The Framework Five - Critical Assessment

Summary
Critical assessment takes into account the origin, context and suitability of the information being studied, how it is influenced by not only the creator, but everyone involved in handling and disseminating it. These factors determine the authority and therefore credibility of the source of information, the most important assessment.

Personal
There are some very timely examples of critically assessing information I could use as my example: politics such as "he who I don't like to name" (could be one of two people in power to be honest) and Brexit; healthcare with the coronavirus; science with climate change. However all those are depressing and can be downright scary, especially now it seems the whole world has changed. I prefer not to dwell on them too long and the world of misinformation is massive and complex when it comes to these subjects, so this post would be very long otherwise.

I could be very British and talk about the weather, specifically weather apps as they seem to vary wildly, particularly about whether it will rain. But I'm going to get personal, hopefully not too personal. I have three chronic health conditions, meaning I have to live with them as they are not going to go away: anxiety, a vestibular problem and endometriosis. For two of which, I've had to fight the system for treatment and if I hadn't done my own research, I may not have been diagnosed in the first place. So it's something I feel I can talk about with some passion and authority, something I've proved myself in being adept at critically assessing information, but it wasn't always the way. Doctors can easily dismiss things you've looked up on the internet and don't like self-diagnosis, at least in my experience. When it comes to your health, you know when something is wrong; you know yourself, your body and your symptoms best. So you have to become an expert very quickly and advocate for yourself.

Without going into too much detail, my endometriosis has an "unusual presentation of symptoms" and vestibular conditions are hard to diagnose; you tend to get given the easiest answer and told there's nothing they can do. I have explained my vestibular journey in more detail on my blog before: Bittersweet Victory. Just click on the anxiety tag to see my numerous posts about anxiety, but this one is a good place to start: My Past, Present and Future. The endometriosis is a new thing, even though I've probably been living with it for many years, so I haven't written much about it yet.

Trust me, I'm a doctor

In the beginning, I thought healthcare professionals knew best and deferred to them. I didn't ask enough questions, or the right questions, assuming what they were telling me was correct. I always have a problem with figures of authority, quailing in front of them. I should have critically assessed the situation, their situation. I should have taken into account the little time they had, the fact they weren't a specialist in the field and whether they were doing the right tests to critically assess my symptoms to prove their assertions.

When I spoke to a specialist, they said what the previous doctor had told me was wrong. I was sent back and forth, given different diagnoses. When they gave me another diagnosis and told me there was nothing they could do, I researched it and discovered it didn't fit as there was one essential symptom I was missing, cross-checked it on numerous websites, some very academic full of sciencey terms I didn't understand. I looked them up and learned the lingo so I could speak their language when I saw them next to show them I'm serious: I am a mix of stubbornness and curiosity at the best of times and it stood me in good stead. I got a test done off my own back, returned with the results and with irrefutable evidence, they couldn't ignore me. I had to push for treatment and when I found the right person, the person who was willing to listen and didn't just dismiss me, I asked all the questions. I asked what tests they were doing and why, got them to explain the results.

When it came to the second diagnosis of endometriosis, I visited practically every department of the hospital so they could rule everything else out first. I didn't accept what they told me each time, knowing everyone is fallible, even doctors, and pushed for more, knowing what they were saying wasn't right. I critically assessed every person I spoke to, ensuring they had the authority to back up what they were telling me. I quietly defied them and did my research afterwards. They didn't listen to me, so I let them go through the motions, doubting myself. I held my ground, more in desperation than anything else. When they ultimately came up with nothing, that's when they listened to me, they were finally in the right place to listen. I came with a carefully rehearsed speech and proof from an authoritative website. I was proved right and it goes to show, sometimes the authority comes from you and not external sources.

My critical assessment during these medical journeys each took years, comprising the critical assessment of the doctors and specialists themselves, their job titles, specialisms and whether this was just their opinion or they had information to back it up from tests and other sources. I then did my own research, using books, websites and yes, blogs. Blog posts were especially useful for other people's experiences and other avenues to research, some even had links to read and advice. Finally, which leads me to my professional example, I joined a Facebook group for support and shared experience for better understanding of what living with the condition is like.

Capt. Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks)
from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Professional
In comparison, my professional example will seem downright boring and far less dramatic. It can be fun though as it's about social media. Social media is all about people and individual accounts, on Facebook, Twitter or whichever platform you're using. You can use hashtags and lists all you like, but it still comes down to the individual account. Twitter in particular becomes unwieldy very quickly the more accounts you follow. So now I use Hootsuite (other social media managers are available) to manage it better, and I've created Twitter lists on topics. I can separate social media accounts into three categories: macro, micro and mono.

First there is the macro, an account that covers a lot of people, or sites, such as the UL Twitter account; it may be one library, but it is vast and covers a wide range of collections, not to mention people. Then there is the micro account, one library such as the MMLL Instagram account or Classics library Twitter account. Finally, there is the mono account, one single channel, for one single person, such as my own Twitter account. So you have to take into account who they are representing, the context they are based in and who may be behind the account.

I have curated these streams and lists myself, populating them with people and places I know in real life, so I have critically assessed them in person and know what they are an authority on. Others I know by reputation, such as Orkney Library and know they have built up authority through other's opinions. Lastly, there are the recommended accounts, those accounts I have been referred to by people I trust.

