CPD 23 - Thing 2 - Reading blogs

One of the good things about the 23 things for professional development programme is that we are all being encouraged to build a community and to learn from one another. That is the focus of thing 2. We’ve been asked to look at some of the other participating blogs, comment on them, and then write up our impressions.

This sounds easy but there are now over 600 people taking part. Simply deciding who to read was quite tricky. Fortunately I’m a trained information professional so I was able to develop a sophisticated research strategy. I started off by reading blogs from my sector. Then I started looking at the blogs of people who’d taken the time to comment on blogs that I was looking at. Finally I ended up looking at blogs that had eye-catching names.

To the untrained eye that might sound like an incoherent, almost random strategy but actually…ok yes it was pretty random.

On the plus side this approach did mean that I think I’ve looked at a reasonable cross section of this new community. I know I’ve only read a tiny proportion but I think I have wandered across the sectors, across the nations and across different levels of experience.

The interesting thing for me is that we all seem to have a lot in common. The most obvious common feature is that we all have the same goal. We want to improve our skills and to develop professionally. There also seems to be a shared sense of enthusiasm for what we do. I guess that too is implied by our decision to join the scheme but it is still nice to see. Everyone seems very supportive and friendly.

One of the factors that seems to divide the cpd23 bloggers is their attitude towards blogging. Some are already experienced bloggers. However a lot of people were more hesitant. Perhaps everyone who sets up a blog finds themselves wondering who is going to read it. I’m glad so many people overcame their hesitation because the truth is that we are interested in what each other have to say. I’m looking forward to reading about your experiences. This project creates a readership for each one of us. It puts us all in touch with people who are interested in the things that we are writing about.

One week in the scheme seems to be going really well. I’m looking forward to the other 21 tasks. Bit wary of this personal brand thing we’ve got coming up next week though…

CPD 23 - Thing 1 - Blogging

Hello fellow CPD 23 people and other readers.

I'm looking forward to being a part of the '23 things for professional development' scheme.

It has appeared at just the right moment for me. I am trying to breathe new life into this blog and CPD 23 will give me a structure that will make me blog at least once a week.

I'm a new professional, coming up to the end of my first academic year as a liaison librarian in an FE college in southwest London. I am also working towards Chartership.

I see blogging as a very useful reflective tool, I want to get into the habit of blogging regularly. Reflecting on my professional practice is a key part of the Chartership process, more importantly it is also the best way for me to improve my own performance. I need to reflect on my experiences if I want to learn everything I can from them.

At this early stage in my career I feel it's very important for me to get into good habits. Blogging about librarianship is a habit that I want to build into my life.

I have always been one of those people who write to think. I find getting ideas down in print helps me to develop and explore my ideas, almost to find out what I think.

Despite my love of writing those of you who take the time to read my earlier posts might find that this blog seems a little strange. The reason for this is that it was originally set up as part of an assignment for one of the modules on my masters course. *Wave to any readers who did one of the City University information courses. You remember DITA (Digital Information and Architecture).*

The earlier posts also include an information guide for short story writers that I had to design for another module. If anybody else is interested in creative writing I think that might actually be useful. Although some of the links might be out of date now.

More recently I have primarily been blogging about training events that I have attended. I spent the end of last week at the CoFHE conference in Wrexham so blog posts about that are coming soon. *Hello to any readers who were in Wrexham.*

Thank you for reading. If you are a fellow CPD 23 person then let me know where your blog is and I will make sure I return the favour. Good luck with the things.