Just back from an excellent production of the Scottish play at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford upon Avon. Well worth the trek across the country. Very well imagined and designed, with the witches replaced by children. The Porter stood out with a very funny 'knock knock' scene while Macbeth's visions were nicely matched by Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking. Congratulations to the company for a super show.
Friday, 26 August 2011
Monday, 22 August 2011
Thing 9 - Evernote
I can understand how this might be useful, but I have yet to try it out for myself. I've downloaded the app onto my phone, but not quite sure how it works. Off for a play methinks.
I may revisit this later on.
I may revisit this later on.
Thing 10 - Routes into Librarianship, or, My Library Life So Far
I am one of the many people who fell into librarianship. I had just graduated from Leicester University with a BA in English and felt much like Princeton in the stage show Avenue Q:
("What do you do with a B.A. in English?" 2003, Avenue Q: the Musical, Music & Lyrics by Robert Lopez & Jeff Marx)
After returning home due to lack of funds I was roped into helping set up a Library Access Point (LAP) in my home village. LAPs are small libraries which are managed and staffed by volunteers in partnership with county councils. We opened our LAP in October 2003 and I started volunteering on the Monday afternoon and Saturday morning slots. I answered the advertisement for a Graduate Library Trainee at the Classical Faculty Library at the University of Cambridge and came second. So I carried on volunteering and learning to drive. By this point, I was thinking that library work was for me, partly because I wasn't qualified to do anything else, and I didn't want to be stuck in admin for the rest of my life.
Luckily, in January 2004, I got a letter from Classics offering me the trainee post as the trainee had left to study for a PhD. So I came in too late to join the other trainees in most of the library visits and in setting up CATALOG so I felt my year was less like a traditional traineeship and more like a contract library assistant job. I learned MARC21 cataloguing, classification, serials management and conservation. I helped students. I watered the plants. Nearing the end of my traineeship, I didn't know if I wanted to do a Masters in librarianship. I was toying with doing a PGCE and then I thought I'd get some more library experience once my trainee year was over.
A year in the wilderness doing library volunteering and lots of different temp positions (admin again) and I stumbled upon my current job, which I've now been doing for five and a half years. During this time I've seen the library change from an overstocked out-of-date book repository to a bright, welcoming, up-to-date working library. I've also seen my job and its various roles shrink as print journals have decreased and more library services become automated and online. This is undoubtedly a good thing for our users, but it means that I have grown out of my role.
I applied for the MA/MSc Information & Library Management at Northumbria University and studied by distance learning, which was hard, as I was also working full time and there just aren't enough hours in the day. I did enjoy my studies, although I found the lack of interaction with other students quite isolating (VLEs and forums only really work if everyone uses them). After many frustrating hours and some sleepless nights, I passed my dissertation and I'm now looking to move on to a professional post. If anyone sees such a post in Cambridge, please let me know.
What do you do with a BA in English?
What is my life going to be?
Four years of college
And plenty of knowledge
Have earned me this useless degree.
I can't pay the bills yet,
Cause I have no skills yet.
The world is a big scary place.
But somehow I can't shake
The feeling I might make
A difference to the human race.
("What do you do with a B.A. in English?" 2003, Avenue Q: the Musical, Music & Lyrics by Robert Lopez & Jeff Marx)
After returning home due to lack of funds I was roped into helping set up a Library Access Point (LAP) in my home village. LAPs are small libraries which are managed and staffed by volunteers in partnership with county councils. We opened our LAP in October 2003 and I started volunteering on the Monday afternoon and Saturday morning slots. I answered the advertisement for a Graduate Library Trainee at the Classical Faculty Library at the University of Cambridge and came second. So I carried on volunteering and learning to drive. By this point, I was thinking that library work was for me, partly because I wasn't qualified to do anything else, and I didn't want to be stuck in admin for the rest of my life.
Luckily, in January 2004, I got a letter from Classics offering me the trainee post as the trainee had left to study for a PhD. So I came in too late to join the other trainees in most of the library visits and in setting up CATALOG so I felt my year was less like a traditional traineeship and more like a contract library assistant job. I learned MARC21 cataloguing, classification, serials management and conservation. I helped students. I watered the plants. Nearing the end of my traineeship, I didn't know if I wanted to do a Masters in librarianship. I was toying with doing a PGCE and then I thought I'd get some more library experience once my trainee year was over.
A year in the wilderness doing library volunteering and lots of different temp positions (admin again) and I stumbled upon my current job, which I've now been doing for five and a half years. During this time I've seen the library change from an overstocked out-of-date book repository to a bright, welcoming, up-to-date working library. I've also seen my job and its various roles shrink as print journals have decreased and more library services become automated and online. This is undoubtedly a good thing for our users, but it means that I have grown out of my role.
I applied for the MA/MSc Information & Library Management at Northumbria University and studied by distance learning, which was hard, as I was also working full time and there just aren't enough hours in the day. I did enjoy my studies, although I found the lack of interaction with other students quite isolating (VLEs and forums only really work if everyone uses them). After many frustrating hours and some sleepless nights, I passed my dissertation and I'm now looking to move on to a professional post. If anyone sees such a post in Cambridge, please let me know.
