Thing 13: Reflective Practice

For Thing 13, I'm writing a reflective account of Things 10-12 in order to apply for the Online Networker Badge.

Reflections of Things 10-12 using Gibbs Reflective Cycle

1. A reflection of Thing 10: Networking Tools

Description: I already use Facebook and Twitter so did not have to set up accounts.

Feelings: I felt like I was on top of this task.

Evaluation: For the task I checked my public usernames and privacy settings.

Analysis: I realised I don't Tweet much at conferences. I tend to read and favourite other people's Tweets. However, I have Tweeted at conferences before (e.g. EAHIL 2017), and my Tweets have been favourited and retweeted.

Conclusion: I'm a good bit of the way there.

Action plan: I could Tweet more at conferences and events. I could pay particular attention to up-and-coming librarians.


2. A reflection of Thing 11: Your Professional Brand

Description: I updated my LinkedIn and Twitter profiles and created an Orchid ID.

Feelings: I felt glad to have an Orchid ID as I'd heard of it before. I don't have any research papers to go with it though! However, I know some people used theirs when producing the health librarian publication HEAR which I was involved with. If I'd had an Orchid ID at the time I could have used it!

Evaluation: It was good to review my LinkedIn and Twitter profiles as I found some content that had become out-of-date.

Analysis: It's good to review content every so often - perhaps twice a year.

Conclusion: I now have an Orchid ID ready to go if I ever need it.

Action plan: I have now Liked the LAI public libraries section on Facebook. However, they only seem to be active around the time of their conference.


3. A reflection of Thing 12: Collaborative Tools

Description: I was familiar with all the tools covered except Slack.

Feelings: I felt good when I realised I have a good bit of experience with collaborative tools.

Evaluation: I'm in the public libraries now and not on committees like I was before so I'm less likely to use the tools now than before.

Analysis: It's good to know some tools I used a number of years ago, such as Doodle, are still considered of value.

Conclusion: I could have experimented with Slack.

Action plan: I did ask my partner to show me Slack and I know it's there as an option if I find myself needing to collaborate with a group.

• What is my personal digital footprint? Am I presenting the online image that I wish others, especially professional colleagues, to see? 

When I Google myself this is what I find: 

1. My LinkedIn profile. It states my job title and employer. 

2. My Twitter account but it says Health Sciences Librarian which is old information, as I updated my details during Thing 11. I would prefer colleagues to see current information! I was surprised to learn I'm on Twitter almost 9 years! 

3. My contact details at my old job. They obviously haven't updated the webpage yet. Again, I would prefer colleagues didn't see this!

4. Images for me. Two of them are actually me. The first one is taken from my Twitter account. I know I need to update it! For the other one, I didn't know where it came from but I clicked in to see it was from the list of speakers at the Western Regional Section of the LAI's conference 2016. 

5. Facebook

6. There's a link to an issue of HEAR (Health Evidence Awareness Report by the Health Sciences Libraries Group of the LAI) which I contributed to. 

• Do I currently have a personal branding strategy? What way have I - or could I - use the tools covered in the lesson to create or improve my brand?

I don't have a strategy other than to keep an eye on what's going on and contribute where I feel like doing so, and to keep my profiles up-to-date. I think LinkedIn is good for keeping track of achievements. 

• How do I feel about networking – is it something I find challenging, or do I find that it doesn’t take much effort for me? Am I exploiting all of the possible channels, to reach out to colleagues and potential collaborators? 

I stayed for drinks at the A&SL conference. That was a nice way to meet some new people. At conferences it can be nice to catch up with people we know already. Where possible it's good to talk to people we don't know, and I do this where opportunities arise and where I feel comfortable. I then often Follow speakers from conferences on Twitter.

• Do I currently use any of the recommended tools to manage workflows and collaborate with others on remote projects? What tools do I feel would be most useful to me in my work?

