My stance on volunteering in any sector is roughly this:

+ Volunteering can be of benefit to you if you can’t (for whatever reason) get a paid job for the experience. Short placements in different sectors and departments can give you a really valuable insight into different aspects of work you might want to do in the future. Longer placements can help you demonstrate that you’re dedicated to something and help you develop skills over a longer period.

- Volunteering has the potential to be massively detrimental to the library and information profession if organisations use it to save money on paid, qualified and trained staff.

+ Volunteering can help make services better, through added bonus enthusiastic people around who want to help make things better.

- Volunteering can make things a million times worse if volunteers aren’t trained properly. If they give the wrong information or provide a poor service, it reflects on the service provider  and has the potential to result in a decline in standards and users etc.

+ Volunteering can help services improve by providing a source of community engagement – people who use the service from a ‘lay’ perspective and have insight into community need can influence how the service is run. This can be a - too though, if some voices are heard more loudly than others.

- Volunteering to do a job that is technical/requires training and skills is essentially saying that either you don’t think it really does require those skills and therefore undermines the idea of professional standards, or that you’re willing to develop the required skills and will do whatever it takes to enhance your CV without payment, which ultimately shoots everyone in the foot because fewer and fewer paid posts will be available if there’s an army of desperate volunteers, so what’s the point in volunteering to enhance your CV in the first place?

CILIP’s take on volunteering is this:

“CILIP acknowledges the contribution that volunteers make to libraries, enriching the services they provide and helping to sustain their viability.

In order to optimise the value of that contribution it should form part of a professionally managed public library service that has at its core sufficient paid staff to ensure the direction, development and quality of the service provided.

Volunteers are not ‘free’ and need proper management, training and development. In many cases a volunteers’ co-ordinator should be appointed to ensure appropriate management and recognition of the value of volunteers”.

The ALA says something similar:

“Volunteers can be a valuable resource for a library. But like any resource, good management is key. As shown by the Independent Sector survey, volunteer time has value. Some quick tips gleaned from the resources provided below:

• clarify status with regard to such things as compensation for work-related injuries, insurance coverage when operating a library vehicle and related benefits
• establish procedures for reimbursing any work related expenses
• be sure not to supplant or displace established staff positions
• develop a recognition program
• have regular training for their work”

So, in theory, I’m not against volunteering, because it isn’t necessarily harmful. However, the political use of volunteers to dismantle services that the current government doesn’t believe that the services are valuable or should be publicly funded in the first place, when thousands of people are being made redundant (or taken off disability allowances etc.) and need paid employment to survive, makes me spit. Councils’ desperate use of volunteers to prop up services now that the government is taking a ton of money away from them makes me weep, especially when library users are made to feel like it’s the only option they have to keep their libraries open. The need for a clear, national set of standards about the use of volunteers in public libraries (and what we should expect from the public library service in general) is desperate.

My recommendation, if you’re considering volunteering in order to get experience, would be to check out the background situation first. Has there been a massive budget cut? Are people being made redundant? Is the role to keep the service going, or is it just to supplement an already successful service? Is there a clear volunteering strategy? Does the institution/organisation have a proper set of guidelines, training and support for volunteers? Do you think it’ll be detrimental to the profession in the long-term? I guess you can only try the best you can to volunteer in good conscience. This page on Public Libraries News is a very comprehensive source of information and analysis of the key issues.

My conscience wouldn’t allow me to volunteer in a library-related post at all, but I’m fortunate to have been able to get paid jobs to develop my skills and experience so it’s not been a situation I’ve had to weigh up and to an extent I think it’s a personal issue as well as a professional one. My volunteering efforts go towards initiatives like Green Streets, which as well as being a brilliant cause (and the source most of the contents of my wardrobe and kitchen cupboards…) has contributed to skills like time management, working in a team, managing volunteers, organising chaos into something a bit less chaotic (or at least categorised into the right piles!), and working with vulnerable people. There are lots of roles within organisations like this, so as well as the warm happy glow from knowing you’re definitely contributing to a good cause, there are some real opportunities to develop, both career-wise and otherwise. The skills you develop might not be library-related in the technical sense, but there are lots of skills that you need no matter what service you’re working in, and the more technical aspects are things you should receive training (and payment) for if you’re expected to do them.

