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Happy snappy tweeters

A new study from the Georgia Institute of Technology (reported in New Scientist) suggests the best way to gain a loyal Twitter following is to be positive, share interesting news stories and engage with your audience. All common sense stuff but good to have the figures to back it up.

Libraries are forever infographic

An excellent visualisation from Daily Infographic – Libraries are Forever: E-Books & Print Books Can Coexist.

What a great way of demonstrating that, yes, e-readers are in the ascendency but print books are here to stay.

I’ve been away, but now I’m back

Rick Hall via Creative Commons

Forgive me father for I have sinned, it’s been nearly a year since my last blogpost…

Last March I wrote a post on struggling to fit CPD into my life, and still have a life. Nothing’s changed but, sadly, ceasing to blog did not free up the time or the willpower to finish my Chartership portfolio! Instead I drifted away from the process and now have a six-month hole in my CPD events list. Oops.

So I’m back to blogging in the hope that it will anchor my attempts to charter and provide some sort of focus. Let’s start as we mean to go on with a blogpost on a recent ons.gov.uk training session I attended and some thoughts on the February issue of CILIP Update.

Reading: February’s CILIP Update

Initial thoughts on the latest issue of Update (reflections and more ordered thoughts will follow next week).

• Shift to big data faces skills shortage, p7 – survey of big data community shows 3/4 felt there weren’t enough skilled workers in the UK; “‘when you’re on the cutting edge of technology, you have to be teaching yourself most of the time'” – Manu Marchal, Acunu Director; “8 out of 10 said that on-the-job training was the best way to ensure skills were up-to-date”; “significant majority [70%] felt there was a knowledge gap between big data analysts or managers and decision makers” – knowledge gap because “‘technology is constantly evolving, so management, like practitioners, are often not aware what can be achieved with these technologies.’ [Manu Marchal]” (applicable to any technological advance).
• Backlash against volunteer report, p9 – “Without skilled staff a library is a shadow of its former self.” – Phil Bradley
• Information matters, p13 – “As library and information professionals, we each have a vital role promoting the best effective, ethical, legal and literate use of data and information.” – Peter Griffiths
• Global course to improve information literacy, p14 – Unesco course to teach importance of media and information literacy to educators. “We live in a world where the quality of information we receive largely determines our choices and ensuing actions, including our capacity to enjoy fundamental freedoms and the ability for self-determination and development.” – Janis Karklins
• Copyright changes face challenge, p17 – new copyright proposals to make it easier to digitise content for preservation, which is good for archives BUT news agencies and media archives opposing the moves because it risks their ability to monetise archive content and allows for organisations with a license to exploit content without prior consent. Should we be protective of Guardian copyright or happy that more content can be preserved, even if it bypasses our exclusivity?
• VP’s column, p18 – some great ideas for engaging teens with reading (check out Excelsior Award)
• E-books: finding the way forward, p33 – Christopher Platt from NYPL highlights how important it is in current climate to collaborate “understanding where publishers and content producers are coming from is crucial to finding a way forward” – in this case, on the issue of e-books, but applies to any sticking point with other departments
• Moving up the value chain, p39 – Laura Woods column – “Librarians are skilled at taking complex information, synthesising it and representing it in a manageable format for a variety of audiences.” Vital to proactively seek out new roles and specialising, becoming the “go-to person”, making yourself invaluable to your company. But it is also vital to outsource menial tasks that take time away from more specialised jobs – “Reframing what we do is crucial to ensuring that we have a future as a profession. I believe this is true of librarians in every sector. To prove our value, the first step is ensuring that every job we do adds value. Cutting out as many low-value jobs as we can allows us to move further up the value chain.”
• Informed advocates – becoming agents for change, p46 – again, increased collaboration is important. It’s also important to value ourselves more – we aren’t “service providers” to more important staff, we are just as qualified and professional and should approach business relationships as equals – “Personally, I’d rather people didn’t ‘use’ me. When I hold at least as many academic and professional qualifications as those I work with, collaboration between equals is what we need to advocate for. It’s not about ‘support’ either – it’s about being part of a team and ensuring that the skills I posess are clearly recognised and seen as essential to the work of a team. Is it sensible to go on describing the work we do as a ‘service’ when we are seeing ‘services’ being outsourced?” – Bernard Barrett

Training: searching statistics on ons.gov.uk

5 February 2012, CILIP HQ (organised by CILIP Information Services Group)

Notes on the day

Geoff Davies, Implementation Manager at the ONS, gave a run-through of the navigation of the newly redesigned ons.gov.uk. Recent improvements include new search functionality, additional synonyms and acronyms and better navigation.

