The Blog Post Formerly Known as “Right to Reply”

This blog post originally said something other than what you are reading now. I had seen a blog post written by a “consultant” “library campaigner” or maybe even a sometime “author” who never seems to have  much positive to say. I do not normally pay much attention but the inaccuracies of this particular post and the attack it made on public librarians made me cross. He basically said libraries are closing because they are rubbish and then went on to blame all librarians. I felt the need to respond in an attempt to try to make him see things with….um a little more balance…it did not work and only served to make me crosser and I ended up venting in this very blog post – guess what, it did not make me feel  better…..Something else did. This evening I received an email from a lady who is supporting Friends of Gloucestershire Libraries efforts to stop the devastating 43% cuts to our library services. Her email moved me, put things into perspective and made me realise I was looking at things all the wrong way.  She is a lifelong library user who “cannot envisage life in Gloucestershire without a full set of properly staffed and stocked libraries” she values all library staff  “whether in public or specialist libraries” stating that “they need a huge range of skills for which they have undergone substantial training”

She finally  says that she has pleaded with the county councillors to “search their consciences and think again. We need a library culture if we are to remain a civilised and knowledgeable country”.

This is one of  many letters, emails and phone calls of support I have had from members of the public, students, charities, community groups, library staff (of all levels of seniority) councillors, authors, teachers, lecturers and journalists since I and three of my friends started Friends of Gloucestershire Libraries.  It has been incredibly moving to hear why libraries and properly trained library staff are so important to them. Tonight it made me think that for every agitator out there we currently have 70 passionate, positive campaigners here in our formidable team and the numbers are growing all of the time (hopefully beyond 5000 if our petition is a success!) These people remind me why I am working so hard to save our libraries and this evening they have reminded me to focus my energy on campaigning for what I believe in and to stop being distracted (as I was momentarily) by someone whose intention is to exude negativity and who is never going to even try to understand what I have to say. So I have rewritten this blog post as a celebration and I dedicate it to all of the wonderful Friends of Gloucestershire Libraries campaigners who are working so hard, to the tireless, brave campaigners at Voices for the Library and to the library staff, both in Gloucestershire and nationally, who are currently going through a horrendous time. You are all my inspiration.  In unity.

Librarians Gagged

A few months ago I heard Gloucestershire County Council had slashed the public libraries book budget by 40 %. This was even BEFORE the government spending review had been announced. I suspected worse was to come. As a public library user this concerned me. What concerned me more is that when I searched I could not find one library user group in Gloucestershire and I wondered who would speak out for the libraries when the second, larger axe fell? no one, that is who. So I did something about it. I and three of my friends decided we would set up a Friends of Cheltenham Library group so that we could give library users a voice. Cheltenham Library is our local library. We wanted to speak for the whole of the library service but felt we might be too small so we focused on Cheltenham with intentions to scrutinise any policies that affected the library service as a whole. The group has grown. People came from all around. Drastic cuts were announced last week for our public library services. Gloucestershire County Council intend to cut libraries by 43%, Yes 43%! and they say they will close 11 libraries if they are not taken over by volunteers. Many of  these libraries at threat are in the poorest areas. I do not want to go into the ins-and-outs of the councils plans here. You just have to look at them for  few minutes to see how ridiculous and extreme they are. If you need any more convincing take a look at a letter we received from 5 senior former Gloucestershire County Council Library staff here. Council Leader Hawthorne and the Mr Vaisey should have seen these letters by now also.

Recently we were told that other people in the county wanted to come to our group but our name made them feel that it was not a group for them as we were Cheltenham focused and so we changed the group to Friends of Gloucestershire Libraries – people have since flocked in. They have nowhere else to turn.

Friends of Gloucestershire Libraries took part in a protest rally today with hundreds of other people protesting against brutal public sector cuts. A young lady who I had never met before approached me and said “My dad says your campaign website is great and everything but he says that maybe you should not say on it that you are a librarian.“  She is the third  person to have individually advised me to stop telling the press that I am a librarian as it may seem as if I am running this group in self-interest. Well let me tell you something I AM A LIBRARIAN AND I AM PROUD, proud to be speaking up for libraries, library users and public library staff. In all three incidences I heard myself saying apologetically “But I am an academic librarian not a public librarian. If public libraries die, I still have my job“
I told her that it does not even say on the website that I am a librarian, the newspaper reporting on our group did though, maybe her dad saw it there? I told the reporter I am an academic librarian but they failed to report that.  Since I got home I have been thinking on this and getting rather cross.  Even if the website did say I am a librarian why shouldn’t it? I have decided that I AM NOT going to take this any more. I am not going to apologise and this is why…..

