Tales from the CDG Tardis

Bother it, another day nearly over and I have failed to plant any more seeds in the blog patch. Day Job was taken up with urgent stuff, finishing a key paper, some meetings with reps (who were mnore than averagely personable for company reps), making difficult decisions about collection management (stop me if you think you’ve heard this one before…)

Also having a little personal dilemma about whether or not to apply for a job I’ve seen. It’s appealing but there would be material sacrifices. Also sense that my appetite for change, which has always been quite healthy, is on the wane and I’m starting to lose confidence in my ability to seize new opportunities. That is evidence if anything is that I really should be thinking about moving on…

Write a little review piece for CDG Scottish Division newsletter, reflecting on my first two months as CDG President. It’s been challenging, sometimes stressful, but there have been some real highs. I’m trying to stay on top of everything and hold it all together, but I don’t know whether it’s working. Still feel quite daunted by the whole thing.

Busy the rest of this week - tomorrow I join in a Show & Tell day for SALCTG, speaking about my use of wikis in 1st year information literacy. On Thursday it’s the CILIPS day at Peebles and I’m looking forward to co-leading a workshop on the Timelord’s Guide to CPD. Who makes up these titles?!

Stay out of the shadows… and don’t blink…

A quietish day today. Back to the office for the first time since Friday, so getting reacquainted with my inbox and my tasklist. It’s not pretty but things are moving in the right direction, gradually.

Pay my CDG expenses in at the bank during the lunch break, all the travelling soon adds up and it’s been a busy month with trips to Cardiff and London.

No rest for the President though as a few more engagements are looming - speaking at East Midlands AGM next Wednesday; Revalidation course in Edinburgh on the 29th; leading workshops at Peebles and Liverpool in June. I know I will enjoy each and every one of these events when I get to them, but the preparation and panic about whether I’ll be ready in time do sometimes kick in!

That’s an hour of CDG work this evening, so I’m going to knock off, eat some lovely prawn stirfry, put the washing on (overfull basket following trips down south) and CHILL OUT!

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.