Part 1: Identifying your strengths; capitalising on your interests

Thing 21 recommends “[Making] sure that you keep up-to-date with yourself, and if you are unhappy in your current situation, acknowledge what has changed and take action.” I know I’m capable of doing this (as do people who’ve got a more personal insight into my life at the moment), and it’s a strength I have that I didn’t know about. I guess you never do until you’re in a situation where you need it.

As far as making a list of my own activities and interests goes…here goes! I don’t think any will be too surprising, but I think the value each of them weighs might be slightly different to what I might have expected.

Stuff I Like! 1920s-30s literature, Georgian poetry, Green stuff, activism, adventures, advocacy, beachcombing, bits of the Marvel Universe, cooking, cycling, democratic engagement, digital literacy, exploring, finding information, forests, helping people find stuff out, learning, looking after cats, magic realism, most things Whedon, music, online comics, papercutting, politics, public libraries (shock!), reading, rescuing Penguin paperbacks from charity shops, researching, screen printing, social media, social policy, standing up for things that matter, talking with people who share similar interests/goals (and different ones!), tea-drinking practices, the connections between literacy and freedoms, the relationships between nature and society, thrifting, transliteracy, travelling, typography, walking, wild birds, zombie films/tv shows.

The main thing I’ve noticed by doing this is realise what I’ve let slip and haven’t done nearly half enough of over the last year or so. Things that make me happy and keep me sane I’ve neglected a bit because of being so busy with other things. And there are things I’m interested in but haven’t done yet. I can pursue these interests and activities in my personal life to keep me on an even keel and help me lead my work life healthily, I think.

There are lots of interests in there that do play a significant role in my personal and work life, and some that I was interested in so I’ve made it my job to go and find out about. I’m really excited about it. The skills I need to do these things are skills like public speaking, constructing arguments about why things are important, using evidence to justify this, being able to articulate…stuff, writing articles for different audiences, being able to put people (journalists and the public) in touch with the information they want/need, planning, time management, the usual.

Part 2: Applying for a job

I don’t plan to be on applying for a job in the near future, but I do need to build up an accessible record of activities, experiences and skills because it’s increasingly important to keep track of this kind of thing. I do have lists of interviews, presentations and publications, which I update fairly regularly. I’ve recently set up an Academia account and have started to play about with Google Scholar Citations (though I’m finding it quite tricky) in preparation for PhD writing. I try to keep my CV up to date when I know I’m likely to need to send it to places – this isn’t just for jobs, but for bursaries and applications for other things, and if you’re considering Chartership – so it is very handy to be able to quickly send it off without too much effort updating it. I’ve been thinking about writing a CV for public consumption, like what Katie Fraser has, for example, but I’ve not thought through the pros/cons of this and what it might be useful for. I could put it on my LinkedIn profile too, but as I’ve mentioned before, I’m still not sure how LinkedIn could be of use to me.

Part 3: Interviews

I found the advice for this part of the Thing pretty spot on. I’ve recently been on the other side of the interview table and had the unfortunate experience of interviewing some truly dreadful applicants. Here’s some advice that I hope nobody needs to pay attention to!

• Dress smart. It depends on the job you’re going for as to how smart, but seriously, if you turn up in trainers, dirty casual trousers and your shirt’s not buttoned up and tucked in, you’re not giving the impression that you actually give a stuff about the job you’ve applied for.
• Make eye contact. Not in a creepy way, but it really doesn’t look good if you stare at the desk/your shoes/out the window or have your head buried behind your hands. (Yep, had all of those!)
• Be enthusiastic. Not overbearingly so if you can help it, but I had a lot more fun interviewing the really chirpy person than the person who was pretty much sighing his way through every response, and again, it gives the impression that you actually care.
• Don’t apologise for what you consider to be a lack of experience. Big up what you do know and what you have done. There’s a reason you’ve got as far as the interview process, and if you really weren’t experienced enough for the role, you’d have been dismissed as unsuitable already.
• Let the interviewer finish the question before you start answering it! This should be a no-brainer, but wow, that was off-putting. It might be because of nerves, but it gave me the impression that he didn’t have enough respect/interest in me, the role and the questions to even bother listening. At one point the colleague I was on the panel with almost stopped the interview and asked the guy to calm down, because he was answering the questions so wrongly, whereas if he’d have just let me finish I would have given him some indication as to how I wanted him to answer the question.
• Don’t bring your own drink into the interview. Or at least don’t slurp it!
• Don’t be afraid of (a little bit of) silence. Take the time to think of an answer if you don’t know where you’re going to go with a response.
• Think of a couple of questions to ask at the end of the interview, ones that are better than “how much is the pay?” and “when can I start?” This site makes some good points, even though it’s clearly not directly relevant to the LIS profession. Really though it’s about demonstrating that you’re engaged and proactive.