In a Friends of Gloucestershire Libraries meeting last week we all took turns to say who we were and why we were at the meeting. There was a lady who was a carer – she told us she looks after vulnerable adults and that libraries are their lifeline. She takes them to the library several times a week and she does not know what she will do if the library closes. Her library is one of the ones that have been threatened with closure. Another lady works with an organisation that supports the elderly. She also fears what will happen when their library service goes, again it is a lifeline for these elderly people. A pensioner told us how he had been a lifelong library user and would be lost if the libraries were closed now. He felt so strongly about this that he offered to drive some of our members around the county to meet with other library users to try to build a network and give them a voice. A retired couple came and said they had never felt as angry as they do at the threat to their libraries. The protest we went to today was the first protest they had been to. They felt they had to do something. A young man in his early 20′s told us how strongly he felt about the destruction of our libraries.  A library assistant told us as she blinked away tears that a few weeks ago a mother and her little boy, who did not have much money, came into the library. The little boy had chosen to go to the library to get a book instead of going to the cinema. His mother has since been back to the library to thank them and tell them how much her sons literacy has improved since getting hooked on books. The library assistant thinks children are going to have such opportunities taken from them if libraries close. Other Library staff in attendance told us how worried they were about the future of the vulnerable people in the communities they served if libraries were to close. They were not thinking of themselves they were thinking of others. It was upsetting, it was stark,  it was moving it was inspiring. This is what I am fighting for, this is why I am spending all of my spare time standing up for something I believe in and  I will not apologise for it. Why is it considered so wrong for a person to speak out for their profession? I think we provide a vital service. Would people rather I sat around and waited for people who do not understand or care for the role, ethics and values of libraries to step in? because if they are then wave bye-bye to libraries. Wave good-bye to free unbiased access to information.

I often wonder why we find ourselves in the situation we are in now and I am beginning to think it is in large part due to the gagging of librarians but also due to the complicity of librarians. Why do we let this happen? Speak out, stand up and shout about how great we are and how great libraries are because we have people depending on us and I have found out in the last few weeks just how important we are to people. Many people have thanked me for setting up the group as they feel they now have somewhere to turn. We are all working together for a common goal. We feel like we can make a difference. That is all. rant over.

I wonder who that young lady and her dad were??

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What Should go into a Practical Resource for Teacher Librarians?

Wow, I had a  bit of a roll in July as far as blog posts go but I am ashamed to see how I have neglected my blog since then. In my defence, a lot of things have happened that rather swallowed my time.  I am part of the team that, over the last few months, founded the campaign group  Voices for the Library which came about due to serious concerns we have about the future of public libraries in the face of huge cuts to public services. This campaign was (and still is) a massive undertaking but  I am very proud of it. My own local library service is at threat so I set up a local campaign group Friends of Cheltenham Library (boy, campaigning is hard!) and I started a Post Graduate Certificate in Higher Education.  Suffice it to say life has been hectic!  Excuses out of the way I am actually here to ask a question I need your help with:

Does anyone have any suggestions on what they would like to see included in a practical book for teacher librarians? I have recently been asked this question myself and I personally think it would be good to have a book that suggests a range of teaching methods that we can use for our teaching sessions which are explained and supported by approrpriate  teaching theory.  I say this because since I have started a PGCHE the theory I am learning is really making me think about how I deliver my lessons, why I do them that way and what I can improve. I had no knowledge of what “surface” or “deep” learning is and how teaching and assesments can impact on the students engagement in learning. I knew roughly what my aims were in my teaching sessions but I did not really know the best ways of ensuring I set and realised appropriate  outcomes. After reading this interesting article “Trying to figure it out”: Academic librarians talk about learning to teach I wonder how many others like me just “try to figure it out” as we go along. I think a book that explains theory and makes practical suggestions would really help. What do you all think?

