Thought Patterns, Plants and Seamus Heaney

Having perused through the Library Journal’s article on the best library architecture of 2011, I was doing a bit of pondering about how the space and environment that we sit within shapes our thought processes and self-application to tasks.

This may seem obvious, after all, anyone whose GCSE poetry anthology covered Seamus Heaney’s “Digging” will surely know that Ireland influenced his decision to write poems about potatoes (perhaps if he were from Somerset it would have been entitled “scrumping” and provided the opportunity for cider drinking to get into his frame of mind; sadly it was nothing but jacket spuds for me whilst revising). The same principle therefore applies for blogging, writing articles and generally applying oneself to tasks and projects. If you work in an academic library, chances are you will ponder things about academic libraries, and maybe after a while start to think like an academic librarian. I work in a law library, and whilst I don’t quite think like a lawyer, I have started to capitalise the occasional word for no good Grammatical Reason.

With this in mind, we will therefore always be shaped by our past experiences and current work environments, be this good or bad. For the most part, it is fine; our experiences provide us with a basic set of skills from which we can build upon and use to grow. When a change in environment occurs (be it job related, or personal), this process is usually accelerated, lending a set of new experiences to shape and develop ourselves; not too dissimilar in how a plant enjoys getting a new pot to fill every once in a while. Much like the plant though, our roots (read thoughts) quickly grow to fit the pot, and come into line with its shape. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, ideas and growth need support and parameters against which they can be measured, however this can mean that the new ideas that were generated are scaled back to fit the confines of the (terracotta?) walls of the new workplace or study environment, just as quickly as the old ways can be forgotten.

This chap has used those past experiences to define himself as well as make something new- Flickr CC by jo-h

I’m not saying this always occurs, but it can do, and it is an easy trap to fall into.  So, how to ensure that our mindsets can continue to grow uninhibited? If I continue to work with the plant theme, then maybe what we need is the human equivalent of Baby Bio to give our professional selves a bit of a kick?

Firstly, awareness always helps. You are reading this aren’t you? Hopefully, some of my nonsensical wording and attempts at imagery will make enough sense that some self reflection can occur off the back of it.

Secondly, don’t worry, it doesn’t really matter. If your frame of mind works for you, then that’s great. This post is 110% speculative. I’m not saying here that you need to change your way of thinking, merely that you need to make the most of it, and realise the benefits that your circumstances have given you. However… if you can be aware of how you think, then you are better placed to self-critique, therefore better questioning your current way of working, and helping yourself to continually improve.

Thirdly, networking and conversing with those outside your regular workplace can be a great way to understand your current thought processes. This can be achieved even better by looking across sectors, either by reading their professional and practitioner literature or interacting with real people (gasp!). It doesn’t matter if those you meet have a similar way of thinking, because if you have realised that they do, then that also means you have become aware of how you, yourself, think! Plus, seeing your personal traits in another sometimes makes it easier to critique them. I’m not saying insult yourself, merely be aware of way in which characteristics and patterns could be built upon, creases smoothed, and the mental thinking process eased out.

Hopefully all of this will provide additional confidence in a way of thinking, leading to new ideas, enthusiasm and a feeling like you are an esteemed psychology professor. Don’t go adding PhD after your name though, that’s just lying (unless you actually have a PhD, in which case it’s fine).

So to round this post off in neat-ish summary, Heaney was aware of his potato based past, subsequently reflected on it in a poem and ended up in the GCSE anthology. Who knows what he would have achieved if his past was based in a library?

*Disclaimer – whilst I enjoy poetry, my ability to analyse it is rather poor. I am however aware that Digging by Heaney is no doubt about more than just Potatoes, peat and hard labour.*

SLA 2011 – First Reactions

I’ve just returned from SLA 2011 having won an Early Career Conference Award generously sponsored by SLA Europe and SLA Legal Division. Having slept off the majority of jet lag, I am feel in a slightly better position to blog a few of my initial reactions to the conference.

