Thing 7 - face-to-face networking

I’m gaining quite a discouraging picture of my professional development through doing the 23 things. I’ve already found out that I’m a reluctant user of online networking tools and am about to admit that I do very little in the way of face-to-face professional networking either. I suppose this is part of 23 things though, to help us find some professional strengths and weaknesses and introduce us to tools to help with those weaknesses.

I’ve been a member of Cilip for some years now, with the ultimate aim of completing my charter. I’ve been qualified for 15 years and in a professional post for 10, so you can see how slowly that aim is progressing! I enjoy reading Update magazine, although I do find that I don’t look at it nearly so often now that it’s online. It’s just another thing for me to remember to go and look at. At least if the magazine was lying on my desk I was likely to pick it up during a slow half-hour. My engagement with Cilip has gone no further than that though.

As part of my Cilip membership I’m also in both the Career Development Group and Colleges of Further and Higher Education. Again, I read the magazines and subscribe to the COFHE jisc mailing list, but go no further than that.

I know that Cilip Scotland has a fairly active local branch, but have avoided getting involved with that for various reasons. It’s something I might have considered but, unfortunately, until the main reason is gone, then I won’t be going down that route.

It’s not all doom and gloom though, as I’ve remembered that I have done some face-to-face networking in the past. We have a local network called Grampian Information and I have thoroughly enjoyed going to their annual conferences over the last 10 years. I wasn’t able to go last year, and will have to miss it again this year due to an overlap between some annual leave and the conference date. Fingers crossed for next year though as I was disappointed that I couldn’t go. The conferences are usually interesting, informative and a good way of meeting new people and catching up with friends from previous jobs or university. I do struggle with networking and talking to new people though. Maybe I should take a look at the book mentioned on Jo Alcock’s Blog (the link to which can be found from the Thing 7 thread on the CPD23 site) as it looks as though it would be ideal for me.

Another obstacle to face-to-face networking is that, as with organisations all over the country, reduced staffing and budgets make it very difficult to get to external CPD events. I did manage to get to quite a few local events in the past but this is now very restricted. I keep an eye out for free events which fit in with the working hours but there’s not much coming up at the moment.

Reflecting on all of this (see, I’m getting better at it!) I think I need to take some action. Initially I’m going to see if I can get hold of the networking book as I think it would help me in those situations. Then I’m going to make an effort to find local events that I can manage to get to. Although I find the thought of these events a little scary, I know I always enjoy them once I’m there so time to do something about it.

Thing 6 - Online Networks

I've found Thing 6 somewhat similar to Thing 4 in that it's all about how I use social networking. Any regular readers will know that I've only really just dipped my toe into the waters of social networking and that I find the whole thing slightly unnerving. However, saying that, some of the professional networking I've done via CPD23 has been interesting and useful and I want it to continue.

So, the online networks then. I've been on Facebook for sometime now and it's strictly a personal thing. I don't think I'll ever change my opinion on that, as I don't particularly want professional contacts seeing my friends attempts to get me to join their Mafia Wars games or my nieces asking me to contribute to Farmville. Similarly, I don't think they would find the minutae of library and information work all that interesting so I prefer to keep the two apart.
I had a look at the 4 LinkedIn profiles that were on the CPD23 things website and that is something that I'll possibly consider doing. I do like the thought of my professional social networking being strictly professional, so this would probably be a good thing for me. I still need to give some thought to my personal branding though before I take the plunge there. Watch this space!
I briefly checked out Cilip Communities but I'm not sure I like the format. I've been a member of Cilip for a long time but haven't really engaged much beyond paying the annual subscription. Maybe I should set aside some time to see what's on offer. Looking at the Communities site though I don't feel encouraged.

I think one of the main things that puts me off all this social networking is that there's just so much of it out there. All this information coming at me just gets a bit too much. I already read, and contribute to, various Jisc mailing lists and look at a few blogs and professional websites. There's only so much that one person can do. I think I also like the fact that Jisc mailing lists come directly to my e-mail inbox. I don't have to go out of my way to interact with them whereas with services such as Twitter I have to remember to check it. Sounds like I'm being very lazy here but the job I'm paid to do has to take precedence. I know that social networking can enhance my current post, but I have to balance that with making sure that my work gets done.

As usual, apologies for Thing 6 being so far behind everyone else. Two weeks off and then pretty much straight back into students being on site doesn't really leave time for CPD. I'm hoping to catch up before the end though.