Blogging however allows you to say more, and critically evaluate what you are doing and why. It has made me really think about being reflective, which was obviously important for Chartership. Although I have now successfully completed Chartership, I have found that I am still being reflective without even realising it! I think this has been one of the most valuable things that I have learned, as I am now really thinking about what we are doing in the Learning Centre and why, and how these things can improve on the service that we provide for our users.
Daren Manfield’s (2015) top tips for blogging, which are worth remembering, are:
· post a blend of media including audio-visual, text-based and photos
· regularly update the blog
· keep up to date with what is happening in the sector through engaging in social media
I’m going to try and be a bit more adventurous with some of my posts, as I tend to stick to simple, text-based posts, with the occasional photo or image. Keeping up to date can be a challenge, but I think little and often is the way to go. As Mansfield highlights, you need to develop your blogging voice, and the best way to do this is to simply get writing! As part of my Chartership, I submitted specific blog posts as part of my evidence, and I also linked to my blog from my Evaluative Statement.
You can read Daren’s original blog post for CILIP here. He also contributes to the Business Librarian Blog at the University of Lincoln.
Happy blogging!
References:
Mansfield, D. (2012) ‘Becoming an avid blogger: blogging tips from a Subject Librarian’, CILIP Blog, 21 July. Available at: http://www.cilip.org.uk/cilip/blog/becoming-avid-blogger-blogging-tips-subject-librarian (Accessed: 4 August 2015).
University of Lincoln (2015) Business Librarian Blogs. Available at: http://businesslibrarian.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/ (Accessed: 4 August 2015).