Clinical Librarian blog- Chilling out, reading groups, and chartership.

Good morning friends, and it’s a frosty one outside my window today. I’m not a fan- defrosting the car is something I could happily never do again! Still the office is nice and warm, so I thought I’d do a quick update!

I’ve been struck over the past fortnight by how quickly some things can move, but how other things feel a long way away (and then suddenly sneak up and tap you on the shoulder). In our lovely Library we had a discussion around how to pep up our chill out corner. It’s a quiet little space, fairly well used, but it’s a bit careworn, and we wanted to make the most of it. Cue a number of discussions about how we could tap into the Trust’s wellbeing initiatives, and we’re about to be the owners of some new-to-us funky furniture, and are putting together plans to redecorate, rejuvenate, increase the space and generally inject some sparkle into the area. It seemed to happen overnight!

Alongside this, we’re about to launch a reading group. Again, this has happened in the space of a few days, after a suggestion from a member of communications staff. We’ll be tying it into the Trust-wide launch for Coventry and Warwickshire’s Year of Wellbeing. I’ve very much enjoyed researching ideas for running the group, potential first novels to read, and writing some words advertising the group. We’re launching it on 6th March, so if you’re a member of George Eliot staff and you want to know more, get in touch!

And then there’s the thing that’s crept up and tapped me on the shoulder… I’d agreed to present a talk/workshop at a mid February regional training day. When I agreed last year, February was aeons away, I mean I’d got the looming edifice of Christmas to scale first. Well now I’ve got 2 weeks, and I had a minor panic, which resulted yesterday in my attempting to beat it into submission.  Did I succeed? Let’s say it’s on the ropes, but I’m hoping to land the killer punch this afternoon. Enough fighting analogies, hopefully I’ll tell you about how well it went in a future post.

I’ve also been looking hard at my Chartership, and trying to write some reflections on some of the development activities I’ve fit in during my first half year here- and there have been quite a few! I’m not convinced my reflective writing is up to scratch, so I’ve got something to work on with the advice of my mentor, who I’m meeting next week. I have a list of development I’d like to work on- I nearly typed achieve there, but that feels like something that’s happened, been ticked off and set aside, and I think personal development doesn’t work that way, there’s always progress to be made, right?

Have a great week all!

 

Photos:

  1. Photo by Djim Loic on Unsplash
  2. Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash
  3. Photo by Arisa Chattasa on Unsplash