• Several new elements on the homepage will be useful for headline figures – the “carousel” in the centre which announces the latest big releases, and the Key figures panel on the right which is a quick way of accessing the most up-to-date stats for GDP, unemployment etc.
• The UK Publication Hub (link at bottom of landing page) holds all government data, not just that held by ONS.
• ONS YouTube videos give explanations of big releases, and the new interactives are a good way of interrogating data.
• Links to the previous site are obsolete, so if you’ve saved a URL it won’t redirect to the new site, but all the statistical releases have been carried over, so they will be there if you dig deep enough.

Geoff then outlined the basic structure of the ONS site, which is a simple nested hierarchy:

• Business area (section) folder -> each publication has a folder -> calendar entry for each edition -> edition folder -> all content “nuggets” released on that date eg. charts, data tables, summary, statistical bulletin etc.
• Every edition published to the site has a separate release page, which goes live on the publication date (the release calendar includes future publications). Everything relating to that release is accessible from the page – datasets and reference tables are listed at the bottom of the page, and contact details for a named person responsible for that release are to the right.
• The redesigned theme pages, which are launching shortly and will be rolled out gradually across each theme, are simplified and easier to understand, and much more visual than the current text-based version. A moving carousel, in the centre, gives the most recent data. They are a work in progress and will be improved as more pages are updated.

Geoff gave a quick run-through of the navigation tabs across the top of the site:

• Browse by theme – alphabetical index of themes -> individual theme pages, with the most relevant or important content at the top.
• Publications – chronological list, with filters on the right to narrow down content.
• Data – chronological list, search for datasets and reference tables here (not available in publications list).
• Release calendar – all releases, chronologically, including future releases (the landing page only includes big releases). If you click through to a release page there’s a link to all editions at top right, to access previous data.
• Guidance and methodology – gives background on the ONS and data collection, classifications etc.
• Media Centre – includes official statements and releases, and letters correcting misinterpretations of stats in the media.
• About ONS – most useful is the ad hoc research undertaken by ONS, which isn’t searchable in the publications indexes. Go to Publication Scheme under What We Do, then Published Ad Hoc Data on the left.

Continuing problems with the site

The main issue users have raised since the redesign is difficulty in finding content. The ONS has decentralised publishing, which means each department is responsible for their own releases (around 460 staff contributing to the site). This has led to inconsistency, as some staff are reluctant to change old methods or not interested in web standards, and some are just too busy. The ONS are working on solutions:

• training staff on how to tag content with six or seven most useful keywords (too few, or too many irrelevant ones, mean weaker search results), and improving the metadata.
• publishing support team to help departments who are too busy or uninterested.
• health checks are run on content regularly.
• there is pressure from management to conform to the new standards.

Practical examples

We ran through some real search queries for tips on searching the site, with assistance from a member of the customer services team (whose name I missed, sorry!). The main advice was to search through the release calendar using filters as necessary (selecting ‘last 5 years’ clears future releases from the list), and to use the ‘all editions’ link on each release page to locate time series data.

Unfortunately, the practical examples just proved that the search functionality of the site still needs improvement (if a roomful of information professionals struggles to find data you have a problem!). Advising users to call the customer services team with any queries is helpful but no use in a high pressure environment where data is needed within hours, not days – what I really needed were ways of finding the stats myself.

Reflections

• The redesigned ons.gov.uk site is much cleaner and simpler than the old version, and easier to navigate, but it’s still difficult to actually find specific data. It’s a shame the ONS didn’t take advantage of having a room full of information professionals to interrogate the system further and to make notes of improvements needed.
• Some of the problems the ONS are facing are familiar – they’ve decentralised uploading of content, but some staff are reluctant to adopt new techniques and others are over-keen and tag excessively. This is true of other new technologies being adopted across many library sectors (certainly it applies to social media in the news industry). It’s an issue of good training and perseverance with the new standards, and having support from management is vital.
• Some issues with the redesign are similar to those we’ve experienced in relaunching our intranet recently – lack of redirects from old pages, decentralising, need for training.