Social media is a great source of information, but you have to know where it's coming from. So even the accounts I have critically assessed and deemed good, I still assess the information they provide. I don't take much notice of retweets unless they have made a comment. Tweets with links and images I can be easily swayed by, especially those with a suitable gif or meme; it makes their tweet or post seem more credible.

The Credible Hulk

Critical assessment is key in social media as there is a lot of misinformation out there, but also it can be a great big echo chamber where you only see the information that follows your cognitive biases, that agrees with you, in more ways than one. So don't surround yourself with people like you, curate your sources wisely.

Themes
Again, my information sources are centred around people: information from doctors and healthcare professionals, and information from individual social media accounts. I assess them by their job, professional knowledge of them and whether I have met them in real life. I feel more confident critically assessing information professionally as there are processes and policies to follow, known authoritative sources and places to use, as well as people to ask. You feel on surer ground.

13 Reasons Why...

...I have to talk about 13 Reasons Why. I hate to add to the clamour around this TV series, but I have some very personal reasons why I want to talk about it.

In case you haven't heard of it, which you may not have as it's on Netflix, it's about schoolgirl Hannah who has committed suicide, but she created a series of tapes detailing the 13 reasons why she did it. Those tapes are given to the people in chronological order who contributed to those reasons and then passed on to the next person.

What I should have said

The best fiction holds a mirror up to your own life and some parts were a little too close for comfort, but ultimately in a good way. While I didn't go through exactly what Hannah went through, some of the earlier reasons; they get increasingly more dramatic; are only slight variations on what happened to me at school. Like Hannah, I was bullied. It started with a person I trusted who turned against me, just like Hannah. Like her I was alienated and through one person bullying me, it spread. All it takes is one person to start as it permits others to do the same. I was bullied for 6 years, non-stop. One constant bully and several others along the way, usually name-calling, taking my stuff, blocking my path, goading and teasing. The usual, for girls anyway. It only once turned physical, but I backed down. I should have done more to stand up for myself, sure. But when it's every day and seemingly anyone, it has a way of grinding you down; which is what happens to Hannah at the end; she is defeated.

What could have been

So here are my 13 reasons why I am talking about 13 Reasons Why, if you haven't seen it yet, I've avoided any spoilers:

1. It has got everyone talking about mental health and teenage suicide, which can only be a good thing as it is an increasing issue.
2. However one of those conversations is about the controversial decision to show the suicide. There are trigger warnings, a bit like the warnings given before footage which contain flashing lights, but for people with mental health problems, not epileptics. I know why they showed it as they wanted to portray the full story and be emotionally honest. My opinion on this has changed since, after I finished the series, I saw the latest Supernatural episode which showed someone trying to kill herself in the exact same way as Hannah and I doubt there were any trigger warnings, at least 13 Reasons Why did it responsibly.

   

   An excuse to show the stars of Supernatural, I still love you

3. I believe that if the series were shown in schools, it could change things. In the wake of Hannah's suicide, the school and parents were talking about warning signs, how to identify if someone is struggling. We need to be more aware as this is a problem that's only getting worse.
4. It could also change attitudes. Hannah's suicide was not about one thing, it rarely is; it was a series of 13 things. Some of the reasons seem insignificant, but it all builds up. It will hopefully make people realise by calling someone names, by spreading rumours, by physically attacking someone, it can have a significant effect, whether you intended it to or not. It may make people kinder. I confronted my bully years later over Facebook and she said she didn't realise that what she was doing was having such an impact on me, despite my parents reporting her to the school, but anyway. Plus she even bullied my Mum, a 10-year old bullying an adult! Many of the reasons Hannah details are instances of bullying. However bullying isn't just about the people involved, the bullies and the victims, it is also about the people who stand by and do nothing. One of the biggest themes of 13 Reasons Why is it not just about what people do to Hannah, it's about what people don't do.

   

   Rumours spreading

5. Communication is key. Many of the scenes are heartbreaking and frustrating and excruciating as it really gets inside the characters' heads. You know exactly what the characters aren't saying, start to say and stop. Meanwhile you're screaming at the screen "just say it!"

   

   Exactly

6. 13 Reasons Why is all about the characters. Some of them are superb and complex like Tony who is an unhelpful Yoda, Clay the lovely character we follow, Justin who seems like the stereotypical jock who is anything but, Jessica the least typical screen cheerleader you could ever meet and seemingly sweet Zach who appears to be the breakout actor of the series. Thanks to these characters, the programme isn't only about suicide and bullying, it's about addiction, alienation, sexual assault, alcoholism, peer pressure, family dysfunction and self harm.

   

   Tony with his beloved car

7. However some of the characters are stereotypes: the arrogant creative Ryan, the nerdy bitter Tyler, the entitled rich kid Bryce, the tormented goth Skye and the determined future and reputation-obsessed Courtney and Marcus.
8. The character of Hannah is extremely familiar to me. When I saw her handwriting and her brief foray into creative writing, it was almost identical to mine at her age. I think she is one of the main reasons why this show has made such an impression; you identify with her so strongly. But we only get to know her through the tapes and flashbacks.
9. The cinematography and the way they interweave the storylines are extremely effective; merging the past and present together on screen was incredibly poignant. However the soundtrack is the best thing; the music choices, it's... well it has to be heard in context. If I listed the songs and you listened to them, they wouldn't have the same impact.

