Last night I was a  panellist at an ALIA Queensland event on blogging for library and information professionals. My co-panellists were Alisa Howlett (www.acrystelle.com) and Amy Walduck (Pineapple Glam), and the session was chaired by Michelle Hughes.

The event was streamed on Facebook Live and is available to watch if you missed it last night. My raw notes for the event are below. Not all of these thoughts made it into the panel discussion, which was a lot more free-range!



My main takeaway from the event is that there is no one 'right' way to approach blogging. Although the three of us had similar motivations for blogging (sharing with others, contributing to professional discourse, maintaining a credible online presence), the platforms we used, the ways we come up with ideas, our writing styles, and our processes from inspiration through to a final product were all totally different.

The panel discussion is making me re-think my own blog and plan some improvements to it, including possibly moving to another platform, re-theming, paying more attention to visual communication (thanks, Amy!) and considering ways to highlight popular or curated posts better (thanks, Alisa!)

Tell us about your blog - is it professional or personal?

Mostly professional, though over time I have probably started to provide a more personal take on professional issues.

I know from feedback from readers that posts that I felt were verging on the too-personal have actually resonated the most. By nature I am a private person, so sharing thoughts about things like impostor syndrome, the negative impacts of being a perfectionist, and being ambivalent about stepping into a management role does not come easily. However the thoughts and feelings that I have shared reflect my experience of the complexity of professional life as a librarian in the 21st century, and having people respond with recognition and empathy has helped me to become more comfortable with opening up in that way.

Reasons for blogging and what you hope to get out of it?

I had actually forgotten this before I started preparing for the panel, but I started regular blogging for a work project well before I had my own blog. The funding agency required the project to communicate and it was free and easy to set up a Blogger blog to do that. The project team collectively wrote thirteen posts over about a year.

Once I had jumped into blogging I realised that it was a great way to write regular shorter pieces on topics that were of interest to me and hopefully others. I liked the immediacy and the non-scholarly nature of it, which made it easier to present more provocative or ambiguous viewpoints.

Do you set goals for how much time you dedicate?

I don’t have specific goals around writing time but I do include a blog writing goal in my performance plan with my supervisor. For the past two years my goal has been to write six posts a year so it is not a particularly hard one to achieve.

I participated in #blogjune for a couple of years, where the goal was to write a blog post a day for the month of June. It is intense but fun! I did write a post a day one year and a post a week the following year. Now I just stick to my own not-very-regular schedule.

I have been along to the ALIA Shut Up and Write sessions and used some of those for blogging. It was great to have some external impetus!

It’s probably important to note that there is also non-writing work involved in maintaining a blog, such as:

• Sourcing images (with appropriate licences for re-use, of course!)
• Setting up and renewing your domain name
• Responding to comments (including dealing with spam, which is mostly filtered but not always)
• Keeping static pages up to date and fixing broken links. 

Do you have a specific theme/subject you stick to?

Most of my posts are about career or professional development issues of one kind or another.

I sometimes use the NewCardigan Glam Blog Club theme as a starter.

At times I’ve used my blog for a 'behind the scenes' look at other people’s jobs. I find it really fun to do Q&As with colleagues that have jobs that are maybe a bit mysterious to other people. When research data management was still emerging, I did a couple of Q&As on that. Last year I did another series featuring colleagues of mine that include non-coding IT skills as part of their professional practice.

I’ve also used my blog as a place to publish submissions that I have made on industry issues, such as ALIA’s publishing strategy consultation and a letter to my MP about the de-funding of Trove.

I also often include references to further reading. Sometimes I wonder if a bibliography is unnecessarily nerdy, but a lot of my ideas for writing come from what I'm reading. Sometimes I like to review or reflect on the literature in a bit more depth, rather than just sharing a link on Twitter. Acknowledging that inspiration and encouraging others to do more professional reading is something I am always happy to do.

How do you keep motivated to write?

I don’t have to try that hard to stay motivated. I usually enjoy the writing and editing process. Unlike more academic publishing you also get the satisfaction of hitting the ‘publish’ button yourself when you are done and not having to wait months and months to see it appear in a journal.

I don’t really force myself to write now if I don’t feel I have something to say that people would be interested in. I would rather write fewer more substantive pieces on things that I hope will really resonate with people.

How do you attract people to read your blog?

I usually include the web address for my blog in my biography for events and publications and in my social media profiles.

Twitter is the main channel I use to promote specific posts. Three quarters of the traffic to my blog comes directly from Twitter. I also sometime link to my posts on LinkedIn.