Applying what I learned

• The key figures and carousel on the front page of ons.gov.uk will be incredibly useful for finding the most recent headline data quickly (a common query).
• The new theme pages will be very useful once they are launched, as a quick way to access key figures on a topic (another common query).
• I’ll bookmark the ad hoc data page as an extra location to check for data.
• The training also offered some good ideas on how to ensure consistently good content and metadata, which we could apply to any new roles that our department undertakes.

Titanic – a century of news

A few weeks ago I blogged about neglecting the blog because I was working on my first ebook, about the Titanic. I finalised it last week and it’s now in the Amazon store for Kindle, and on iTunes!

The book is a collection of Guardian articles on Titanic, from its inception as the world’s largest ship (rumours first circulated that the White Star line was planning a mammoth liner in 1907), through the excitement of the launch and the tragedy that followed, and on to the present day, with the discovery of the wreck in the 1980s, James Cameron’s 1998 film and the creation of the Titanic ‘brand’.

The most moving pieces I found were firsthand accounts of the disaster from survivors, given to journalists on their arrival in New York and to the official inquiry that followed the tragedy.

Titanic is obviously the story of the moment, with the 100th anniversary of the sinking looming this weekend, and the ebook has reached #33 on Kindle’s world history list (yay!). The From the archive blogpost I wrote in conjunction has been shared more than 76,000 times on Facebook.

You can read more on the From the archive blog (Titanic – a maiden voyage that ended in tragedy) or, you know, download the ebook! It’s only £2.56…

Yesterday, a reader queried a wire story we published; to check the facts I spent an hour researching Hitler’s birthplace online. Fully expecting neo-Nazi ads on Facebook and a visit from the boys in blue. #frictionlesssharing #telldaveeverything

#chartership chat on Twitter – the evaluative statement, 29 March 2012

Date and time: 29 March, 6.30pm-7.30pm BST
Topic: the evaluative statement
Participants: 14
Tweets: about 160

I tuned in to the first #chartership chat on Twitter last month but I missed the last two so it was great to get involved again. Tonight’s theme was the evaluative statement, and while there weren’t as many of us present this week (@joeyanne was missing and we were competing with the hottest day of the year, as @cjclib pointed out!), @tinamreynolds did a great job keeping the conversation going and the discussion was just as fast-flowing and crammed with useful tips.

@joeyanne will be archiving the tweets as usual and you can still read write-ups of the previous #chartership chats. The next chat is on 12 April at 6.30pm BST, and the theme will be the mentor/mentee relationship.

16 February, #Chartership chat on Twitter blogpost by @joeyanne
Storify on #chartership chat by @ellyob
1 March, Chatting about Chartership blogpost by @el399
17 March, collecting and reporting evidence blogpost by @Library_Quine

I’ve taken the approach of previous bloggers and tried to pull out the main areas we discussed, as well as the best practical tips for writing your statement.

Planning and drafting the evaluative statement

There was some debate over when to start thinking about the evaluative statement. @Misteemog collected a mass of evidence first, drew it together in the statement, writing about each item, then “pruned the best bits”. @Readyourbook suggested arranging your evidence into a coherent order first, then writing a sentence about each piece of evidence as a first draft:

Some said they’d been thinking about the evaluative statement while they were collecting evidence – @ellyob jots down ideas for the statement under each of her chartership objectives, alongside possible evidence. @tinamreynolds and @Readyourbook both wished they’d started thinking about the statement at an earlier stage. Whether or not you draft your statement as you’re going along, we all agreed it was advisable to think about the criteria as well as your PPDP goals while you’re gathering evidence.

@Readyourbook pointed out that drafting the statement can help you to focus on reflection, and to weed out evidence that doesn’t add anything to your portfolio.

What to focus on

I’ve reached the point where I want to draft my evaluative statement, but I’m struggling to set out a framework, so it was great to get some input from other chartershippers (charterers? Hmm).

@AnabelMarsh “parachuted in” to pass on some advice from a recent chartership meeting she attended. The assessors she met prefer the statement to be based on the criteria, because it makes their job easier, though they’re not opposed to other approaches. @annetteearl followed this framework, writing 250 words on each of the four criteria.

