Tales from the CDG Tardis

Well, this is a jet setting week, today finding me at home in the twilight zone somewhere between Cardiff and Dortmund (should that be the title of a concept album?)

Our CDG National Conference took place yesterday in the fabulous venue of Cardiff City Hall. Never in all my years of giving notices have I had to instruct people “Ladies, turn left at Hywel the Good’ or ‘Gents, take the left just after Henry VII’. We had showers and sunshine too, so I take back my comments about waterproofs

Our speakers were energetic, passionate, interactive, experienced, communicative… they also complemented each other fantastically and left us slightly overwhelmed with their array of issues and case studies and thought-provoking comments.  Liz Jolly held the audience captive as she described work undertaken in Info Services at Salford Uni to push professionalism way up the agenda - establishing mentor and mentee support networks and paying for staff CILIP subscriptions.  Richard Beveridge asked us what we actiually cost our employers and urged us to think about our value and how we can demonstrate our worth tangibly. The audience rose to the occasion too, asking and answering questions and joining in exercises to choose bags that represented them (from Lyndsay Rees-Jones’s world-famous bag collection) and to dissect job descriptions and write competency-based interview questions under the supervision of Laura Perrott. Lori Havard spoke about storyboarding for e-learning at Swansea Uni, prompting me to think how much time we invest in students’ information literacy and how little in our own colleagues’ learning. Lunch was the usual carbo-fest but we needed our strength to keep our brains ticking over all of this stimulation.

Our AGM was followed by a whistle-stop tour of our professional future from new CILIP Councillor and Aberystwyth lecturer Judy Broady-Preston. People were still making insightful comments and asking searching questiojns at 4.30, when it really was time to pack up and leave.

Sue Hill’s own brand champagne went home to be enjoyed responsibly by six lucky raffle winners, adding £30 to our international project funds.

And yes - I did get to visit the Doctor Who Up Close exhibition in Cardiff Bay - and brought home a wee Dalek and Cyberman for the shelf…

Only a bijou blogette today - it’s Saturday after all, and I’m busy packing my bag to fly to Cardiff tomorrow for the CDG National Conference. Hand luggage only, so have to do a purge on my rucksack for dubious items. I once had a mini stapler confiscated at Belfast Airport. Harruummph. I loved that little widget. Pile all my liquids into a sandwich bag. Why are liquids so evil anyway? I look like a Boots employee and/or a hypochondriac when all the little lotions and potions are bundled up together. Taking a laptop from work - fretting about whether it will work or not on the day. Writing thankyou cards for speakers - a nice little job that gets me thinking about the programme, I think it’s a strong one and I know most of the speakers personally, which is nice. I’ve prepared my opening spiel, which is all about… yes you’ve guessed it… and it’s on in half an hour so I’d better exit the blogosphere tout de suite…

Daily blogging squeezed out this week by struggle to keep up with Programme Executive Boards by day, preparing papers for CDG National Council by night. On my way home from work finally got round to flicking through today’s Scotsman - I only read it for the recruitment and review sections. Stumbled across a review of a comic book exhibition at the National Library of Scotland. Now, I haven’t attended this exhibition, so I can’t comment on how fair or otherwise the reviewer has been; I am sure it will have been professionaly put together as is everything done by the NLS. This reviewer didn’t like the exhibition, but what I found most interesting was his analysis of its shortcomings and his further comment on libraries in general (I quote from p11):

The design is the real problem; it completely loses the subject matter. I am afraid this reflects a failure of nerve, a loss of confidence in what the library should do and a feeling that it must find new audiences. You can just hear the designers’ pitch, can’t you?  “Books and labels in glass cases are so boring. Comics will bring in the young and we will pitch it to them in a language they will understand.” This great library is part of our national infrastructure. It need no more justify its existence than our roads or bridges. It should not have to go out and tout for customers like any commercial enterprise.  The audience will come when they need it. It is our collective memory. It is also very sad to see such an institution trying to second-guess the imagined ignorance of a target audience.

