Thing 5: Social Networks

By golly, I fell behind fast! Hoping to catch up today - wish me luck!
This post concerns Facebook and Twitter, two sites I know a fair bit about and use a lot.


FACEBOOK:
But  I don't really use Facebook for career stuff.for career stuff, Given, I used it once or twice to research people before interviews and I keep it looking as embarrassment free as possible. That said I don't mind the odd picture of me out on there because what kind of employee would I be if I stayed in every weekend watching Netflix? My profile is super-private anyway and my profile picture is never drunken. My facebook profile is used to keep in touch but also keep up with news as I don't often feel like watching or reading serious or depressing current affairs stuff after work. To some extend I'm signed up to groups and have liked pages, including professional ones, but I mainly use LinkedIn for that as it's easier to get updates and not overloading your brain all the time when you're chilling out. I will however take the advice of the module and sign up for more. I am already like the ALA and CILIP.


TWITTER:
Twitter I use more actively in the library field as I often use it to post interesting articles I find online. I don't use the feed as often as I should as loading it up can crash my phone, but I will attempt to use this more. Hopefully showing my interest in Open Access and other areas on my own profile will help me get noticed.
I follow quite a few people but I will work on following more and adding what I have already to lists.
I'm a bit too cautious with my twitter and don't have that many followers. It's kind of my private space but I will work on making this a more career friendly social network.
Definitely want to try out chats and hastags that aren't fandom related :P

Thing 4: Google

Much like with blogger, I already had a Google+ set up for the fangirl in me. I originally set it up to a) keep up with Daniel Radcliffe and b) connect up with my fan blog/youtube. So I havent that many people on there, between a mixture of embarrassment at what it was for and because I don't think it's a great tool. A lot of people are so restricted you can't even talk to them or add them. The one plus seems to be Hangouts but I haven't got a chance to use this feature yet.

Should I be setting up a new one to sell myself as a professional brand rather than a fan blogger? The effort seems unnecessary.

I will try out the hangout feature with somebody if they'd like to hang, just drop me a line in the comments. I will also update with how it goes on my limited technology!


The LibCon sounds cool, pity I didn't know about it in April!



Thing 3 - My Professional Brand

Phew! When I read the title I thought I was going to have to brainstorm ideas of how to professionally brand the library or something and I have nearly no experience of Marketing (my other blog doesn't really count because it was teen-bopy we all fancy the boys of Potter-like marketing).


I have the majority of the things on the list already done. I was encouraged to create and beef up a LinkedIn account at a professional development seminar at the LAI an age ago and I've been trying to keep my LinkedIn account with a recent professional photo and all the recent MOOCs etc I've been taking. I even was already signed up to the groups mentioned excepting Rudai 23!


Thankfully my name doesn't vary anywhere and my Google results are quite good. My Facebook profile is so security crazy it doesn't even show up. Even if it did though, its nothing mortifying I don't think. I just pray that Bebo did really delete all the accounts when it was sold because like every 20-something, we used it in our tweens and it was mortifying in a different look-at-me-pose way.


The only thing I haven't really worked on in my summary - I think it gets across that I love customer service and enjoy helping people with their digital literacy, but I would appreciate comments on my profile in general - https://ie.linkedin.com/pub/niamh-ennis/56/134/831 . That said, I'm so security crazy that everything might not show up. I'm pretty sure it shows non-connections my intern position at IBAT as my current job.


I haven't an about me profile, but I'll consider creating one if it helps my professional brand.

Thing Two: Why I became a Librarian

I completed a similar blog post to a British blogging-your-job incentive a couple of months back (I'm the fourth one down) when I was greener in this role. I'm happy to say I'm a little more confident that I know what I'm doing, thankfully, but as with any librarian role, there is always a learning curve as it's an evolving job.




I got into Librarianship by accident. I've loved books since my tweens but its not a career move I thought much about. Like most people I didn't realise it was a qualification. I had great plans of back-dooring it into St Pats when I didn't get the points required to go directly into primary teaching. The day I failed miserably at that interview was one of the worst days in my history although the worst was yet to come when I realised the other avenue at teaching, a PHD to lecturing was very expensive and in Maynooth they were looking for first's to be even considered.




I was unemployed and not in college for nearly a whole year and horribly depressed when I decided to try and at least do work experience somewhere as I wasn't getting a job.


Lots of places weren't willing to take the risk on me but the beyond words kindness of the women at Westmeath County Council library is what saved my future in a way. They of course asked if I was looking for experience in conjunction with doing the course at UCD, which I didn't have a clue about but to appear ambitious I said I was thinking about it.




The following six weeks were some of the most fulfilling of my life. Volunteering at Oxfam previous to this gave me some sense of purpose but it was only 8 hours a week and this was like a proper job. I wasn't getting paid but my God I didn't care. I realised nothing was better than helping people borrow books. The social aspect I loved in Oxfam was made 10 times better. Especially when the school children came in, which was the highlight of my week. I realised that I could find my own little things to do and I was encouraged to make my own projects. They were nothing ground-breaking- a display on gardening books, keeping the Teen section in order with relevant books on display - but I felt like I was contributing to the place. I enjoyed knowing I'd helped someone find what they were looking for. I especially loved directing young children to their first book, particularly if they were Harry Potter reading age!




The next step was the hard one. I had savings my Dad had set up for me to afford the cost, but the idea of doing a €6000 course on how to be the grumpy lady who stamped your book at the library didn't go down well. I wasn't told an outright no, I was an adult and it was put by for me, but I was sighed at and told IT was the future and I should do something there. I eventually gave in to that idea half way through my Information and Library Studies course and did a certificate in computing science, but I can say with feeling that coding is not for me!




Two years later I came out the other end with the GDip LIS and thanks to some friends' advice about volunteering one evening a week at IBAT, I was on the road to where I ended up - as a Librarian after only two years as a library assistant. To be fair, the support I didn't get at the start arrived soon enough after. I wouldn't be where I am without the support and love of my family and friends.

This was supposed to be a post about my job, what I love about it, what I do, but it became about the road. I'm sure I can bore you all with a post about all that soon though.

Getting blogging!

Hello all,
My name is Niamh Ennis and I'm a Librarian in a small academic library in Dublin. Please disregard my profile information as I set my blogger up in my teens to write about my one fandom at the time: Harry Potter. I rarely use it any more and my writing style can be a bit embarrassing there,so eyes front, on this one!
I completed my GDip Lis back in 2013 and since then has been a bit of a whirlwind from interning to part time to running the show, essentially. Still getting there!