Time for self promotion of blog? Twitter and Kaupapa Maori

Self promotion
Now that I have been creating this blog for a few months now I am realising that it is getting closer to the time when I will need to start promoting this blog within the Content Services area of the Library I work in as part of my Professional Training Plan (PTP) requirement to 'Invite other NLNZ librarians to contribute as part of their own professional development requirements, whether they be starting out on the registration process like myself, part way through, or have finished and are looking for ways to add to their revalidation journal activities'.  

There are also several areas within the PTP that require me to present my findings and newly acquired information to my immediate colleagues and I am thinking that it would be better to do this bit by bit as I go, rather than all at once at the end of the process.

Twitter
In my last post I said how I would try and log on to Twitter more regularly to see if I could reap more benefits than I was previously getting. Since then I have logged on each morning and kept an eye on it during the day, checking out each new tweet as it came in. Overall, while the majority of tweets have not been of interest to me, there have been the odd one or two that piqued my interest requiring me to investigate further. It seems that there is a process of culling and restocking that I will inevitably have to start to go through weeding out those tweets that are not offering me anything new or interesting while continuing to search for more - the overall objective being to keep the amount of 'Following' at a manageable number.  

Kaupapa Maori
Due to an IT issue which meant I couldn't carry on with my usual work flow I spent the time researching information for the first part of my PTP question 7 about the ideas and philosophy behind kaupapa Maori methodologies in terms of understanding the needs of Maori clients of Index New Zealand (INNZ) - the database I work on.

It turned out to be the kind of research when you start out reading with one point of view in mind and you finish with another. In this instance it was the idea that in order to understand the needs of Maori clients we need to make a long term committment to the relationship between INNZ and its Maori users. We need to go outside the institution and meet with Maori users and learn where each of us is coming from and how we can work together to achieve common goals.

CPD23, Reflective practice, Delicious and Twitter

After finding out last week through one of my Twitter feeds that the CPD23 online course was starting up again I had great pleasure in signing on to it and finding my name on the Participants list. I also took the time to reacquaint myself with Delicious, the social bookmarking service, as I linked into it through CPD - once I'd worked out how to do it - it wasn't that intuitive. One of those times when you think you're following the correct procedure but you're not entirely sure. It seems to have worked out all right though.

Spent some time on CPD23 Thing #5 'Reflective practice' which is something we should all be doing regularly although, if I'm honest, it's a hard process to motivate oneself through - there's always something else new to learn rather than reflect on what you've already learned.

As I walked around the block during my morning tea break I had an idea of how I could better utilize Twitter. I could Tweet what I have done in this blog for each week. Sounds obvious I know, but sometimes the most obvious things only seem that way after you've realised them (profound, huh). So I sent out the tweet. Included my blog address to see if I can hook anyone...

Oral History in New Zealand journal, 23 Things Take 2! and Tweeting

Well it took a few weeks longer than anticipated due to other work committments for me to get to the Oral History of NZ journals sitting on my desk, but today I got there (No. 4 in my Professional Training Plan (PTP) requirements - see 'Pages 4'). The incentive was the fact that my colleagues and I are about to move back into the renovated National Library of New Zealand and we need to clear our desks of any extraneous materials

that we don't want to pack up in our allocated boxes to take with us. Plus other people were wanting to use the journals! I was glad to get round to reading them though as I got some good ideas to use when I get around to my own oral history interview project (which is weighing on my mind as something I need to do and something I may need to pay for).

During the week an email arrived heralding the restarting of the CPD23 Things online learning course on Monday 7 May and this time around I am getting into it right at the start, not after it finished last year as I have been doing. That was easy! Signed up? Done! Thank you to the CPD23 team for starting up again and thank you to dpgreen.net for going online about it. I've just realised that's why my Google page CPD link has refreshing itself!

Returned to Twitter after a month's absence (thus blowing my idea of checking in each day) to find a screed of tweets from people and institutions I am following but who I am beginning to notice do not tweet anything I am interested in following. In fact I get more useful information out of the blogs I am subscribed to. I have rid myself of some of the big tweeters of little information. Also changed by profile picture to a picture of me and not a wet, bedraggled penguin I admired so much. Searched on 'disabled librarian' to see if I can follow people/institutions with similar interests, especially as in one of my PTP requirements I am looking into the resources available for disabled people on the Net for librarians. Found and 'followed' seven.