Just another dent in the damage…

I submitted a proposal for this year’s New Professionals Conference. It wasn’t accepted but I thought the process was worth saying something about. I’ve never really written a proposal for anything before, my last attempt was for a grant to attend the IATUL conference last year, but the powers that be encouraged me to submit a version that wasn’t really my own. I didn’t get the grant. I got one of those ‘the submissions were of such a high standard this year’ so thanks, but no.

I think what really made me what to take part in the New Professionals Conference this year is that it’s being hosted at Sheffield. Our library (in general) has a habit of not particularly interacting with the Information Studies department or even the wider CILIP community for that matter – correct me if I’m wrong, please – and I thought it’d be the perfect opportunity to showcase some of the work we’re doing.

Anyway, I decided to publish the proposal I wrote here hoping that someone could offer me some advice. I know the ideas were not particularly original or the proposal particularly well written so I’m after some tips on proposal writing in general, you know just in case I ever feel the urge to try again – although I’m not really sure how much longer I can call myself a ‘new professional’.

So, here’s the proposal, make of it what you will:

Because we’re worth it too – Beyond shushing and shelving in an academic library

Budget cuts and reduced funding are not new. Librarians have been coping with these for years – reviewing subscriptions, haggling with suppliers, devising strategies to manage impacts – it’s part of the job. But with the ubiquity of the Internet, electronic services and mobile technologies our users are claiming that they no longer use the library and thus our skills increasingly redundant. So with more cuts looming (following HEFCE’s announcement of a £600 million reduction in higher education funding) and a commitment to a ‘faster, better, cheaper’ work ethic we need to be proving our worth now more than ever by promoting services, marketing resources and communicating knowledge.

Today there’s a greater need for students to demonstrate their own skills in acquiring knowledge, judging sources and conducting research. The role of the academic librarian is transforming. New opportunities are arising for us to proactively engage with learning and teaching – conducting skills sessions, supporting workshops and offering practical solutions to complex enquiries. Transferable skills are a key attribute employers are looking for in our graduates and it’s therefore essential for us, as librarians, to proactively seek new ways to support, teach and develop information literacy in our users to carry with them into the workplace and their professional maturity.

In my discussion I’ll consider some of the ways in which the University of Sheffield is working to continually improve services and student satisfaction by meeting the demands of higher user expectations and the new learning environment, through our physical spaces (the collaboration of library and computing services in the Information Commons and Western Bank Library’s £3.4 million redevelopment); web 2.0 technologies (weblogs, Twitter, QR codes and social networking in uSpace – our online collaboration tool); mobile applications (the University’s iPhone app, CampusM); and online skills tutorials (the Information Skills Resource).

I’m not much of a New Year’s Resolution type person but last year I did write a list of 25 things I wanted to do in 2009. I thought it’d be worth going over what I did and didn’t do ready to prepare a new list of 26 things I want to do in 2010. So let’s see:

1) Set up an Etsy store and start selling small crafts: Well, I got the Etsy store bit sorted but getting the stuff to sell has been harder. I thought it’d just be a case of make a load of stuff and get it listed but it turns out a lot of the patterns I’ve been using to make consumables are all copyrighted and you can’t sell the stuff you make using them. Turns out I need to start writing my own patterns if I want to sell anything I make. The only things I really have for sale are my SSCS crochet whales as it’s OK to make money you intend to donate to charity, but a store with only one item to sell would be pretty naff right? I’ll work on this one. Promise.

2) Make more use of sewing machine and create at least one skirt from scratch: Again I kinda half did this. I reorganised my craft room so I can actually get at my machine without having to carry it about everywhere and I sorted out all the stuff I need to get on with making things – I just didn’t get round to making the skirt. But, I did make a lovely cushion (and embroidered it) and ploughed through one of my sewing books so I can learn more about what my machine does. I think this coming year will be my skirt making year so watch this space!