We agreed it didn’t matter if your evidence applied to more than one of the criteria – they’re bound to cross over (most activities, as @tinamreynolds pointed out, will count as commitment to CPD), and applying to multiple criteria can strengthen your evidence – although it may make writing the statement harder!

If there isn’t room for in-depth reflection in the statement, where else can you put it?

The statement is limited to 1,000 words, so there isn’t much room for proper reflection – @Schopflin repeated the mantra, “Make every word count”, and pointed out that “your statement should be supported by evidence, not contain it”. @Misteemog was advised to think of the statement as an executive summary of your application.

@tinamreynolds posed a question:

@johnmcmahon31 writes a reflective report on each event he attends. The portfolio I currently have on loan from CILIP (by Simon Ward) makes very good use of this – every training day and course is written up in a report, including aims and achievements, so the author is reflecting on lessons he’s learned and applied in the workplace as well as just describing the experience. The statement can then be limited to one or two lines for each objective.

The CV is another place to add reflection:

By describing your key achievements in each job role and how you applied what you learned on training courses to the workplace, you can save space in your statement. Four pages is a lot to play with; even if you’re as prolific as @tinamreynolds and have reems of training to draw on, you can add a line or two of reflection on the most useful courses if you’re selective.

@Readyourbook suggested adding some reflection to an explanatory note at the top of each piece of evidence, to make it absolutely clear to the assessors why the evidence is included.

Other issues covered

• @ellyob wondered how many objectives you should identify in the PPDP – most people had four or five development areas but could bundle different objectives together under each one
• How much evidence do you put in the portfolio?
• Ways of organising evidence – whiteboards, physical piles of evidence, post-it notes in a matrix
• The benefits of including an explanatory statement at the top of each piece of evidence, making it clear why it is included
• Reassurance that any changes to the chartership process following the Future Skills consultation won’t apply to anyone who is already registered for chartership
• What to include in the CV

Top tips on writing the evaluative statement

• It’s never too early to think about the evaluative statement – if you have it in mind while you’re gathering evidence it’ll be much easier to write
• Think of your statement as an executive summary
• Assessors prefer it if you base your statement on the criteria (though it’s not the only way) – the clearer you make it the easier their job is
• It’s all about reflection not description – the place to describe activities is in the evidence…
• …and if you go over the word limit try to fit more reflective writing into your evidence
• Ensure everything in the portfolio is referred to in the statement – don’t let evidence sit alone
• Arrange the statement with headings, bullet points etc to break up the text – it’s easier for the assessors to read and navigate (although long headings might eat up the word count!)

Losing focus

It’s been a while since I’ve written anything – it’s fair to say I’m struggling to keep up with my commitments! What they call the work-life balance, or rather the work-life-CPD-everything else balance in my case.

Work has been crazy busy recently, leaving no time to tackle CPD in my lunch hour (what lunch hour?). What time I do have at the moment is taken up with work-related stuff – I’m compiling an ebook (exciting, but time-consuming!) and have a list as long as my arm of projects I don’t have time for during ‘normal’ work hours. Tweetdeck is always open and I try to keep up with industry news but at the end of every day my desktop is littered with articles I haven’t had time to read.

Attending CPD events is another area I’m struggling with. I work part-time, and with two small children and a husband who travels with work I can’t commit many evenings to networking and groups such as LIKE. It’s unfortunate that LIKE events are held on a day I don’t work, ruling them out unless I turn up late (which is more than a little embarrassing!); similarly, it’s difficult to drop in on #uklibchat or the #chartership chats while I’m getting the kids ready for bed. To say nothing of Codeyear, freelance writing, knitting…

This all sounds a bit self-pitying, and I realise I’m not alone in struggling to fit CPD into daily life, and still have a life (the Universal Bookdrop blog addressed the same issue a few days ago). I feel a bit like I’m juggling (how many cliches can I fit into one blogpost?), and by trying to keep everything in the air I’m not progressing with anything.

So, I’ve decided to cut down on blogging while I try to concentrate on compiling my Chartership portfolio. I’ll still post occasionally but no more self-imposed pressures to blog every week. Hopefully it’ll mean more quality posts, and there’s a chance I might actually finish Chartership some time this year! Less talking, more doing…

POSTSCRIPT: As is the way, I launched this last night and was directed to several related blogposts on time management this morning (thanks @librarianbyday!).

