sallysetsforth

I've been blogging (sporadically) for just over 6 years now. Blogging is different to the other ways that I share information online, in part because I can bring lots of things together here (words, images, videos, etc.). But it also feels more permanent - or at least longer lasting - than transient tweets and Instagram photos. It's my 'home' on the internet.

In terms of content, this blog is my personal blog. It has always been, and will remain, a random assortment of things that I'm doing or thinking about. One of my first posts in 2009 said "this blog is just going to be about whatever I am interested in at the time. Sometimes it will be about my travel experiences, sometimes it will be about career and professional issues, sometimes it will be about my hobbies or interests, and sometimes it will just be about whatever is going on in my life at the time." and that really hasn't changed.

I have created a 'professional' category so that libraryland readers can more easily locate my library-related blog posts. But this is not a library blog.

I mentioned Kate Davis' post on Libraries Interact in my previous post, and I really like her idea / question about collaborative blogging. Whether it is the revival of the Libraries Interact blog, or something completely new (like Medium perhaps?), I think it would be great to have a space for ideas, perspectives and stories drawn from a variety of library voices.



I'd love to hear more from the library leaders and thinkers that Kate describes, but I'd like to hear some new voices too. And then there are people - like me :) - who've been around for a while but haven't necessarily had the time, connections or opportunity to participate in and speak from a group platform.

There is still lots of cool stuff happening in libraries, but it sometimes seems like it's a little bit harder to find out about it. Not necessarily because nobody's talking about it, more that there's so much scattered out there that it becomes a needle in a haystack issue. Collaborative blogging can be a great, accessible way to share the cool stuff as well as the thinky stuff. The ALIAWest and ALIA Sydney blogs are a couple of great current examples.

I would definitely be interested in getting involved in a collaborative blogging/writing space for library and information folk. I enjoyed contributing to the ANZ 23 Mobile Things blog last year (or was it the year before last already?), and would love to get involved in more collaborative content creation.

There have been quite a few blog posts and tweets this year about why people are still participating in #blogjune (or why they aren't). And indeed on why people are blogging at all (or, again, why they aren't). It's really interesting to hear people's thoughts on this, as we all have slightly different perspectives and motives.

Kate Davis' post on Libraries Interact is a good place to start if you're interested in this discussion, and it includes a couple of links out to other posts too.

For myself, I love doing #blogjune for many reasons. I love the feeling of community, of taking part in an activity shared with friends and people that I respect. I enjoy sharing my thoughts, and getting a glimpse into others'. And knowing that most of us are just as engaged with reading posts as with writing them means that we'll generally reach a bigger (and broader) audience than we might at other times of the year. I love the unexpected discussions that pop up, as people put aside their planned blog posts and respond to someone else's instead. I like the fact that participants don't really have time to spend days crafting their posts, so they are a little more spontaneous and rough and freeform than they might otherwise be. And although I'm in awe of people who can write about professional topics every day, I also love the glimpses of people's ordinary (or often extraordinary) personal lives and activities that are shared during #blogjune.

And that's why I love #blogjune.

Next post:  Some thoughts about library blogging :)

I've just finished my first seven cards for #ICAD2015 (Index-Card-A-Day). I've been posting them to Flickr and also to Instagram this year. A collage of my first week's efforts is below.



It's always difficult for me to think up ideas for this. Even when I have them swirling around in my head, it's not easy to work out the execution. And then to whip something up in an evening after work / commute / dinner / etc. - especially when I'm trying to write a blog post every night too! So sometimes I just practise techniques and see what turns out.

I've been playing around with watercolour paints a lot this year. I'd never been drawn to watercolour as a medium, but it's easy to cover areas with colour quickly, so I've been using it to create backgrounds that I'll add to later on. In the process, I'm learning more about how to use it. It's still very unpredictable for me at this stage. I know I'll be able to control it better after I've had more practice, but right now it's controlling me and I'm actually quite enjoying it! Watercolour has a life of its own, it doesn't always behave as I expect, and it leads me down paths that I didn't intend to follow. All of this is a *good thing*, as #ICAD is a learning experience as much as a creative exercise.

This year I passed my 10 year anniversary of working in libraries. I've been thinking about the journey I've taken over that time - the things I've done, the skills I've learned, the places I've worked, the people I've met, and the friends I've made. So please forgive the listy-listy-list nature of this blog post, as I take a trip down memory lane ...

I have worked in university, parliamentary, TAFE (vocational education), special, and corporate libraries. I also did a work placement in public libraries. I'm currently working for a library vendor.

I consider myself lucky to have had many different jobs in libraries too, mostly as a result of taking on a variety of contract positions in my early library career. I've been a liaison librarian, customer support consultant, reference librarian, library attendant (shelving assistant), processing officer, client support librarian, library officer, indexing librarian, ordering officer, and broadcast media librarian.

I've taught information literacy classes, provided reference services, abstracted and indexed journal articles, provided library software technical support, implemented and managed projects, developed social media policies, created online learning objects, managed collections, engaged with stakeholders, developed lesson plans, conducted research, presented at conferences, trained library staff, managed in-house databases, conducted advanced literature searches, delivered software training, done a bit of web design, and worked many a desk shift.

On my own time I have also completed a Graduate Diploma followed by a Master of Information Studies (with Distinction), been an ALIA committee member, attended conferences and library camps, conducted original research, presented at a conference, managed an e-list, been on a conference committee, undertaken heaps of professional development activities, participated in the ALIA PD scheme, blogged, tweeted, networked, met amazing and inspiring people, and made great friends.