   

   Music is integral

10. It has made me realise how well I coped through it all. It was only when the bullying stopped that my anxiety started! It took me a while to work out why, but when I looked at the differences between my life and Hannah's, there are 3 reasons why what happened to her wouldn't have happened to me, if it had escalated, if it had got worse. The first is family. Hannah is an only child and her parents are well-meaning and they clearly love her, but their attention is elsewhere. I have 3 brothers and my parents always put us kids first and as soon as they realised what was happening to me, they did something. It worked, for a while, and then she started up again; schools can be useless when it comes to bullying, but I will not accept that it's just part of school life.

    

    We should all have friends like Tony

11. The second is friends, or at least a friend. I had one friend who stuck by me, when the first bully turned everyone else against me. Hannah had no one at the end; the friends she had made deserted her. There was one person who could have been a proper friend, but he was inaffectual. One of my bullies apologised, years later of course, and if he didn't become a friend, he at least gave me a lollipop as a peace offering, while he was drunk and at a nightclub.
12. The last is interests. Hannah isn't sporty or academic and when she tries to have outside interests, they come to nothing. I had my books. I loved to learn. I had things I was doing outside school. Because all Hannah had was school and home and work, nothing that gave her any real enjoyment, the things that happened to her became everything.

    

    Technology makes it easy

13. Hannah's story takes place now. When I was bullied, it happened before the age of social media, mobile phones and the internet. Mobile phones in particular play an integral part in Hannah's downfall. I don't know what would have happened to me if I had to go through what I went through now. The teasing and name-calling wouldn't have just happened in the playground, in the classroom and on my way home, it would have come by text message and on social media. Photos would have been taken and shared around. Rumours would have been spread almost instantly. There would have been no escape; I had safe places like the library at school and my home, but now, there is nowhere safe.

The tapes

Like Clay, who added a 14th tape, a final reason or at least an expansion on one of the reasons, I'm adding one final reason why 13 Reasons Why is important to me and that's because it has finally allowed me to let go of it all; it helped me work through it. I had inklings as to the reasons why the people who bullied me did it; troubles at home like Justin who's bullied himself; loneliness like Bryce; just trying to fit in like Jessica; fear like Courtney; and ambition like Ryan. But I now understand better the culture that allows bullying to happen, why people turn away when they can help, why they do nothing instead of something. One of my favourite quotes has been doing the rounds recently because of the political landscape right now and it seems apt here too: "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." Edmund Burke. Don't be the person who does nothing.

You said it Clay

How to and how not to do your librarianship degree

I have recently finished my MSc in librarianship, distance learning from Aberystwyth while working full-time. I tried to do it as quickly as possible, completing it in just more than two years. I did it the hard way, I always do things the hard way. I wouldn't recommend it as it damn near caused a nervous breakdown!

It occurred to me that I have a few other bits of advice to impart, some serious and some not so serious. For those of you contemplating doing a librarianship degree, distance learning whether from Aberystwyth or otherwise, this blog post may prove useful. For those of you currently doing your degree, I have broken it down into general MSc advice, as well as specific dissertation advice. And for those of you who have like me finished, you may chuckle in recognition. For everyone else, there's some pretty pictures of Aberystwyth.

My dissertation was on ebooks, looking at the attitudes of publishers, suppliers, faculty and librarians (the main influencers of the success of ebooks in academic libraries) rather than users; the University of Cambridge became a sort of case study. For those of you interested, here is my dissertation. It got a decent enough grade, but maybe reached too far and tried to encompass too much:
https://www.academia.edu/6393946/_Books_are_no_more_threatened_by_Kindle_than_stairs_by_elevators._The_impact_of_ebooks_on_printed_book_collections_in_University_of_Cambridge_libraries_Attitudes_of_librarians_faculty_and_suppliers

The statue on the hill

How not to do your MSc in librarianship

Here are my recommendations on what to do and what not to do while studying for your MSc/MA in librarianship. I did mine at Aberystwyth distance learning while working full-time. But I believe the lessons I learned are attributable to at least all distance learning courses, let alone beyond. These are hard-earned lessons through bitter experience.

DO NOT:

...spend time off. Work steadily and regularly.

...forget the people you met at study school. Regardless of how quickly they or you get through the course, they will be your benchmark, virtual friends and the people who understand what you are going through the most. If you don't meet these people at study school, or go to study school, find them in your local librarian community who have done/are doing the course. Cambridge is great for that. I won't list those that helped me, but they know who they are. I occasionally met up with another Cambridge librarian to talk about where we were at, rant about annoyances and generally catch up. Just knowing someone else is going through the same things as you is comforting and encouraging. It also helps with the distance side, not having lessons or lectures, no socialising with classmates and not having someone to talk to on a daily basis.

Me with the friends I made at the first study school

...on that note, avoid contacting the course leaders if you have any questions, no matter how small, via email or on the forums. Do use the forums and keep in touch virtually (social media is particularly useful. Facebook or Twitter via the #aberils hashtag) with classmates and other librarians, they are your most useful resource, not the electronic articles, textbooks and course packs.

...be scared of the blank page. It is a genuine phobia by the way: vacansopapurosophobia. Write something, anything. Once you start, you'll find it gets easier and better the more you write. You can always edit afterwards. There is no such thing as the perfect assignment, the perfect essay.