Suggestions so far: (from  @Nykohler – via Twitter Thank you)

“Planning timings, learning styles and appropriate exercises for each, different types of session and how best to support diff learning styles, handout, slide etc design, tips for engaging with students- language, examples etc, additional help and where available, reminders to check room, equipment etc before session if possible” 

Librarians as Teachers – Calling all students, practitioners and wise owls

I am writing this post to put my feelers out really and find out what folk think so comments and feedback are requested please.

Since finishing an MSc in library and information management I have been considering doing a postgraduate certificate in education (PGCHE) because in my current role in an academic library I do some teaching but I have never had any teacher training.  The inspiring speakers at the Librarians as Teachers: The new professionals? event in May 2010 convinced me it was definitely something I should do for many reasons, a few of them being:

• Let’s face it, what we teach is often quite dry. How can I make it more engaging and so become a better teacher?
• Lots of employers are looking for teaching qualifications these days with some seeing them as important as a library studies qualification
• A teaching qualification can garner increased recognition from academic colleagues and in turn raise the libraries profile (hopefully)
• It will give me more scope for varied career progression

Teaching is also one of my favourite and most rewarding parts of the job and I want to be the best I can be at it.

So I applied and have been accepted on the PGCHE course held where I work. I start in September and I am a bit nervous because it is really a course that is geared towards academics who are already teaching and so my librarian colleagues who have done the course before me said they found it really hard to make the course relevant to their practice (this is a major reason why I was in two minds about doing the course initially). I also have to clock up 150 hours of teaching time in a higher education context over the period of the course which is A LOT if you are not running a specific course. I do tonnes of induction courses, some later follow-up sessions on journal searching etc. I train support staff employed to assist disabled students and I do sporadic one-to-one sessions with dissertation and research students throughout the year.  So it is a bit…um, well sporadic and so I am going to have to be creative if  I want to complete the course  Which is where all of you potentially come in!!

I have spoken to a lot of people in a similar position to me and the Librarians as Teachers event sparked a lot of conversation about the subject via Twitter. The event evaluation form asked for ideas of how the conversation could be continued. In response to this I am thinking of setting up a Wiki or something where anyone thinking about doing a similar PG Cert, anyone actually on a teaching course, those who have done the course and would be happy to give us the benefit of their knowledge, and experts in the area (such as the speakers at the event) could share ideas, experiences, and support. I for one would find that incredibly helpful. Even those not doing a course may find this a useful resource if their job involves teaching.

Let me know what you think. There is no point of me setting something up if no one is interested. If you are not particularly interested yourself but know someone who might, please point them in my direction. I suspect that there is a huge network of knowledge and experience out there waiting to be tapped.

I also have never set up anything like a Wiki before so any advice there would be welcome too.

(if there is something already out there and I am reinventing the wheel please enlighten me and I will stand in a corner and face the wall)

Your MSc Dissertation – A Rare Opportunity!

I just wanted to write a quick post about something I have been thinking about for a while that may help current library and information studies students.

When my cohorts and I were considering our dissertation topics a few people commented on how they wanted to pick something straight-forward and get it done ASAP…as long as they passed this was enough. I can totally see why they had this attitude after a 1-2 year slog with a heavy work load – particularly those with families, a full-time job and other commitments. I was lucky because although I had a full-time job I don’t have any dependants so I could spent my free time working on my research guilt free….and it was still hard going. Anyway, I just wanted to offer some advice to anyone about to embark on the dissertation  adventure.

Pick something that fascinates you or it will seem a massive chore that you will be loath to spend time on. Your research project can offer up many opportunities if you let it. Off the back of my dissertation (and with a bit of luck!) I have been invited to present three talks, I appeared on the local BBC radio show talking about my research trip, had an article written about me in a local paper and co-authored an article for a peer-reviewed journal (pending). I am in the process of writing another one and who knows what else is in store but I still have lots of ideas and ambitions for it. My dissertation is my most proudest achievement to date. I got my marks in Feb 2010 and I am still reaping the rewards. I just wanted to say this as I don’t remember these potential opportunities being promoted to me whilst I was on the course…but there really is more to it than you think. I mean, there will be limited opportunities for many people to do research like this when in a professional post due to time restraints and other pressures, so make the most of this chance now. Find something you can get your teeth into and most of all enjoy! As my long-suffering friends and family know all too well, although it was a very rewarding experience, I put blood (well maybe not blood but I did pick up a tropical illness along the way!) sweat and tears into my research and I am now going to let it work for me! It can get you published, your first conference paper, and gives you something you are really passionate about to talk about knowledgeably  in job interviews.