3) Learn to dive: CHECK! I actually did this one. This year I not only got my PADI Open Water but I completed my PADI Advanced Open Water and got qualified in Enriched Air diving. I’ve got about 20 dives logged now and am super excited about getting out and seeing more of the world’s oceans. At Christmas I went to Malaysia and got to play about with my new camera, here’s Nemo:

4) Learn Photoshop basics to improve photographs: So Photoshop is harder than I thought and there is definitely a lot to learn on this… but I’ve made a start. I’ve managed to cut three people out of one image and put them in to another, I’ve rubbed out plastic bottles and lamp-posts and learnt about image size and how to crop (ya’know – the simple stuff). My cutting out skills definitely need working on though. Max also showed me how to open my eyes – i.e. cut out Claire’s open eyes and stick them over my closed eyes!

This is a photo taken of Claire and I with Todd Kowalski from Propagandhi. On the original picture we were outside a pub and my eyes were closed. Here we are in Hawaii with my eyes open (if you look very closely you’ll notice they’re very similar to Claire’s eyes).

5) Take more photos and get uploading to Flickr: My new camera has helped with this one. On my last holiday I took about 1000 photos! Can you ever imagine doing this with an old camera that needed film? Crazy! Anyway I’ve slowly been making more use of Flickr and you can go and see my photos any time – lexrigby’s Photostream.

6) Make Donna a big granny blanket: Yes yes I did this. It got completed on March 18th for her birthday. Here is a picture of me admiring the finished product:

7) Print some Moo cards: Totally failed on this one. I figured I didn’t really need any if I didn’t get the store up and going. They’ll come eventually when I’m all business like.

8) Get funding for the IATUL conference in Belgium: I failed this too but it was kinda out of my hands. I wrote my statement about why I should be awarded the funding but at the last minute one of my bosses decided to write the entire thing himself on my behalf. I don’t blame him for not getting it or anything as I was told the application was exceptional, just not exceptional enough. Life goes on.

9) Design a cross-stitch pattern to raise more funds for the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society: This was another one of those half did/half didn’t ones. Whilst I didn’t get around to design the pattern I longed to do I did get all subversive after buying Subversive Cross Stitch and started writing some cross stitch patterns inspired by Propagandhi lyrics.

10) Organise another SSCS fundraiser: This one is another ’still to do’. I think time ran away with me on this one. Whilst I didn’t organise a fundraiser myself I did volunteer at a number of events this year (including the International Dive Show at the NEC) and completed the first round of volunteer training. I’m now listed as an official volunteer on the Sea Shepherd UK website, so it’s all good in the hood still.

11) Make sushi: No making but plenty of eating. I’m going to get Donna to show me how to do this, she makes amazing sushi!

12) Finish Ursula tattoo: Yep, done and dusted. This is on my back:

13) Start work on Kali tattoo: I didn’t do this but I did get a whale instead, I think Kali needs more thinking about. This one is on my left inner arm – it was pretty swollen so excuse the chubbiness, I think the photo is a bit squished too (I got it off Myspace because I couldn’t be bothered to take a photo):

14) Keep up the weekly postings on my work blog: I did this! Want proof? See Librarians’ Blog for Science and Engineering.

15) Master the art of false lashes (just because there’s got to be at least one vanity thing in here): I did this too but none of my pictures are close enough for you to see them clearly. I’ll work on getting proof of this.

16) Keep up with the personal training sessions: After a year I figured these were just getting far too expensive to continue. I went from about August 2008 to August 2009. I fully intended to restart them but really £120 a month on top of my £42 a month gym membership… really.

17) Tick off the to-do list and write up results: I guess the result of this is this blog post. I did tick items off in my book and did refer back to my list to remind me what I needed to do, I just didn’t do as much as I wanted. I had planned to do a scrap book but I definitely think a blog post is more my thing.

18) Start open uni short course on marine biology: The Open Uni course I wanted to do is a short module called Life in the Oceans: Exploring our Blue Planet. It looks like the greatest short course of all time but a las I’ve not had a spare £150 to do it yet. I will though, studying Richard Attenborough’s Blue Planet sounds like the best thing ever.

19) Prepare for Cilip (this is the professional association of librarians) chartership: I simply changed my mind on this one I’m afraid. I just don’t know if I want to charter just yet. The chartership means doing a lot of work I just don’t want to do at the moment. Career development portfolios and all that malarky… snore.

