“It’s all kicking off!”

Arrived home this evening with a million and one things going round my head. Spent some of the day dealing with train and air travel, always guaranteed to bring out my sunny side. Why does stuff have to be so complicated? Why does it take so long to get everywhere? Why don’t teleports exist? Then again can you imagine a CDG TARDIS - I could arrive at any event in history or have to advise someone about an ancient qualification…

Go to meet with a member of academic staff, planning to update her on our external review of information literacy. We want to get more inclusion at strategic level. Discover the whole programme for two major subject areas is being completely rewritteen - this sounds like a golden opportunity except that we already have substantial IL involvement in these programmes and now we may have to fight our corner all over again. What looked like a quiet week is now full of meetings, which I am warned may involve arguments.

Go home, put the washing on, feed the kittycats and then eke out an hour’s effort for CDG. I’m trying to write papers for our National Council, particularly a tricky one on financial sustainability. Want to tell it like it is but be positive and affirming at the same time.

But now it’s time to leave work aside and listen to the rumbly in my tumbly…

Rainy afternoon

I’ve spent the afternoon emailing Divisions with feedback on their Divisional Plans. The 2008 programme for the group is considerably more inspiring than the miserable weather I can see from my study window! There are intriguing events, appealing pub quizzes and walks, visits to all manner of interesting workplaces - army libraries, cathedrals, colleges, the BBC and more.  The Framework of Qualifications is in safe hands with our dedicate team of Candidate Support Officers - look out for a course near you. We continue to reach out to students, to under-represented groups and to our whole membership, whether it’s through events, informal get-togethers, meetings, social technologies, newsletters and more. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone at our May National Council and hearing more about the work on the ground.

But I can’t just stand here blogging all day - I need to warm pizzas and pour wine in readiness for the second episode of the new series of Doctor Who. (Oh stop sighing, it’s my blog and I’ll obsess if I want to!) Just for the record, yes I did enjoy the first episode, yes I do think Donna will work out fine as a companion (I loved that she had a boot full of suitcases ready packed, including hatbox), yes the Adipose were silly but who cares, that’s entertainment! (Cue Jam intro…)

The 60 second blogger

<blogpost> I am giving myself exactly one minute to write today’s post (otherwise I’ll miss my train). Spent a lot of today working on a long-neglected assignment for the PGCHET course. Writing about information literacy and programme design - it’s dry but I amass 2500 words without trying very hard. Amazing what we know about our profession when we have to explain it to outsiders. </blogpost>

Old friends and new approaches

RSVPs to my Presidential Reception invites are trickling in. Today I hear back from several colleagues I’ve served with on the group over the years - it will be great to see them and catch up. There is a real sense of commonality, even dare I say it of family. The thing about committee work is that it can develop bonds of trust and a shared sense of achievement as you work together to make an event or a publication or project happen, while juggling the day job and everything else. These are the people who have endured the same travel troubles, dodgy hotel breakfasts, stressful moments along the way as well as memorable special events and the odd glass or three of wine.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, the new academic year can already be spotted riding into town with every intent of bursting open the saloon doors and drinking the place dry. Module descriptors are being revisited - it’s time to think about how we increase the strategic visibility of our information literacy programme. Also thinking about how to streamline and improve our assessment procedures, making the most of online submission tools. But part of me is screaming inside “NO NO I can’t deal with this yet!” Always a weird time of year. The clocks may have changed but the mental and biorhythms are confused by the constantly shifting work focus and unpredictable weather.

I know weather is coming up a lot in this blog but let’s face it, this is Britain, it’s a national preoccupation!

 

 

Life on the lily pads

Does anyone else feel they are constantly hopping from one lily pad to another but never really getting anywhere? It’s a funny time of year - university vacation but with a surprisingly high number of students around; just back from my own holiday and not quite back into the workaday rhythm; lots to do but no obvious top priority. Fiddle about with a document for our MSc dissertation handbook; log a new FOI enquiry; answer several emails; meet some prospective students; go to a meeting that feels a bit unsatisfactory because we are between several peaks.

Preparations for the CDG national conference are nearing completion, and the delegate list is growing all the time. I’m greatly looking forward to the trip, the venue (City Hall), my stay at the Big Sleep and hopefully a visit to the Doctor Who exhibition in Cardiff Bay. (Good practice for when we get one in Glasgow next year). These conferences are always fun, surprising and attract both stalwart regulars and different people every time. I love meeting folk from different sectors and finding out what makes them tick and what turns their hair grey. I love waffling on in a random but hopefully welcoming manner at the start of the day. And in a strange way I love the randomness of changing locations, never knowing how the journey connections will pan out or whether I will be running the last stretch against the clock (that was Leicester).

Started a new book today - The wind-up bird chronicle by Haruki Murakami. It’s odd but pretty intriguing so far. It will tide me over till our book group completes its online vote as to the first title we will read and discuss.