I am pretty sure a significant amount of my Twitter traffic comes from the Aus GLAM Blog Bot, which autotweets my new posts several times on the day of publication. One thing that I have noticed is that the time of publication makes a difference to the size of the audience, so having a notification go out a few times at different times of the day really helps.

I try to provide reasonably descriptive titles. Looking at the stats for my blog, I can definitely see that a more provocative headline draws people in.

I’m not much of a visual communicator, but I do try to include at least one image in each post to make it more visually interesting.

Has blogging improved and made you feel more confident in your writing and is it a completely different style?

I’ve always enjoyed writing and I did a journalism major as part of my first degree. Although I realised quickly that journalism wasn’t going to be a career path for me, news writing training provided me with a good grounding in non-academic writing.

I’ve also done writing-for-the-web training with different employers, and that’s been helpful too. I would recommend writing-for-the-web training for anyone in the library sector as the principles will make all your writing better.

Blogging is different from other professional writing that I do. Scholarly writing requires a lot more time and a lot more effort to comply with style guides, referencing systems, and the general requirements such as including a literature review. If I am submitting to a journal or conference proceedings, I would usually run a draft past a writing mentor or peer reader when doing that kind of writing, as the standard is very high.

I also have to do a lot of business writing at work e.g. reports and project documents. There are a lot of similarities between blogging and that kind of writing, in terms of keeping paragraphs short, using plain English, and making use of headings and bullet points to structure your writing for easy reading by busy people.

Any interesting connections or opportunities that have come out of a blog post you wrote?

Last year I published a series of posts based on a presentation that I gave at the New Librarians Symposium. One of the things I showcased in that series was the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA), a widely-used IT competency framework.

I received an email from one of the senior people at the SFIA Foundation saying that they found my application of SFIA to the library world interesting to read. As a result of that series of posts, I also had a number of students and recent graduates get in touch with me via Twitter, which was really gratifying and expanded my Twitter network quite a bit.

What tips would you give to someone who is wanting to start a blog?

I would encourage anyone starting out to think more about the audience than about yourself. Rather than thinking about writing as self-expression (what do I want to say?), think about what your audience needs or wants, and what new or interesting perspective you can bring that no-one else is currently providing.

You could try guest blogging or writing short pieces for newsletters like ALIA's InCite first to get a feel for the effort that is required. It is also possible to publish pieces via LinkedIn now; this could be a good way to get started on a smaller scale with your existing professional network.

Always be ethical and professional and make it explicit somewhere on your site that your views do not represent those of your employer. Being aware of any formal social media policies that your organisation may have is really important, as these policies can differ quite a bit depending on where you work.

It was a pleasure and a privilege to be part of the Brisbane panel for the joint ALIA/NLS8 event Speak Up! Presenting at Conferences for the First Time. I thought it would be useful to share some notes.

What makes a good proposal/presentation idea

It’s essential to have a clear idea of who you think the audience is for the presentation is and what they will take away from it. The takeaway could be new information, or a change of attitude, but in the best thing is when your presentation encourages audience members to take some practical action in their own work or professional practice.

Coming up with ideas

Ideas some to me in two main ways.

• Something has been done in my workplace or professional practice that other people may find useful. Sometimes this can be something good, but often sharing experiences of something that has not gone well can be even more useful. Another panellist Fiona Emberton made the good point that being critical is OK but you should always protect your organisation and turn ‘fails’ into positives by focusing on the learnings.

• Something that I have read or seen elsewhere has provoked a reaction of some kind in me. Usually the emotion that is aroused in me is curiosity, but sometimes it can be disbelief or anger that will drive me to action!

Collaboration and co-presenting

Collaboration is really rewarding. I personally think it works best when the collaborators aren’t too similar but instead bring something very different to the table. For example, the eResearch Australasia conference seeks to include Point-Counterpoint sessions, where two presenters offer competing perspectives on the same topic, almost like a debate.

People sometimes falsely assume that collaborating will be easier because the same amount of work will be shared out, but actually a successful collaboration requires more effort than working on your own. You not only have to get your own part right, but you need to work together to make sure that the whole thing is coherent. And while it can be tempting to think that you will be less nervous if you have a buddy, the opposite can be true - collaborators can fuel each others’ nerves rather than calm them!