This is a great post about interviewing for a job in an academic library (in the US) by Jenica Rogers, which, like the rest of her blog, is absolutely spot on.

• Be confident about what you know but don’t pretend to know when you don’t.
• Don’t be afraid to ask questions. People won’t think you’re stupid (or if they do they won’t tell you…!) and it’s better to find things out for definite than wonder if you know or not.
• Make the most of as many opportunities as you can. Be open to the possibility of opportunities and be able to spot them.
• Keep track of the things you’re doing – conferences you attend etc.
• Keep an up to date CV.
• Make the most of professional networks.
• If you don’t ask, you won’t get. Apply for stuff! Ask if you can get involved.
• Don’t not apply for stuff because of fear of failure.
• Stop fearing failure. It won’t get you anywhere.
• Join a Union.
• Join CILIP and/or another professional body.
• When at all possible, don’t do it if you don’t love it.

I’ve had a re-read of my blog posts so far and it seems to be that the Things I put the most effort into are the wordy ones, the ones that require reflection and a certain kind of work, rather than the technical ones that require practice and fiddling. I think this is partly to do with the fact that my paid (un-library-related) job doesn’t require me to use the tools that some of the Things have covered, whereas my voluntary (library-related) work is helped by having a think about the wider themes and issues-based things. It’s helpful to be able to take a step back and work out a sense of perspective and try to see where things fit in with what.

It’s also to do with which is my stronger point – which ties into why I do the work I do – but realising this has also helped to give me a kick up the bum with trying out and adopting useful resources and tools. I’m more aware of them now and am far more likely to use them when it’s a relevant time to (reference management software when I start my PhD, for example). I do now make use of Google Calendar, although with three working calendars/diaries on the go I do need to make more of an effort to just pick one and stick with it, or make it really clear to myself which one I use for which area of my life (work, PhD, Voices for the Library/CILIP-related, personal etc). This will probably be a lot easier come January when things are far less blurred and I’m not in weird cross-over land.

Here’s a late-night plan in weak-analogy-form – I’m going to use December to have a good look at the hats I have, work out when to wear them, how to wear ‘em with style and grace, and think about what I need to wear them with so I’m appropriately prepared for all seasons.

CC PermaCultured on Flickr

• I’ve had a play around with Prezi a few times and do like it, but I think I’d always be using it in a very deliberate way rather than as a tool that would help me better communicate my message.
• Slideshare I use whenever I have a presentation to give, both to share the presentation and as an emergency backup in case my USB stick doesn’t work or something!
• The other things aren’t ones that would be useful in my line of work right now, and if I need to learn about them I will definitely use the guides from CPD23 as a starting point.

I’m very sorry CPD23, please forgive me!

CC AndyRobertsPhotos on Flickr

Some posts about it that I’ve really enjoyed reading so far and would thoroughly recommend are those by:

• Laura (Palely Loitering)
• Annie (The Hobbit Hole)
• Ed (The Cat’s Eye)
• Michelle (LibMichelle)
• JoLibrariAnne

It’s a relief to see that some people have really got the point of what I was saying in the Thing and I do hope that positive things come out of it. If I have anything to add to what I’ve already said it’s the following points:

• It doesn’t take much to do your bit;
• Doing your bit could be one or several of a whole bunch of things;
• You’d better believe that all sectors of the profession are under threat, before it’s too late to do anything about it;
• You’d better believe it’s your professional duty to do something about it.

CC by GlenPeterson on Flickr

I don’t have a lot of experience of organising events. I’ve done some behind the scenes work with planning and co-ordinating seminars, some internal advertising and facilitating (mic-running, handing out delegate bags, that kind of thing). When I worked for SINTO I did a bit of work helping to organise training days for library staff working in different sectors, such as disaster management (in case of flooding and fire), and legal resources for academic and public librarians. I ought to take the opportunity to plug a couple of events that SINTO are running in November and December that tie in with Thing 16‘s advocacy topic; Gaining support and influence: an introduction to advocacy for libraries and Measuring and communicating impact: advanced advocacy.