Best of luck all!

(disclaimer: I did warn you in my profile that I have a tendency to be overbearingly enthusiastic some times;)

Prezi and Me – CDG West Country AGM and International and Health Libraries Event

International and Health Libraries

So yesterday I went to the AGM of the West Country Branch of CILIP’s Career Development Group at which I had been invited to talk about my experience of carrying out research in Malawi at a rural primary school library

The first presentation was delivered by Jane Villa from North Bristol NHS trust who talked about her experience of running a workshop in Kenya at the University of Nairobi on “Evidence Based Health Care: the role of the librarian” as part of the Kenya Health Information Partnership Her talk reminded me of something that I had become aware of when I was researching for my dissertation -that the health library sector are very good at building international networks, collaborating and finding ways of improving access to health information in developing countries. Jane said that international partnerships “have become mainstream in the NHS” so it is easier to secure funding for projects (however she was unsure how long this will continue under a new government). I think libraries in other sectors should be seen as important to the development process and I think that those who do seek to provide such services have a lot  to learn from the health sector.   Ok, for obvious reasons it is vital that researchers, practitioners and academics in developing countries have access to the most recent and relevant health and scientific information, but opening up access to information for other audiences is also vital. For example, school libraries are ideally placed to fill the resource gap faced by schools in developing countries, but the networks, collaboration, partnerships and needs-based evaluation are lacking in this area. Maybe we should look to international health partnerships and to organisations such as International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications for ways to rectify this. I believe this is vital…after all, school is where the researchers, academics and practitioners of the future are!

Thanks to Jane for such an interesting and informative talk.

Here is my presentation which followed (navigate through the presentation with the arrows at the bottom. It is better to view Prezi “full screen”, so you can view the notes I have added, which can be accessed by clicking the title at the bottom of video, viewing it through VodPod and selecting “full screen” under the “more”menu on bottom right hand side )

CDG International Libraries Event, posted with vodpod

One of the event organisers mentioned that someone had commented to her how surprising it was to get two speakers at one event talking about international libraries! why is this?? I think this really needs to be rectified and we need to get out there as we really do have so much to give and so much to learn. International librarianship should be included in every library school course in my opinion. So many people have said to me they would not have considered all of the complex elements involved in library aid and the role that librarians have to play in international development, if they hadn’t been in my talk. I love that at this and the AULIC event people have been genuinely interested in what I had to say and I hope that I have encouraged them to look a bit further afield and perhap even consider getting involved in similar projects themselves

Prezi, me and my attempt at changing my approach to presenting

As mentioned above I did a similar presentation for an AULIC event in June which I didn’t feel went so well so for this one I decided to change my approach. Things I wanted to change:

1) Props: Despite knowing my subject inside out and being very passionate about it I am terrified of going totally blank when a sea of faces are looking at me, forgetting the simplest of words and saying stupid things, so I use a full script as a crutch. It usually works for me as it is more of a comfort blanket than anything, I don’t read it straight off and I do look up and address the audience…but this time it FAILED. It distracted me, stemmed my flow and made my talk seem staggered. (note: this wasn’t helped by the fact some of my old tutors were in the audience, one of whom had been um..a little sceptical of my research ambitions…so I was VERY nervous) However, I noticed that when I took questions at the end of my presentation I came alive..my thoughts, opinions and knowledge flowed. All the nerves disappeared and the audience responded positively.  So I decided NOTE FREE might be the way to go. I CAN DO IT, Go JoBo!!!…Eeeek!