Bones

Last night I stayed up too late and watched the pilot episode of Bones which friends had lent me. For the uninitiated like myself, it’s a drama series inspired by the life of Kathy Reichs, forensic anthropologist and author. I was thinking LIS work is not dissimilar. Customers bring us tiny fragments of information from which we reconstruct both the actual information request and the motivations and narratives behind it. Now all we need is fancy holographic technology and a team of photogenic squints to do our every bidding.

Extra strong mints help on the first day back

Back to the day job after my week’s holiday. (Actually it feels like about Wednesday already after spending much of the weekend catching up on Career Development Group work.) The whole day is spent processing emails and responding or filing them. By hometime I have got the inbox from 240 down to 30, which is not bad at all. Although I wonder sometimes whether this counts as actually working or whether it’s just rearranging the furniture.

Shocker of the day was finding out that a well-used specialist resource will no longer be available. I’ll be sad to see it go. I like choice and I had chosen this particular resource for sound reasons. Now the choice resembles a Discworld restaurant menu: soss, egg, beans and rat.

A student asks for advice on plagiarism - he wants to include a long paragraph from a particular source, together with all its hyperlinked references.  It’s worrying and I try to explain why this isn’t acceptable and how else can approach his coursework. Feel a bit out of my depth really.

Many CDG emails flying around - dividing my brain between national conference in April, our Raising the bar senior event in June, Presidential Reception and Scottish Revalidation course in May, to say nothing of the much anticipated Scottish screening of Hollywood Librarian. Wondering whether to buy a feather boa specially. Have the hair for a bun but sadly not the training.

If my mental space needs to be partitioned into any more compartments it will require a trip to IKEA for some of those gauzy curtain fabrics. A new colleague joins the team today and has been bombarded with information and paperwork - maybe I could share my IKEA head-curtains.

We are starting a book group for library staff tomorrow, so need to ponder what I’d like to read on all my journeys up and down the country. I’m thinking anything that doesn’t have the word ’strategic’ or ‘operational’ anywhere in the title will be acceptable. In fact a picture book with large letters and a reassuring ending would suit me just fine.

 

The even better laid plans of whales?

The best laid plans of mice

Eddie Izzard does a great routine in which he unpacks the rodent section of that well-worn saying “the best laid plans of mice and men gang oftentimes aglay” (OK Scottish people, don’t hunt me down if I misquoted that!!) If I remember rightly, it includes a bilingual pastiche of The Italian Job (”vous n’avez que faire sauter les portes”). Anyway, look it up, it’s hilarious.

This afternoon I’ve been reading the 2008 Divisional Plans (OK, just those five that have actually been submitted. I’ll be nagging the other seven Divisions this week!) It’s fantastic to see the work that is going on - inspiring events… intriguing visits… fresh air and exercise… newsletters and e-experiments… committed personal suppport to qualifications candidates… reaching out to partner organisations and local LIS schools. All this good work carried out by our network of volunteers, who all have day jobs, lives and fingers in so many other pies they can only be working for Dundee’s own Desperate Dan. Activists are wonderful people; have you hugged one lately or told them how much you appreciate their hard work and energy? And we even have our own yoghurt. I like the prune one, personally. Keeps you regular. A bit like business planning processes.

My garden is being invaded by baby rabbits. I wonder what’s in their best-laid plans?

Back to life, back to reality

So, I’m just back from a fabulously relaxing holiday in Tenerife. I knew it was time for a break when at the airport I could see monitors displaying “Paris CDG” and found myself wondering how our French Division was doing and whether I should be asking them for their 2008 Divisional Plan. Nuff said.

No truly household names were harmed during our stay, thus demonstrating the fantasy principle that naming something is an inherently powerful act.

Book reviews from my week away:

• Jane Smiley - Ten Days in the Hills: I love Jane Smiley and her books are all really quite different. This one is definitely at her trashy end! A bunch of folks (longlost offspring, ex-partners, business associates, random gurus) spend 10 days together in the Hollywood area immediately after the 2003 Academy Awards. They chat about Iraq, argue, wacth and chat about movies, reminisce and have really quite a lot of graphic sex (unusual for Smiley’s novels). For reading by the pool in 25 degree heat, it was just fine.
• Isabel Allende - The House of the Spirits: finally I got round to reading this absolutely wonderful novel! Epic saga of several generations, each more quirky than the last, a social history of South America but with a light and personal touch. Moving, passionate, funny and tragic by turns. You can keep Marquez - this for me is the real deal - realism and magical but with a plot. I sponsored myself to read this as part of our Passport to Latin America. What shall I read next? Suggestions?
• Khaled Hosseini - The Kite Runner: yes, yes, another one long overdue. Only halfway through but what a captivating story. See above - moving, passionate, tragic and compelling.

So it’s back to the mountain of emails and post and undone tasks… information overload still alive and kicking… but the cats are pleased to have me home and there are signs that the garden is coming back to life. Loads to catch up on with CDG, great stuff happening all over the place!