Finding my voice (the librarian's speech)

I sometimes wonder if my librarian destiny wasn't largely due to the fact that I am softly spoken. When I gave presentations at school and university, I was always told to 'speak up a bit', with calls of 'we can't hear you at the back'. These early experiences of presenting haunt me to this day. When I chose the librarian career path, it was with a very naive view that speaking in front of groups of people wouldn't be a large part of my work, in fact probably wouldn't feature at all. I soon learnt how wrong I was!

My first major presentation was just after I qualified. I was asked by ARLIS to talk at their students and trainees day about my career so far. Just a simple 20 minute talk. Rather than freaking out, I asked my line manager if I could attend a presentation course at CILIP. This is still the most rewarding training I have ever received. In fact, I felt quite emotional by the end of the day, as I had broken down some barriers. My 20 minute ARLIS presentation went okay. My nerves were still there but I got a real buzz from the experience.

Since then, I've done many student inductions, and presented with colleagues at the University's annual Learning and Teaching Symposium. However, I still feel conscious about my quiet voice. Nowadays, the pressure feels somehow greater because of my chosen career. The voice in my head is saying 'this is what people expect of librarians - prove them wrong!'.

When I saw an internal course (run by Steve Creffield: http://www.evolve-now.co.uk/) advertised on voice projection, I was keen to sign up. It took place this afternoon (postponed from December). It was a very interactive course, involving some humming and oohing. We were encouraged to block our inner critical voice and relax. By repeating an introduction to a presentation (e.g. Good afternoon, my name is Emma. Today, I'm going to show you how to use library resources) with a fellow attendee, we practised different techniques e.g. vocal range, gestures, pauses, visualisation. Putting this all together at the end, we presented our lines to the whole group, who then gave feedback. Some attendees sat at the back of the room. After my first go, those at the back said they could hear me despite my soft voice but any background noise could easily drown me out. So I took a deep breath and really pushed the words out, which worked well. However, I doubt whether I could sustain that throughout a presentation, although I will give it a go next time the opportunity arises.

One good tip from the course which I'd like to share with readers is to visit http://www.ted.com/ and pick a presentation that inspires you. Watch it once, then a second time with the volume muted. Watch the presenter's body language, pick up on what they do well and try to incorporate some of those gestures into your next presentation.

Happy presenting!

Becoming a critical but constructive friend

In 2010, I successfully applied for the post of Marketing Officer for the CILIP CSG Information Literacy Group (ILG). When I attended my first meeting in September, I was asked to become a reviewer for the Journal of Information Literacy (JIL). This sounded like an interesting opportunity but what did I know about reviewing journal articles? Very little! Thankfully, the ILG came to my rescue by running a workshop for journal reviewers at the University of Birmingham. Susie Andretta, the JIL's editor, was present to facilitate the day.

After introductions and setting some objectives, we had a look at some titles and abstracts, both of which are essential for grabbing the potential reader's attention. They are also a good first indication of whether or not an article is going to be appropriate for the journal in question. This is a good thing to bear in mind when writing for a journal.

The afternoon session was spent reviewing two sample articles. It's amazing what lively discussion can be generated by such an activity (although in a room full of librarians, perhaps it's not so surprising). The main temptation I need to avoid is correcting the language. However, this is the copy editor's role. As a reviewer, I am there to check that the content is appropriate for the JIL. One of the key questions is: would JIL readers find this interesting? Even if an article doesn't engage me, it may still be of interest to other readers.

One of my main concerns is that I might upset the author(s), especially knowing how much time people spend on writing an article for publication. However, no matter how long somebody's been writing for, or how many articles they've had published, they should still appreciate constructive feedback. The title of the workshop, "how to be a critical but constructive friend", sums this up nicely. You are not helping the author by being nice and saying it's all great, when there is always room for improvement.

This was the first ILG workshop I'd attended (I went to LILAC, also run by the ILG, last year). It was free, I learnt lots of useful things and an excellent lunch was provided - what more could you ask for? I'm now waiting with anticipation, rather than fear, for the next article I'm asked to review!

After the workshop, Susie Andretta emailed us with some useful vidoes:

Video on plagiarism

http://www.youtube.com/user/SusieAndretta#p/f/17/Mwbw9KF-ACY

Video on digital native:
http://www.youtube.com/user/SusieAndretta#p/f/22/7_zzPBbXjWs 


Video on how to get your paper published:
http://creatingknowledge.blip.tv/file/4133552/

Thing #7 of Westminster's 23 Things - tag clouds

Thing number 7 is tag clouds, specifically concentrating on Wordle The example to the right shows some of the words I associate with the 23 Things Programme.

My colleagues and I sometimes use Wordle to jazz up our drop in session leaflets. I've also used it in PowerPoint presentations, as something to talk around.

I've found it especially helpful for highlighting the most common words used in a piece of text. For example, putting in my blog URL generates this cloud:



This is the first time I've attempted to put the cloud into my blog and I'm rather disappointed with how small it is! However, if I try to enlarge the image, it makes the text blurry. Is there a way round this?

I then tried the same with Tagxedo, which I first heard about through the Festive 24 Things blog
I had to switch browsers for this, as it wouldn't work properly in Internet Explorer. Firefox came to the rescue though. Tagxedo also creates word clouds but can make them into different shapes, such as the cat below: