Sunday 4 September 2011

23 Things for Professional Development: Thing #16

Hmm... advocacy - something I do much of? Just a bit... you try being a Repository Manager and not advocating your service! I do it every day, every hour, all the time. Every time I talk to somebody, every time somebody asks me what I do, every time I meet someone new - I tell them how great the repository is, why they should use it, how it could change the world for the better if everybody bought into the idea... and  I believe in it 100% (although on my off days I wish I didn't have to try quite so hard).

Of course, it's not just informally that I advocate what I do. The most current, obvious example of the more formal side of advocacy is probably the activities we're planning for Open Access Week at the end of October. I'll spend that week uploading interviews I've carried out with researchers who have really bought into the idea of open access, making my presence felt by appearing at drop-in sessions on all of our campuses, and running training sessions for researchers, amongst other things.

That's all on top of telling people how great libraries, and librarians, are more generally. I've not specifically got involved in any high profile library advocacy campaigns (sometimes the shouting I do about how great we are in my day-job feels like more than enough for one person), but I'm always willing to back up the claims those guys are making, because of course they're right!

One thing I haven't really engaged with is getting published. It's not so much that I find the prospect daunting (I love writing), but just that there doesn't really feel like there's enough time in the day to write something properly good. We are in the process of trying to put together a blog about the UWE Research Repository to let people know what we're doing, and that we're there if they need us - which I guess is a start! If that leads on to some more official writing, I'd be happy with that - but for now, I think it's one step at a time.

1 comment:

  1. You are so right Anna, I love writing and publishing too but the day is always so short and so filled up that you just can't get the time to do that.

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