Presentation

This Tuesday I assisted in giving a presentation to a small group of library trainees. I talked a bit about the journey I took to become an assistant librarian at the hospital and about what my work day entails.

Two things that I ended up taking away from this experience were how much I actually was able to provide some useful information to these trainees and that my teaching style still needs more practice.

Being that these were a group of people who were already doing library work, I wasn't sure if my input would be very useful, other than to be able to say that you don't have to know a lot about medicine to be a librarian in a hospital. However, as it turns out, my explanation of library certification with CILIP and how it and chartership work to heighten a librarian's professional CV, was actually useful for this group. They, like myself, didn't necessarily have a masters in library science, nor were they specialized in the area of librarianship that interested them most. So it was helpful for them to hear from someone who has come from an alternative path.

And that you can just take off and study Danish for six months. If you really want to.

As far as teaching goes, I wonder if I laugh too much. I know this is fairly standard for Americans, especially from states like California. I will try cutting down on that if I can. I did use two andragogical strategies, however, that really facilitated discussion well. I made sure to sit down in a chair when I spoke and I had the PowerPoint to my back. You just have to be careful with doing things this way and not talk forever. I could probably go on and on if I'm not careful.