Tuesday, 16 August 2011
Thing 8 - Google Calendar
I've been using Google Calendar for about 4 years now, since I changed to Gmail. I like the fact that you can share calendars with other people and set up email reminders for appointments and events. You can also get mobile access with android phones, meaning you can't possibly miss anything.
The downside is that you no longer have the "I forgot" or "previous engagement" excuse if you share your calendar with others.
Although these tools are a great way of organising your life and ensuring that appointments aren't missed, I wonder if we're becoming too reliant on technology to do all the reminding for us and forgetting how to use our brains to do it.
I will probably use Google Calendar more once I've got used to the new smartphone and no doubt it will help me keep on track when I start to get busy in the Autumn.
The downside is that you no longer have the "I forgot" or "previous engagement" excuse if you share your calendar with others.
Although these tools are a great way of organising your life and ensuring that appointments aren't missed, I wonder if we're becoming too reliant on technology to do all the reminding for us and forgetting how to use our brains to do it.
I will probably use Google Calendar more once I've got used to the new smartphone and no doubt it will help me keep on track when I start to get busy in the Autumn.
Monday, 15 August 2011
Thing 7 - More networks & professional organisations
Oh dear, it had to come along at some point. This is where I have to try not to rant about the unfairness of CILIP's membership fee structure. It's hard enough trying to pay all the bills and fill up the car with petrol without being fleeced for membership of a professional organisation as well.
http://www.cilip.org.uk/membership/cost/pages/subscription.aspx
I don't see how it's acceptable for full time library assistants earning just over £17,500 to be paying the same amount per year as Library Service Managers or University Librarians who probably earn £50,000 per year.
Let's do some maths.
At £189 per annum, a library assistant earning £18,000 will be paying CILIP 1.05% of their gross annual salary.
A student loan is repayable at a rate of 9% over £15,000.
For national insurance, gross earnings between £139 and £817 per week are charged at 12%.
Under £35,000 income tax is charged at 20%
Average Library assistant gets £1500 per month gross.
- tax at 20% = 300
- NI at 12% = 180
- Student Loan at 9% = 135
- CILIP membership = 18.90
I haven't added pensions, as these are variable, but this leaves a net monthly salary of approx. £863.10. Add rent or mortgage repayments, fuel, utilities and food, and there's very little left, if any.
Let's have a look at a Head of Library Services on, say, £50,000 p.a.
£4166 per month
- tax at 40% = 1666
- NI at 12% = 499.92
- CILIP membership = 18.90
Net monthly salary of approx. £1981.18. Nice.
I'm assuming that a head of service doesn't have a student loan, but if they did, the rate of 9% would deduct £375 from the monthly salary on top of the deductions listed above.
Anyway, the CILIP membership fee is 0.378% of the Head of Service's annual salary, compared to 1.05% of the library assistant's annual salary.
I think those in better paid positions should be subsidising those wanting to get on in the profession. Lower the fees for those earning under £20,000, raise them for those earning over £50,000, have a sliding scale in between which goes up in £5,000 increments. CILIP would still get the money, just in a fairer, more Robin Hood sort of way.
So, in a nutshell, I'm not joining CILIP because it's not good value for money. It shouldn't be a bar to getting on in the profession, and no amount of proselytising is going to make me change my mind. So there.
[Maths help provided by Percentage calculator: http://lachie.net/maths/percent.html]
[Deductions from http://www.thesalarycalculator.co.uk/about.php]
http://www.cilip.org.uk/membership/cost/pages/subscription.aspx
I don't see how it's acceptable for full time library assistants earning just over £17,500 to be paying the same amount per year as Library Service Managers or University Librarians who probably earn £50,000 per year.
Let's do some maths.
At £189 per annum, a library assistant earning £18,000 will be paying CILIP 1.05% of their gross annual salary.
A student loan is repayable at a rate of 9% over £15,000.
For national insurance, gross earnings between £139 and £817 per week are charged at 12%.
Under £35,000 income tax is charged at 20%
Average Library assistant gets £1500 per month gross.
- tax at 20% = 300
- NI at 12% = 180
- Student Loan at 9% = 135
- CILIP membership = 18.90
I haven't added pensions, as these are variable, but this leaves a net monthly salary of approx. £863.10. Add rent or mortgage repayments, fuel, utilities and food, and there's very little left, if any.
Let's have a look at a Head of Library Services on, say, £50,000 p.a.
£4166 per month
- tax at 40% = 1666
- NI at 12% = 499.92
- CILIP membership = 18.90
Net monthly salary of approx. £1981.18. Nice.
I'm assuming that a head of service doesn't have a student loan, but if they did, the rate of 9% would deduct £375 from the monthly salary on top of the deductions listed above.
Anyway, the CILIP membership fee is 0.378% of the Head of Service's annual salary, compared to 1.05% of the library assistant's annual salary.
I think those in better paid positions should be subsidising those wanting to get on in the profession. Lower the fees for those earning under £20,000, raise them for those earning over £50,000, have a sliding scale in between which goes up in £5,000 increments. CILIP would still get the money, just in a fairer, more Robin Hood sort of way.
So, in a nutshell, I'm not joining CILIP because it's not good value for money. It shouldn't be a bar to getting on in the profession, and no amount of proselytising is going to make me change my mind. So there.
[Maths help provided by Percentage calculator: http://lachie.net/maths/percent.html]
[Deductions from http://www.thesalarycalculator.co.uk/about.php]
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