In my job I'm concentrating on becoming familiar with the work at the moment. I'm taking a break from big collaborations. However, if something exciting comes up I have the resources to get involved. 

Thing 12: Collaborative Tools

My task is to write about the last time I had to work on a group project. The thing that comes to mind is planning a surprise for someone. We are working virtually. We're using Facebook Messenger. The good thing is you can look at it when it suits you (I don't have it installed on my phone). The bad thing is I left it several days before looking at it. It's not great for looking back at old messages. There can be a lot of scrolling. Two people don't mind what we do, so I will contact the other person and plan it with her and then get back to the others. It can be easier when there's just two making decisions.

I have used different tools at different times over the years.

Google Drive: I used this when I was on a librarian committee. The group was very organised and it worked well as a home for documents. I also use it with my partner to keep track of our expenses!

Trello: I used this when I was part of the Health Sciences Libraries Group. I was involved in producing HEAR (Health Evidence Awareness Report) and we uploaded content for the publications onto Trello. I liked it. You could move the different headings around if you thought they were better located elsewhere.

Slack: I hadn't heard of this but my boyfriend showed me it. He has different conversations on it and gets notifications about activities from other platforms. I asked if it's like Google Hangouts and he said it's like a more modern version of it. You can add in Gifs.

Skype: I used to attend Skype meetings when I was on the committee of the Vegetarian Society of Ireland. Sometimes it worked and sometimes you'd end up typing that you can't hear or your microphone isn't working and various things!

Doodle: I've participated in and created Doodle polls. I like them. They are best used with people who are comfortable using different tools, as you want everyone to have their say!

Thing 11: Your professional brand

R11 gave me the opportunity to review and update my LinkedIn and Twitter profiles and to create an Orchid ID. I included links to Twitter and LinkedIn in Orchid. I didn't figure out how to reciprocate, although I did see the Orchid code in HTML. Here is my Orchid account:orcid.org/0000-0002-3162-1999 I heard of Orchid IDs from when I was on a librarian committee, so it's nice to now have my own.

Thing 10: Networking Tools

R10 is about Facebook and Twitter; both of which I use. I checked and my Facebook public username is in the format suggested by the post. I checked my privacy settings and didn't see any changes I need to make (but it's not so clear to me what all the settings mean!). I've updated some of my information in the About section. I've applied to join Irish Librarians Community of Practice. I'm already in the Rudaí 23 group. That is my activity for R10 completed. I set up a group called Vegetarian and Vegan House Share Ireland when I found a need for it in my own life. I continue to co-admin it. I have been an admin for other groups / pages too but this is the only one I'm doing now.

On Twitter I already follow a lot of the people / organisations listed. I've also participated in Twitter chats with LAICDG and HSLG. I've recently Tweeted using the # sneachta - for example: 

Finally finished Thing 7 of @Rudai23; next up Thing 7.5! #sneachta

— Grace Hillis (@Graceih) March 1, 2018

@Rudaí23 retweeted it! :-) 

Snow days are bringing a flurry of Rudai activity. #silverlinings https://t.co/RnMWDTHQJx

— Rudai 23 (@Rudai23) March 1, 2018

And I've just learned how to embed a Tweet in Blogger! Thank you Google, and especially http://www.internetsmash.com/2015/09/embed-tweets-in-blogger.html. You have to change to HTML to be able to get the code to work as intended. Great! 

What I'm not so good at is Tweeting during conferences. I don't really like the distraction. But I know it's helpful for others and I've done so before. Maybe I'll send out a few at the forthcoming A&SL conference!

Update: I didn't Tweet at the conference because I arrived late and didn't have the WiFi code. Oops.  

Thing 9: Reflective Practice

I'm at the point anois where I can apply for my Visual Communicator badge. We've been given two options and I'm going with Option 1 (using Things 3, 4, 5, and 6). I'm very thankful for the snow days for getting me back on track.