The thing I want to convey first is the sheer size of the event. When the registration hall looks like this, its a good indication that its going to be big…

Thankfully, my co-sponsors provided me with two great mentors, one from SLA Europe and one from the SLA Legal Division. Sara and Liz were both fantastic at providing tips and tricks to selecting sessions to help me get the most out of the event. There can be anywhere in the region of approximately eight to twenty-two sessions running concurrently so selecting which one to attend can be a bit of a challenge. This was definitely one of the strengths of the conference though; you are never stuck for a session to attend! What I found harder was pausing and take a minute to think about what has been said, and making sure any notes are in an order that will make sense at a later date.

I want to mention the networking opportunities at SLA, but feel that networking sounds too objective. Granted, there was A LOT of business card swapping (see Conference Preparations for my worries on this), but I met many people who I spoke to at length and felt I got along with really well. To give an idea of just how much talking took place, I have now lost my voice and numerous throat sweets are being consumed to repair it in time for New Professionals Conference on Monday! Like many things connected to SLA, I’ll attempt to expand on this further in a later blog entry (networking experiences, not the effectiveness of Strepsils).

The sessions themselves were fantastic. I attended a mix of general sessions and those aimed at members of the legal divison (though you are free to attend events hosted by all divisions). This provided a nice mix between big ideas tailored for libraries as a whole, and ideas and problems directly related to my field of interest. John DiGilio and Gayle Lynn-Nelson’s ’60 Sites in 60 Minutes Gets Collaborative’ was a highlight, as were interactive sessions such as Mary Ellen Bates and Gayle Gossen’s session on delivering elevator speeches.

Much of the conference felt slightly surreal, a bit like an episode of The Magic School Bus (for those that remember it). Absolutely fantastic, but a bit crazy at the same time.

An American School Bus (not of the magic variety)

Definitely time to start saving, as I’m determined to return to future SLA conferences!

Putting Nerves and Expectations into Practice

I have recently decided to get out and about in the library world more than I currently do. After all, I can now try to make the most of my time when travelling to events following my attempts to change my working routine (See Working Habits and the Window People).

My first attempt to do this will be to head over to Manchester for the SLA ‘Future Ready’ event. I’m a bit nervous as this will be my first ‘proper’ event that I have attended outside of the confines of my librarianship programme, though it is the potential networking after the session that is causing the most apprehension. No doubt it will be fine, but there is that ‘unknown’ factor loitering in the back of my mind.

The main point of this though, is not to illustrate that I am nervous, but rather to explore the expectations associated with the wider ‘library world’ that I have been taught so much about. We have had numerous sessions on networking, but until now I have only had a chance to use my new-found skills on a friend of a friend who happened to work in a library, and other unsuspecting librarianship students. I’m interested to see if I make use of any of the skills that I have been taught. Are elevator speeches useful as introductions, or do they make you sound a bit strange where a simple ‘hello’ would have sufficed? Do ‘open twos’ and ‘closed threes’ really work in the way textbooks say that they do?

Personally, I’m still more than a bit sceptical about the way in which networking is taught and portrayed by journals and textbooks. It all seems far too artificial, far too constructed and rigid. This might be as I have only seen it from a classroom point of view. I’m hoping that the theoretical aspects will be mere observations extracted and adapted from real life into theory by academics in an attempt to make sense of how people interact. Deep down, I’m hoping for a group of friendly people with similar interests making for easy, and interesting, conversation. After all, us students have been rightly told many times over that librarianship is a ‘people profession’ (See The Wikiman’s post, the “Beyond Books” by @girlinthe and @ekcragg from The Guardian and the Library Routes project for just a few examples), so why stick to fixed confines of how to interact? Is it not better to just be yourself and try to leave a positive, friendly impression?

The subtext to all of this is the extent to which my masters is preparing me for the professional world. I think I have a good amount of experience, having done quite a lot of volunteering in various libraries and archives alongside my graduate traineeship, but that was all before I was expected to know things, as opposed to surprising people when I accidently knew things- I’m now a lot closer to being classed as a ‘professional’ than I ever was previously. My course is very good and it is serving its purpose as a ‘professional preparation masters’ by giving me an excellent grounding in the information world. The way in which the teaching is designed replicates the workplace in many ways, however, there is only a certain extent that it can help me in the real world and the rest is up to me to put in the effort. As I have not been working during my studies I was concerned that my links to the profession would dwindle. I hope that professional events will enable me to contemplate useful applications to the course material we have been taught. This should enable me to think about the theory as useful practical examples, and the SLA event will be my first attempt at doing so!