B) Visual Tools: It was a requirement of my MSc course in library and information studies that we were assessed in controlled conditions once for each module as well as submitting one piece of written work. One of the few ways this could be done was by presentation, so over two years my cohorts and I presented almost to death! As a result I have become a bit tired of Powerpoint and almost compile them mechanically, so I decided it was time for a change and looked for other options. There has been a lot of talk on Twitter about Prezi and having seen some examples of great looking presentations on their website I decided to give it a go.

Prezi – my trials and tribulations

A lot of people I know have mentioned that they have been considering using Prezi themselves so I thought it might be useful to share my experiences. Judging by comments from my Twitter network people either seem to love Prezi or are a bit apprehensible to say the least. There is the danger that it can make an audience seasick as the presenter whizzes them around the material doing loop-the-loops and whirl-mcswirls. I looked at examples on Prezi of other Prezi presentations and established that there were some REALLY BAD examples and some REALLY GOOD ones like this one and this one . It became clear that with the best ones the authors had thought really carefully on the placement of the material within the presentation and the path that you took the audience through. The bad ones seem to get a bit carried away with the whizzy things Prezi can do, forgetting about the original point of doing a presentation. The most important this to remember is that  THE OLD RULES OF PRESENTING STILL APPLY. It has to be clear, consistent and follow a coherent path.  DO NOT use functions just for the sake of it. I remember the early days of Powerpoint when folk got a little carried away with flashing font etc …then we all agreed that SIMPLE IS BEST…this still applies.

Compiling a Prezi – my tips and thoughts

• Do NOT attempt to do it on a laptop without a mouse or Prezi misbehaves and shoots all over the place – I nearly launched my laptop out of the window on many occasions. It was much easier on a PC with a mouse. However, I have to say although I found Prezi infuriating to use but I am happy with the result. (it is embedded here as you can see and any thoughts would be most welcome – feel free to comment)

• Prezi has no spell check…and for someone who cannot spell (me!) that can be a problem…I hope there are no spelling mistakes in my presentation.

• I found it really useful to organise my thoughts in Prezi. It is so easy to move ideas around and delete/add to them that I used it initially as a mind-mapping tool in a way I couldn’t with Powerpoint. I think this really helped me to improve the flow and make my points more concise (and the end result had barely a bullet point in sight!!!) It made it more dynamic and I really had to think about what I wanted to say and how…something that had become mechanical when compiling a Powerpoint.

• WARNING – I found Prezi extremely  temperamental.  Sometimes it would upload jpg images, sometimes it wouldn’t (on one occasion it took me two hours to persuade it too and I never did figure out why it suddenly decided to play nice!) I also tried to add a YouTube video to it -  a potentially useful function but in practice the video looked really pixelated and a bit rubbish when viewed through Prezi. I tried to address this by changing the format of the original video file on Zamzar.com to a flv file after some helpful advise from a lovely Twitter friend…only to be told by Prezi the file had become to big for it to be uploaded…grrrr! I managed to do it in the end by converting the YouTube video to flv on Zamzar, the result was a smaller flv file that uploaded and looked better. Please don’t ask me why…I have NO idea!  Perhaps someone wiser than me could explain???

• When I tried to download the final presentation (as advised by Prezi with really limited instructions) on to my computer to take as a back up (as all super prepared presenters should) I has so many problems. It would not download on my computer so I had to race into work and try on two different computers. It finally downloaded as a Zip file that had so many components in it I had no idea how to find the actual presentation! (again, perhaps someone could enlighten me on this?) so I had to go without a back up and access it online. I had been considering taking a Powerpoint back up with me in case of technical failure but I had spent so long faffing with Prezi and coaxing it to do what I wanted that I didn’t have time…and quite frankly if Prezi was that great I shouldn’t need a back up using another programme…the whole point was to be Powerpoint free! The upside to this was that in normal circumstances I would have gone to the event feeling terrified that Prezi would fail but, because I felt free from Powerpoint and the script, and because I had spent so long working on my presentation, I thought “what the hey..if all else fails? I know my subject. I know what I want to say. I will just talk sans visual aids!!” Ooooh! HELLO new confidence and embracing risky strategies!

• The non-pay version of Prezi insists that your presentations be publicly available. I don’t mind this but it did make me really think about what details I should include. I normally put all my contact details on my presentations but I didn’t with this one.I left on my name and where I work as people could easily find this anyway but I still do not know if I did the right thing. My presentation was for my audience but the tool I was using was making me limit the information I would normally have given them. This has led me to question whether this defeated the whole point?

