Branding!

Hello chums.

CPD23 thing #3 here, a smidgen late but that's just the way I roll! Or is it? Is that a comment I really want to be making in a blog written for professional purposes? Will some future potential boss Bing my name (yeah, Bing is a verb in the future, *coughs*), discover my youthful admission of poor time-management skills and not give me that dream job managing the Hyperspace Collection at Alpha Centauri University?

At this point I feel I should mention that I've recently been terribly, terribly busy at work doing all sorts of useful things, which is why I've neglected this blog a bit. (See future boss? I'm the sort of lady who'd temporarily shelve her own personal development just to ensure that your information environment is running smoothly, yowzer).

Futurism aside, the issue of how to present/brand yourself online is something that people in all walks of work increasingly need to consider. I say this with a touch of chagrin because, frankly, presenting myself as a coherent, useful individual in real life is something I'm still working on, surely I don't have to do it online as well? 

At the moment, my digital self doesn't present an especially unified front. I spent a while trying to map my participation in online communities and describe how they relate to and reflect on to me as an individual, but it was wordy and entirely uninteresting to anyone who isn't me (most people then). Instead, I cunningly integrated all this info into a Venn diagram! I bloody well LOVE Venn Diagrams. It shows the digital pies my digital fingers are in, and how I view them in terms of professional/personal content.  

Facebook is a thing apart - I don't 'Friend' any work colleagues until I'm really, really sure they can handle pictures of me doing the macarena while dressed as a space zombie. The other three I use for more career-related activities, though I like to think I maintain the same level of professionalism (which I don't consider to be mutually inclusive with formality, by the way) between them all.  

Conclusions for this Thing: I could definitely do more to portray myself evenly online, particularly in those areas where the personal and professional overlap. I'm not sure I'll go so far as to ensure that everything is impeccably branded and visually seamless (at least until I meet someone who can digitally craft a repeating wallpaper pattern out of a picture of my face), but I'm going to at least make sure that my digital profiles signpost each other. Less fragmentation can only be a good thing, even if it does mean being more honest ;)

Other blogs and blogs and blogs

Oh my goodness, I only sat down for a few minutes to have a look around the other cpd23 blogs and now it's two weeks later, I seem to have grown a beard and my laptop has fused with my lap. Gross but kinda convenient...

I've even been commenting! Motivated myself with a biscuit per comment; yep, I'm basically a golden retriever. Here are a few of my favourites:

http://ankova.tumblr.com/ - Lots of lovely pictures and graphics, I think I've got blog platform envy...
http://dorkavecunespork.wordpress.com/ - Ahh, pictures of food and words about library stuff, thumbs up!
http://simplethingstomakeanddo.blogspot.com/ -  Lovely layout and a non-library perspective on cpd23. Also, there are lots of pictures of cake :D
http://pluggedinlibrarian.blogspot.com/ - A technogeek perspective! I've just started a new job as an e-services librarian so I think this blog'll be interesting AND useful, crumbs.

I'm slightly late putting this up, lagging behind and it's only Thing Two, sigh. In my defence, it's been lovely weather, which is very rare(bit) here in rainy Wales so I've been out and about enjoying the sunshineshine. I tried to blog, honest Ma, it was the screen glare what stopped me.

In other news, I've been trying to find out how to add the 'reply to comments' option to Blogger, I've been messing with the html but nothing seems to have any effect, I think the template I'm using is an immovable object and I'm not an unstoppable force (yet). Any tips oh passing persons of the internet?

Thing 1!

This is my first post for cpd23 so hello any fellow library and info folk!

I've never blogged before, which is one of the reasons I'm taking part in cpd23. I've always felt a bit ambivalent about writing a library blog; it feels like there are already several million out there already and, frankly, I didn't think the world/the internets needed another. Especially not one written by me!

I'd not actually considered blogging as a tool for professional development until Helen Murphy's presentation about cpd23 at the recent New Professionals Conference - weird considering I once spent a whole year reshelving books on reflective practice... knowledge is absorbed directly through the hands, right? Anyway, once I'd started viewing it that way, my innate self-interest kicked in and I thought 'Yes! I must take part in exciting communal blogging/professional development process!'

Selfishness aside (temporarily, muhaha), I'm looking forward to reading and learning from other people's blogs. The fact that I've already been able to spend an hour or so roaming around other cpd23 posts has really helped me get started with this vaguely frightening first post business: there's a sense of anonymity in crowds that I find reassuring. Like a zebra.

In terms of the upcoming Things, I'm looking forward to 8 and 9; my time management could be better and if this can be achieved by playing around with fun apps then I'm a happy lady. I'm not so much looking forward to Thing 15 as I have slightly antisocial leanings but hey, I'm sure it'll be good for me to make an effort to talk to library people I don't already know. Eep!