First contact

Okay, so I started a blog. It is a modest blog. But as I'm training to be a Librarian and 2.0 is where it's at currently I thought I'd take some tentative steps towards producing something. I was also really enthused and energised by the CILIP New Professionals Conference I attended on 5 July, and the fledgling online community of new professionals who gave some really inspirational presentations made me want to 'get involved' as it were. There really is a very vibrant community out there to support newly qualified library and information professionals, and people need to know about it especially in times like this where we have to make the most out of our skills (both vocational and academic) in order to secure work and get onto the career ladder.

One key thing I took away with me from the conference was the importance of getting involved with interesting projects whether that's through employment or voluntary work in order to stay relevant and motivated. Over the past year I've not done so well on this front having wanted to concentrate solely on studying for my Masters qualification, but I get the feeling that it's no longer enough to just have a qualification - you need to have experience to carry you through above other potential job applicants. However, the ball has started rolling recently for me in terms of extra curricular activities with the first Manchester Children's Book Festival that took place between 1-4 July. I got involved in an International Readathon gathering book lovers together to read constantly for the length of the festival. And it was actually pretty awesome and I loved it; especially getting face painted, reading stories and generally pretending to be a child again. It was really rewarding to do something for other people and have fun at the same time.

I also currently volunteer at Chetham's Library in Manchester and have been doing so since March. It started out as the work placement module for my library course but seems to have mutated into a scenario where I keep turning up and they keep finding me interesting stuff to do such as blogging about book plates and cataloguing rare books - I get experience and they get free help (don't worry I get plenty of lovely cups of tea and breaks) so it's a nice reciprocal arrangement! It's a bibliophile's wet dream inside that library and inspires the kind of reverent awe reserved for cathedrals so I am quite happy to re-shelve and organise as the actual books are so interesting and there's something new to discover each week. I would love to work with special collections one day; you could say it's what I aspire to do but, tant pis, at the moment I'll take whatever I can get in order to build up experience and confidence.