I am a little library mouse! Hear me Roar!

Okay, so this blog kind of started off being something 'serious' which I really wanted to contain things to do with librarianship so I could remember what I'd been up to. I now realise that this is probably the purpose of a CV. Hmph.

So, it's the Easter Holidays at the moment, I'm home alone and have heaps of time on my hands. So I went to the Library (relevant, see!) and picked out lots of books I've not had time to read lately. I am currently getting into comics and graphic novels and today I picked up two. One was a Modesty Blaise which is awesome - gotta love a feisty female protagonist - and the other was The Night Bookmobile by Audrey Niffenegger.

*Spoilers!*

The gist of the story is that Alexandra (Lexi) comes across the Night Bookmobile in the early hours of the morning after having a row with her boyfriend. On the bus she finds allll the books she has ever read in her entire life. I know, it's remarkable. Anyway, she gets completely absorbed by the strangeness of the bookmobile and spends nine years (seriously) of her life trying to find it again whilst filling her life with books and reading (not going to diss the girl for that). In the meantime she becomes a proper librarian as some kind of poor substitute (meh). Finally she realises that the only way she can become a librarian on the bookmobile is to kill herself. Which seems pretty extreme but there you go. So, she does and lo and behold! There she is in the library of her dreams with uncle creepy. 

I mainly picked it up because it looked like it was librarian related and could have made a good gift for bookish friends. It was not as whimsical as I thought it was going to be and in the future I shall definitely be more cautious of whimsy. I mean, I love books as much as the next person but I'm not sure if I like them enough to take fourteen Valium and slit my wrists in an attempt to get a job on a magical mobile library in a Winnebago. [insert witty joke about the current job climate not being THAT bad]. Perhaps I missed an important message in the book, perhaps I was distracted by the terrible illustrations. Either way, give it a read and see what you think. Let me know if there's a pertinent message I've missed?

Just tell me this. Would you get into a vehicle with this man?

I didn't think so.

Voices For The Library

Spreading the word...

I cannot emphasise how important it is that we protect our libraries for the sake of the communities that rely on them.

Clicky..

Have some Cute

A video of a super cute Chinchilla for no other reason than it made me smile and will hopefully make someone else smile too!

It begins...

It's been a while, but times have been incredibly busy what with moving, decorating, dissertating and most exciting - new job starting!

Following two intense INSET days, my first proper day of work starts tomorrow! First impressions of my first professional library post are good. The staff, both library and teaching, are supportive and friendly. The library itself is a welcoming and relaxing space; there is a wide and varied book stock (including some critical texts I used at university!) which I am very impressed with - it's a stark contrast to the library where I went to secondary school. You can tell that it's a place that has been built up gradually and solidly proving that librarians are extremely dedicated and enthusiastic beings. On the one hand I feel like I have to fill some very big shoes in terms of helping to maintain the library's current status, but on the other hand, I feel confident and am itching to get involved: this will be a place that will give me a great chance to grow as not just a librarian, but a person too.

The effort and passion shown by the librarians I have met over the course of this year have inspired me to be as good as I can at my job and have proved that librarianship is a profession worth preserving.

Today I feel proud and privileged to be a librarian in a great library with supportive colleagues.

My first professional post!

I got a job and a relevant job at that - which I am surprised about as I thought the interview was a disaster. It was very annoying - I was completely calm until I had to sit in front of three people and big myself up without sounding like a complete idiot. It's as a Library Assistant at a secondary school just outside of Bristol, and I am very excited even if it's not exactly the most high powered position in the world - it's my first professional role and hopefully the one that catalyses my future career. It finally feels like things are coming together - Both my husband and I have jobs in the new city of residence, flat is sorted out and old house is rented so no need to worry about that. Time to breathe a long overdue sigh of relief.

Of course, I still have my Masters dissertation to complete, but now I feel that I can concentrate wholly on that task without having to worry about finding gainful employment. Hurrah.

Feeling great, if not tired at the moment. I will probably blog more when I get started with my job in September, as more of a way for me to keep track of what I've been doing and learning than anything else. Can't wait to get my teeth into something and make a difference! This job sure wasn't serendipitous, but I can't help but feel lucky. Better dig out the old twin set and pearls...Or horn rimmed glasses.

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.