My talk from the NLPN Manchester event #NLPNOPEN. All images CC-0.

1. AND EVERYTHING
@ned_potter
#NLPNOPEN

2. Things I wish I’d known a bit earlier.

3. You, the New Professionals,
happy in your field

4. Me, trying to be as much like you as possible,
but clearly in no way a new professional

5. This is the date I could last call
myself a New Professional.

6. I’m using term to mean
someone new to the profession
– within 5 or so years of joining
– and NOT necessarily someone
with the qualification.

7. The difference between
librarians with the degree
and librarians without the
degree is rarely the degree.

11. A Quick
confession –
library
buildings are
really nothing
to do with
what excited
me about
IBRARIANSHI
P
(Last month I
went on my
first ever tour
of a library –
at least
voluntarily…)
LIBRARIANSHIP

12. What
I love
about
LIBRARIANSHIP
is the
community.
It is sharing,
supportive, and
communicative.
LIBRARIANSHIP

13. What
I love
about LIBRARIANSHIP
is the community.
LIBRARIANSHIP
These days it’s a very fragmented
community, but that’s okay. You just need to
FIND YOUR FRAGMENT

15. I don’t think librarians
can save the world.

16. BUT EVERYONE IN THIS ROOM CAN DO
ANYTHING

17. BUT EVERYONE IN THIS ROOM CAN DO
ANYTHING

18. do something you weren’t going to do already…

21. JOIN TWITTER

22. Use the
SEARCH box
Cannibalise
Give it time…

23. If you follow
these four
accounts
Twitter WILL
be interesting,
challenging
and useful to
you as an
information
professional

24. FEARS
FACE YOUR

25. If you’re taking
career risks
(rather than
creative risks)
go for IMPACT

26. It’s really
important to
learn from
positive
experiences
Write
them
down if
need be!

28. BIGGER
BEING PART OF SOMETHING

29. Get your
fingers in
several

30. But don’t modify
your baa to
suit the flock…

31. People get stuck on the
idea that you need to build a
brand. Brand is a by-product.

32. EVENTS
GOING TO

33. MENTOR
FIND A

34. JUST ASKIt’s amazing how much people get when
they just ask for it. It doesn’t always work,
of course – but it’s always worth a try.

35. And the restREST
AND THE

36. And the rest

37. Sometimes it
takes strength
to say no.

38. It’s easy to get addicted
to opportunities. Others
will come! Imagine you’re
advising someone else…

39. ANDREW
OSWALD
Professor of Economics University of Warwick

40. For this reason, I formed Opportunities
Anonymous: an informal self-help group of about a
dozen close colleagues in my networks who are
addicted to saying yes. The group acts as a
forum in which to confess the opportunities that
we are currently considering and to get feedback
on them. Surprisingly, perhaps, it is very easy to
see why other people should turn opportunities
away…
Click here to read the full article on workload survival

41. Give yourself
a break…

42. Give yourself
a break…
(Like you’d give
someone else a
break.)

43. Perhaps librarians need to
spend less time giving themselves
a hard time about things which
don’t matter, and more time
setting higher standards for
ourselves on the things that
do matter?

44. AND

46. Don’t underestimate how
focused interview panels
are on local impact. No one
cares if you’re a rockstar.

47. Rarely do people ask you at interview
about your extra-curricular activities in
librarianship. Those become useful if
they help you show you can do the
specific role they’re interviewing you for.

48. (Download the job spec
of the job you want
and start assembling all
the skills you need.)

49. “You can’t arrive in the
rehearsal and be any good
unless you’ve done a lot of
work beforehand. You can’t be
good in the rehearsal unless
you can think on your feet.
So you can’t come in with a
plan, but if you don’t come in
with anything you’re dead!“

50. Library careers can
work a bit like this too. You
often can’t expect to follow
a plan – but it’s good to
have some idea where
you’re going. Even though
the way you get there will
change, and the destination
might change too.

53. Images are Creative Commons
Zero, sourced via Pixabay, Pexels,
finda.photo and Gratisogpraphy
#NLPNOPEN
#NLPNOPEN
#NLPNOPEN
Images are Creative Commons
Zero, sourced via Pixabay, Pexels,
finda.photo and Gratisogprahy

54. Images are Creative Commons
Zero, sourced via Pixabay, Pexels,
finda.photo and Gratisogpraphy
#NLPNOPEN
#NLPNOPEN
#NLPNOPEN
Images are Creative Commons
Zero, sourced via Pixabay, Pexels,
finda.photo and Gratisogprahy