Thing 2: Exploring the blogging world...

My travels through the blogosphere have made me realise just how much time it actually takes to explore and read other people's thoughts and experiences! It's been great to go through some of the other cpd23er's blogs, and realise that mostly people are feeling the same way as me - nervous about keeping a blog and about the time it will take to do the course, but hopeful it will enhance their own practice and build their confidence using web 2.0 tools. I did take the plunge and comment on some people's blogs as well, and thank you to those who commented on mine. I'm surprised by how quickly I'm starting to feel more confident with all this stuff!

As I already kept an eye on a few blogs I enjoy prior to starting cpd23, I thought I'd share a couple of my favourite blog posts with you:

• The Wikiman's 'So you want to be a subject librarian' - really interesting thoughts on the role of the subject librarian, which I agree with in many respects. While I am the subject librarian for sport at my institution, my first degree was in English and I am not particualrly sporty! So yes, while I did need to do a bit of getting up to speed on the subject areas, courses and research specialisms of my department, I already had the skills I needed to perform the subject role effectively with little specific knowledge about, say biomechanics! I've also found that in general the students have the same age old problems of thinking creatively about keywords and referencingincorrcrly - both of which trasnced the barriers of subejct specifics.Most of all I was surprised by how much I enjoyed teaching and engaging with students, another aspect that was really nothing to do with the subject and more to do with having a positive impact on the students' university experience.
• Ned Potter was also involved in the Guardian HE Network live chat on 'The evolving role of HE' which I followed with interest at the time, and it worth a read if you're at a loose end.
• Alan Carbery's post 'An MLIS degree in 50 minutes: who are we trying to kid?' is a short comment on the way in which librarians approach information literacy teaching, and what we are trying to achieve, following on from the excellent keynote given by Megan Oakleaf at LILAC12. It resonated completely with me - as a librarian who generally gets 50 minutes with my students and then may never see them again in the entire course of their degree, I think I need to think really carefully about what I actually want to get across to the students in that time.