May 2007

East Midlands
Division
newsletter
Inside this issue: A Welcome From the Committee
It’s been a good few months for the In it you can find details on who the
Know Your 2
Committee CDG in the East Midlands. We have committee are (see page 2), as well
run some very successful chartership as plenty of advice on chartership
A Chartered Li- 3 and certification courses, with more (page 3) and portfolio-building (page
brarian is Born to come in the future. The commit- 4). Remember that the committee is
Catch Them 3 tee has expanded with several new here to support you in developing
Young members keen to contribute fresh your career. If there is any way you
Puzzle Time ideas. We have had more events and think we can help, just get in touch
4
get-togethers, which is not only good (see bottom left), or come along to
How Many Pps in 4 fun, but also helps build a network for meet us at one of the events listed
Portfolio? your professional development. And below. We look forward to meeting
here is a newsletter for you as well! you!

Diary Dates
Visit to British Geological bus from Nottingham City Cen-
Survey, Keyworth tre. The tour is free, but places
are limited.
Thu 24 May, 2pm - 5pm
To book, contact Rachel
The BGS is the United King- Mackenzie ( rmack@bgs.ac.uk ).
dom's premier centre for earth
If you want to get in-
science information and exper-
volved in the CDG com-
tise. The library here has grown Next committee meeting
mittee, please contact to become one of the world's Thu 21 Jun, 4pm - 6pm
Paul Tovell (paul.tovell@ major earth science libraries.
nottscc.gov.uk) or
Nottinghamshire Chamber, Ab-
Come and see what goes on beyfield Road, Nottingham NG7
Liz Guildford here and the role the library 2SZ. All welcome.
(elizabeth.guildford plays in this important institu-
@nottscc.gov.uk). tion. We will be having a tour of
Feel free to turn up at the fossil museum, records cen- Next course
our meetings and see tre, the core store, and of Watch this space, but we hope
what we do! course the library! There is on- to be running a chartership
site parking (NG12 5GG) or a course in July 2007.
Rachel Mackenzie
I'm the Assistant Librarian, Biblio-
graphic Collections at the British
Geological Survey. This involves
Enquiry work on the library desk,
cataloguing books, serials, Web
documents, e-journals etc, manag-
ing a small team of staff who order
books, handling serials subscrip-
tions and making presentations to
groups visiting the Survey. On the
CDG Committee, I'm the EMBOC
Representative which means I rep-
resent CDG at meetings of the
East Midlands Branch of CILIP. I
joined the Committee to further
develop my own career, as a way
of becoming more involved in the
profession outside my own organi-
sation.
“We have a
really strong,
informal and
friendly group
and are always
happy to see
new faces.”
Wendy Goodall
I am Information Researcher at the Char-
tered Management Institute. The Insti-
tute’s Management Information Centre is
one of the largest management libraries in
Europe. We provide an information ser-
vice to both members and staff by provid-
ing a wide range of practical online and
traditional information services that sup-
port the needs of practising managers, as
well as those studying for management
qualifications. Since this is my first posi-
tion following library school, I saw getting
involved with the East Midlands branch of
the Career Development Group as an op-
portunity to network with fellow profes-
sionals, learn new skills and become more
involved with the profession as a whole.
As a result, I have taken on the
challenge of Treasurer.
Page 2
Know Your Committee!
Paul Tovell
I have just taken over as the Secretary of the committee, al-
though I’m still Publications Officer at the moment. This
means I manage the publicity of all our events, I put the
newsletters together, and I am a contact for anyone inter-
ested in joining the committee. I work as a public librarian in
Nottinghamshire, based in the far north of the region at
Worksop. Having joined the committee to help my charter-
ship application (which really works, by the way!) I now really
enjoy our friendly get-togethers because you learn so much
by meeting librarians from all different sectors and areas.
Thomas Muniz
I am originally from Spain and came to the
UK 5 years ago to finish my university
studies. I then got my first job as Informa-
tion Assistant at the London Chamber. I
currently work as Information Officer
at the Derbyshire & Nottinghamshire
Chamber. We basically help companies
do business by providing them with
market information (company data-
bases, funding, statistics, etc). I became
Committee Member of the Career De-
velopment Group while preparing for
Chartership. I have been at CDG for
almost a year now and it just gets better
every time we meet! I have been ap-
pointed National Council Representative,
so I am hoping to do a good job for CDG
and its members. I joined the committee
as another way of networking with other
info / library professionals. I have not
only been doing this, but also helping oth-
ers develop their careers!
Liz Guildford
I am the Candidate Support Officer (CSO) and Chair of
the East Midlands Division of the Career Development
Group Committee. I have worked for Nottinghamshire
Libraries for 5 years, starting as a pre-library school
trainee, as a Saturday library assistant whilst doing my
MA at Sheffield and then gaining a librarian post after I
qualified. I am now a Children’s Services Coordinator
for 7 libraries and a mobile, based at Sutton in Ashfield
Library. I joined the EMCDG committee almost acci-
dentally. I went along to a committee meeting whilst
doing my chartership thinking it would look good on my
application! At that first meeting I was voted in as Sec-
retary. The committee went through a pretty rough
time and at one point there were only 2 of us but now
we have a really strong, informal and friendly group
and are always happy to see new faces.

