Ian Snowley's blog

Back on board*

Well after over a month away (from the blog that is) I'm back, for good I hope!

I'm not sure I can put my finger on a particular reason for the layoff, maybe the onset of winter has something to do with it, but I have been out and about, to Birmingham, Dundee and a few exhibitions in the past month, so its not a shortage of things to write about.

Anyway, I hear by resolve to get back in the saddle and stay there (here!). Over the next week or so I'll do some catching up, and a bit of retrospective posting along the way.

* Inspired by Tom Roper's recent post '3 years before the mast' celebrating three years blogging - well done for keeping it up Tom!

A blog of blogs

If you like to see what's new across a whole range of Librarian blogs (without subscribing to them all), you might like to check out this really useful new page, which uses 'pageflakes'. Thanks to Phil Bradley for putting this together.

One day in History

As you may have heard, today Tuesday 17th October has been chosen as 'One Day in History' by the History Matters campaign with the aim of creating a 'mass observation' style record of people's daily lives in Britain. With one twist the instructions do suggest that the contributors should reflect "how history itself impacted on them during the day" A slightly tall order, if one is true to the 'mass observation' approach, but here goes! (also posted to the site of course!).

I wanted to particularly focus on what a 'typical' work day is like, and like most people's it starts with an alarm clock, in my case the sound of Radio 4's 'Today Programme' at 7am. Which interestingly did provide one opportunity to think in terms of history - with the report on the conflicting views of former Home Secretary David Blunkett and Civil Servant Martin Narey in relation to their discussion of the disturbance at Lincoln Prison in 2002!

After dressing, washing and breakfast - not necessarily in that order, a short walk along Acre Lane, via my friendly newsagent (and Internet cafe) to buy the Guardian,  and along Brixton Road takes me to Brixton Tube Station (past historic Electric Avenue!) and onto the Victoria line. Pausing (mentally not physically) to wonder why more commuters don't use Oyster cards (or if the do then why they don't top them up over the Internet or using the automatic service) it's down to the platform and onto a train - if, as today, the service really is 'Good'.

Getting off at Warren Street, and threading my way through to Gower Street I am reminded of the changing history of the area - noticing the work still underway at the back of the new University College Hospital, but also noticing the older much lived-in buildings of UCL and the University of London as I head towards my temporary office next to Senate House - a real historic landmark in this part of town.

Thinking of the working day now, I feel that it fits (unequally) into three kinds of activity - a) sitting at my desk - reading; emailing; thinking about issues; writing; b) Informal meetings - those discussions with colleagues that are an important part of the work process but which aren't planned or scheduled; and c) formal meetings - in today's case a progress review with my boss, and a useful and enthusiastic meeting with staff in CILIP (The Chartered Institute of Library & Information Professionals, where I am an elected officer). Those three, rather broad, activities manage very effectively to fill the day - interrupted only by cups of tea (four I think) and lunch taken at a nearby sandwich bar before the CILIP meeting.

After work there was time to retrace my steps to Warren Street, but also to keep walking across the road to my gym for a short but much needed 3 mile run on the treadmill, before returning home on the tube to dinner, some TV, my girlfriend and this blog post - again not necessarily in that order!

History in the making - we shall see, but undoubtedly an interesting experiment.

Offline?

Only temporarily - other activities have prevented me from posting lately and I'm about to take a break for a (late) Summer holiday.

But I will be back, towards the end of the month.

Summer Holiday?

No, at least not from work or London - but for reasons I can't entirely fathom I haven't had anything to blog about for a couple of weeks (no change there you might say!).

However, I have been engaged in a couple of professional activities that I would like to discuss, and I have just come back from a trip to Suffolk, which should rate a mention too!

100th post!

And what better topic for the 100th post than a brief meditation on blogging!

Where better to start than the question why?

Well I think first and foremost I blog because I enjoy writing, along the way I hope that means some folk like to read what I write - and it is always a nice boost when people I know (and some I don't) say they've read the blog and enjoyed it too!

I also find that it encourages me to seek out new experiences and to analyse and evaluate them - at least to some (limited) extent.

But its about a bit more than that, I believe that as Librarians we should embrace new technologies and techniques and blogging clearly does have a role to play in the immediate communication of ideas and information.

I also feel that it gives me a platform to write about Librarianship matters, separate from any institutional (including CILIP) affiliation - though that said I'm always aware that this is a public document.

However, I do also intend to use it as part of the dialogue with CILIP members that will be a feature of my period in office as President.

So for the moment, at least, I'm enjoying it - there's evidence that some read it and that some readers enjoy it too. I also feel that the blog fulfils a useful purpose in professional communication, so let's hope this state of affairs continues for a good while to come!

Blogging the Blog!

Its a source of some (mild) irritation to me that lately I've ended up catching up with this blog at the end of the week. So, whilst I'm not one for New Year's resolutions - I'll definitely try to be a more regular correspondent in the New Year.

But for now we're off on 'family' visits, but will be back in London mid-week which should provide an opportunity to muse on the year to come.