Writing from Your Practice:
A Short Reflection by Helen Fallon, Library, Maynooth University.
Perhaps as librarians
we tend to take our practice for granted, rather than seeing our everyday work
as a rich resource for writing. Maybe we
don’t take time to reflect on what we are doing, why we are doing it and what
the implications are for ourselves and for our library/organisation both now
and into the future. Sometimes we may
value what the literature says on a topic more than our own experience.
You think (reflect on)
your practice by writing about it. This gives you insights into and can help
clarify things. You may think “this is where I’m at with this now, how can I
move it forward?”
Writing is a form of
creative dialogue with yourself which also helps establish connections with
others – communities of practice. We can
learn from the experience of others, just as they can learn from our
experience.
Most experiences can
be turned into writing. Remember there
are no new stories, just new angles. So how can we make what we do the actual
basis of our writing? Here are a few ideas based on my experiences which I hope
are helpful.
Try this short writing
exercise.
Write for fifteen
minutes in sentence, not bullets answering the following questions
What was the most
interested library-related activity I was (am) involved in during the last two
years?
What happened?
What was my role in it?
What were the outcomes?
What’s the relevance
for yourself, for others.
How could this
activity/project be developed further?
What advice would you
give others considering embarking on a similar project? What would you do differently, if you were to
do this again?
.
After 15 minutes count
the words. You may be surprised at how
much you can actually write in a short space of time. Of course this writing will be unpolished but
all writing is rewriting, so don’t censor yourself. Instead consider if you
develop this piece into a 1,000 word draft.
I’ve written a number
of practice-based articles which I give a brief outline of below in order to
demonstrate how this can be done.
My first
practice-based article on my experience of teaching librarianship in Sierra Leone
was written in a blue notebook in bed over six months. I wrote it because I was afraid I would
forget aspects of that experience and the people who shared my life from 1989
to 1991. Eventually I shaped it into a 5,000 word piece and published it it in
An Leabharlann: The Irish Library. It was great to have an Irish library
journal, which I was already familiar with, to approach. It felt less daunting that trying to work out
which of the many library journals out there, I should target. A few years later, I published another
practice-based article in An Leabharlann. If you are interested in writing an article or
a book review for An Leabharlann contact the editor Marjory Sliney.
SCONUL Focus is
another really good publishing outlet for practice-based articles, most of
which are from academic libraries in the U.K. and Ireland. In 2003, I lead a Libra survey which formed
part of the Library quality review. Part
of the survey involved writing up the methodology. I added introductory and concluding
paragraphs and adapted the text for this new audience (previous audience had
been externs to quality review and university community) and it was published in SCONUL Focus. Later I published articles with them on
information literacy and our 2010 quality review. Both were based on practice.
Fifteen years after I
wrote I first practice-based article on my experience in Sierra Leone, I reread
it, and in the light of how I had changed and how Sierra Leone had changed I
did a reflective piece“ Look Back and Wonder” and published it in CILIP Update,
the journal of the U.K. Library Association.
So those are some of
my experiences writing articles based on my work experience in Ireland and
elsewhere. The articles didn’t require
research and were mostly between1,000 and 2,000 words.
A few Tips
Identify a journal
before writing the article, rather than writing the article and trying to find
a journal that it is suitable for
Consult the editor of
the journal with your idea
Consider the wealth of
data your library generates. What could
be used in articles?
Think of photographs
as a form of data
Do an evaluation of
every training session you deliver that is more than an hour long and try to
have a space for open comments e.g. Any other comments? Keep the evaluation anonymous but tell the
people completing it that you may publish the results/their comments
Read practice-based
articles
Carry a notebook or a
device for recording ideas
Jot down anything you
think interesting in your daily experience
Use the expertise in
your organisation
Think about how an
idea you have for an article might be aligned to the library’s goals/strategic
plan/marketing strategy etc. and discuss with your manager
Talk – particularly to
people outside your Library, what are the concerns of academics and students in
relation to the Library?
BEGIN WRITING
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