• Prezi is not so easy to print out for people to make notes on but it is easy for people to access online without you having to post it anywhere that might require passwords etc and you can embed it in your blog which also serves to draw traffic to your blog and I hope to encourage feedback.

• Embedding the presentation in a wordpress.com hosted blog is not straightforward. After a lot of cursing I found (thanks to the same lovely Twitter friend mentioned above that I hear-by name Super Man) that the only way to do it was to sign up with VodPod and post it into my blog this way. I have been told it is easy to embed in wordpress.org and other blogs however.

• Prezi advises that after the event you add comments into your presentation so it makes sense without the presenter. This I have duly done, but again, it took ages. The only option available is to put these comments into the presentation itself, which I think makes it look messy, unlike with notation in Powerpoint which can be at the bottom and subtle. Due to the restrictive nature of the templates I also could not find a note-type font similar to those demonstrated in Prezi’s guidelines so mine had to be red and bold to make it different from the rest of the text…..hardly ideal! I hope this does not cause to much confusion and annoyance to people looking at it. Let me know your thoughts? Maybe there is a better way of doing it but I could not figure it out…another usability issue!

If you are thinking of using Prezi then go for it but please make sure you have PLENTY of time and patience, consider whether it is appropriate for your audience and try not to make folk seasick. It has been suggested to me that the problems I encountered may have been because it takes a while to get used to using Prezi but I was working on it on and off for three weeks and in my opinion, if after this time I was still having problems with it, it is not user-friendly enough.

Conclusion

I think overall my presentation was a success. Without the shackles of a script my talk flowed and I was able to get back that old enthusiasm. I had spent so long organising my ideas and compiling my Prezi that I really felt like I knew what I what I wanted to say. Driving the Prezi was fine and I only lost my place once because I pressed the wrong button. I am yet to receive formal feedback from my audience but I got good verbal feedback from the people I did speak to. A really interesting discussion was had at the end of my presentation which indicated that I had succeeded in engaging my audience. This new approach really worked for me. I am in two minds as to whether I will use Prezi again and I await feedback from my audience and readers to help me decide.

Oh, I also learnt that it is probably is not a good idea to tweet your Prezi technical dramas when the person who invited you to speak is following you on Twitter…they may have a heart attack – Sorry Lizz!

Any thoughts on any part of this blog post be it my presentation subject, Prezi or the art of presenting in general would be most welcomed

Thanks to the West Country branch of CILIP’s Career Development Group for inviting me to speak. I had a lovely day and met some lovely people and thanks to Southmead Hospital Library for welcoming us and for the fascinating tour at the end.

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My new hula-hoops what I made :)

Time to write about one of my other favourite things – Hoop dance! I went to a hoop dance workshop at the Folk House in Bristol today where I made these hoops to learn twin hooping. I spent so long carefully wrapping the tape around the hoops (it is waaaaay harder than you would think!) that I didn’t get to try many tricks but I am very excited to have two hoops specially made for me as they are exactly the right size. Plenty of time to learn tricks later. Anyone wonder what I mean by hoop dance? Check out my teacher Emma from Hooping Mad…she is AMAZING!

Feeling fed up because of all the budget stuff, library cuts, talk of volunteers taking over library services, England being rubbish in the football? WELL GET A HULA HOOP!!!!! You can’t be glum when hooping I promise. Five of our staff members at my library have taken up hooping since I started our little hooping group and we have loads of fun…and it is cheap fun! You gotta be in it to spin it! Yeah! wHoop!

Why I am excited at Paul Sturges being awarded an OBE for services to libraries in Britain and overseas

This is just a quick post to comment on the news that Paul Sturges has been awarded an OBE for services to libraries in Britain and overseas. Congratulations Mr Sturges!  

