Tag Archives: learning

Being brave: a note on research progress

Posted on by acrystelle
2

This year I extended my LIS Masters course to undertake research projects equivalent to four course units. I could have graduated last year. You’d think three years part-time would’ve been enough. Some may think ‘Huh? You did what?!’. I’ll say ‘Yep, I may be crazy but it’s probably the best decision I’ve made in my early LIS career’. I kid you not.

I had a burning desire to try out conducting research for myself. I needed to dip my toes in. I wanted to establish myself as a practitioner-researcher. This profession needs more of those. How I will continue to contribute to the professional body of knowledge beyond completion of my Masters, in the likely event of absent employer support, is currently beyond me. I’m yet to figure that out.

The upside of doing research as part of my Masters is that I’m in control. I direct what I wish to find out. With guidance from a research supervisor (mine is fab), I am empowered to question and critically look at the gaps in existing literature and knowledge in areas of interest to me. I’d like to say ‘I found that out’ and ‘This is my piece of the puzzle’. What I have experienced so far, and it’s only Week 8, is that this year of research is like a ‘graduation’ in itself. Conducting research is helping me make the transition from student to professional.

So, the journey so far.

From the beginning of my current research project, I have kept a journal. I set up a private WordPress blog and I write whatever is on my mind about my research project once a week for 20 minutes. I also use the blog as a space to ‘blah’ write. A blank page is daunting to me. But a blog post is conversational, or at least that’s my style, and I’m able to freely jot down my ideas, tease them out and note observations I make from the literature. My journalling time is one for reflection and record how I’m progressing. I’ve never done academic research before, so I thought it useful to record my reactions, emotions and how I deal with set backs. Sure, I probably don’t have the time to spend on this, but by doing this I am able to draw upon lessons learnt and make my experience better next time.

The project brief

My first piece of assessment was a project brief, basically putting together the research questions, design and approach to map out exactly what I’ll be looking at and how I’m going to do it. By Week 2, I thought I was doing pretty well. Week 3 I encountered a set back. One of my research fears was realised – I found the exact same study already done. I was devastated. When I drilled down to why I felt this way, it was because I wanted to be the one who did the study. Probably a kind of ‘rookie’ thing to think and I feel silly now that I reacted that way. I didn’t want to look like I ‘copied’ someone else. My research supervisor reassured me all was okay, that my idea had to have been good if someone else had done it too (and was published) and I could use the study I found as a way to direct my research and potentially fill gaps. Long story short, my project brief was a success. I had developed a roadmap for my research project.

My research project is in the area of evidence-based practice in library and information science. The purpose is to gain an understanding of the role of evidence in informing library and information practice by identifying the types of evidence used by Australian special librarians and explore influences associated with evidence use in daily practice.

The literature review

Right now I’m (trying) completing the literature review. The challenges I have encountered so far are: -

  • defining scope – I’m using my research questions to guide me
  • communicating my approach so it ‘stands up’ (to scrutiny)
  • defining themes – I’m allowing the observations I make about the literature guide me and ensuring I have a set argument and stick to the core purpose of my research
  • finding my own voice in extending the literature

This afternoon I challenged myself to write my own thoughts and ideas I’ve already gathered from reading the literature without referring to the literature. I tried to establish my own voice about what I thought the existing literature was missing and what it does and doesn’t do. I don’t think I got very far, but perhaps my journal entry tomorrow night will help relax it a bit.

Recruiting participants

Huh? I actually have to talk to people I may have never met?! Doing data collection didn’t really hit me until I received my first expression of interest to participate last week. Suddenly this whole data collection thing became real. Thoughts like ‘Really? People want to participate in my research?’ enter my mind. I should be okay, but I’m nervous and anxious. It’s exciting too. I’ll be grateful to participants in my research project for their time and commitment to seeking an enhanced understanding of how evidence is used (or not used) to inform and improve LIS daily practice.

 

I’m approaching the busy end of my research project. Now is when it will ramp up, with data collection, analysis and reporting. I’m nervous, excited, but I need to be brave.