Working in libraryland is now the longest of my various 'careers' (having spent 6 years in science and 6 years in the public service). I have naturally itchy feet, and have considered moving on to something new more than once in recent years. But there are two things that are keeping me in libraries right now. Firstly, I genuinely enjoy helping people, either directly or indirectly, to find the information that they need. And secondly, I love being part of a connected network of passionate library and information workers, and I simply can't imagine not having those brilliant and generous people in my professional life. So I'll be around for a while longer :)

Last week I posted a couple of photos of a strange new art installation in Federation Square (known locally as Fed Square). It reminded a few people of H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds, for obvious reasons! The information signs were mysterious, simply saying that more details would be revealed soon ...



Well now it has a name! Officially launched on 1 June, it's called "Molecule of Light" by artist Chris Levine. This laser installation radiates a constantly moving series of colours and patterns, and is fascinating to watch at night time.

I took some more photos last night - now that it's on official display the lights are more intense and dynamic. If you're in Melbourne, I highly recommend checking it out. It will be open each evening until 21 June 2015.

I recently showed this photo of a neighbour's Silver Princess (Eucalyptus caesia) to my great friend Anna-Maria.



Not only was she able to identify it for me, but what a delightful surprise I got when she also bought me one as a gift! Fingers crossed it thrives in my garden and grows beautiful gumnuts like these :)

Yesterday I bought a cabbage. I was pretty excited about it.



I think cabbages are underrated - they make some pretty yummy recipes. Okonomiyaki is one of them. Coleslaw is not. But curried cabbages and sausages is another one :)



Curried cabbage and sausages
Serves 2-3

Ingredients:

• 1-2 tsp oil
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 Tb mild curry paste
• 1/4 cabbage, roughly chopped
• couple of sploshes of boiling water
• 4 vegetarian curried sausages, sliced into 2cm pieces

Method:

• Heat the oil in a large frying pan, and cook the onion until it starts to soften and gets a little brown on the edges.
• Stir in the curry paste, and cook until fragrant (about a minute).
• Add the cabbage, plus a couple of sploshes of boiling water to steam the cabbage in the pan. Stir the curry paste and onion mixture through thoroughly.
• When the cabbage has just started to soften and most of the water is gone, add the sausages.
• Stir regularly to cook everything through evenly. It should be ready about 5 minutes after the sausages have been added.
• Serve with mashed potato on the side.

Classic comfort food for winter, and really quick too :)

P.S. I've added this recipe to my Recipe Box page.

And with June, comes the annual #blogjune daily blogging challenge! I'm taking part again this year, and like last year I'll also be doing the #ICAD (Index-Card-A-Day) challenge over June and July.

Sadly last year my Mum's health suddenly worsened, and she passed away at the end of June. Of course this brought an abrupt end to my participation in both challenges as I concentrated on spending time with my family, grieving, and finally administering Mum's estate.

I did create a few more index cards during June 2014 that I didn't post about at the time. They're all in my ICAD 2014 Flickr set, and here's a collage of those cards:



I also made a few more in July, but my heart wasn't really in it by then. The middle picture in the collage below is special to me though - it's a sketch of a lily in one of the floral arrangements that was sent to me after my Mum's passing. I was really touched by the flowers and sentiments that I received from friends and colleagues (both past and present), and this was a way to capture a little bit of how much it meant to me at the time.



Photos of each day's card for ICAD 2015 will be uploaded to a new ICAD 2015 Flickr set, and I'm also planning to post them to my Instagram account and Tumblr, as well as to the Facebook group.

On the blogging side, I'm looking forward to writing again, but also to reading the blogs of everyone else who's participating! Most (but not all) are listed on Con's blog.

Our beautiful girl Roxy has passed away after a sudden illness.

Her last day was a beautiful, sunshiney day. Tim and I both stayed home with her, and had lots of cuddles and pats.



It was such a privilege that Roxy chose to share her life with us. She had such a friendly nature, and we loved her to bits. She was our first and only pet, and her absence is felt deeply every day.



Tim built a beautiful little wooden box for her, and I wrote a long letter which we both signed and buried with her. She's in a special spot in our garden now.

We miss you sweetheart.

I didn't do a lot of crafting in 2014 - my emotional and physical energy was sapped, and it was an effort to engage my creativity. There were a few brief spurts, notably my short participation in #ICAD last year, but overall I struggled to find the time or inspiration.

Towards the end of the year, I decided to change all that. It might sound like a cliche, but I felt like I was only living half a life when I had nothing creative going on. So I made a deliberate effort to make the time and opportunity for creative activities.

Each day, I spend nearly two hours just getting to and from work. Of that, one hour is spent on the train (half an hour each way). The trip home is usually very crowded, but in the morning I catch a train that begins at my station, so that I can always get a good seat. I decided to start using that trip to do some crafting - not necessarily every day, but at least a couple of times a week.

I picked out a few small projects that would be manageable, starting with some pretty cross stitch Christmas ornaments. I put together a small travel pouch with all the necessities: scissors, needle, fabric, thread and pattern. And off I went :) I usually did 15-20 minutes of stitching during the train trip (the time it took to finish a length of thread), and within a few weeks I had completed one pattern, and then another one just after Christmas.

Here are the photos I took, in situ (i.e. on the train), just after I'd completed each design:





I really enjoyed stitching these designs. The single colour motifs made them especially easy to do while travelling. Luckily the train ride is pretty smooth, so there were no pierced fingers involved. And doing something creative on the way to work was such a wonderful way to start the day - it's definitely energising rather than draining.

The little projects have now been framed and are ready to go on the Christmas tree in 2015 :)



Now I just have to choose my next commuting project ...