I ask myself what I think about these comments. I would like us to be considered as central as civil engineering works, but I know how badly we do need to go out and tour for customers. Earlier today some of us discussed e-book usage. How can we get students to read? How long can we justify spending on resources that aren’t used?

Today I have been installed as a semi-permanent feature in one of our seminar rooms, there to lie in wait for MSc Computing students.They’ve had formal classes with me already; today is a mop-up, drop-in, clinic and general rescue mission. 4 turn up at 9 sharp, expecting formal presentations. They get informal one to one chat and various supporting documents. Some stay to do some litertaure searching and cut their teeth on Endnote; as the day goes on, more turn up and I get asked various questions. Some of them are doing very current topics such as Wii remote and we can’t find much. Others just need to play jigsaws with their keyword combinations. Referencing inevitably rears its head.

Light relief at lunchtime. The boss has returned from holiday and left a mysterious foodstuff in the tearoom. It looks like a giant pork pie. I know her better than this though and we dive in with a knife to discover yummy apple cinnamon cake.

It’s quiet in the seminar room - those students who do drop in are working hard. Feels like the calm before the dissertation storm though…

Last night I had one of my more colourful dreams: I dreamed that I was having a little holiday on the Moon. There was a lovely apartment with gravity installed and picture window views of it snowing on all the planets. My grasp of astronomy, physics etc is of course very tenuous. Colleagues think this signifies that I subconsciously want to get very far away from everything! Maybe they’re right..

Just back from Scottish Division’s AGM. Arrived early and was joined by a few faithful souls, but at the designated start time we were still several officers short of a meeting. Very strange. After 15 minutes we invoked the power of mobile to find our trusty colleagues. They were at the right University, in the wrong building, looking for the right room. (I’m not sure exactly what part the desk staff at said institution played in this mix-up). We were reunited - quite a large crowd as it turned out - and the meeting duly took place. Butted in too many times and now feeling I should have kept mouth shut.  No one likes a bossy britches!

Amuse myself on the train by brainstorming ideas for ‘The Timelord’s guide to CPD’ session for the Branch & Group day at Peebles in June. Hope to make it fun, relevant and interactive. So many things to prepare, so little time - concentrating on keeping all the balls in the air, eggs in the basket, general spheres in orbit.

Well, after a week focusing a bit more on the immediate work environment, it’s time to catch up on all things CDG. I’ve spent this afternoon drafting papers for our National Council meeting which is only a few weeks away now - it’s the biggest business meeting in our calendar and I’m exhausted just thinking about it! Plus we have our Scottish Division AGM tomorrow at the Saltire Centre, Glasgow Caledonian Uni - I’ve visited before but I’m always interested to see how university libraries look (and sound!) at different times of the year. And this time next week I’ll be on my way to Cardiff for our national conference on workforce development.

This week’s Doctor Who classic DVD has been The Time Warrior - we’re back in the 1970s with Jon Pertwee. A Sontaran finds himself stuck in the early Middle Ages and has to make the most of the primitive technology he finds there. Meanwhile some scientists go missing from modern day England - the Sontaran officer is forcing them to work for him on some circuitry. Hot on their heels is of course the Doctor and, having stowed away on the TARDIS, investigative journalist Sarah Jane Smith. It’s a marvellous meeting of multiple eras and personalities. I hope that we as information professionals can take something of Sarah’s approach - no nonsense; brave; able to process new situations and sources quickly; able to wear dubious fashions and still look cutting edge; able to connect with those around us, even when they may be hostile axe-wielding maniacs.

A further thought with reference to last night’s new episode: the Ood are ‘born with their brains in their hands’ - do librarian Ood have extra big hands in order to carry the collected wisdom of the ageas and to do their customers’ thinking for them?

Oh shame among bloggers! I missed a day. This was because I was at the second day of the Abertay Enhancement conference. A colleague asked me this morning whether I felt suitably enhanced; yes, I replied; any more enhanced and I could change my name to Jordan

The second day started with a thought-provoking talk from our Vice Principal, who managed to link Ancient Icelandic sagas to employability (you kinda had to be there). She was joined by one of our students who gave a different perspective on our new graduate attributes.