I carried out qualitative research in Malawi for my MSc dissertation and I cannot begin to describe how daunting this seemed before I set off. I would lie awake thinking “am I being overambitious,why didn’t I pick something easier?!!”  the panic set in many times….then lo! I discovered Sturges and Chimseu’s (1996) Qualitative Research in Information Studies: A Malawian Study. Education for Information 14 (2), pp. 117-127.  A paper written about a small-scale qualitative study that they carried out in Monkey Bay (completely by coincidence it was undertaken in the town right next to the rural village I was carrying out my research in) that told me my project WAS achievable and positively encouraged my approach.
 
The authors had observed that the quantitative approach dominated postgraduate research in information studies and that the qualitative approach, revealing the whys and hows, was lacking. They suggested that:

“it may tend to seem too (..) time-consuming an exercise for the more practical concerns of the majority of those interested in information studies. Thus the qualitative approach is probably more saleable to PhD students who have more time, and more need to show an impressive rationale for their methodological choices”

So the pair decided to undertake a MSc sized qualitative research project in Malawi

“with a subsidiary aim of testing the proposition that while qualitative research is not absolutely simple, and does place considerable demands on the researcher, it can produce valuable results in a way that is particularly swift and direct. Furthermore, it was intended to show that this could be done even in conditions that present inbuilt difficulties arising from cultural, linguistic, political and economic conditions”

which they duly did and found that

 ”with good preparation, willingness to improvise, a determination to listen to what people say, and think about it carefully, then a rapid qualitative study can not only be effective, but much more rewarding than sitting waiting for responses to a postal questionnaire to arrive. Having tested a qualitative approach under difficult conditions, and found that it can indeed provide valuable research results, the authors feel able to offer to students and colleagues a wholehearted endorsement based on experience “

….and a few minutes after discovering this paper I had a team of cheerleaders in my head going “You can do it!! in fact you HAVE to do it!!”  and I very successfully did so . Sturges and Chimseu were right and I thank them for giving me the confidence to do it. In moments of panic I thought of this paper. This paper was all the more important to me as qualitative research on international librarianship, especially in MSc sized projects is thin on the ground so I welcomed all of the guidance I could get my little mits on!

This is award is really great news in a time when libraries, particularly public libraries are being scrutinised and challenged in the press and in parliament. I confess I do not know very much about all of this OBE business but it does suggest to me that someone important, somewhere thinks libraries and access to information is important and this is something we can really use to prove our worth – more needs to be made of it.

I am particularly pleased about the “overseas”  bit of the award. I am always going on to anyone who cares to listen that librarians have a massive role to play in international development and in the agendas of development organisations and that we should be banging their doors down…I hope they will take note of this recognition Sturges has received…..and seek out our expertise!

Sturges and Chimseu’s (1996) Qualitative Research in Information Studies: A Malawian Study. Education for Information 14 (2), pp. 117-127.

AULIC MSc Event – Bath University

more ramblings from me….. 

A month ago (sloppy late blogging I know!)  I nervously  (despite all of my previous practice!) presented to the AULIC group about the MSc research I carried out in Malawi (see earlier post). It was such an interesting day. There were five of us presenting the MSc research we undertook as part of the Information and Library Management course at UWE and the topics were. 

• An investigation into the usability of academic library homepages. As we are currently re-designing our homepage  it was a really pertinent subject for me. It was good to hear that the elements needed to make a homepage “perfect” consisted of a pretty simple check list. Our old webpage would have failed miserably but I was relieved to see that our new one would rate pretty highly. 
• The next speaker discussed the pros and cons of RFID. Often sold as the answer to all stock management problems, she revealed some downsides that would not have occurred to me as we do not have RFID in our library. It was really informative to hear how people have found it to use in practice.  As there is often a lot of debate in my library about “to RFID or not to RFID” this was also very pertinent to me. I was left with a clearer idea of what RFID involved.
• The representation of librarianship in the media was then investigated. When I read the title of this study I must admit that I thought “not again”! as our profession seem to be obsessed with our image. However, the approach to this study was entirely different to any other commentary on this topic I had read as it investigated the views portrayed in newspapers (one broadsheet and one tabloid newspaper from 1998-2008) rather than in popular culture. Refreshingly, the researcher resisted the pithy, defensive tone often used by librarians whose sensibilities are pricked by the unwavering stereotypes we often see.  This may be because she analysed behavioural stereotypes rather than appearance and looked at the skill sets that librarians were perceived to have and the activities they were reported to be doing.
• The final speaker presenting her findings on “why librarians don’t research” . I was particularly interested in this subject because throughout my dissertation I kept telling myself “when will you have another chance to do this again, make the most of it”  This presentation reminded me that this doesn’t have to be the case. Time restraints are a big reason for librarians not doing research and the speaker made the point that perhaps it is time for the senior management of library and information services to address this and factor it into the workload of their staff. This makes sense considering that one of the main motivations that the librarians gave for researching was to improve their practice and that of their work place. Definitely food for thought and it really encouraged me to think that the dissertation does not have to be the end of my research experience.