Thing 8: Infographics

I'm being asked to consider a report that I recently produced or read. The thing I can think of is a draft strategic plan. I'm being asked if an infographic would better represent the data. I can't find the document to look at it again, but I think infographics certainly make things easier to read. I'm being asked what impact it would have on the reader. Well, it would give a good snapshot of the main points of the plan. I remember seeing infographics produced by Fingal County Council for their annual report and they were really good. You could see statistics clearly so could understand the scale of the services provided.

I have to put together an informative poster or graphic using Piktochart or Canva. I've tried using Piktochart before (with some success) and I'm going to try Canva this time, as when I was on a committee that's what a colleague used to make a conference poster.

This is my infograph! It's very simple (as instructed!) and it's imperfect. If I was doing this properly I would have selected things for children of a specific age, rather than including things for both younger and older children. But the point of the exercise is to get familiar with using Canva, so it's fine.

Once I realised I had to upload my own images (all taken from Pixabay), I did the task fairly quickly. The template I used was the first one - "6 fun ideas to raise money for charity". I made the minimal amount of changes. I messed around with other things but my proposed headings were too long and were taking up too much space on the templates, and there's really no need for that for this task. Thanksfully, I came up with this shorter heading, based on the template! This was a daunting task at the start but really didn't take too long to complete, and I found the instructions provided by R23 really helpful. I followed them closely and got the task done!

Thing 7.5: Storytelling

This element of R23 is not compulsory but I'll give it a go. We can use Instagram, Snapchat or Facebook. I'll go with FB as that's what I'm used to.  I can see Stories on my phone but I don't see the paper airplane icon. I've watched a few stories. The best is one from the Happy Pear where they are showing a photo of Black Forest Gateaux from their new book, along with the photos of the recipe pages in the book. Yum! Very good use of the function! Ha, and on their main Facebook page where they talk about the story they refer to World Book Day! They say people can screenshot the recipe to make during the Beast from the East. Great marketing all round!

I can make this recipe for my dad's birthday. I had to learn how to take a screenshot (hold down volume down button and power button at the same time). Sceenshots go into Gallery. I also accidentally discovered you can video record the screen. I did this, but then deleted it when I figured out how to take the screenshots. This is very useful! :-)

The R23 post says you can only see a story once. However, I went into the Happy Pear story many times.

I made a Story using a photo from my gallery, which I sent just to my partner. I added a sticker and special effects.

Thing 7: Online Exhibitions

I've been thinking about R7 for a few days now. It seems really hard! I was thinking about what I have and what I could use. I looked at some other entries and saw not everyone did R7. Someone did a family tree. Someone didn't do an exhibition but blogged about the ones they looked at. Things I have around me are Special Olympics memorabilia, magazines I was involved in producing, and lots of cat photos. I thought some more and concluded I could make an exhibition about my Sylvanian Family "collection". (For some of my other ideas I'm unsure about copyright restrictions.)

The R7 post said to use other exhibitions for inspiration. I Googled "online exhibition" and found that there is a Harry Potter exhibition thanks to the British Library. The Irish Times had an article about it. The exhibition uses Google Arts & Culture. That platform was covered in R7.

Here is a sample poster about the physical exhibition, from when it was in Madrid. Here is a book on the exhibition. Here's a guide that's on Pinterest.

And here is the online exhibition!

In thinking about my own exhibition, I'm looking at the Sylvanian Families site. I see they are not just targeting children, as they have a more grown up site too!

Here is my online toy exhibition. It's on Blogger. Let's keep it simple. I tried to set up pages but I couldn't view them in the blog so I copied and pasted the content into posts. I added a picture to the homepage but then it wouldn't show the name of the blog so I scrapped it. Eventually it let the pages be viewed by clicking the icon on the home page, and I ended up with two logs of pages as well as the posts. I kept the posts and one lot of pages! So it all involved a lot of experimenting and time! But it's done! :-)