Some general thoughts I’ve picked up along the way are:

• There needs to be a clear idea about who the event is geared towards and what they ought to be able to get out of attending;
• The marketing of the event needs to be put in the places that those people are likely to see it;
• It needs to be affordable for the people you want to attend;
• There needs to be lots of prior notice about when the event is and any opportunities there might be for bursaries etc.

They’re all pretty obvious I guess!

On my Conference Wishlist are:

• Library Camp (attending)
• Edge 2012 (attending)
• Public Library Association Conference 2012 in Philadelphia (oh please, oh pleeeease)
• IFLA World Library and Information Congress 2012 in Helsinki (fingers crossed)
• ALA Annual Conference (some day!)

I’ve been given the opportunity to speak at a few events (listed at the bottom here) – as you can see, there’s a real combination of public speaking at protests and campaign events like Read-Ins, panel discussions for the Office for National Statistics and Voice of the Listener and Viewer, AGMs, and guest lectures and workshops at universities. I’m by no means an expert and have a lot of learning to do, but I enjoy sharing what I’m doing, and can genuinely say it’s because I care about what I’m doing and think it’s something valuable. Hopefully others can learn from my experiences, use what I say as a starting point and do something themselves to contribute to protecting and promoting the library and information profession.

When I start my PhD I hope to present at conferences and discuss my research, because again, I’ll be researching something I genuinely care about and think has an important role to play in the future of public libraries and the democratic system. I’ve already written a paper proposal for the January 2012 BOBCATSSS conference in Amsterdam (deadline is 1st October so there’s still time for others to submit!) and hope the panel find my proposal interesting and relevant enough to accept it! I’ve also applied to speak at things like the CILIP Career Development Group New Professionals Conference (what a gobful!) and although my application was unsuccessful, I was happy that Voices for the Library were given the opportunity to share our activism experience and skills in a workshop at the event, which I think was ultimately a more effective format for the content. If the knowledge you have to share is interesting and relevant enough, I think there are often opportunities for you to get it out there another way. Which leads me to the metaphor of the door:

When one door closes another opens. Or, when one door opens, another opens!

Ned wrote a great post about presenting opportunities at library events and how to get them, so I won’t repeat what he said, but will echo one of his key points: If you get your name out there by responding to calls for papers, even if you’re not successful, people will be aware that you’re keen to present and have something to talk about. They may then recommend you to someone else or keep you in mind for another time.

Once you’ve spoken at a couple of things and not completely screwed up, word seems to get out that you might be suitable for other events. All of the speaking gigs I’ve done so far have been as a result of someone asking me if I’d do it, rather than the other way round. I guess that’s saved me the effort of applying, but it does mean I have to work out exactly what they want and what their event is about, and how my ‘area’ fits into that. The plus side of that, though, is that it’s helped me build interdisciplinary links that I probably wouldn’t have done otherwise, through people I’ve met at events and chatting to them afterwards about the relevance of the library and information profession to the different sectors we can be found it, and to wider society. It’s amazing what opportunities can crop up from talking to people – loads of people are interested in libraries, it turns out! For example, although I had to turn down the opportunity in the end because I just didn’t have the time to do all the background research for it, I was asked if I’d present a paper about the politics of library stock management for a Politics and International Studies conference on insurgency, development, and world order in the 21st century!

Presentation

I’ve recently adopted a standard kind of format for the presentations I give where slides are required. I try to avoid words where at all possible and just use images on slides as a memory aid for me, something to stick in the audience’s mind and keep them entertained! When I do use words I roughly stick by the advice in this post, though rules are there to be broken etc. I didn’t know there was a way to embed fonts in Powerpoint so I’ll most definitely be using that from now on! Previously I’ve converted Powerpoints into pdf and then uploaded them to Slideshare to try and get round the potential problem, or just stuck to a font I know is fairly universal. Boring fonts no more!