Then went to a talk by some Computing lecturers who were reporting on some peer teaching they had been getting the MSc IT students to do - this was interesting as I have some input into that module right at the beginning, and I got to see how the whole thing pans out. This session provoked a lot of discussion and nearly overran. Fortunately the next session was shorter and mainly consisted of cuddle your neighbour and stick postits all over the walls.

There were two highlights of the afternoon session: one an inspiring and thought-provoking talk on the connections between research and teaching, and the other a debate. The motion for the debate was “A healthy workforce is a better workforce” and it was comprehensively defeated, to everyone’s surprise! We voted (using TurningPoint) on our views at the beginning and end of the debate and it had to be said the unhealthy corner had put together  a stronger case. “The cutting edge of the relaxation though was one of the memorable phrases friom the healthy corner’s argument, and one that particularly appeals to me.

All rounded off with a glass of wine. It was worth getting alarmingly behind in my emails and getting nowhere with my tasklist this week; I’ve had a chance to think, reflect, chat, make connections, listen, learn, discover and plot wily stratagems.

This afternoon was the first instalment of Abertay’s annual enhancement conference, which runs for the whole of tomorrow as well. It’s a chance to get folk together from across the University to share ideas, good practice, experiences, thoughts and new directions. A sprinkling of guest speakers helps us to find perspective and gain new insights. Our keynote speaker - though this suggests a more grandiose conference than ours - this is really quite homegrown, in a good way - is Prof Brent MacGregor (writing at home from memory, may not get name right!) from Edinburgh Art College. He speaks on ‘Employability: Homer, Marx and the Beatles’ and is both engaging and relevant. He also manages to reference both Marxes (Karl and Groucho) and both Homers (Iliad and Simpson) which I think is quite impressive; the Beatles only get a general mention and John and Paul a nod each - nothing for Ringo or George. (Though I’d love to hear what the drummer of the Fab Four, voice of Thomas the Tank Engine and regular at the Chelsea Flower Show had to say about employability!) He makes me giggle though by mentioning ‘live briefs’ (for the uninitiated that means students working with real world clients) in the same breath as a reference to Mantz Yorke, the highly respected academic. This won’t strike you as the least bit funny. But a guest slot from Mantz Yorke a year or two ago came at a hectic time, got forgotten about periodically and mutated into ‘Pants Yorke’ with no disrespect intended. Underpants just ARE funny, I don’t care how old you are.

Also attend a really interesting session in which one of our sports lecturers reports the results of some research that has been conducted into student attendance at Abertay. We learn that bad times for lectures are: mornings; afternoons; Wednesdays; Thursdays. Our one-man timetabling team (the series Baldrick didn’t make) takes it on the chin but points out that not everyone can have 11.30-1.30 on a Tuesday. Students have work commitments, family commitments, travel problems, and a certain amount of poor motivation - all of this we know - and they want absolutely everything tied in to assessment.

Final slot of the day, by which time a lot of folk have sloped off, sees my colleagues speaking on the links between Information Literacy and employability - they echo a lot of the keynote speech and worry that people will think they just wrote it in half an hour - evidently it’s just proof that great minds think alike! It’s a tough brief but they generate food for thought and receive some interesting questions afterwards.

A stimulating afternoon and always good to get out and talk to people - to be continued.

I find myself constantly having to switch between modes. Today I go to two big meetings of different sections of the same Division. We’re negotiating the content of different modules for next year. I’m horribly confused as everybody has different ideas about what’s happening to a particular module which has always been the biggest piece of my information literacy jigsaw. Is it getting scrapped? Updated? Left alone? Feel like I’m at an auction, primed to bid at every possible opportunity. One meeting ends up with a free for all on library issues - seeing me there has reminded everyone that they haven’t answered my several consultations about trial resources, budgets, stock edits, etc etc.

Decide to have the evening off professional stuff - but have a Bible study to prepare for a housegroup tomorrow. Decide on a sort of existential theme: what are we doing at that group and what is it for anyway? Is this the SIG Presidency affecting my judgement? Put in seven Scripture readings so that no one will notice I don’t actually have a sound hypothesis - just more questions than answers!