20) Cook for Max at least once a month: I managed this one I think for a few months. I mainly make him puddings like cookies and cake. This will change this year though as I’ve a new cook book and it’s amazing. I won’t tell you anything else yet as I’m working on a post for this beauty that stands alone.

21) Visit Stef in Canterbury: Sorry Stef, you just come home too much. I’ll visit her this year for sure.

22) Read Moby Dick: I didn’t do this either, but I did read a lot about other whales!

23) Cycle to work at least twice a week in the Summer: This is my main regret I think. I should have done this, but I didn’t. Curse me.

24) Watch a broadway show: For my 25th birthday Sarah got me some gift vouchers for a London show and after loads of faffing about she never got to come with me. Instead, Max and I went to see Wicked… and it was wicked. I’d already read the book (and thought it very strange) so was interested to see how it would translate to stage. I liked it, it worked well and luckily they kept all the sexy scenes out.

25) Finish decorating the kitchen: YES, YES and YES and it’s the greatest kitchen of all time.

I’ve already written this year’s list… I might put it up later but in the meantime, thanks for reading.

There seems to be a lot of stuff flying around at the moment about what the Noughties will be remembered for. What has happened in the last decade that will make it stand out from other decades? Well…

In general:

9/11?
The ‘War on Terror’ (i.e. two unjustified unending wars)?
America’s first black President?
Iran’s disputed elections?
The Large Hadron Collider?
The horrific Mumbai terror attacks?
The death of Michael Jackson?
Global warming?
Google?
The Indian Ocean tsunami?
Swine flu?

(notice a theme?)

Personally:

A whole load a shit and not so much shit.

I’m back from Egypt… now a qualified Enriched Air Advanced Open Water diver. Yeah, check me out! The weather was great, the eels a plenty and I found Nemo!

And here’s a couple of giant moray eels courtesy of Lerotic:

I absolutely love crocheting, knitting, sewing, crafting… Anything that involves a needle of some sort and a piece of thread/yarn/whatever. I love reading craft weblogs and looking at pictures of other people’s craft rooms and I’ve always wanted to try and use this blog to show you more of the stuff I do but I just never seem to get round to it.

This week I’ve had a massive clear out of my craft room to try and create an inspiring yet functional place! Most importantly FUNCTIONAL. I moved to by new house just over a year ago and was super excited about getting a work space but the more kit I brought to fill it out the more it got crammed into bags and baskets, hidden away to keep the room looking tidy-ish. So after mistakingly managing to pull one of my only two shelves off the wall I decided it was about time to sort this tip out. I got pots, baskets, tins, jars and new shelves and set to work. It took a couple of evenings and a few missed episodes of Hollyoaks but I’ve FINALLY sorted it and thanks to Max I’ve an extra couple of shelves to store all my crap on! Tonight I got my camera out to start snapping away but the damn battery died so alas… no pictures yet. It doesn’t really look that different just much better organised and I can actually get to my sewing machine!

I uploaded a few choice pieces of some of the stuff I’ve been doing lately to Flickr in the hope that it’ll prompt me to document my activities better. I’m working on a couple of craft related posts so if you don’t see something by the end of October nudge me, please… I need it!

For now I’ll leave you with this little guy:

Made by my own fair hands for my pal Vic! The pattern is available from Ana Paula Rimoli’s Etsy store (she’s the writer of Amigurumi World and Amigurumi 2), if you’ve never heard of her go check her stuff out, she’s seriously amazing (her patterns are so simple to follow and are all totally adorable).

This weekend we made 103 flat breads… 12 spiced loafs and a million cookies. We called it bread club:

We gobbled up all these bad boys pretty quickly:

Why did we do this? Well, it was all for this:

Good times had by all… The BBQ went down a treat (I don’t have any photos of this yet but I’ll try and get some), the bands were all awesome, costs got covered (which is always a huge relief) but I still just gotta ask: Why was this place not packed out? Where have all the UK hardcore kids gone?