I can only second what Katie wrote about the whys of attending events. Deepening your knowledge of a specific area, becoming aware of areas and issues you never knew existed, meeting people who care about the things you’re interested in and know more about the things you want to know more about – it’s all really valuable if you genuinely want to do more in the area that the event is covering. However…I’d strongly recommend against attending something just because you feel like you ought to and not because you care. For a start, you’re not going to get anything out of it, so it’s a waste of your own time and/or money. Second, if an event’s booked up you’re taking the space of someone who might actually get something out of attending. Third, you’re totally going to bum everyone out if you can’t be enthusiastic about your time there. I say this because I’m aware that some people think that attending conferences and events is supposedly really important but they don’t quite get why, so go along anyway. In a slight contradiction of what I’ve just said – that’s ok, as long as you go with a sense of curiosity and an open mind, talk to people, learn stuff – and actually do something with what you’ve learned and the conversations you’ve had. I say this as the attendee of a fair amount of conferences and the recipient of a fair number of bursaries – I try to deserve the opportunities I’m given and really don’t like it when I know someone’s applied for and been granted funding to go to something, and done bugger all with that opportunity that others (me!) would give their right arm for. I’m fully aware that this sounds resentful and mean, but seriously, it ain’t on, you know? Yes, getting a conference bursary means you can put it on your cv and that you can probably write a good begging letter – but that’s not the point of the events or the spirit in which the awards are…awarded.

Money-wise…

It goes without saying that attending conferences can be a costly business. I’m pretty much perpetually skint. But I’ve never let that stop me! As I say, I’m fortunate enough to have been given free places at a fair few events. Actually…I’m not sure I’ve ever paid to go to anything. Jammy. Here are some handy hints I’ve picked up along the way:

• Look for any bursaries available that are advertised by the conference organisers. For example, BIALL offer bursaries to library school students for the BIALL Annual Conference.
• If you can’t find a way of getting funding directly from the conference organisers, you might be able to get funding indirectly. Have a look on the CILIP website and see if there are any funding opportunities from special interest groups. For example, the Health Libraries Group offered bursaries for Umbrella 2011. Regional groups might have something on offer, too.
• If you’ve exhausted these options, it’s not necessarily game over. If there’s no mention of bursary opportunities, you could ask the organiser if they’d consider starting one. I did this for the Edge conference and bagsied myself a free place that way. Nothing’s ever truly free, of course – but the cost of writing a blog post summarising the event, or submitting an article to a professional magazine isn’t expensive – and then the event has benefited you twofold, with something else to put on your cv or mention in job applications.
• Failing that, beg a sponsor! Write them an email explaining why you want to go, why you’re so interested and what they’ll get out of sponsoring you to go. It’s good publicity for them when you write one of those aforementioned summaries or articles and thank them for their kindness. Or perhaps you could spend some time working on their stall – it gives you a different insight into things, you meet different people and they get the benefit of the occasional loo break and some time to see the events themselves or have a meeting with potential clients etc.
• Or, ask the organisers if you can help out. I did this for the New Professionals Conference last year with some other MA students, which helped the organisers and gave us the opportunity to attend something valuable that we otherwise might not have been able to.
• If at first you don’t succeed… there are a couple of international conferences that I’m absolutely desperate to go to, and have applied for a couple of times. I’m not giving in! I know of a few people who’ve been successful on their second or third attempt – and if you’re committed enough to apply year after year, surely that’s a sign that you deserve the place, eh?
• Find the free events! They do exist and even though they don’t come with a hefty price-tag, they can be just as valuable. Things like Members’ Days and AGMs are worth attending, for more reasons than just the interesting content, too.

Money doesn't grow on trees, etc.

Making the most

Again, what Katie said. Talk to people! I’ve never found it difficult to talk to strangers so I was at an advantage when I started attending conferences, and now it’s rare that there’s absolutely nobody I know at an event that I go to so it’s not an issue…we’re an incestuous bunch, us library and info peeps.

I’d definitely recommend writing about your experiences, either on a personal blog or asking if a professional magazine/journal would like a submission. I have to admit, I do find reading huge long blog posts about events quite dull, but understand they can be a valuable exercise for the person who’s attended, and some people do like to read about things in great detail. My approach tends to be thematic – as Katie recommended, taking in the big picture of the sessions attended and the theme of the overall event, and applying it. You won’t remember every little detail of the event afterwards, but if you’ve thought about and applied the themes, more will stick with you, which is ultimately what it’s about. You need to be able to say “yes, this is why going to this thing was valuable to me”. Similarly with contributing to discussions and asking speakers questions – actively engaging with the event rather than being a passive recipient helps you get a lot more out of it and makes it far more enjoyable for those contributing to and organising it.