Swings and Roundabouts

Well with good intentions I've realised once again that a long time has passed since I last posted a blog about my secondment, so felt it was time to bring everything up to speed again.

The past few months have been very busy both with work commitments and the Career Development Group and the best way to describe things is in swings and roundabouts, with extended periods of enthusiasm, where everything seems to be going great and then other extended periods of the opposite, where it seems like staying in bed and hiding away is a much better idea.

Better not to dwell on the negatives and focus more on the positives, so here's an update on those....
I attended a CDG Activists Day in Nottingham, which was very exciting. I'd not been to Nottingham before, so got to see a bit of the city centre as I walked from the train station to the venue. The sessions were useful and informative and it was a good opportunity to meet other CDG activists and to swap ideas. The event itself is a great idea for bringing together new CDG Committee members to help inspire them and to show that it is possible to balance the day job and other commitments with the voluntary commitments of CDG.

The experience I'm gaining from my secondment is great. I've finally got used to commuting between almost 20 branch libraries stretched out across a huge geographical area and also seem to have got to grips with my email account and likewise, everyone seems to have got to grips with emailing me on this email, rather than my permanent email. I really feel like I'm involved in every area of my job description and learning. However, due to circumstances beyond my control my secondment may be shortly coming to an abrupt end. I'm quite frustrated by this, but understand that this was only a temporary swap and that my permanent job is still waiting for me. The frustration lies in the fact that I feel I have the opportunity to develop and put into practice my skills and knowledge out in branches than in the central library, where at times that work got very repetitive and there are less opportunities to practice and develop my skills and knowledge.

I've also taken a bold step over the past few months. The outcome of which I'll post in a later post as I'm still waiting to find out if it had any impact on my career or not.

This is a quick whistle stop tour of the past few months. I shall do a more reflective and detailed post later this week all being well.