cpd23 things: Thing 10 Routes into Librarianship

Phew, this is a biggie! I've never been one for planning or thinking about what I've done, life's been mostly accidental for me. After studying to be an exhibition and display designer for four years at college, my first job was designing window displays for a travel agency and I thought my career/life was on track. Then I got a job at an advertising agency which also did exhibition design and I was very happy. My next job was as a graphic artist at another advertising agency and although I had a brilliant time (the laughs were non-stop) there was less design involved and no investment in new technology - strictly knife and glue. So when I was made redundant, I was far behind many of my contemporaries in the skills I had, which made it difficult in a recession to find further employment.
After a few changes in tack and a spell travelling, I met my husband in Majorca, moved to Nuneaton, got married, had a baby before I knew what was going on. I don't regret any of it, but now realise I wasn't thinking about any of it.
After working a Somerfield for a year, I found my present post with great relief - yes it was part time but no more sitting at a draughty till being scared in case the next customer was going to be the awkward one. I soon found my niche - the one who wasn't scared of messing about with computers - being largely self-taught, I didn't see any limitations to what I could do.
After being made full-time, I soon realised that Learning Resources Assistants didn't go far. I made the most of what I was given, expanding and developing the AV and Off-Air provision, going on Word and Excel courses, but progression was virtually non-existent. Routes into teaching were blocked, I'd have been more successful quitting the library, getting a job as a teacher, then doing the qualification.
Then things started to look up, and it came out of tragedy for my poor boss. When she retired, the assistant librarian took over and to be honest, for me, it was like a breath of fresh air. No more rigidity, I was asked to help out with Heritage management, sent to Heritage for training and to user groups, sent to technology forums, given a new toy - Clickview, all library staff now do inductions and contribute to the library blog.
I gained a promotion to Senior LRA to promote information literacy throughout the college and hence the chance to study for a library qualification. Incidentally, I firmly believe that my involvement in the 23 Things aided my application for a place at university.
Oh dear, this post was supposed to be about reflective practice but turned into my life story by mistake! I'll rename it Routes into Librarianship and there's another Thing done!

I'm excited... can you tell? I found out yesterday that I have been accepted at Glyndwr University to study for a foundation degree in Library and Information Practice. I'm also very nervous - I haven't studied for a long time.

 Everybody, snaps for me!!!!!!

cpd23 things: Thing 4

OMG! I'm so far behind! I'll still be at it this time next year if I don't get a move on... So, here goes... I've been dipping in and out of Twitter these past few weeks and found interesting bits (so much good stuff and ideas to follow up on), but also confusing bits, all those @'s and #'s! I've been getting RSS feeds from my daughter's school for ages now, but I need to be more aware and actually start looking for the subscribe buttons. I just signed up to Pushnote today and really like it, it's a really useful way of sharing good info with others you know. Only trouble is, I can't find anyone I know in the 'find friends' section, don't know if I'm doing it properly...