Building a career path….with Lego

Posted on by acrystelle
2
Courtesy of Phillie Casablanca (CC Attribution 2.0 Generic) - http://www.flickr.com/photos/philliecasablanca/3354734116/

Courtesy of Phillie Casablanca (CC Attribution 2.0 Generic)

Okay, not quite. But using Lego as some kind of analogy will help me to explain one of the biggest challenges I’ve come across as I’ve progressed through my library and information science Masters course. I remember, back in the days of starting out, thinking I had a fairly good idea of my career path. I thought I knew the kinds of building blocks I needed to: -
1. develop my knowledge, and
2. ensure I made an informed decision and/or confirm aspirations for my career path.

Little did I know I was actually thinking of big building blocks, like Duplo. I thought I could put a few Duplo together (areas of professional knowledge) and construct the necessary knowledge and experience together to establish a career.

My career construction now seems a whole lot harder. It’s intricate. It’s like playing with Lego and working out how all the pieces will fit together to build the kind of career I see for myself. I have no doubt some, not all, LIS students and new information professionals will also feel this way at one point or another early on in their career. Here’s why.

Perhaps like me, you’ve entered the LIS course thinking you’ve got it figured out. Why else would you have chosen to do the course unless you had a fairly good idea where you’d like to end up? That’s not to say I wasn’t open to other possibilities but I’m a person who doesn’t make these kinds of decisions lightly, and so I like to have solid justification for investing my time. Maybe you thought, ‘I’m going to work in academic libraries. I want to be a Liaison Librarian’. Sure, okay.

Then this happens…..all this cool stuff comes along. The difficult thing is, there’s so much cool stuff in this profession, so many avenues, so much to learn about. More than once I have felt like I’ve fallen down a rabbit hole of wonders and the possibilities are endless! Don’t get me wrong, I’m incredibly grateful for the exposure my lecturers and others in my network have provided me throughout the course. It hit me the first time, probably a couple of years ago. Oh jolly crap. Crappity-crap…..crap.

All that reading you do during the LIS course and beyond, following everything and anything that catches your eye? How on Earth can you process it all, put the pieces together, when you’re pulled in all directions and exposed to a treasure trove of knowledge?!

Suddenly Duplo isn’t what you’re playing with anymore. Bits and pieces of information have become little pieces of Lego. All those articles, blog posts, reports, etc are small increments of information, which make sense on their own, but putting it all together to develop a working knowledge of an area takes time. The LIS course can only fit in so much. To become proficient in an area of professional interest or area relevant to a career direction worthy of exploring, takes much longer than any one subject. It takes more than a simple prescription of readings and assignments. There’s no way a career, a Lego structure, can come together all at once. The structure, the career you (and I) want, will need to be broken down into smaller bits, and themselves needing constructing with smaller pieces of Lego.

I’ve come up with a few suggestions, more like ideas as I don’t know if they work, but nonetheless I’d like to share to those who may be experiencing something similar. I write these tonight as ideas for both myself and anyone else needing them. I also need to write these out to convince myself that all is, and will be, okay. I’ll try these suggestions as well. I’m not just preaching here.

1. Relax, be patient.

Patience is not my forte. I can be patient with many things, but not with acquiring knowledge. I can’t process and build my knowledge fast enough. Relax. Yes, I need to do that. Chill. Rome wasn’t built in a day.

2. Talk to people, get a mentor.

You’re not alone. I strongly suggest participating in professional development and networking events, and getting involved with your chosen professional association or event committees. Being a NewGrads coordinator has assisted with my developing a network of peers and getting in touch with experience professionals. Participating in conversation on Twitter has eased the ‘isolation factor’ and has enabled me to establish a professional voice. I signed up for a peer mentoring scheme in my first year of the course, and to this day, I still catch up with her now and then. My mentor has been fabulous for guidance and bouncing ideas around, I honestly cannot thank her enough.

3. Target your reading and exploration or define little research projects.

I have a long list of areas of interest. In my experience, it’s all become jumbled up and I’ve ended up maybe confusing myself. It’s a good thing to read widely, but I’d suggest focusing on one area of interest for about 3 – 6 months or so and see what you come up with. Create a notebook in Evernote to save items worth keeping. Review it regularly. Or perhaps you’d like to set yourself a mini research project? Determine a couple of research questions and seek out information relating to the area to help develop your knowledge. This doesn’t mean to disregard resources and articles, etc in other areas, but just focus on one or two for a bit. I’m trying to focus on research data management and innovation at the moment. Innovation is taking over as my interest gains momentum. It also happens to be an area I’d like to explore in a research project next semester, so it makes sense for me to invest some time here.

