#cpd23, Thing 1: introduction and blogging

It's very odd to write a post in response to instructions I wrote myself... Having, as it were, written the book on it, I won't comment further on what it's like setting up a blog.  I'll just note that I've decided to stick to the blog I already have (set up last year for 23 Things Cambridge) rather than trying something new.  I like the idea of keeping everything in one place, rather than having several different outlets that I'd feel the need to link to each other clearly for the sake of clarity.

By jakeandlindsay on Flickr

I'm part of the cpd23 organising team.  I leapt at the chance to get involved because it seemed like such a great idea - the 23 Things, self-paced format worked really well in Cambridge last year, so I thought we could definitely do something great in changing the focus to professional development and opening it up worldwide.  I'm astonished by the number of people who've signed up, and rather alarmed, too as it makes a lot of work for the team in administering it all.  Hopefully I'll still have some time left to take part!

I'm a rare books librarian working in a major university and research library.  I've been very lucky (or very determined) in my career so far.  Having entered librarianship because of a desire to work with rare books and manuscripts, since completing my MA LIS at UCL I've worked on a personal papers cataloguing and outreach project and now I've working in rare books cataloguing/customer service/collection promotion.  I'm hoping that cpd23 might kickstart my languishing CILIP Chartership efforts and that it will help me work towards the goal of achieving a permanent post somewhere in the special collections world.  I'll also looking forward to spreading my network wider.