...stay at Pantycelyn, if you go to Aber. You will not get any sleep. The food is worse. The sleeping quarters are atrocious. The ablution facilities are bad bordering on dangerous. Trefloyne was the best place I stayed. But I also booked a lovely little hotel on the seafront for the last study school. However you'll need a car or try and catch the bus as the route to the library studies campus is up a steep hill.

...try to do it in 2 years unless you don't plan on having a life, enjoy hard work and have unshakeable determination.

...take on too much such as trying to solve long-standing mental problems, learning to drive and passing your test (5th time), while also trying to have a family life, going on holidays and holding down a full-time job.

...expect too much of yourself. You will run yourself ragged with the combined stress of family, work and study.

Castle hill

...make a mountain out of a molehill. Tackle the molehills, not the mountain.


DO:

...choose the right course for you. I don't know about Robert Gordon in Scotland, but with Northumbria you have to do it in 2 years and Aber you can do it in 2-5 years, which allows for much more flexibility. There are also part-time and full-time courses, of course.

...set yourself deadlines. Yes, there are marking deadlines, but they are almost impossible to stick to, particularly if you're a perfectionist like me. The only one that matters is the dissertation deadline, otherwise with all the hoops it has to jump through, you have to wait months for your mark to come back. You will set off with the best of intentions, especially after the study schools: to be the best you can be. But I can guarantee by the end of it, you will be saying "that will do."

Babe "That'll do, pig"

...heed the universe. If you keep coming up against barriers, frequently get writer's block or everything seems against you, the universe is trying to tell you something. Put it this way, if traffic lights keep changing to red just before you get to them, the universe is telling you to SLOW DOWN.

...expect to put on weight. I haven't ever weighed so much without medical intervention. This will happen specifically when you are writing the dissertation. It's from comfort eating, convenience foods and lack of sleep/stress.

...have a good work-life-studies balance. Get into a routine if possible. If you can't, do little and often. It's about regular work. Go with the flow. Whatever works.

Aberystwyth sunset

...remember life will always get in the way. Distance learning is tough as it encroaches on all areas of your life at all times, if you let it. It's not like a job which you can usually leave at your workplace; it comes home with you.

...realise procrastination is the enemy. Self-motivation is key and the hardest part about distance-learning especially. You will find any excuse not to work. There will always be one more chapter to read, one more episode to watch, one more chore to do. Do not give in.

The bluebell walk trip during the April study school

...take advantage of the opportunities offered at study school, such as the National Library visit and the bluebell wood walk in Aberystwyth.

...use Dropbox. It's invaluable. You can work wherever you are. All you need is an internet connection. You will always have an up-to-date version of your work. It will allow you to take advantage of any moment you have, any inspiration and any motivation. That said, make sure you keep a back-up as well.

Backup from Veronica Mars

 ...use Zotero. You can keep all your references and bibliography in one place. You can create folders to separate them according to each assignment or module. One click is all it takes in your internet browser (Firefox and Chrome at least) to save something. There is also a Word add-in so you can instantly add citations to your assignment and create a bibliography, using your chosen citation style. I always used APA. You will never lose a reference and you will never have to manually create a bibliography again.

...have good, supportive people around you, be they workmates, friends or family. They will act as cheerleaders, there to crack the whip and preferably to do the cooking, cleaning, washing etc. I didn't until my dissertation as me and my brother who I live with share all the chores, but you might be luckier. It means if you're on a roll, you can stay on a roll. Even in the depths of my dissertation I had to take time out to cook, clean and grocery shop as it was my turn.

...allow for downtime. Do something away from work, family and studies. I took refuge in books (paradoxically studying will reignite your love of reading, at least reading literature) and TV, as well as the aforementioned learning to drive and trying to solve my mental problems. For me it was particularly Glee, Once Upon a Time and How I Met Your Mother for the TV programmes, Anne of Green Gables, Jasper Fforde and Cornelia Funke for the books. Without downtime, you'll go mad. A special mention to Gilmore Girls who saved me after I finished.

The balloon I purloined from the 25th anniversary dinner

...have fun with it! Do things your own way. Do the modules that interest you as well as the ones that will further your career.

...lastly and simply, get enough sleep!

How not to do your dissertation

Here are my recommendations on what to do and what not to do while writing your dissertation for the librarianship MSc/MA.

DO NOT:

...do every kind of research under the sun: interviews, surveys, the literature review, statistical analysis. It takes a long time to create, arrange, do, analyse and write up everything.

Beautiful Aberystwyth

...try to finish it under a strict deadline. More so than any other of your assignments, you will find dissertation time frames are unreliable, intangible and ephemeral.

...take a week off to try and write the bulk of the dissertation, in a heat wave, in England, in the summer. As you know, that almost never happens. So your dedication to your work will flutter away into the sunshine.

...ignore a wrist problem. All that writing, typing and mouse work will have their toll on your poor old wrist. It will only get worse, so let it have a break. If you must continue, get appropriate wrist support.

From the funicular railway

...accidentally ignore your supervisor's advice, creating a hybrid structure of the social science and thematic model. They are there to advise you. They know what the markers are looking for, so you must do as they say, or argue your point with them and in your dissertation.

