Thing 1!

So here I am writing my first (personal) blog post ever, having almost decided not to do cpd23 this year on account of feeling very self-conscious about what I write.

A strange reaction for a person who is more than happy to face a lecture hall full of bored looking students and enthuse at them about libraries until the cows come home.

So I changed my mind and decided to feel the fear and do it anyway.

The first major result of this decision was that I have logged into Google for the first time in AGES and opened my Google reader, only to be immediately and unavoidably sucked into the world of Unshelved for probably an unhealthy amount of work time. It is, of course, utterly wonderful and I'd recommend it to anyone who works in libraries, not just public libraries http://www.unshelved.com/. The second result was taking forever to make the agonising decision over the background and layout for my blog, which I'm still not sure I'm entirely satisfied with...

Actually, although I aspired to be a public librarian, I currently work as an Academic Liaison Librarian at the University of Worcester, a position I thoroughly enjoy, although it greatly saddens me that the coalition  is so keen on shutting down our public libraries, making it impossible for those library service to afford to employ profressional librarians, and diluting a vastly popular and effective public service that has certainly changed my life, if not the lives of most of my friends. Excitingly, the University of Worcester and Worcestershire County Council are about to open the first joint university and public library called 'The Hive', which will happily make me both an academic and public librarian - the place of dreams! (Well, strange librarian dreams at least).

In terms of 23 things - I have done most, if not all of the 'things' in my professional career so far, although I'm sure I will learn new things about them as I progress through the course. Mostly I anticipate this course will allow me to reflect on my own practice and learn from others' experiences, and perhaps encourage me to share my own practice and thoughts with the library community as well! Happy cpd23 everyone.