4. Reflect, take time out.

….but there’s so much to learn! I know. My goodness, don’t I know it. I’m at the base of a salad fork right now, three pathways I can see myself taking. But I cannot stress this enough – take time out to reflect. Create a career journal. Write often. My career journal has had frequent visits from me lately. I’ve gained value from exploring my interests, finding out where they might be coming from. I’ve tried to understand some motivations behind my interest in innovation, for example. Even if you don’t eventually pursue a path, exploring some underlying reasons why you were interested in an area may indicate a common thread of the type of work you’re really seeking in your career.

5. Feel the fear and do it anyway

My (awesome) manager kindly lent me a book of the same title. Basically, life is a series of learning experiences. If an opportunity comes up and you think there are some lessons to be learnt, go for it. It’s all experience. No matter what, you need to have faith that you will handle whatever that comes your way. We all have our own pathways. (I need to tell myself that quite regularly.)

Anyone else, new or experienced information professionals, wish to share their thoughts, experiences and ideas about how to build knowledge and experience towards a career we want?

Don’t take it personally

Posted on by acrystelle
Reply

I’m sure the participants, Matthias and I could have chatted well into the afternoon at our workshop at the New Librarians Symposium last month about building and managing a professional identity. I would have happily done so. Of course, we couldn’t cover everything in three hours, but there is something I’d like share now, my own challenge and small tip for those who are yet to discover the wonders of Twitter, the professional online community and personal learning networks. There have been times since I started venturing in the online space when I’ve had to tell myself, ‘Alisa, don’t take it personally’.

As a newbie entering the Twitter-verse and the engaging conversation to be found there, it can be difficult to grasp the fact that just because you follow someone, doesn’t mean they will follow you back.  There will be times when you follow someone who you genuinely think is awesome – as a person, professional, for their skills or knowledge, whatever that took your fancy, but they don’t follow you back. This can be disheartening at first. It was for me. Thoughts like I wasn’t good enough circled through my mind. You can feel stumped and struggle to try to figure out how you can “meet” this awesome person. It can be difficult to not to take this as a reflection of your worth in the conversation and online space.

There are people who I’d really like to converse with, get to know better but haven’t followed me back. In the few months when I first started using Twitter to communicate with the profession, I followed a particularly popular librarian from the UK. I followed this person because I was interested in what they had to say, what they’ve done and generally wanted to learn more about them. They didn’t follow me back. Well, not until recently, over two years later. There is a person who I met not long ago who I really wanted to continue our conversation and establish a relationship. I look up to this person, have a lot of respect for them. They didn’t follow me back on Twitter. I could possibly email this person, but I’m quite shy in these situations and need to muster a lot of courage to take this step. Even at work I sometimes don’t speak unless spoken to for fear of interrupting them (something I need to work on).

So try not to take it personally. It is not a reflection on you. Things will be as they’re meant to be. Let it go.

In the first few months, or even up to a year, it’s easy to get caught up in the buzz when you gain a new follower. I’ll say right now that the value of an online presence is not in the numbers – the number of people you’re following and the number of followers you gain. The value of the learning experience, learning from one another lies in the connections and strength of the relationships you build, not the number of followers. Don’t use the numbers as a validation for your professional worth. Numbers are no measure, believe me. Know thyself. My thoughts are to not take much notice of the numbers. I suggest worrying about the people and your relationships. Focus on the great people you connect with, converse with and exchange ideas with. Authentic connections count much more than simply the number of followers you gain.

My activity on Twitter is that I don’t tweet willy-nilly, most of the time. I tweet when I have something to say. I guess you could say I’m introverted in both my offline and online lives. I tweet when I find a useful resource I’d like to share. I tweet when I have my ‘Alisa’ moments, such as watching the footy or reading on the beach of a Sunday morning while my partner surfs. I enjoy sharing what I know, my thoughts and experiences and bits and pieces of my personality. If you seek authentic connections and relationships, you can only be yourself. Be genuine in your interactions. Mean what you say.

No matter what, at some point people are going to disagree with you. 

Don’t take it personally.

