At De Montfort University, library staff have the opportunity to regular in-house Mashed Library unconferences, which provide information about in-house projects, feedback on external events, and the opportunity to explore new tools and technologies. A #MashDMU blog supports this. [Presentation given at Internet Librarian International on 31 October 2012]

1. INFORMAL LEARNING IN THE
WORKPLACE:
THE ROLE OF
UNCONFERENCES
ALISON MCNAB
DE MONTFORT UNIVERSITY
@ALISONMCNAB #MashDMU
#ILI2012 Internet Librarian International 2012 C202: Rethinking Roles: New skills, new learning

2. WHY INFORMAL LEARNING?
• Staff development budgets
• Disruptive technologies
– Social media
• The unconference “movement”
• Freedom to explore
– Training Time Entitlement

3. An unconference is a participant-driven
meeting. The term "unconference" has been
applied, or self-applied, to a wide range of
gatherings that try to avoid one or more
aspects of a conventional conference, such as
high fees, sponsored presentations, and top-
down organization. Wikipedia

4. Oxford Dictionaries

5. STAFF DEVELOPMENT
• Formal
– Remember the Library “training hour”?
– Internal vs external training
– Organisation-led staff development

6. CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT
• Informal
– Unconferences: MashLib, TeachMeets, Library Camp
– Twitter: TweetUps, #LibChat
– 23 Things
– In-house library conferences

8. #MashDMU – MAKING IT LOCAL
• Regular meetings
• A hashtag!
• The #MashDMU blog
http://librarymashups.our.dmu.ac.uk/

9. #MashDMU – MAKING IT LOCAL
• Sharing good practice
• Up-skilling staff
• Service development
– Enhancing the student experience

10. TWITTER
• #MashDMU
• Analogue Twitter

11. CHALLENGES
• Staff working patterns
• Reticence about social media
• Need to stop listening and start sharing!
• Extending the format
– e-books unconference

12. REFERENCES
• Analogue Twitter
Timothy Collinson, University of Portsmouth @timpaa
http://www.port.ac.uk/library/about/librarians/collinson/
• How to run an unconference (Lanyrd blog)
http://lanyrd.com/blog/2012/unconference-howto/
• Mashed Library wiki
http://www.mashedlibrary.com/

13. Thank you!
Any Questions?
http://librarymashups.our.dmu.ac.uk/ Alison McNab
amcnab@dmu.ac.uk
#AlisonMcNab