A Chartered Librarian is Born
Becoming a Chartered Librarian
happened the way most things
happen in my life: “one thing
leads to another..” and there you
are!
Conception
I got my first information job as
placement student at the cool
London Chamber of Commerce.
Although I was doing a business
course, and was supposed to do
something on marketing / fi-
nance / etc, I got this placement
as an Information Assistant. It
was honestly a great experience
and I felt there was a whole
world behind it.
Gestation
I decided then to find out more
about becoming an Information
Professional. A year later (and a
couple of part-time jobs as a li-
brary assistant), I was doing the
MSc in Library and Information
Management at Loughborough
University. I almost “passed
away” that year having to do the
course full-time and working
part-time in the evenings. Years
of experience working and
Catch Them Young
What a fantastic opportunity it
was to go to the “Catch Them
Young” day school at Solihull.
The aim was to show us how
children could find Local Studies
interesting. Wow! They cer-
tainly had some ideas, which we
brought back with us! Jane
Featherstone started us off by
showing how to interpret
growth in the communities. Tak-
ing an old map, she got us to
trace the area noting the roads
and the outline of the buildings in
that particular area. We looked
studying at the same time proved
useful and I managed to organise
myself and even pass the course.
Having a background in business
and with such a Masters in my
pocket, I managed to get a full-
time Information job at the Not-
tinghamshire Chamber. After
such busy year, I was surpris-
ingly more motivated than ever
and started preparing the next
step in my Information career, the
Chartership.
Birth
CILIP’s guide to prepare for it is a
must-read / must-do guide
through the whole process. My
advice is: read every single step
of the guide (one, two, three or
as many times as you need) until
you understand exactly what they
are asking for. Even if you feel
it’s taking too much time and you
at where the village was, and what
it consisted of (the pub, the
church, houses, farms and roads).
Next, she gave us a map of exactly
the same area, but later: showing
growth. We put the traced image
on top of the new map, and saw
for ourselves the growth of the
village, and discussed why. We
looked at new properties that had
come into the area and where they
were situated. We looked at
mines, and industries, which may
have brought the newcomers to
the area. We also checked what
can’t wait to get started, taking
your time to understand the
guide first will save you pre-
cious time later. Finding a
mentor as soon as possible is
also very important. Mentors
are usually quite busy people,
so try to make things easy for
them. The easier for them, the
more efficient they will be.
Take notes in every meeting,
work on those notes towards
the next meeting, and don’t
leave things behind.
Seminars and one-day courses
organised by the Career Devel-
opment Group are also essen-
tial. They gave me all the tips
and advice I needed to prepare
for Chartership. Don’t forget
that it’s mandatory to attend at
least one of these seminars /
courses. They are definitely a
must if you want to go in the
right direction.
When you feel ready, send the
application to CILIP for assess-
ment and be patient… it took
me a few months to hear from
them! What a long delivery…
but what a cutie baby!
Tomas Muniz
COUR
SE
REPO
RT
had happened to the roads, and
which farms had sold out to the
builders. We discussed the
names of the roads, and where
they had come from. It wasn’t
just someone talking at you – it
was hands-on. Now we appre-
ciate how the children could get
really fired up over a lesson like
this one – we did!
Margaret Thorne
Page 3
S Q S Z D Q C B R C Y D C P X Y D C E F
O C L A L N B P W Y T S M O L V S C K X Puzzle Time
C B H R E C R U I T M E N T U W T R R Y
H E R A A D C S I N O I T A M R O F N I Find the words IDEAS
C Y R A R B I L Z H B T C O O Q S K B Y listed in the grid IMPACT
V S V T N T Z V N L N I A P M H V E D U on the left. INFORMATION
S P I L I C E J E E A N P J P O E D S W With thanks to LEARNING
Y Y R C N F H R M A R U M T L E R P U Q Margaret Thorne. LIBRARY
L R W Z G A I P S F S T I A U E O P H S
MIDLANDS
NEWSLETTER
C M K A C H O C V H M R N P M H S G K T BRANCH OPPORTUNI-
S B P U B L I C A T I O N S S C D S T U CAREER TIES
O V B N E C R O Y T I P V K U A N S H D CERTIFICATION PROFESSIONAL
N N P V O Q K L I S I P R O G R A M M E CHARTERSHIP PROGRAMME
D I E P E I O L S J R O Q E U E L B W N CILIP PROMOTE
O D M R E T T E L S W E N Q M E D D D T COLLEAGUE PUBLICATIONS
U N M R Q D F A M L J A B J Z R I I T Q COURSES RECRUITMENT
J X F P U O R G C E I N Z B E S M R J G DEVELOPMENT REPRESENT
N F D E R R L U N U R Z A P L A I W M W
EAST STUDENT
L EDUCATION SUPPORT
Z R E P R E S E N T D H G N H T W A E
P
GROUP
M E E I Z N T Z B J Z E Z I I H U S T

