In order to keep all of my musings, ramblings and readings together in one place I have decided a blog is the way to go. I have registered and found a mentor so I'm ready to begin.
Step 1 has been about identifying areas I need to work on from the PKSB (Professional Knowledge and Skills Base). I have found this quite a daunting task and have put off doing it for a while as it seemed so lengthy with so many different sections and elements. I rated the various elements according to my current knowledge and skill level and again of what I would like to be ultimately. This helped me pick out various areas to focus on. These are:
- Research Ethics - I work in an FE College and we are working more and more with partner institutions to provide support and resources for higher level courses. Many of our students undertake research projects, and although I have achieved a BA (Hons) degree and a Post Graduate Diploma I have never had to do a research project myself. I am hoping that in learning more about research and especially research ethics I will be better able to support our learners.
- Copyright, Intellectual Property and Licensing - This is an area where I have only the most basic of knowledge yet as it is a legal requirement I feel I should be much better informed on. These areas are something that we come across everyday from student's photocopying from books to using images in library promotional posters. I hope to have a better understanding of this area to make sure that we comply with legislation and to also be able to share my knowledge with the rest of my team.
- Selection of materials and resources - I am a Library Assistant and I do carry out liaison with certain subject areas to ensure we have the correct resources. I do have a good understanding but I feel there is more that I can do in this area. I happily select books but other resources I would like to explore in the selection of.
- Collection Promotion - Again I feel this is an area that I do to some extent but I know there is so much more I could be doing. I would like to explore ways in which other colleges use promotion to increase use of resources as I am sure there are far more creative ways than I do this.
- Reading Literacy and Reader Development - This is an area I don't know much about. In the past I have used promotions such as the six book challenge to get more of our customers reading but not really had too much success with it. I would like to understand more about reader development.
- Teaching and Training Skills - It seems that most education librarians also play the role of teacher as teaching information searching skills is so important. Each academic year we run sessions on information searching, referencing and using Google to name a few. Although I have been carrying out these sessions for a few years I have never had any formal training or learning in how to teach and how to get the best from these situations so this is something I definitely want to explore further.
- Virtual Learning Environments - The College uses Moodle as its VLE and this is such an important resource. Although it is used by the Library service to promote resources I feel that there is more we can do with it so I would like to look at other examples used by Colleges and see understand more about using a VLE.
- Strategic Marketing - Similar to collection promotion, I feel it is important to understand our users in order to make sure we have the resources they need but also that these resources are promoted and marketed in the right way for specific user groups. I am hoping looking at this area will give me more insight and ideas in how we can achieve this.
- Social Media and Collaborative Tools - I have used Facebook quite a lot and have registered for Twitter although I haven't really used it since then. It would be good to explore social media as a communication and collaboration tool to see how it can help both me personally to engage with the profession but also to raise the profile of my own library service.
- Ethics and Values - I feel this is a topic that is ongoing and we should always be looking to address. The Library world is a fast changing landscape in which ethics and values need to play a big role in order to show professional workings and value.
- Wider Library, Information and Knowledge Sector Context - This is also an ongoing area. The Library I work at is just part of a larger sector where we can share good practice, advocacy and knowledge in order to be the best we can be.
- Wider Organisation and Environmental Context - Similarly the context of further education and Colleges is also something which I need to be knowledgeable about advances, changes and anything that can affect what our customers require in terms of needs and wants from a library service to enhance their education experience if a student or assist with colleagues such as teaching staff to provide that experience.
The next step will be to look at these areas and read up on news articles, blogs, attend any relevant training sessions and try to gain an insight and knowledge to better my understanding and skills base.