Disagreement is natural and healthy. Strength of a network and its resulting knowledge is in diversity. Different perceptions open new ways of thinking. Take it in your stride.

There will be times when you’re misunderstood, people may misinterpret what you say. It hasn’t happened often so far to me, but this is a really difficult thing to not take personally. I tend to take this as a reflection on me and poor communication. I get disappointed in myself for not communicating my ideas clearly enough. This is learning too. It is learning about your peers. These are opportunities to develop ideas further.

Don’t take it personally.

And finally (for now), find your own style. This takes time. I’m still trying to find my own. Be true to who you are as a person, the professional you are or becoming and your contributions.

But just remember, don’t take it personally. Take your time finding your feet. It’s all good.

When a personal brand isn’t an identity

Posted on by acrystelle
1

Last Saturday I co-facilitated a workshop at the ALIA 6th New Librarians Symposium – Building and managing a professional identity.

Towards the end of the workshop, I shared my views on the concepts personal brand and professional identity, by placing them within the wider context, that is the information profession. I was greeted with stunned silence when I was re-assured by participants that their brains were ticking over, that I provoked thought. This was a good thing. I had met my objective. My work was done, so to speak.

I thought it appropriate to share this. And this post has been a long time coming.

There are loads of articles and resources out there that claim to improve a personal brand. There are loads of much of the same to (establish or) improve a professional identity. One might think these terms could be used synonymously, and they might be right. But let me put them this way….

Firstly, let’s look at connectivism. A professional identity can be illustrated through this theory and is of particular relevance to our networks. The theory of connectivism provided the grounding on which my research (a few years back) about developing personal learning networks sat. Connectivism shaped my thinking about professional development and learning as a profession, but more on that a bit later.

Okay, for those who need a refresher on what a personal learning network is, here’s my view. A personal learning environment is something you create for yourself to assist with professional and personal development. Tools such as Word, Evernote, a notebook and Twitter, for example. A personal learning network is the people component, it is those whom you connect with, interact with, exchange ideas and knowledge with. There appears to be articles abound saying a personal learning network is Twitter. I disagree. Twitter is a tool in your personal learning environment you use to connect with your personal learning network.

Back to connectivism. Nowadays there is so much information. We cannot process and make sense of it all individually. It’s impossible. The theory of connectivism says that knowledge is distributed and resides in connections, and that it won’t be a matter of knowing stuff (“just in case”) but we must now have the ability to traverse networks of knowledge, information and resources to know what we need to “just in time”, quickly and easily. Connectivism says the process of learning is creating, navigating and nurturing connections. The ability to see connections between ideas and concepts will increasingly become a core skill in this world. I’ll credit Siemens (2005) at this point as he was one of the first to publish on this idea.

Now hold those thoughts.

Think of yourself, an information professional, as a node in a network. A network has more than one node and is made up by connections and relationships. So I guess you could say a personal learning network, or even the profession itself. A network, or your personal learning network is a living thing that is constantly evolving as your needs and connections change. Sure, there’ll be people who you’ll be friends with for years, but generally, as your professional development needs and interests change, so will which organisations you’ll follow, articles you’ll read and courses you take.

Now hold onto those thoughts too. The picture will all come together, I promise. I just need to lay the foundations for you.

Since publishing a blog post in 2011 about personal branding, my thinking around it has changed (and so it should). Back then I identified three elements of a personal brand.

Perception – your personal brand is how others see you. How others experience your contributions to discussions, projects, etc form your reputation.
Public face – your presence (online and offline) and the professional you display publicly. A blog name, blog design, domain, twitter username, avatar, logo, all make up your online ‘public face’.
Differentiation – your character traits, skills, knowledge, experience and interests identify you as a professional and make you different from others.

From these elements, I identified three things that determined a personal brand.

  • identity
  • professional relationships (connections)
  • reputation

Makes sense, right?

I’m not going to say my thinking was wrong back then. But I will say that I dislike the term ‘personal brand’. Probably one of my biggest biffs about it is there is so much advice out there about building a personal brand and promoting your personal brand. A brand is a mark, a stamp. Quite frankly, the concept ‘personal brand’ says “me, me, me”, it also says ‘storefront’.  This makes a ‘personal brand’ inflexible. You see, I really don’t think the term ‘personal brand’ sits well with a network of information professionals, most only too willing to share and exchange their knowledge with one another.

