Tuesday 30 August 2011

#cpd23, Thing 10: Routes into librarianship

Well, I really enjoyed the elephants in the last post. 'Graduate traineeships, Masters Degrees, Chartership, Accreditation' is rather hard to illustrate with animals, though. But maybe there's something I can do with it. It's all about our 'journey' (cue slushy music) as librarians, isn't it? And when I think of journeys, I think of nothing so much as the majestic bison wending its way across the plains (cue David Attenborough)...

'Bison herd' by Alan Vernon on Flickr
"Here, in the Hayden valley, Wyoming..."

Now, I've talked about my route into librarianship fairly recently, so if you want to know all the ins and outs I'll point you over here, and those that have already read the tale won't end up like this fellow:

'Sleeping bison' by Carl Wainwright on Flickr
What do bison dream about?

In this instalment of the story, I really ought to talk about Chartership, and my progress (or lack thereof) towards it. Having completed my part-time LIS MA in September 2008, by early 2010 I had pretty much got used to my not having essays to write in every spare moment, and thought I was ready for a new challenge. I also new that the job hunt would be looming in a year's time. These two factors combined to convince me to register for Chartership.  I'd been engaging in a fair amount of professional development since graduation (the nature of my job demanded it), so I felt that I had the material for a good portfolio.  I found a mentor, went to some Chartership course, and got involved in things to add to the portfolio evidence.  I set myself an ambitious deadline for completion. So far, so good.  But things have a habit of not turning out how you think they will.

'starting my qiviut lace scarf' by andreakw on Flickr
Did you know that you can turn bison into knitting?

The trouble is, that I got so involved with so many great things, that Chartership has fallen by the wayside. I made six months' decent progress: drawing up necessary development plan, meeting my mentor, writing up some of my experiences, and creating a beautiful portfolio template that just requires me to fill in all the blanks. Around about Christmas and shortly afterwards the job situation resolved itself (at least temporarily), my extra-curricular involvement stepped itself up another notch or too and Chartership really hasn't had a look in since.  Dear mentor, if you are reading this, sorry.

It's time I faced facts: I need to sort myself and get on and finish this.

'~ buff1 ~' by ViaMoi on Flickr
A face you can't ignore. (I should point out that my mentor looks nothing like this. This is mor a representation of my inner annoyance at letting Chartership drag on.)

Probably the first step should be to contact my mentor.  I've been putting that off and off and off not least because I feel I should have done some work first. So maybe I should do some work - draw up a plan, at least - and then get in touch.

Hopefully this public self-shaming will encourage me into doing something, anything. All encouragement gratefully received. Is anyone else in a similar position? Want to team up, and motivate each other together?

Yours, abjectly,

Katie.

6 comments:

  1. I was a mentor once. Make your mentor happy - get in touch, arrange a coffee, and get going with that chartership again! It's seriously not difficult - not nearly as hard as some people would have you believe. (Then tweet karenmca and tell me you've had that coffee!)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I was there - definitely and I made it through! It's just a case of putting some time aside and being determined to make progress. Make the appointment with your mentor for a fortnight's time then you have a deadline and get a friend/relative to nudge you hard. As Karen says it's not as difficult as you feel it is at the time, it's just forcing yourself to sit down and write after a day at work that's hard.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you both. This is definitely the sort of encouragement I need.

    One stumbling block is that I've changed jobs since starting Chartership. Does anyone have any advice or tips about how to handle the fact that this means my PPDP now will look utterly different, and that some of the things I did before don't seem relevant any more?

    Katie

    ReplyDelete
  4. I had 3 different jobs while chartering. Ask your mentor for advice but you can revise your PPDP, include both versions but there are multiple ways of dealing with it, I think.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Don't worry! It took me 3 years to do my Chartership (due to my own start stop working method!) And I changed jobs halfway through. I included experiences from both roles in the PPDP (but made sure to label them well)

    Despair not! It'll all come together eventually! :)

    ReplyDelete