The warning signs for a trainwreck proposal

My personal top three:

• The proposer hasn’t followed the submission guidelines.
• The topic is way too large for the requested timeslot.
• The topic has already been well-covered at previous conferences (unless you are explicitly providing a new perspective, or extending/updating the previous work in some way).

Preparing the presentation

For work-related presentations, I have to use a branded Powerpoint template. Otherwise I use Google Slides which I find very clean and simple. I often find it useful to present from a PDF version - there seems to be less chance of the formatting go bung.

I think a lot about my introduction & conclusion and usually write those out in full because people will remember them the most. I usually have a rough script for the rest but I try to know the content well enough to just glance at my notes if I need to on the day.

The most important thing I do about a week before the conference is to do a full run-through out loud several times with a stopwatch. Despite my best efforts to keep it tight, I usually find that my presentation is 30-50% longer than I thought it was. Doing this a week before means I have time to reduce the content. It can be difficult to get rid of information you think is important but you need to be really ruthless and learn to kill your babies. There is nothing worse for you or the audience than getting the 5-minute warning card when you have 15 minutes of content left!

Feeling nervous

I still feel nervous every time I present. I often have presentation-related dreams or nightmares in the week beforehand and feel quite nauseous on the day. Although I don’t think I will ever not be nervous, the more I have presented the better able I am to regulate those emotions. I can observe how I am feeling with a bit more detachment and know that after the first minute or two I will usually feel better.

At the Brisbane event, the other panellists emphasised that a bit of nerves can be a good thing. Adrenalin can spur you on to deliver a great talk!

On the day

I try to get a good night’s sleep and stick to my normal morning routine. I try not to drink extra coffee as that just adds to the jitters! I arrive at the venue early and if possible I go through the following steps:

• stand where I’ll be presenting and work out the layout of the room
• make sure I know how the microphone works
• quickly skip through my slides to make sure they are working as expected.

Introducing myself to the chair and other speakers helps me feel a bit more at ease. I always wear something that I feel comfortable in and that is suitable for having a lapel mike attached to it. I also often wear my lucky shoes and/or a ring that my partner gave me that has a computer key with the German word for Help on it!

Breathing is really important. Take a few deep breaths before you get started and don’t forget to pause at logical breaks. Sometimes I even write myself a reminder in my notes to stop and have a small rest.
I find it useful to have the stopwatch running on my phone and to have rough timings written in my notes so that I can check at different points whether I need to speed up or slow down or am on track.

Keeping an audience engaged

If it’s possible to introduce an element of interactivity, that is always helpful. This doesn’t need to be complex - a simple poll where people have to raise their hand in response to a question can be really effective.

Storytelling approaches are useful if they are suitable for your content.

You can also build in opportunities, especially at the end, for self-reflection. Ask a question or provide a challenge for people to take away.

Leave enough time for plenty of questions. No-one will be bothered if you go under-time if that means more time for questions! If someone you know will be in the audience, ask them if they are prepared to hit you with a Dorothy Dixer. Asking the first question is also a good thing to do if you are the chair and everyone is being quiet - you can get the ball rolling.

Handling tricky questions

Take a deep breath. Repeat the question back to the person to check that you have it right - this is a good practice anyway for live streaming and recording, as often the questions can’t be well heard by those not in the room.

If you don’t have a good answer, don’t waffle. You can throw it out to the crowd: “That’s a great question. I don’t have a response to that myself right now but I am wondering if anyone else in the audience might like to comment?” It is also OK to say that you don’t know but you would be interested in following up after the presentation.

After your presentation

Stick around in the room for a few minutes at the end in case anyone wants to approach you.

Make sure you are available during the next break so that people can talk to you over tea or coffee.

Share your slides on the web - I use Speakerdeck. Tweet the link to your slides and if you have a blog, embed your slides there along with a search engine friendly summary.

Finally, have a think about whether you can turn your presentation into a newsletter or journal article so that you can get your work out to an even broader audience.

The NLS8 idea I’d like to see

NLS8 could provide a space to open up a really important conversation about volunteering - the good, the bad and the ugly.

A huge number of Australians volunteer every year with organisations whose values they support. For new librarians struggling to get that first foot in the door, it can be a great way to get some experience when paid options aren’t readily available but I’m not sure that all organisations are meeting best practice guidelines. It would be good if new librarians going down the volunteering path knew how to set up their volunteering situation so that it was mutually beneficial and not exploitative.

The Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) is consulting members and other interested parties about the future of its journals.

I would encourage all those with an interest in LIS publishing, particularly if you are an ALIA member, to consider providing feedback. This needs to be emailed to ALIA before next Wednesday 16 March.

