All entries for September 2007

Library Legs!

Writing about web page http://www.sconul.ac.uk/publications/newsletter/40/

A few months ago Antony Brewerton put together a set of short articles by new librarians, or those currently working towards chartership, to show what the apparent vision of the future of the profession might be from our point of view. This was published in Sconul Focus and can now be viewed online.

I was one of the people who contributed and sent him a piece about stereotyping, and how really, if we are to survive as a profession, we need to change the perception that seems to be so rife in the public eye, of librarians spending all day stamping books and saying "Sssshhhhhhhhhh!" and wandering about in pearls and twin sets with our grey hair up in very neat buns. I wont go into any further detail about the content as you can read the whole piece for yourself on the Sconul web site, but I am quite chuffed that I have now had something published outside of the relative safety of the Warwick Library internal staff newsletter "Off yer Trolley" (viewable by Warwick Library staff only). 

What made it even better was that the Cilip Gazette picked up on Antony's article too, so the whole thing got published there as well.  And this time they asked for photos of the authors. Well, clearly I couldnt send them a standard head-shot of me looking all Librarian to go with an article on challenging stereotypes, so, this is what they printed, and yes, they are my legs (unfortunately the fishnets dont come out so well here, the pic in the gazette is better quality). 

Some of my colleagues (who requested not to be named) also joined me for the photoshoot - I thought it best to give Cilip some choice over what they published as this was no ordinary picture, and the results were as follows (personally I like the one with the stripper shoes standing on the law journals (appologies to our Law Librarian, Helen Riley).

Katharine Widdows : 20 Sep 2007 13:49 |  Tags: Communication Culture Future Libraryprofile Marketing Publicopinion Stereotypes |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

URC networking event

Last night I attended a networking event organised by the West Midlands University, College and Research Group (a special interest group of CILIP). It was held at the IKON Gallery in Birmingham, which was a fantastic setting given that the weather was so good!

It was good to meet people from other organisations and to discover that we are not the only University library that has a very odd version of LCC classification all of our own!

The tapas and wine were much appreciated and  though we didnt venture inside to check out the exhibitions (far too busy discussing the pros and cons of centralised services and the effects of student tuition fees on customer service expectations!), the view from the patio was lovely. 

Katharine Widdows : 13 Sep 2007 09:40 |  Tags: Communication Networking Personaldevelopment Widerprofession |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Web 2.0 meeting

On 12th September Jenny Delasalle presented a range of Web2.0 technologies to the department and encouraged discussion about how they could be used by the Library in a range of ways. This is a quick run down of what she went through. . .

Katharine Widdows : 13 Sep 2007 09:36 |  Tags: Blendedlearning Culture Elearning Facebook Future Web2 Websites |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

SPAM!

I got my first piece of blog spam!

There is a comment on my entry about podcasts which appears to be an advert.

Has anyone else had any? 

Katharine Widdows : 02 Sep 2007 22:03 |  Tags: Spam |  Comments (14) |  Close comments |  Report a problem