Am quite ambivalent about the idea of a personal brand. From a quick scout of the blogs, I am not the only one. Which is a relief… That isn’t to say that I don’t agree that how you come across isn’t important or that you shouldn’t be aware of your online presence.

I confess that I did once own Branding Yourself by Mary Spillane, although I think that I was unconvinced even then. I also worked on a group presentation for my course on marketing children’s libraries, where I asserted that talking the language of those in charge was an asset. Am not as sure that it is as clear cut as I perhaps thought. My dissertation topic includes studying the marketisation of language which makes me nervous about the use of market language in the personal sphere.

However, I am interested to see what impression I am making online, so get on with the name search…

I have a very common first name and a slightly more unusual surname. However, a general google search reveals a couple of US based doppelgangers – an entomologist and a medical doctor, as well as my Twitter and LinkedIn page. Restricting the search to the UK or adding  +library helps narrow it down to mostly me. Links relate to current work and profiles on Twitter, LinkedIn and Social by Social (which I had completely forgotten about) CDG and the Journal of information literacy. All good so far… Although it seems that I have two LinkedIn profiles… oops…

I am very careful about what I post online (which may be why I have been trying to set up a blog for forever…), keep my facebook very private and try to remember that Twitter is not as ephemeral as a water cooler conversation. This means that I am hopefully unlikely to stumble across anything online that would be an issue professionally.

Having recently gotten married and looking at changing my name (cue feminist angst…) I also checked to see if my married self has any twins: there are a few, including a naturopath and an Etsy seller…

Have often used an avatar in place of an image: I am not particularly photo friendly and was happier when my real face wasn’t on the internet. Have had a range of yahoo avatars and have also used my fave childhood pic, which is quite common I think. However, a picture that people will recognise is definitely of more use professionally. Currently use a wedding pic on twitter (am happy and professionally madeup – definitely best face forward! The veil less of a daily feature though to be honest…) but have gone back to a mad men avatar on facebook. Still looking for a photo I am happy to put to all my online personas.

Time to check out the other CPD23 blogs (and actually sign up, forgot that crucial part!)…

OK, sign up done, time to check out some new blogs!

Interesting to see some blogs from Special Collections librarians:

Notes from the Basement

Dusty old bookself

Girl in The Moon

Will have a good dig around the Delicious bookmarks at the weekend and sign up to some more new blogs. Have not been a commenter on blogs but this is another good point about signing up for the course - will get me interacting a bit more with blogs (hopefully!)

**Have decided am going to come back to this one, before I fall any further behind… Have seen some good blogs and am looking forward to a good read over the weekend (once another dissertation deadline has whizzed by…)**

Have signed up for CPD23 and am running behind already, haven’t even done thing #1 yet… *sigh*

So why have I signed up? Well, it looks interesting and am hoping to discover new things, get more organised and meet even more great librarians!

Am currently finishing (yes, I *will* be finishing on Sept 1st…) my ILS Masters dissertation while working as a library assistant in an HE special collections department. Can’t see past that at the moment, so hopefully this course will also enable me to be more reflective, which I hear is very useful when it comes to chartership (ok, so I am looking a wee bit ahead…)

Outside of work and study… there’s an outside? Ok, that will be reading serious non-fiction and (mostly) silly fiction, trying to save the world (one load of recycling at a time…), shouting at the television and spending time with friends, family and hubby…