A post from the lifehacker blog (Instead of Saying “I Don’t Have Time,” Say “It’s Not a Priority“) fits my dilemma exactly. It’s hard to admit to yourself that tasks that you (or others) consider important aren’t actually a priority. I might make myself a priorities list – and try to be honest with myself.

I’m also reminded of an article in the Harvard Business Review blog (When To Give Up On Your Goals – thanks @tinamreynolds!), in which Dorrie Clark discusses the importance of being realistic in setting targets, and the importance of revising or even scrapping them when they’re no longer beneficial. I tend to bumble along, trying to do everything at once. Maybe I need to take a more analytical approach.

#Libday8 Day three (1 February)

Checking in with Twitter first thing

Library Day in the Life Round 8

Senior researcher, Guardian News & Media (news library)

I’ve realised some of the queries I’ve mentioned this week are vague in the extreme – I’m a bit nervous about putting too many details (names, for example) before the articles are published, not that I’ve been researching anything controversial but some journalists like to keep quiet about what they’re writing! I might come back and add links once the pieces are in print.

• 10am: First job of the day is to listen to the morning conference – an editorial meeting open to anyone on the paper, which they stream so you can watch on your desktop. They invite guest speakers in most weeks, and today it’s Lord Hunt, chairman of the PCC, who was at Leveson yesterday.
• 10am: A bit of multitasking! We’ve been asked for a detailed package on Google for one of the editors, by lunchtime, so we’ve all taken sections (it’s quicker to share a big job if there’s a tight deadline). Used Factiva to search US/global press as well as UK, then emailed the docs.
• 11am: Took an email query from a journalist I did some work for last week (some writers have their favourites among us!), trying to pin down the precise role of a government advisor (there’s some confusion over whether he still is one). I hit Google for some details then the text archive, for a reliable source.
• 12pm: Another email query, looking for profiles and background on an interview subject. Back to the text archive and Factiva!
• 12.15pm: A face-to-face query (from the feature writer who sits behind me!), on Michael Gove and his use of the insult “Trot!” yesterday. He needs it for tomorrow’s paper so this takes priority over the previous query…
• 12.45pm: …which I’ll get back to now! It’s turning into another day spent on Factiva. I don’t want to engulf someone with a deluge of articles, but when I’m researching for someone who is planning an interview I try to provide enough substantial previous profiles to give them more than one viewpoint and lots of ideas. This interview subject is a writer so I’m sending reviews of his books as well, several articles he’s written and any recent news so the interviewer is up-to-date.
• 2pm: Lunch!
• 3pm: We’ve been asked to trace a quote that is being questioned by a reader, so back to Factiva and Google.
• 3.15pm: A bit more work on an archive blogpost for the anniversary of the Queen’s succession to the throne in 1952, writing the bones of the article and prepping some of the images in Photoshop. I’ll have to finish it off quickly on Monday morning!
• 3.30pm: Picked up a journalist query from email, looking for statistics on mental health issues for girls and women (eating disorders, depression, self harm). I looked at a few charity websites, which led me to the Department of Health’s 2010-11 hospital episode statistics – the data will never be comprehensive because cases only get recognised when people enter the healthcare system, but it gives an idea of the gender and age ranges where it is most prevalent. They focused on eating disorders last year as one of their topics of interest, which is helpful. I found reports of recent surveys on body image and self harm on the text archive too, and comparative depression stats from the ONS Adult Psychiatric Morbidity study 2007.
• 5.15pm: It’s been a busy day today! Just enough time to read through the draft of a From the archive blogpost a colleague has written (we try to check each other’s work because the blog doesn’t go through a subbing process before we publish).

Normally that would be me done for the week – I’ve been working three days a week since I had my son four years ago – but this Friday I’m going to news:rewired so I’ll have a day off and post a few thoughts on what I learn there over the weekend.

Read today: Hashtags for information professionals by Bethan Ruddock; Librarians as Agents of Democracy by Lauren Smith on the Walk You Home tumblr; the National Libraries Day event page; Laura’s Guide to chartership on the Dark Archive blog; the Guardian’s report on the Whoopensocker US dialects dictionary; and #libday8 posts from Nicole Brock, Lauren Smith, JoLibrariAnne and Rachel Bickley.