New post about my new post!

Well, I now have a permanent post at Royal Holloway, University of London (always good to work for an institution with a comma in the name!).

I’m a Senior Information Assistant (SIA) which means I do a lot of the day-to-day work (in my case, cataloguing and enquiries) but also have some supervisory/project management responsibilities.

It’s just the kind of thing I was looking for, as it combines a lot of technical skills with library user contact, and it’s in the academic sector, which became a kind of pet interest of mine during the MSc course last year.

Speaking of which, I was told my dissertation passed muster recently so I am officially an MSc as well as an MSci ARCS now!

Although my main focus at the moment is on looking for accomodation in Egham, I have also been thinking ahead to CILIP Chartership. I’ve started reading the recommended text, “Building Your Portfolio: the CILIP Guide” by Margaret Watson, and I’ve been encouraged by its clear, simple directions and the heartening examples of people who have already passed – it makes it seem a manageable task rather than something that has to be drawn out and endlessly postponed.

I’ve already done some reflective writing on my previous roles, and I put together a sort of development plan (mainly a map of what I’ve already done), so I feel I know what I’m aiming for here.

Watson’s Chartership book reccomends Andrew Gibbons’ website and I think I will start using his learning log outline to structure my reflections in future – and even perhaps my blog postings. It follows a simple format reflected by many authors on the subject:

• What happened?
• What is its significance (what did you learn)?
• What next (how and when will you put this new knowledge into action)?

I did a lot of reflective writing as part of my dissertation for the MSc ILM last year, both by simply getting my ideas down on paper, and trying to review them and structure them. This is a chance to develop those skills further and receive recognition for them – plus, hopefully to make me a better professional.