The ocean fascinates me, everything about it – its beauty, its depth, its life, its centrality to our existence, its mystery, its colours, its wonders – but it wasn’t until recently I finally decided it’s about time I learnt how to scuba dive. The original plan this year was to head out to Honduras and qualify somewhere like Roatan but alas it was not to be, considering I couldn’t find flights for less than £800. PAH. So after hunting around and having a chat to a few travel ‘advisors’ I settled on the Red Sea, Sharm el Shit Sheikh to be precise.

Bracing myself for what I already envisioned as tourist hell I set sail, crew pak in hand, ready to return Ursula for battle with the almighty Triton (for those who don’t know me Ursula is the rather large sea witch from The Little Mermaid I have tattooed on my back). I’m getting carried away now right? But anyway off I went anxious, nervous, excited fully prepared to test out whether or not my ear had fully healed from that really disgusting ear infection I had on holiday when I was a kid. Right the way up until my last dive out there I was praying my eardrum wouldn’t explode leaving me with little else to do than fight off all the ‘please come into my shop – good prices’ stalkers until it was hometime.

Turns out Triton didn’t want to battle this time, or rather I took to diving say like a ‘duck to water’ and my ears didn’t complain once… Four confined water, four open water, two adventure and one fun dives later I’m a qualified Open Water diver and almost half way to my Advanced Open Water. Next stop the world eh. Well, maybe. I thought the classroom work may get a little tiresome but it didn’t, not at all. It was all so much fun, even the learning how to read a Recreational Dive Planner bit, even the standard what to look for when buying your own equipment bit, even the ‘what next – your continued education’ bit. Yes yes all of it. I love it, I loved it, every second. My instructor was incredible, I’d totally recommend anyone going to Sharm to visit the Red Sea Diving College and get kitted up. The snorkeling is wicked, but seriously the diving is insane.

On my travels through the blue I saw turtles, blue spotted rays, eagle rays, moray eels, needlefish, cornetfish, all kinds of butterfly and angelfish you could imagine, lionfish, sand eels, too many different types of coral to name, parrotfish, groupers, two-bar anemone fish, trigger fish, wrasses, giant clams, puffers, boxfish… I pretty much saw it all! No manta rays though, which was a little disappointing. Those things are massive! I didn’t get to go shark spotting either! One day though! One day! In case you’re one of these people that thinks ‘a fish’s a fish’ go take a look at some of the things I saw over at UK Divers, they’re amazing.

So now I’m home what next? Well, as soon as I receive the pictures of my underwater photography adventure I’ll be getting some images uploaded to my Flickr, including some of me with my kit on the boat. Last night I headed over to my local dive shop seeking a dive group to get involved with and keep practicing and I’ve got my boy at the travel agents on the job of getting me back over to Sharm. Maybe if this whole career in Librarianship doesn’t work out for me I could fall back on dive instruction? Hhhhmmmm we’ll see but for now onwards and downwards!

I thought I’d make a bullet-pointed list of why I use Twitter to get some of these things off my mind. Maybe it’ll serve as some kind of disclaimer so I don’t have to keep telling people that it is my personal Twitter feed and the views and opinions I express there are my own, not that of the organisation I work for or the people I work with.

So the main reasons I tweet are:

• to pass comment on news or current affairs – to say something without engaging in a lengthy debate or analysing every last detail of it;
• to communicate with people – I work in a quiet office and don’t particularly like distracting others. I communicate with work colleagues based across the campus to update them on my activities, to ask for help or arrange a lunch date;
• to network with librarians from other organisations – Although I say I don’t use Twitter for work I occasionally seek advice from other professionals or engage in discussions about issues relating to librarianship or Cilip (our professional body);
• to keep in touch with friends who don’t live near by – I don’t particularly have the time to write long emails and I’m not a fan of procrastinating on Facebook so I like to write quick 140 character messages to say ‘hey, I saw this and thought of you’.
• to bookmark web links – I use delicious mainly to store my bookmarks but I like sharing the funnier ones as small distractions from the mundane;
• to follow # tags of the things I’m interested in – such as #iranelection, #mumbai or #wwdc or work related tags such as #uosweb2 or #scaweb2 and conferences or particular JISC projects, honestly it all depends what mood I’m in.