...get sick at the wrong time, just as you are on the final stint of your dissertation. Not only is it extremely inconvenient, it saps your strength, energy and motivation.

...falter at the last hurdle, thinking "yes! It's almost over". It ain't over until it's over.

...write down all the things you want to do afterwards, so you will have a list when you've finished. It only adds pressure and makes things harder, looking at all the much more fun and entertaining and useful things you could be doing. Your librarianship MA/MSc is useful and sometimes fun too.

DO:

...think about your dissertation right from the very beginning of your course. You can be gathering research as you go, thinking about the topic and how you will go about it. And yes, you do need to have at least a shortlist of topics before the dissertation study school and ideas about the research methods you could use.

...get as few people involved in your dissertation as possible, only who you need. It just adds unnecessary pressure.

...print off and proofread your dissertation in paper format. My dissertation went through 3 people before I printed it off. By reading it in print rather than on screen, I found a few typos, incidences of repetition and mistakes and then my proofreaders found far more. One of the markers still found a minor mistake, despite it having gone through 7 people other than me!

Camera obscura image of Aberystwyth

...ask someone who is not a librarian and knows nothing about your subject to do the proofreading. My parents were brilliant at finding grammar and punctuation errors, parts that needed more explaining and consistency mistakes.

...choose a topic you're interested in, know something about already and won't send you doolally after months of work. You want to be sane by the end!

...plan something for when you finish, don't just go on holiday. You will go from being really ridiculously active to nothing otherwise. There will be a crash, I guarantee it, so if you have a project to do, TV series to watch or anything really, it will mitigate the effects.

So that's my advice. Do with it what you will. If you want more advice, the excellent Library Wanderer has written more articulately on the same subject. N.B We both came up with the Babe reference separately. Good luck!

#cpd23 Thing 3 or why can't you just let me be me?

Right, please dismiss the words that follow as completely naive, but I've been moved to write about library branding after being inspired by all the fabulous blog posts I've read on the subject, such as those from Library Wanderer, Blog On and rampersandk. The same as the first two, when I google myself and check my online identity, there are millions of people with the same name as me as I also have a very common name, but it was mostly taken up with a certain wedding dress designer. Despite being intimidated; some of the posts made me feel like I was facing a 150mph serve from Andy Roddick, some were more subtle like a sliced Nadal backhand; I feel I have something to say on the matter. I am coming from an entirely different angle, I won't use another tennis reference, I promise. Wimbledon has finished now and I must let it go.

I work in a business school where branding is obviously very important and not only for our students, we even have a department trying to maintain a consistent image. This has its own problems. How can you have one brand for everyone, for an entire organisation with all its departments? So my trick is don't try and just be yourself. Here's Will Young, unashamedly being just that:

It has nothing to do with branding, it's just called Who Am I, is one of my favourite songs and a fantastic video. It's a song about being honest, unashamedly, unequivocally and uncompromisingly yourself. As I was a late developer in this sense, not developing my own identity until I was sixteen; before that I was just a sheep, a clueless sheep; I am now adamant that I won't be anything less than myself. Plus I am very impressionable and my sense of self is very shaky. For example, my boss was trying to convince me last week that my second favourite film of all time, The Princess Bride, doesn't even exist and I almost started to doubt my own mind!


A lot of people have been concentrating on themselves rather than their job or their organisation's brand and this is where it gets tricky. I find it very confusing if I think of myself in terms of my job when putting things out there in the public sphere; the lines can be so easily blurred. I have my own Twitter @judgesarah account and maintain our @JudgeInfo account too, we have our own site and I have a blog and I email as myself and as part of my job, that last one from the same address. The way I see it, as long as you aren't representing your organisation, you can be yourself. Whether it means I have different names for my Twitter, my blog, my facebook, is all for the better as you are catering your "brand" to the specific audiences. If you haven't seen it yet, here is a video of Phil Bradley's brilliant CILIP Wales speech comparing web 2.0 applications to the various incarnations of Doctor Who.



Twitter for me is predominantly my work image, though I can't help a few more personal things coming through, my blog is simply for anyone who cares to happen upon my random musings and facebook is now unfortunately all old school and uni friends. So it makes sense that they will all be different. You can't admit that your favourite TV series is Alias in a place where your colleagues or students will see it, actually... I would, but most wouldn't. That's why having students friend you on facebook, like one did to me very recently, is a contentious issue. Even I, who claims to be open and honest in all things, in writing this post, have realised that I unconsciously "brand" myself.

So I guess, you need to tread carefully when it comes to branding, consider your audience and the people that will see what you're writing or creating. The idea for this post came to me when I thought of Merlin; like the eponymous wizard, you need to think about what you reveal to whom. And yes, as all the people who've read my blog posts before will know, I did mean the title to rhyme so much. That's just me. I reference popular culture as much as I can, namedrop my favourite actors, films and music, litter posts about LibraryThing with Shakespeare quotes, use Travis songs for the titles of my posts and I rhyme whenever I can. And I have no plans to change, if only on here...

