Elisabeth Doucett "What They Don’t Teach You In Library School"

This book serves as a practical guide in going from theory to practice, namely from student life to that of a librarian. While a lot of it is common to any industry, such as how to handle unruly people or unrealistic expectations of your career, there are a few pockets of wisdom unique to the library industry.

Encouraging the reader to look beyond their own library and form a sisterhood with another library, the idea is to both take lessons from each other, for the betterment of your job and yourself. Through this relationship, you can improve your management, programs, and marketing, amongst other things, and it gives tips and tricks in how to achieve this.

The advanced chapter contains a healthy dosage of business-like attitudes, from networking to teamwork, which are important in practically any career, as well as how to analyse trends and handle figures.

Although I really enjoyed this book, I think a lot of it is common knowledge if you’ve worked before, whether it is the community, hospitality, retail, or another industry. It is rather hefty, at $38 on a Kindle, let alone a hard copy, and I’m not sure it earns the price-tag. Check it out at your local library, but a new-job guide and an ALIA journal probably cover the same amount of content, and would be just as digestible.

Organising Resources

School can be daunting.

As a student (not that teachers are exempt here), you are going to receive a lot of information throughout the year, for a variety of different subjects which can be further divided up into specific workloads. Arranging that inefficiently or inappropriately can often lead to trouble.

We're fortunate as modern students to see that a lot of (and sometimes all) our content is delivered through e-resources, which means that nothing can ever truly get lost, and there is always a back-up (or, there really should be!)

Before school even starts, decide on what format you will be arranging your hard copies by, and stick with it. Whether it is a folder and notepad, display folders and textbooks, have it all prepared from your very first lesson so you don't have to rearrange these things later.

Of course, there are a few simple rules that you should abide by. Use plastic sleeves on all printed work, or at the very least, for those handouts you will be referring to all throughout the term or semester. It only takes one sleepy morning of not putting your drink bottle lid on properly that has the potential to ruin things. Even if you have soft copies that you can print out the moment you get home, to have to print and rearrange things more than once is wasting valuable time that you could be revising the said information instead.

Remember that you probably aren't going to get a copy of every piece of information your teacher shows you, especially in regards to presentations, so take notes. Get down the main concepts, keywords, and links, so you also have something to further research later. Even if you do end up getting a soft or hard copy of it in the end, it is good practice to maintain your physical writing skills. It also makes sure that you are trying to comprehend the information as you receive it if you have to decipher it, and stops your mind from wandering too far from the given topic.

In regards to soft copies, it also pays to be dilligent in your organisation. If possible, have a dedicated USB for your course. At the end of every day, copy it to your private drive at school, your home computer, and a general storage external hard-drive. It also doesn't hurt to store copies online or in the cloud, i.e. in your email, or through a program like Dropbox. This makes sure that all your files are current, and that you will always have a back up in case of malfunctiong or lost hardware, not to mention damage of your home or school.

Create and label a folder with the name of your over-all course, and further make a folder for each unit. From there, I have found it best to arrange information in folders that are labelled according to the week, and the possible topic of that week, for example, "Week 7 MARC introduction". When you receive e-copies of some information, make sure that the file name is labelled accordingly. Teachers will often give you PDFs with a title like, "Introduction", so edit it to make sure it includes either the basic unit name or the specific topic or concept, where you can easily associate it with the over-all course unit.

It is also quite handy to rename the file including a brief status of what you have had or are going to do, i.e. "Introduction to cataloguing (print)", "Web Page Timetable (printed)", "Learning Presentation (summarised)".

Depending on how you learn, you won't necessarily have to print everything, but some people find it easier based on their learning styles. If you have found success with the VARK learning style analysis of yourself, then you'll be very aware of how you best learn. For read-writer learners and visual learners, it is often best to have a hard-copy of the work that you can interact with. However, if you have the money, it may be worth investing in a good tablet. Many programs allow you to highlight, mark, and scribble in the margins.

Revision is the act of going over your unit notes, and it excludes homework. Try to spend at least an hour a week revising each subject, and it is best if that isn't done in a huge chunk. Aim to revise at least six days a week, at least ten minutes a day. There are exceptions to this, of course, but this should be your basic weekly outline. If Monday is too hectic because you run from school to work, then try and make Tuesday a more intensive revision night.

Do your revision first, which can be as simple as rereading the latest handouts. After your allocated time for that unit is up, tackle the corresponding homework, weekly exercises, or assessment, which should hopefully enforce everything that you have just read through.

Best of luck for the new school year! To look at my resource format for this year, click here.

Edward de Bono’s ‘Think! Before It’s Too Late’

For those who aren’t familiar with Mr de Bono, he is one of the great thinkers of the 21^st century, and has a huge list of publications to back it up. He coined the term ‘lateral thinking’ in 1967, and has gone on to write many books dealing with this particular subject.

He is a firm believer that current thinking methods need to be improved if humanity ever plans to greatly progress. Almost all of his books campaign that thinking is a fundamental skill that belongs alongside literacy and numeracy, and should be taught in schools to the same extent. He holds logic, creativity, and perception to very high esteems, and they are all incorporated in his concept of “new thinking”.

‘Think! Before It’s Too Late’ is another light piece in the de Bono series, and reiterates and explores points from previous books without delving too deeply into the subject matter. A few concepts are plainly illustrated in diagrams, while most are presented or argued with delightful anecdotes; personal, historical, or figurative.

It is very much written for the average reader, and can be easily knocked out in a day without straining your eyes or time budget. The paragraphs are short, and are clearly divided into their own chapter, like ‘Schools’, with each topic within that having a precise heading, such as ‘ Research on thinking in schools ‘, however, subjects do often over-lap.

Early on, de Bono makes sure to clarify that modern thinking is still good, and merely just not enough. He uses the analogy of comparing current systems as just one wheel of a car: “The rear left wheel is excellent – but it is not enough.”

“I would like to see my methods used to supplement traditional thinking – not to replace it.” The term ‘my methods’ is used to mean a variety of de Bono thinking styles, including lateral thinking, parallel thinking, perceptual thinking using the CoRT (Cognitive Research Trust) method, POs (Provocative Operations), and the concept of the Six Thinking Hats.

The book opens with the subject of creativity after the introduction, and splits this up into two notions: “artistic creativity” and “idea creativity”. The latter is a huge deficiency in the current schooling system, and is much more a skill to be learned than a natural “born” talent. Creativity follows a certain amount of logic that is clearly available only in hindsight of an idea, and de Bono refers to this as an asymmetrical patterning system.

 In the chapter ‘Knowledge and Information’, de Bono likens the concepts of speculation and possibilities back to creativity. He states that information is vital, but not enough when used alone without thinking. There is the same problem with problem-solving and critical thinking. These are essential skills to develop, but need combining with other thought processes.

The great thing about de Bono is that his great ideas seem really obvious, and leave you wondering why no one publicly held this view before, or why they didn’t extend it like he did. If you read this, and like me, you are blown away by the simplicity of the methods in improving your thought processes, you’ll probably be left with a de Bono-shaped hole in your heart and mind.

To fill these potential cravings, check out some his other books. If you are interested in his works on logic and thought processes, check out ‘The Mechanism of the Mind’, ‘New Think’, ‘Lateral Thinking’, ‘Parallel Thinking’ and ‘Water Logic’.

On the other hand, if you are interested in bettering yourself in more general ways, look out for ‘How To Have A Beautiful Mind’.

For books that offer more of an oversight, check out his ‘Textbook of Wisdom’ or ‘New Thinking For The New Millennium’, which are both set out in short paragraphs dedicated to a particular idea (the perfect bus books).