I’m not interested in the latest research about how Twitter ’should’ be used or whether I’m doing it right. Quite simply, Twitter is my brain fart – if it smells too bad, please don’t read it.

For me writing this blog is a means to write. I write about whatever is on my mind I guess, whether that be a book I’ve read, a film I’ve seen, maybe it’s something work related, maybe it’s something totally random. I’ve always been quite happy not having a clear purpose or a specific interest to write about but I find this occasionally makes it more difficult to tell people what I blog about. I guess you could say I just blog about whatever I feel like, not for a specific reader, but rather for anyone with a general interest.

It’s very difficult for me to concentrate on one particular topic so I tend to just cover it all. I write about what I do, what I like, what I’ve seen etc. I thought a Wordle might give me an idea about what I’ve blog about in the past to give me a more clear focus for the future, instead it just confirmed the randomness of my ‘dents’, and I think I quite like it.

Now my question is. do blogs really need a specific purpose, do I need a target audience, does it put people off coming back to read when one minute I write about QR codes and the next I’m writing about the mass slaughter of marine mammals? Again I’m finding the whole divide in personal and professional too difficult to maintain. I want librarians to come here and see something they weren’t expecting, I want vegans to come here and read about something other than recipes and animal rights abuses, I want my friends to come here and see what I’m up to, I want work colleagues to see what my interests are outside the work place. I want to use this blog to reflect who I am not what I do.

When I began thinking about dissertation topics over two years ago I was met by one particular unenthusiastic criticism due to my lack of knowledge regarding the Persian language. I don’t think she ever really understood my subject or why it was important. it was either that or she was too busy playing around in Second Life to give it more than a second thought (maybe that’s another reason why I hate Second Life so much). But rather than let it drop I developed my ideas and took them elsewhere.

It was during the run up to dissertation proposals that I was becoming increasingly aware of Internet censorship in Iran and the growth of the Iranian blogosphere and decided that I’d like to explore this academically with the hope of encouraging further research or laying the foundations for a PhD later in life. I don’t necessarily think I ever achieved that or ever will, purely because I ran out of steam. It was my own doing. You know when you wrap yourself up in something so intensely for a long period of time that once it’s done you never want to look at it again? It was like that. I got my distinction and that was enough. But I’m beginning to realise that it wasn’t the end, it was only the beginning. The story continues and maybe I should be trying to tell it, in my own words?

I started with the concept of Internet censorship – how it was being censored, who was censoring it and why – and wanted to explore strategies being developed to smash down the system, to stick it to the man, to carry on regardless. But this was before Google Translate (although limited it seems to be serving a basic purpose right now) and with no Persian translator I was forced to restrict my exploration to a minority of weblogs written by Iranians in English. I specifically looked at weblogs because they were accessible and easy to document and analyse. All the data collection would be my own doing and analysed with my own criteria. But what exactly was I trying to find out? How would I use weblogs as an example of anti-censorship or more over a strategy to bypass censorship?

Having an idea about what you want your outcome to be always seems to cloud what you need to do to get there, to prove it let’s say. I wanted to look at the writing styles across a sample of Iranian weblogs to assess how people were saying things without really saying them – to look at the poetic metaphors Iranians so often use to describe all manners of life, love, feelings and even politics. To see whether the deep-rooted cultural norm of separating the private and public spheres applied to anonymous weblogs. But what would I compare these writing styles to? I decided that in order to assess how Internet filtering effects Iranian weblogs written inside Iran I’d need to sample Iranian weblogs written in the diaspora. Those written by the displaced, the deposed or even the die-hards who might be more likely to evade self-censorship given the lack of Internet filtering in the more moderate west.

And so I did and if you’re interested in actually reading the thing it’s available online. It’s called Looking for Freedom: An Exploration of the Iranian Blogosphere (and it’s also available in Google Scholar with a couple of spelling errors – doh). I also kept a wiki going whilst doing my research but I’m afraid my updates have lapsed a little. Some of the work I did here has come spilling back to me this week and become ever more relevant. given how Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, proxy services and weblogs are currently being used in the aftermath of Iran’s distuted election.