Turn

I wouldn't say I've done an about-turn; I still prefer to do things the old fashioned way: pen and paper as opposed to a computer, tangible CD rather than an ethereal mp3 file and face-to-face instead of phone, skype, email, IM or text. I sometimes feel like Alice in Wonderland with all this new technology, stumbling through a completely bizarre world that's like ours, but not quite right. All the advances are starting to make me feel small, but the power they give just blows everything out of proportion. To further the analogy, the Queen of Hearts is undoubtedly Steve Jobs, bringing out new innovations each year and cutting his opposition down to size at every turn. The Mad Hatter is Mark Zuckerberg, mastermind behind facebook, a genius who has lost his sense of self. Bill Gates is the White Rabbit, a minor character now but still doing a lot behind the scenes, and seemingly always rushing around, never having enough time. The Jabberwocky is a synecdoche for all the nefarious characters who exploit everything in their path: the hackers, the viruses and the spammers. Tweedledum and Tweedledee can represent Twitter, voices struggling to be heard in the sheer mass of communication, saying the same thing over and over, finishing people's sentences and trying to outdo each other. And the Cheshire Cat? All of us. Sending out every aspect of our personalities into the internet ether, until all that's left is a grinning facade. Still looking out for a caterpillar smoking a hookah though...However I must admit, some of the applications we've been looking at have turned my head, if not made me do a double-take. I had one of those the other day; a driver honked his horn at me and I wasn't even wearing anything special. I'm not one of those who takes offense at that kind of thing, but I wish the guy who did it was a bit younger, more attractive and not a white van driver. Here is what I was wearing, sorry about the blatant advertising on the bottle:

My friend Chris' little brother

Being of the right generation (and having a boss who is an advocate of web 2.0 helps), I was using quite a number of the applications already, along with others we haven't covered thanks to my technical wizard of a brother. He's recently got a smartphone and is having fun downloading the free apps. I must admit the GPS one is quite cool; I'm a fan of Google Earth and Street View as well, the supposed Big Brother; privacy issues are blown out of all proportion. I'm on Street View, several times, when looking from behind; I can't believe I missed the camera going past, though it looks like me and my Dad are unpacking the car after coming back from holiday:

Google Street View

The applications I already use are Zotero, facebook personally and professionally, Google Calendar for work timetables, wikis, Delicious - my colleague is well up on it, see their blog here: - Youtube and RSS feeds though I barely have anything to do with ours as it's automatic. I've started to use Doodle, but only because others are: the book club, other communities and colleagues for example. I created a Twitter account for Cam23 and have tried to update it daily, that reminds me... I'm not sure I'll carry it on if others abandon it, but a few friends I've made within the library community tweet, so maybe I will. I'll use LibraryThing for my books at home, but when I find the time. The only ones I know I won't use are LinkedIn as I think professional networking is more insalibrious than social networking (I prefer to make friends with someone I've actually met and genuinely like first and have someone want to help me, rather than contacting an avatar and using them for my own advancement), podcasts as I am disinclined to acquiesce to watching them and Slideshare as I prefer to create my own from scratch. I'm using Flickr more as the Google images set up has changed and it's a lot less user-friendly. iGoogle has been the most successful with me as I can see the weather forecast, the latest news and what's happening each day on our Google Calendar all in the same place. Nevertheless the best bits are the daily literary quote and Calvin and Hobbes cartoons. Here's today's for old time's sake:I can't believe that we've come to the end and I'm missing the closing ceremony; it clashes with my summer holiday. I love writing a blog post every week and I may even keep it up. There's our new library induction video for a start; filming began yesterday and carried on today. It's going surprisingly well and has ben a lot of fun, but can't say much more than that as we're sworn to secrecy. Check my Twitter account for more details @judgesarah. There's also the library blog which is going to usurp our written newsletter. I think the last word should go to Wordle, I adore the eclecticness of my tags:

More than us

I used to hate doing bibliographies when I was at university, mostly because I’m totally disorganised and had to hunt out the books I referenced again as I had inadvertently missed out an important piece of information. My university also deducted points if we didn’t use the correct citation style which I feel is a bit pedantic, but there you go. So I reckon students have it too easy now, using software that not only builds the list of references for you, but also converts it into whichever style you want. I have used Zotero before, but not for a while, and I’d forgotten how much easier it is to use than EndNote, thank goodness! Plus it’s free. I attended the Zotero training session that Andy talks about in his blog post and the student who led it was most convincing. It has a lot of good features including the sharing option which would be fantastic for reading lists. Also, every month our library has a journal club, it’s similar to a book club and we take an hour to discuss an article on an element of librarianship one of us has chosen. It ensures we stay involved in the library profession, get together as a team and keep up-to-date with new events, innovations and information. I’m getting better about speaking up as well now. So Zotero will help us build a library of relevant articles we can dip into. However EndNote is still better if a little more complicated; EndNote Web doesn't have all the features of the complete EndNote. I see it as a companion piece along with Zotero, something you can use when you don't have the full software, like having a snack when you don't have time for a meal. Photo by Matt [the esoteric introvert]

