Thing 7: Networking in the Real World and Professional Organisations

Thing 7 of cpd23 asked us to consider our experiences with professional and informal organisations. Here goes...

CILIP

I've been a CILIP member for a fair few years now however it's no longer a conscious decision as my company pays for my membership. If they didn't I'm not so sure I'd still be a member. I'm aware that I've developed a rather negative attitude towards CILIP, feeling that they don't really cater for the commercial librarian. Working in a property firm, in Bristol, with only one other Librarian has made me feel isolated from the profession, which doesn't help.

I've never really engaged with CILIP, my local branch or any of the special interest groups so have no basis to complain and am really hoping over the coming months I will be proved wrong. I've just registered for Chartership, am looking to get involved with either the South West branch or the CLSIG special interest group (Commercial, Legal and Scientific Information Group) and am keeping an eye on upcoming training events. I'm sure it's just a case of you reap what you sow. With this in mind things can only get better.

 

LISNPN

The beauty of an informal organisation such as LISNPN is that you have no expectations of what it should offer. There are some great resources and members really do seem to shape the content of the website.

A Bristol meet up is planned for August which I'm really looking forward to. It will be good to meet some new people and hear about what's going on in different sectors. 

LIKE

LIKE stands for London Information and Knowledge Exchange and is a free to join organisation that I hadn't come across before. I know I'm not based in London, but many of the people who work in similar roles are, as well as my company's head office and research team.

It looks as if they've held some really interesting events in the past so will be keeping an eye on their website.

ASLIB

I'm sure I've come across the Association for Information Management before but had quite forgotten about it. Some of the upcoming training courses look really interesting and relevant to the work I do, so again I'll be keeping an eye on their website.

So why CILIP?

This exercise has made me wonder why I want to become involved with CILIP; after all there are some organisations out there that would probably suit me better. This is why:

• CILIP is my professional body
• They accredited the course I completed at university which allowed me to apply for my current job 
• I am interested in the profession as a whole and CILIP is good at providing broad coverage of what's going
• I've just started the Chartership process and frankly it just seems disloyal to go elsewhere

So I'll see where things go with CILIP, if things don't work out at least I know there are other opportunities.

Thing 6: Connecting the Disconnected Librarian (Online Networks)

As I'm just getting to grips with blogging and Twitter I'm keen not to overdo it this week with Thing 6 of cpd23 which is about social networking sites. Whilst having a presence on more sites promises to up your profile and help you become better connected, I believe it's more beneficial to concentrate on a couple of sites that you maintain, rather than crop up on several sites with out-of-date information, old postings etc.

Here are my thoughts on the some on the sites that were suggested we look at:

LISNPN

I come across the LIS New Professionals website several months ago, however never ended up registering. Having just signed up and found some example Chartership portfolios and a mention of a Bristol LISNPN meet up this is definitely a site I'll be revisiting - thank you cpd23!

CILIP Communities

Again this is something I've browsed in the past; however I've only found things of passing interest. I've just taken a quick look and whilst there aren't that many recent posts there is some interesting advice and information. It's worth keeping an eye on, but I won't be checking in regularly.

Facebook

I set up an account several years ago and whilst my friends were prodding each other I never really bought in. Back then I was really only using it for socialising and whilst I'm sure it could help with professional networking, logging back in today has not made me want to rekindle my Facebook affair.

My initial dislike of Twitter was its immediacy, however I've grown rather fond of it and enjoy taking a peak at what's going on right now. I also like that you can connect with anyone. In comparison Facebook seems clunky and a bit cliquey. Coupled with it's dubious privacy policy, I think I'll give it a miss.

LinkedIn

If there's one thing surveyors are good at it's networking, therefore I've come across LinkedIn in my professional capacity several times. I tried to set up an account some time ago, but back then you needed to add a photo before you could complete your registration - being in work this wasn't possible and I never ended up registering.

I've just registered, added some basic info to my profile and joined a couple of groups. Some of the discussions I've stumbled across seem interesting and relevant; however I'm not really sure where to go with it from here. I guess I'll have to play with it more and see where it leads.

The Connected Librarian?

No, and I'm a long way off, but I do feel more in the loop and have a better understanding of how online networking sites can help. LISNPN will definitely become part of my information diet, I need to spend more time getting to know LinkedIn and will continue to check in on the CILIP Communities pages every now and again, however will be giving Facebook a miss. I need to throw more time at Twitter and am still not commenting on other people's blogs at much as I'd like, both of which I think are just as important, if not more in building an online network.

PS. I can see that people from far and wide are viewing my blog. Hello there! Feel free to say hi, it would be really nice to know who you are.