoples’ impressions of you. " If I want to be clear about how I portray myself to others online, then I need to take charge and control my web presence, rather than just ignore it! 

And also this: "Write sloppily – Writing is a critical skill. This is especially so in communications, but true in any field. Be honest with yourself – if your writing isn’t up to scratch, take steps to correct that" - just because this is a blog does not mean I should just type anything, but take the time to think and write succinct, decent, grammatically correct posts - another note to self!

Thing 3: Consider your personal brand

Hmm yes, a personal brand - well, I have read through the activities and here goes...

• I don't have a personal brand at all at the moment but can understand that if you spend a lot of time on blogger/twitter/facebook etc you could want these to look similar, especially if using for work (I'm not there yet really!) 
• I am happy for a photo of myself to be displayed - I don't feel I can say that I am not now that so many personal photos appear on facebook.  However, this does lead on to an interesting point...
• I would prefer to keep my personal and professional identities separate on the web, but this is increasingly difficult - two facebook accounts perhaps?  Seems a lot of effort?  Perhaps I should just be more open but I have always tried to keep work separate from other areas.... the idea of a 'profersional' approach is I'm sure the way forward, but I am certainly not there yet, and it will be an uncomfortable journey to get there - posting this kind of thing on a blog is certainly a step in the right direction, but already feels very strange....

ACTIVITY - search for yourself in google uk:

• a very odd thing to do!  But I tried hannah young library - and my profile page from work did come up first (hmm, old photo though, so personal brand needs work!), followed by my location, so suppose that is not too bad if I want work contacts to find my details.  hannah young solent retrieves the same, plus a lot more content from our library webpage - as well as a project I am currently involved in about reading lists and refworks from the moodlemoot pages, so that's good.  I might try this again once our new Library website has been launched in August and see if it changes anything.

Ok, so now, if anyone wants to - what do you think about the branding on this blog, the details on my profile page etc?  Too work based?  Do they seem friendly if people do want to contact me?  Have to admit that I just chose the first blogger profile that I liked, and didn't give it that much thought, but perhaps I will go back and review now.

And, for a new blogger, is this post too long? 

Hmm, more blog debates....Thing 2

Well, having left some comments on the below blogs, realised I wanted to know what these people were going to say about my comments and also their future posts, so have now gone back and 'followed' where I can on blogger, or signed-up via email. 

Having seen this option on one blog, I've now added to mine, and can see how suddenly you can spend a huge amount of time (wasted time or productive?? not sure as yet!) playing with adding in gadgets/designs etc... more on this as I see how much time and how many options I look at over the next few weeks whilst updating this blog.

It's also the following that I have issues with - I can follow a few blogs via email, but obviously too many would be unmanageable - and RSS feeds, I just got overwhelmed with them all a few years ago, and haven't been checking these from the blogosphere or elsewhere for quite some while - I always go with an email where possible for work - perhaps this is very old fashioned but I like all my information in one place and system!

Perhaps the course will give me some ideas of how to better manage all this, but all suggestions welcome :-)

Thing 2: Investigate some other blogs

Well, I have had a little look around and seen how much effort some people go to with their blogs!  It is all still a little strange to me, this contributing online and commenting.  However, I've had a nice comment from a work colleague who has also signed up (http://durcan.blogspot.com/) and have posted a couple of comments to some of the other cpd23 blogs as encouragement to those who've just started, and are in the same postition as me - mainly selected by academic libraries and then if I liked the title! (so not very scientific):  http://librarianisms.blogspot.com/ and http://ssshhhhh.wordpress.com/

Onwards and upwards....

First blog post

Hi, well, here goes! 
Let me introduce myself - I'm the Information Librarian for Law and Human Sciences at Southampton Solent University and have decided to try out the 23 Things for Professional Development course this summer to see if I can start and enjoy using more web 2.0 applications in my work - I'm particularly interested in the weeks on collaboration, referencing and presenting.

Let's see how it goes...