I promised Kirsty that I would write about how libraries can use social networking sites; I deliberately didn’t come to a conclusion in my facebook post as I feel that it is an intensely subjective issue and there will never be a universal opinion. We discussed exactly this issue in our most recent journals club, that’s why I’ve held off writing about it until now. We couldn’t come up with a definitive answer on how to use facebook, but we all agreed that students don’t want to be ’friends’ with their library and they certainly don’t want to be sociable with their librarians. Therefore I’ve chosen it as the web 2.0 tool I’m going to use for marketing. The main reason for this is that I don’t think you can use facebook in any other way. There are one or two exceptions though. I helped a student extensively with a project and he found me on facebook. I accepted his request, just to see what he’s about and found that he’d been up to the same tricks with everyone. Needless to say I quickly deleted him again. It felt as wrong for me as it would for most students. I didn’t want to see his holiday photos, or find out what he got up to at the weekend, nor was I interested in who his other ‘friends’ were. So instead of using it as a social platform, it should be another point of contact, just like the portal to our databases, our Twitter account and the main library page. On our facebook profile there are links to our information resources, photos and our library induction video which we’re excitingly refilming for the new influx of students, but most of our friends are other libraries and colleagues. We now combine our status updates with our tweets using Hootsuite. However the problem is maintenance; ‘stale’ profiles where there hasn’t been much activity for a while are quickly forgotten. It is difficult, as well as time-consuming, to sustain the freshness.
(By me) The only lake in Scotland, Lake of Menteith, Trossachs

More than us was the first Travis track to be played on Eastenders, that’s when they knew they’d made it. It also refers to the world of social networking; the tendency when using facebook is to make it all about yourself, despite the fact that you’re supposed to be socialising with people all over the world. However in the case of marketing, it is surely the whole point.

Driftwood

This is the one I was dreading, the social networking site. I see it as not so much a time-waster, but as a hungry ravager of time, a ruthless agent of procrastination and a depressing symbol of how we now socialise more virtually than we do literally. I am on facebook in spite of myself, and only because I ashamedly gave into peer pressure in the same way I gave in and got a mobile phone, a MySpace page and then a facebook page. Interestingly, Word just recognised MySpace and corrected the capitalisation, but it doesn’t like facebook and wants to separate it into two words... That said there are some nice touches such as setting the language to English (pirate) to make it less boring. If you haven’t done already, try it, it’s awesome; your profile becomes your cap’n’s log, your wall becomes your plank, events become grog fests, news becomes booty and friends become mateys and hearties. There are also some cool ideas such as when you decline someone’s friend request it sends them to the depths, searching is scouring and you don't delete you throw it overboard.

I started on MySpace, and I’m going to regret owning up to this, through a rumour that they were making a sequel/prequel/reimagining of Free Willy (a childhood favourite) with the late great Steve Irwin’s precocious daughter Bindi. I was looking through the forum on IMDb and found out that the star of the original films, Jason James Richter, has a MySpace page as he’s now a bit of a rock star. So wanting to check him out, I signed up. I don’t know what made me do it, but I sent him an email and we have kept up sporadic communication since, bonding over our love of philosophy, the Scottish band Travis and obviously films. Then somehow old school friends found me, which made me build a snazzy profile page and start doing all the quizzes and I was hooked. So when facebook started and everyone abandoned MySpace, I migrated over.

Well that’s my potted history, so onto the future of facebook, and I’m not talking about the film: The Social Network directed by David Fincher of all people and starring Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield (the new Spider-Man) and Justin Timberlake?! I’m talking about the future of facebook for me. As I said before I find it boring now, at first I searched out people, even doing positive things like confronting my old school bully of 8 years (distinctly unsatisfying as she hasn’t changed and gave me no “closure”), reconnecting with my old best friend of 8 years (wonderful as we put a lot of water under the bridge) and contacting an old crush who I fancied for also 8 years (he’s still as crushable as ever). What is it about that number? I joined groups such as “I judge you when you use poor grammar”, “I will go out of my way to step on a leaf that looks particularly crunchy”, “Firefly is better than Star Wars because sound cannot travel in space”, “Sydney Bristow would dominate Jack Bauer AND Chuck Norris” and old school networks. I also contributed to the “addicted to...” sites and forums set up by fans of my favourite films and TV series such as the much maligned, underappreciated and misapprehended Alias. I posted lots and lots and lots of photos. And then what?

I rarely go on facebook nowadays and I’m looking for an excuse to do so again. That’s why I’ve named this post after one of my favourite Travis songs, as I feel I’ve washed up on the shores of indifference and want to get back out on the open ocean of enthusiasm again. Not sure that metaphor worked, but you get my drift. :-) Plus it fits with the pirate theme I seem to have going on. We already have a library account with 153 “friends” where we post status updates when new books, tutorials and guides are published, as well as important news. I will look into other Cambridge libraries and the like once I’m on the Cambridge network; I was part of my old university network before. Alex Ristea

The one thing I despise about facebook, apart from the way it was created, its creator (loved that Cambridge trounced the Winklevoss twins in the 2010 boat race) and the way it’s become all dominant, pervasive and omnipresent (I don’t like Tesco for the same reasons), is once you’re on facebook, you’re on, there’s no way of deleting your account. It’s scary that facebook users are now so many that they have become akin to the third most populated country in the world. You also get sent emails if you don’t use it for ages or have hardly anything on there; my brother’s experienced this.

As for LinkedIn, one social networking site is enough. I can see if you were thinking of progressing professionally it would be useful, gathering contacts and the such like, it just isn’t for me. Plus I prefer to do that sort of thing in person. I have used the website before, in my previous job as a researcher for an offshoot of EEDA called East of England International; I had to find email addresses for contacts at companies, the marketing director for example, and I went on LinkedIn when I couldn’t find them on their official websites or on databases. I was doing the business development managers’ jobs for them basically. So it has its uses. I guess with social networking sites, you just have to utilise them productively, rather than poking people, playing games and peering into other peoples’ lives. It’s just so tempting though...

