January has come to a close and we were very pleased to see so many cardies embrace our first theme for 2018, What I learned in 2017 / What I want to learn in 2018. Keen eyes will notice this was a reprisal of our very first GLAM Blog Club theme in January 2017.
I kicked off on the very first day of the year with a post that covered both aspects. Much of what I learned last years was technical, but I was also pleased to discover it really is possible to make things happen in local government 🙂 Alissa was also keen to reflect and share her plans for the new year, and published the same day. She got some perspective, improved her digital skills, and reconnected with long-form writing. Kassi shared one of Alissa’s goals for 2018 – “Back myself”, which led me to hope that 2018 might be the Year of Women in GLAM Not Taking Any More Sh*t. Rebecca is hoping for a year of focus, whilst new GLAM Blog Club member Elise is taking on the challenge of Stanford University’s free Computer Science 101 MOOC – good luck Elise! Andrew also has some tech skills and MOOCs on his to-learn list, Andrew is getting excited about copyright reform (who isn’t amirite?), whilst our third Andrew got his MediaWiki fix last year and has plans to learn to sew in 2018. Matthew also plans to get more techie by learning Python.
Nik was feeling a little dark, but is looking forward to learning more about deciphering old handwriting and painting with watercolours. Tim didn’t tag his ‘taking stock of 2017’ post as part of GLAM Blog Club, but I’m going to claim it as such. He made a bunch of stuff and learned a ton in the process. Lydia learned Spanish and that collaboration is the best, Sally is going to learn to confront the problem, whilst Anne is going to eat ice-cream in Japan …sort of. Sarah learned so much in 2017 that she graduated woo! Kassi is at the other end of her degree, and had a second bite at the cherry to write about her desire to improve her research skills. Be sure to help Kassi out if you have any tips. Justine had an enormous list of things she has learned this year, but the most important one seemed to be that she needs to get more sleep. Don’t we all. Michelle has a new job (congratulations!) and is also on team Women in GLAM Not Taking Any More Sh*t with her declaration that 2018 is the ‘Year of No Fear’, whilst Clare reflected on the importance of supportive colleagues and workplaces, and Sam wrote about how she’s learned to stop worrying and love being a manager (I’m taking notes).
Thanks to everyone who participated in January. Our theme for February is…. Watch. Do you have something to say about tracking of library catalogue searches? Have you been watching a particular technology or topic in GLAM? Do you have thoughts about how people look at exhibitions or artworks in galleries? Let us know!
Don’t forget to give your blog post the correct metadata: tag your post ‘GLAM Blog Club‘ within your blogging software and share it on social media using the tag #glamblogclub – don’t get the two mixed up! Using the right terms helps us enormously with these roundup posts. If you have not yet done so, you can also register your blog at glamblogs.newcardigan.org – if you have a Pocket account you can also connect it to the app so you never miss a post.
Happy blogging!