Thing 3: Consider your personal brand

As I mentioned last year, I still find the idea of a personal brand very strange and to be honest not something that I am entirely comfortable with. That said, after seeing all the great blog designs of other CPD23-ers in Thing 2, I really do need to spruce up this blog a bit. If you see a few changes over the next month, then it is because I will be experimenting with the layout. Any comments about what works and what doesn’t would be gratefully received!

As for my online presence, it has changed a little from last year, but that is mainly down to two things – the fact that I joined Twitter last year (as part of CPD23), and also because I entered some running events last year, one of which I raised money for. I searched on two different browsers, Internet Explorer and Firefox, though mainly on Google. I didn’t notice much of a difference in results across the browsers. My Twitter account was the third hit on Google, following by my JustGiving page at five. I was mentioned five times on the second page – running event results, my JustGiving event page, sponsoring a friend, and two tweets. The other results I found were again running events and mentions on other Twitter pages. I should add that the race results relate to one 5k race, but where the results seem to be listed across multiple different websites!

I have a LinkedIn profile, but it is not publicly available due to privacy concerns. My Facebook account is kept private as my holiday snaps would probably bore the socks off anyone that happened to stumble across them! I mainly use it for personal use, although I am a member of some CILIP groups on there, and of course the CPD23 Facebook group!

So, one year on, where does this leave me? While none of the results I found for myself are detrimental, I clearly do not have a professional presence online, which I think needs to be rectified. In the spirit of CPD23 I will be trying to be more open so you may well see a picture of me at some point on this blog (or at least on my Twitter account)! I will also be adapting the style of my blog to one that reflects my personality more.

As before I am looking forward to Thing 4 to help me rediscover Twitter and actually send some more Tweets!

Thing 2: Explore other blogs

This was the ‘thing’ that I struggled with last time and it is still quite a challenge for me – commenting on other blogs. I still don’t feel quite comfortable commenting on the blogs of people I don’t know. Still, I’m going to try and work on it so hopefully my confidence will improve as the course progresses.

Once again, I am very impressed with the large number of participants, both across the globe and from a variety of backgrounds. Another aspect I find challenging is actually finding the time to actually read and comment on the blogs – there are just not enough hours in the day!

There were several blogs that I was particularly drawn to. Firstly, Suzanne’s cpd23 blog as I know her from my Master’s course – commenting on the blog of someone you know is far easier than on those of strangers (and will hopefully ease me in)! I am interested in the experiences of people abroad and one of the blogs I am intending to follow is Bibliotekarsha - Велобиблиотекари всех стран…. I am also interested in different fields of librarianship and am looking forward to finding out about music librarianship through CPD23 for a Music Librarian.

I should also add that I greatly enjoyed the post about Thing 2 by Cup of Tea & a Scone. It really captured my concerns about posting on blogs and being more open online and I hope I can follow her example and overcome some of these barriers.

CPD23 2012! Thing 1: Blogging

I’m taking part in the ’23 Things for Professional Development’ in 2012, basically as I started it when it ran last year, but due to various other commitments I only made it to Thing 5 (Reflective Practice).  This time I’m determined to make it to the end of the course!  I found the parts I did complete last year very useful and in some ways thought-provoking, which is why I have returned to it this year.

So, a little bit about me.  I graduated with a Master’s degree in ILS last year and am currently looking for my first professional post.  Since graduating, I have done some temporary work in an academic library and am currently volunteering in a small specialist library while I continue my job search.  I am hoping that participating in the CPD23 course will develop my skills and keep me motivated in these challenging times!