Whether we like it or not, we’re all developing professional identities. An identity is something to be shaped and will evolve over the course of a career. A professional identity can be seen and developed online or offline. It just so happens we spend a lot of time online and those in the information profession who actively develop their professional identities tend to be those we recognise. Yes?

An identity invites interaction and growth. An identity is communicated through various means. Notice that I say ‘communicated’ there. I will argue there is a difference between promotion and communication. How so? Simple. Communication is two way, it’s engagement. An identity is formed not by a flashy website or a swanky Twitter handle. There’s no prize for that. An identity is formed through active engagement with the profession and its members. Developing one self into a professional that is recognised for unique expertise, skills and knowledge defines a ‘node’ in a professional network.

At this point, I’ll put this to you. If we all had well-defined and recognisable professional identities, would we then be able to recognise knowledge (skills and experience) more easily and make faster and stronger connections? With strength in connections and ability to make new ones (with knowledge), can we accelerate the development of the profession’s knowledge base, and make it more robust? If currency in skills and knowledge is the intent of most, if not all professional development activities, would we need to constantly make new connections?

I’d like to call this “learning as a profession”. What do you think? Is it possible?

The difference between ‘personal brand’ and ‘professional identity’ is that we don’t connect to a brand when we develop networks of knowledge, we connect with the knowledge, skills and experience as part of a network of professionals (the substance). There’s more to building a presence in this profession than setting up shop with all the happening social media tools. Developing a professional identity is not about promoting one self to get noticed. You get noticed in this profession by being generous with your time, skills and knowledge, and the sharing of resources and opportunities for development. Not with a storefront. Where I get a bit peeved is that there is so much focus on building a ‘personal brand’ that we run the risk of promoting (or flogging) the shit out of it. When we make connections, all we’re really connecting to is a ‘public face’, not an identity.

One can do all the right things like creating a LinkedIn profile, promoting a blog, spend hours deliberating over a Twitter handle. But all these things are really only one aspect – a public face. There needs to be more focus on developing our professional identities, the differentiation we bring to the profession. We need to make meaningful connections to people and knowledge, not just to a nice looking avatar. I’d like to see more emphasis on developing ourselves as a unique professional, and over time a well-defined one that we’ll all know where to turn for specific knowledge and/or skills. If we devote efforts to our professional identities, the other elements, like reputation and public face, will flourish with it.

So, is there a difference between ‘personal brand’ and ‘professional identity’? Perhaps not in the terms themselves. But the difference I’ll argue, is the motivations for being in the profession and in the online space – is it “me, me, me” or “hire me, I’m awesome”? Or do you see yourself as a participant in the conversation?

The theory of connectivism places developing a personal learning network in context. It takes a bigger picture perspective and approach to growing knowledge for the profession, not just ourselves.

If someone came to me, not that they have, but if they did and tell me “I have a Twitter account, a blog and I’m on LinkedIn but nothing’s happening. Why am I not hired?”, my first question will be, “did you splash your presence about the place, or did you engage in the conversation”?

So I ask then, why are you here?

A little courage

Posted on by acrystelle
3

Courage. I think that is what the coming year will need. A little here, a little there, and a dash of belief in everything. Oh, and not forgetting to smile and relax every so often.

Today was my first day back at work for the new year, so I’m guessing now is a good time to share what lies ahead.

In the small steps I took towards establishing some sort of balance in my life last year, I learnt a thing or two.

1. I still don’t know where my happy balance point is. But that’s okay. It’s a work in progress.

2. My partner and I communicate more. I don’t mean just the ‘how was your day, Dear?’ conversation over the frying pan in the kitchen of an evening. We’re both professionally driven and every now and then we need to be honest about where we’re at in terms of professional pursuits. Communicating what I’d like to achieve and what I need to say ‘no’ to keeps me to my word, and vice versa. We pull each other in line.

3. I can craft.

4. I get an itch to write if I haven’t in a few days.

5. I can have Twitter-free weekends….and it’ll still be there when I return.

 

While I have a few goals I’d like to achieve this year, and they’re big goals, I’ve identified areas of focus (apart from my job).

