Here it is… My first blog post as part of the CPD23 movement. If you are not aware of this, click here for more information. And sign up!
Before I look at why I am partaking in the very excellent CPD23 project i will quickly address the title of this post. I intended this blog to be my blog that mainly focus on me as the ‘information professional’ with possible occasional posts of a more personal nature. However, mainly due to a lack of confidence, I have (and go back through previous posts if you don’t believe me) almost exclusively tended to blog about personal things, and many of those have been very silly. My life is neither interesting or dramatic enough for that.
With that out-of-the-way onto why I have decided to CPD23 this time:
- I recognise the importance of CPD as a developmental tool. Continued Professional Development is key to the evolution of a professional in any field, and as an information professional, this is no exception. Although it may not be mandatory as in other professions – working in a health library Nurses spring to mind almost immediately, it is still vital. Without it I would stagnate and be cut adrift from future trends. It is a way to ‘future proof’ my role. In my case in particular, despite not being shy in telling the world how great I am, being the senior library member of staff with no prior library management experience. Feeling quite let down with what the Masters course I am currently partaking in has offered me, CPD23 can hopefully allow me to develop. The correct CPD can only positively impact me and in turn the library service. And its all about impact.
- It will allow me to further develop the skills of reflection and analysing where i need to develop or highlight gaps in my learning, and how best to meet these needs. It is not good enough to wait for a course that seems useful or would give me the piece the paper to confirm skills I already have.
- Develop links to other information professionals. As commented on earlier, I am the senior library person within the organisation. I have a fantastic line manager who offers support and advice where he can, but in certain library specific areas, he admittedly sometimes lacks the professional knowledge. I am doubly blessed as within the region, we have a very strong CPD and support network, but CPD23 will not only link me to other health information professionals, but also individuals whose experience in other fields can offer perspectives I may not have considered.
- I have just started the chartership process and believe that CPD23 will go a long way in helping me achieve chartered status. I truly believe that I do not lack the overall skills or ability to succeed as an information professional, but CPD23 in conjunction with my chartership adventure will go a long way in making me more rounded, and eventually better at what I do.
- My interest was piqued last year in the 23 things project when there was Twitter discussion on how it was being rolled out and performed in, (I think) Portsmouth or Hampshire Public Libraries (apologies if i have got the details wrong). Hearing Helen Murphy discuss it at the New Professionals Conference only strengthened my interest and desire to contribute!
- Its Free. I work for the NHS. Enough Said
So there are 6 quick reasons as to why I am taking part, and come back and revisit this, as no doubt, when i have completed ‘Thing 2’ I will no doubt have seen other people’s reasons for CPD23’ing and taken them as my own.
Let me know what you think.
The Public Health Informationist 
I thought I\d pick your blog as one of those to comment on as Thing 2 of CPD23. I’m interested that you see this as filling some gaps in your Masters syllabus.
Curiously, at the moment, there’s only eighteen people on CPD23 who have tagged themselves as health/medical. I wonder why? The difficulty of getting at social media through the NHS firewall perhaps?
And I don’t think you should make any apology for silly postings. You should see mine. I think one of the interesting things about blogging is that it does break down the Chinese wall between professional and personal, between work and lesiure.
Hullo Tom,
Had not realised you were doing CPD23
Congrats – you and I are amongst the few declared health folk on the programm to have managed a post – it is making Thing 2 hard to get on with!
Free always has a certain appeal!
Hi Tom/Alan – thanks very much for the comments! I will check yours out soon and perform a perfect ‘Thing 2’ circle!
With regards to the lack of health/NHS involvement I have no real hard reasons why I think it hasn’t been taken up but I think the lack, as you said Tom, the dreaded NHS firewall may have something to do with it. One of the larger trusts here in the North West has to constantly battle and justify the use of wordpress even though they need it for the regional Horizon Scanning. Another reason is I am not sure how tuned into social-online activities NHS Library staff are? Discounting Facebook, how many people have an actual active presence on Twitter (I can think of myself included 5 people from within our region) etc. and how would they be aware of CPD23? How is it where you are?
I think there can be a negative tendency to assume that things won’t be accessible from the NHS. Certainly when I circulated CPD23 in London I got only one response and that was about blogspot being blocked.
I’m expecting the same response (if I get any). But you can only try. I did mine from home!
Hello, as one of the CPD23 organisers, I suspect that we may just not have promoted it as well to medical librarians as others, because I don’t think any of us are medical librarians and we probably just haven’t contact the right lists/ people. So thanks for your efforts in speading the word – please do tell any lists or groups that might be interested.
Katie
Well – either A) everyone was so enthused in my network that they rushed out to get started or B) nobody pays me any attention as I got 0 responses…
There was a small flurry of health librarians signing up a couple of days ago – don’t underestimate your impact!
I certainly am doing CPD23, Alan. You’ll find me under the unemployed tag :-(. Haven’t commented on the Health Informaticist (http://healthinformaticist.wordpress.com/2011/06/20/lets-cpd23/) because I thought I’d seek out people I don’t know already.
Another theory of course is that health librarians have rather more structured CPD than some other branches of the profession. It may be that people simply don’t see or feel the need to take part. But there’s now 22 people using the health/medical tag, and rising….
I had not considered that Tom. As I mentioned in the post we have a very good CPD & peer support network as part of LIHNN, with lot’s of events and continous feedback as what would be useful etc. I never considered it to be a reason not to partake in more.
I have also tried to spread out away from but I keep stumbling upon health blogs, Deborah’s being another interesting one: http://deborahscpdblog.blogspot.com/
Hi – thanks for the link to my blog! Will certainly keep you posted if we do manage a NHS 23 Things in the East of England. I did a quick survey a couple of months ago to see what other libraries in the region could & couldn’t access and it was a pretty mixed bag of results. Unsuprisingly, a lot could not access Twitter or Youtube, but also about half couldn’t access Slideshare! Hope you enjoy the programme – I certainly agree with your reasons for taking part.
Deborah