The text of my emailed response is below.

----------

Thank you for the opportunity to provide feedback on your discussion paper relating to the future of ALIA journal publishing.

I support some of the directions set out in the paper, including merging the two journals and continuing the Australian Library Journal’s practice of publishing some practitioner-oriented work without a full peer review process.

My comments here largely relate to ALIA’s approach to open access and the proposal to continue publishing the journal in a print format.

Approach to open access

I am an ALIA member whose primary role is as a practitioner. I engage with professional journals as both a reader and an author. 

As an organisation that in 2015 ran a high profile campaign for “a fair, open, democratic society where information belongs to everyone,” ALIA should demonstrate a commitment to open access to scholarly literature. ALIA can do this by adopting a journal publishing model that:

• is free for authors to submit their work
• is free for readers to access journal articles, including the version of record
• promotes the use of Creative Commons licences, to ensure that re-use is maximised.

The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) lists more than sixty journals worldwide that meet these criteria, including well-respected publications like the Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication and the International Journal of Digital Curation. I would like to see the new Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association in this list. 

I strive to take an evidence-based approach to my work. I use the professional literature to identify new services and improvements to old services that could be implemented at my place of work. I refer regularly to research and practitioner case studies when producing documents such as business cases, project proposals and service reviews. I am lucky to work in an academic institution that provides access to paywalled journals (including ALJ and AARL) but this is not the case for many practitioners with an interest in the kinds of topics covered in the journals. While versions of some content may be available via an institutional repository or academic sharing network, this is by no means guaranteed.

The open access policies of publishers are an important factor to me in deciding where to publish work. I have been invited to contribute to ALJ in the past and have declined. I am unlikely to publish in an ALIA journal when open access outlets are available that offer quicker turnaround times and greater reach, and that sit more comfortably with my professional values and interests.

ALIA’s current approach to journal publishing tacitly supports a broken business model that is already unsustainable for many of ALIA’s institutional member libraries. Taylor & Francis take a more positive approach to open access than many publishers, however ALIA should still explore alternatives that better reflect the values that underpin our profession. 

This might also uncover some interesting opportunities in areas such as collaboration and professional development. Some of ALIA’s academic library members offer journal publishing services to the high standards required for journals to be included in national research quality assessments. Has ALIA explored this kind of partnership? The offerings of international open access publishers including the not-for-profit Open Library of Humanities and commercial Ubiquity Press could also be explored. 

Open access publishing might also attract a different set of volunteers than currently contribute to ALIA activities. The current model restricts participation to a few roles that require a high level of expertise (editor, editorial board member, peer reviewer). There are many new and established library and information professionals interested in improving their employability and gaining relevant transferable skills in writing, editing, and publishing. A more open publishing model could benefit members by providing internship opportunities and an additional way to earn points in the PD scheme alongside other association contributions like committee work. 

Publishing in print format

The consultation paper indicates an intention to publish a print and online journal, supplemented with further online content. I do not agree with this approach and think ALIA should be transitioning away from print as soon as possible. 

The results of ALIA’s member surveys seem to have disappeared in the latest website refresh so it is difficult as a member to assess the value placed on these journals by the membership as a whole. It is also not clear whether any consultation about format preferences has taken place, and if so, if the costs and benefits of different formats have been communicated to members as part of that consultation.

There are cases of smaller organisations losing membership and advertising dollars as a result of poorly-communicated transitions to e-only, and I understand that there may be concerns about this. However, these risks need to be considered in the context of the costs of a hybrid model. These are include:

• the direct additional costs relating to printing and distribution, which will only increase per unit as more institutional subscribers move to e-preferred or e-only policies for journal acquisition, and
• opportunity costs - maintaining a print journal will consume resources that could otherwise be used to extend or enhance a single online journal. 

Electronic journals also offer a richer environment for the presentation of work. This is especially the case for those that take advantage of web standards rather than attempting to replicate the print environment with PDFs as their primary format. Better mechanisms for citation, live links to cited works and other resources, and the inclusion of supplementary content not suitable for print (e.g. multimedia and datasets) are just some of the benefits.

These journals also open up a space for conversations between authors and readers that go well beyond the ability to send a letter to the editor. Enabling readers to easily share content via social media is also important in a world where the majority of professional networking takes place online and where engagement with a broader audience outside of academia is vital to our profession.

Thank you again for the chance to provide feedback. I look forward to hearing more about the results of the consultation.