Love will come through

When I first saw LibraryThing I immediately thought of Flixster, which is a similar website, but for films. I have a humongous list of films on there, all with reviews and a star rating:

However I'm over a year's behind on that so I don't see myself doing any better with LibraryThing, especially as I don't think it's as good as Flixster, either the main website or the Facebook application. LibraryThing's layout is simplistic in style, complicated in structure and frankly unattractive; if you're anything like me or your book collection is like mine, it will take you a while to build up your list of books, so you're gonna have to want to spend the time on the website. I would have to do a lot of customising to get my profile and homepage the way I need them. The search function is overly convoluted; basically you have to do two searches, one using the LibraryThing search and the other often limited to the website chosen to import from. Downloading the book profiles from elsewhere is necessary, I chose Amazon due to the pretty pictures, but it causes problems; it timed out several times while searching. The zeitgeist tab is useful, but not obvious enough, I only found it just as I was about to give up; it should be the first port of call. That might've been my fault though... Anyway, that's enough of a rant. Here is my LibraryThing list:
It's taken up with all my Alias spin-off books at the moment, mainly as they're the only ones I know I definitely have, but also to promote my favourite TV series. Everyone should check it out and for those who know nothing about it, you can't go wrong with a sci-fi spy show with a spectacular female role model as the heroine. If that isn't enough, it was created by J. J. Abrams who's the genius behind Lost, Mission Impossible 3 and the new Star Trek.
The season one cast, makes me all nostalgic. Yes, that is Bradley Cooper at the... back to the point. The other problem with LibraryThing is that most people don't know what books they have; film reviewing is a lot easier, I should know I've written film reviews for websites, for the Cambridge Film Festival and reviewed films on community radio. My books are scattered across two houses and five separate rooms: my bedroom and living room, and my old bedroom, the computer room and the loft at my parent's house. Problematic. Then there is the subject of editions, which edition of Jane Eyre do I have? Short of going to my bookshelf and digging out the ISBN, I won't know. It's partly my fault as I'm a perfectionist, I suppose most people would choose the first one on the list rather than the exact one. In my eyes, that defeats the object. Or is that we build a library of books that we've read but don't own? which would be frankly ridiculous. So in that case, the only application I can see for it, is on a professional basis. Which is the reason why we're looking at it. However, Cambridge already has a list of all the books in our libraries; the Newton catalogue makes LibraryThing superfluous if not for the reviews, which we can go to Amazon for anyway. I gather it can recommend books either from your list, or from individual books, but I'm always a bit wary about that as what factors are being used for the recommendations? Of those libraries that do use LibraryThing already, the Central Science library lists only 95 books out of how many? And of those libraries that have integrated it into their catalogues, almost all of them are in the US. There's literally a handful in the UK and another few in Ireland. I feel I'm missing the point on this one. Here's a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon:

To twitter or not to twitter

I've been hoping there's a way round this one, but I can't see how to get out of it seeing as though I can't complete Cam23 without it, so I've created my own personal Twitter account. I've got an addictive personality (I've recently got obsessed with Glee; I spent practically my whole day off yesterday watching it), so that's why I've been actively avoiding Twitter for so long. I'm the same about any new technology: Napster, myspace, facebook... Take mobile phones as an example; I'm still using my first phone, the Nokia 3310 which I got in 2002.

I have been using the Judge Library's Twitter account, but only to post about work information such as new books and things, that's why I haven't felt the need to make my own account. I knew it would happen, that I'd get into it too fast too soon; I started off innocently selecting people to follow, along with the obligatory ones like Stephen Fry, I added John Cusack, DisneyPixar and Peter Serafinowicz. I've just found Miranda Hart too, I adore her TV series and she's always good fun on panel shows, in interviews and as a guest on the likes of the Strictly Come Dancing backstage gossip show It Takes Two. She was awesome by the way. I'm going to stop now before I get in too deep, I've replied to a couple of tweets so I'm being obedient.

I agree with the essay about categorising and tagging as I'm against pigeonholing of any kind. I'm not even sure how useful the subject classifications are in library cataloguing to be honest, I don't use them when searching as they're so subjective, no pun intended. Although I do put them in when cataloguing of course. Therefore I agree with Shirky's comments about how biased it all is. I especially like this quote from the essay: "The essence of a book isn't the ideas it contains. The essence of a book is "book." Thinking that library catalogs exist to organize concepts confuses the container for the thing contained." Jeez, I hate the American way of spelling. To combat the limits of tagging and categorising, I've labelled this post with as many things as possible and deliberately added references to this post to make it as full as possible. I've also dutifully added more tags to my previous posts and I've just found that there is a 200 character limit; it's being pesky about it...

I've been having fun commenting on everyone's blogs. It can take the smallest of things to make me feel the urge to comment, from a picture of a Miyazaki film, to beautiful photos; all it takes is a common interest. I'm loving libgeek's Terry Pratchett titled blog, Ange's Grease-themed blog title and Helen's frequent references to popular culture (told you I'd get my own back).

All this new technology has made me long for the more innocent times when we didn't rely on all our computers and they were just for fun. Anyone remember the Commodore 64?