1. Research

I have at least two research projects to complete this year as part of my LIS Masters. I extended my course to include the extra research units so I could gain experience as a researcher and perhaps take a step forward in pursuing a career path that is managing research data. Yes I’m crazy. Yes I’ve thought it through. Except now I feel anxious about the little time I have to complete them – less than 12 months. Plus travel. Plus fieldwork. Plus working full-time. Plus….

I’ll definitely need more than a little courage here.

I’m looking forward to it, but the pressure I have is that I’d really like to graduate this year. People have started the course and have graduated before me. Surely the academic staff are tired of me hanging around :)

I have set up a private space in which to journal my progress, work through ideas, so I can hopefully gain an understanding at the end of it of how I experienced and have learnt about the research process. I’m looking forward to participating in the research circle at QUT and finally be involved in a space I’ve been longing to be a part of.

I may love it. I may hate it.

2. Reading

I acquired a Kindle last year. I’ve found my reading mojo and reignited a joy I hadn’t experienced since I was a teenager. I seek to explore new reading horizons this year by reading out of my comfort zone. I look to reading to feed me inspiration for writing and the direction in which to take it. My goal is to read 20 books this year. I think this is aiming rather high given my research commitments this year.

3. Writing

Last year I recovered something that was absent from within for a long time. I enjoy writing. Something clicked last year, or something triggered. I have awakened a passion. Or maybe ‘passion’ is too strong a word, but I’ll go with that for now. I’d like to write more.

I don’t claim to be a fabulous writer by any means. But I may be a writer who is just out of practice. Before I became increasingly competitive at gymnastics, I loved to write. I was good at it. I’d jump at writing assignments. As a nine year old, I wrote poems and made them into a little book. I wrote short stories. I now wonder how different my professional life might’ve been if I kept this up. Somewhere along the way of training, depression and senior high school study and uni, I’d lost my passion.

This year I’d like to explore where writing could take me. I need to practice, practice and practice. I’ve started a writing journal to keep me in touch with my writing projects. I record my word counts, my inspirations, my ideas and work through them. I’ve noticed I get irritable if I haven’t written for more than two days. I’ve also found I experience less anxiety about writing if I allow myself the freedom to explore an idea, brainstorm, and by not placing undue pressure on myself to produce something perfect every time. Through the journalling process I can put more consideration into my thoughts before publishing them. I’m really looking forward to my own writing projects this year. Let’s just hope my writing requirements for my research projects don’t kill what I’ve recently found.

I read a book called ‘Writer with a Day Job’ that kicked started some strategies to fit in my writing where possible. I have plans to do a short writing course with the Queensland Writers Centre and have picked out a few seminars and workshops I’d like to attend too. QWC have a writing morning on the first Friday of every month in the Library Cafe for an hour. I could do this before work. I’ve placed the time and dates in my diary.

4. Fitness

Health and fitness will continue to be a priority this year. I’ve increased my goal to exercising four times a week. A little trick I do to myself to ensure I get to the gym is changing before I leave work. I have no excuse then, I’m dressed. I’m looking forward to the new fitness centre at QUT opening this month. I’d like to add swimming as an alternative cardio.

5. Friends

I made a conscious effort last year into placing my relationship and family above my professional commitments outside of work. I’ve done really well with this. What I’ve noticed though is that I spend a lot of time at home. My focus for this year will shift outward and ensure I can relax and hang out with my friends more often. A tipping point occurred a couple of months ago when I froze during a night out for a best friend’s birthday. I shut down, stood there. I realised I need to exercise the ‘relax and having fun’ muscle more frequently. This surprised me. But I only need to look at my last few years to find where I went wrong.

 

So they’re my areas of focus for the year. I fear I may need to reduce these to two or three but it’s a starting point. I received a lovely gift last year of a well-being journal that I’ll certainly put to good use in documenting my path.

Other plans and goals include completing fieldwork placements, a requirement for my LIS Masters; attending IFLA in August, and travelling to South America if it is confirmed my partner is sent there for work. I’d love to do a placement over there, if I can. I also continue to progress my three-year plan for an overseas work contract. I’m keeping an eye on possibilities.

Wow, so a big year, and an exciting one too. A little courage is needed to get through it. A little belief is needed so I can finish it. Throw in a smile and I’ve really got something.

Happy New Year!