One of the tutors  from UWE’s  Information and Library Management  MSc programme rounded up the day and it was great to hear her say that she thought it would be a good idea for the ILM course team to look into running some post-MSc workshops on how to write journal articles for publication as this is an entirely different discipline from essay and dissertation writing.  This would be brilliant and would definitely have helped me with the article I have submitted to ASLIB.  This AULIC event revealed the scope and excellence of the research carried out by MSc students and I think that it would be a shame if it went unnoticed. Anything that will help this research to get disseminated can only be a good thing and can make invaluable stepping-stones for new professionals. I am now thinking of submitting articles to journals outside of the field of librarianship and information to get a wider audience and I am now re-enthused after listening to my cohorts at this event. 

Great job guys! and thanks to Peter Bradley for organising the event. 

A great experience to add to my Chartership portfolio…… 

After the event I was approached by a member of the South West branch of CILIP’s Career Development Group and asked to present at their AGM on July 1st…..maybe I did not  come across as nervous and jittery as I thought I did!!! 

I also got some great feedback yesterday from the event which will be very useful for my portfolio and for planning my next talk.  My biggest fault was that, although I know my subject inside out, I fear having a mental block when I stand up to speak in front of a group of people and so feel the need to rely on a script…the problem with this approach is that I become so focused on that, that it reduces the flow and doesn’t allow me to show my enthusiasm. Anyone out there have any tips on how I can overcome this and be the confident, engaging speaker I would like to be? 

feedback:

the aspects of my presentation people found interesting and what they said…

i. Malawian School Library (10)

International perspective (2)

Thought-provoking & a different subject (2);

Fascinating – the idea was brilliant, would never have thought of it;

Proving that a lot of previous research was incorrect;

Made me rethink my attitudes and perceptions;

A whole new perspective on the role of the Librarian; Made me think of my chosen profession in a different light

I knew little about this – inspired me to learn more

Feed back for whole event:

“Impressive speakers – the profession should feel very encouraged”

 the speakers were well-versed in their subjects… I was very impressed”

“Food for thought in considering own dissertation topic (2); good opportunity to get together & discuss ideas for dissertation topics & methodologies; extremely useful in preparing me for my own MSc”

 Useful (3); informative (2); thought-provoking;

“fascinating look at what is current research from MSc students”

“Shouldn’t speak purely from slides & notes as some of the speakers did”

Hula-Hooping and World Records

’nuff about libraries for now. I had a break from all that at the weekend and I am now a world record holder having taken part in the Hoopathon for Sports Relief in Bristol yesterday yay!!!!. 1388 of us,  at venues across the country, hooped at the same time for two minutes. Then I hula-hooped around the mile.  It was so much fun, the weather was amazing and I met loads of other hoop dancers (most of them waaaay better than me!) The great news is that I have found us a new hoop teacher and a network of hoop dancers that I had no idea exsisted….I thought it was all happening in London.
There is only so much you can learn from a DVD, which is what my hoop-group have had to rely on so far   and I had started to feel like I was in a bit of a rut so the timing of this couldn’t have been better.

There was a lady there who did a display of Belly Dance Hoop fusion, she was amazing! definitely want to try that next.

I started off the day with a stonking cold but as soon as I got hooping it miraculously went! you simply cannot be down when you hoop AND it has magical healing properties!

(Note to self: All of the best hula girls were wearing sparkly pants..must get me some sparkly pants)

Remember – it’s cooler to hula folks!

(all of that said…the mile route did take us past Bristol City Library and I couldn’t resist giving it a little nod on my way past!)