will realise that it goes on afterwards!

How Many Pp’s in Portfolio?
Is a 200 page portfolio better than a
20 page one? Can I have an appendix
of documents that do not fit anywhere
else? How do I start putting my port-
folio together? If these sound like your
questions, read on!
Use the criteria
Firstly, CILIP helps you by providing
four assessment criteria against which
your application will be measured.
This means that every document you
include MUST demonstrate how you
have met these criteria. You might like
to organise your portfolio into four
sections, based on these criteria – this
will make it clearer to you and your
assessor which of the criteria you are
demonstrating in each document. Ulti-
mately, however, it is entirely up to
you how you organise it.
Every document really has to
earn its place in your portfolio. This
can lead to some tough decisions. If
you have worked hard on something,
and you are very proud of it, you might
be desperate to use it as evidence. But
be strict with yourself – if it does not
demonstrate how you have met the
criteria, it will do you no good to in-
clude it.
You have an easy head start
with some compulsory documents –
your annotated CV will link closely
with the first of the criteria, and your
The Career Development Group is a special interest group of CILIP, The Chartered Institute of Library &
Information Professionals. Registered Charity Number 313014.
• Use a 12 point font, and stick to
just one heading at the top of the
page. Try and limit documents to one
PPDP with the second. Then you can page in length, even if that involves
start building up the portfolio. Each docu- cutting out a few lines. If it is in hard
ment you include must add something copy, consider reducing its size on the
new to your body of evidence. For exam- photocopier.
ple, if you have already included a set of • Use documents that cover more
minutes to demonstrate your involvement than one of the criteria: they will do
in meetings, there is no point in adding twice the work in half the space!
another set from a different meeting, be-
Help your assessors
cause it will not add anything new to your
Presentation is important if you want
portfolio. Similarly, if you include a report
to show clearly how you have met the
that you have written on some new devel-
criteria. This is why it helps if your
opment, think very carefully before adding
portfolio has a clear structure, with a
another report – will it show your asses-
contents page. You might consider
sor anything new?
investing in a good quality folder or
Less is more display wallet, which will also help
Once you have selected a your cause with the assessors. But
small handful of documents make sure they do not need to do any
for each of the criteria, you will probably extra work to see your evidence –
start struggling to find documents that add stuffing multiple pages into a single
anything new. In that case, it is time to wallet will not impress anyone!
stop gathering evidence, and resist the Having assembled all your
urge to squeeze more in “just in case”! evidence, and checked that it ad-
Otherwise your portfolio could look un- dresses the criteria, you may still have
wieldy and sloppy. great pieces of work that do not fit
By carefully selecting documents anywhere. Resist the urge to make
like this, you should not end up with hun- them into an appendix! If you are not
dreds of pages in your portfolio, because sure which criteria they meet, your
every document should be really earning assessors will be even less sure.
its place. But if you do, here are some Finally, the easy way to limit your
tips to reduce its size: documents is the evaluative statement.
• Only put in the first page of any mul- You have 1,000 words to say briefly
tiple-page documents. It does not matter why each document is there. If you
if it cuts off mid-sentence, the assessors have more than 30, it will be a real
struggle. Paul Tovell
Page 4