Just a quick post to let you know about tonight’s UKLibChat – the topic is ‘Librarians and Personality’, and the chat will take place between 18:30 and 20:30 this evening, Thursday 21st February.
The idea is simple: the organisers will tweet questions from their account, @uklibchat, and everyone joins in with answers and conversation using the hashtag #uklibchat.
You can read a copy of the questions and more information in advance, and this week there’s a link to a personality test to take as well.* You don’t have to be on Twitter to see it, you can just follow the hashtag, but you’ll need an account if you want to join in. Have a look at our guide to Twitter for more information – UKLibChat is a great way to start using it to network.
* For the record, I came out as ENTJ, which is apparently quite rare, and seats me with such luminaries as Napoleon and Margaret Thatcher. I’m not entirely sure what to make of that, except possibly an abrupt career change….!
I’m not a twitterer so won’t attend this but I found the questions prepared quite interesting. I did this personality test a few years ago on a management development programme and came out as INFJ. I think the J (for judging) fits quite well with some librarial types. The term judging doesn’t give a very good representation of what this means though as the ‘judging’ type is one who is ordered, plans, likes to have things under control. So this coupled with being the shy bookish type that I (for Introvert) represents means I agree that half of my personality make up does fit with the stereotype of a librarian. The other half N – intuition – and F – feeling – is why I do another job as well!
But I would agree that different personality types are required for different roles, perhaps the more spontaneous and creative types are good as Subject Librarians or even strategic roles – does that mean that it’s not so important to have the sort of nit picking attention to detail qualities in those sorts of roles?
I’m not a big fan of psychological tests but I like this one, based on the Myers Briggs personality test I think. It reminds me of the strengths of each character type/combination but also to try to challenge myself to see where I could be a bit less obsessed with the detail or a bit less introverted in order to be a more balanced presence at work.
I’ve done similar tests before and come out roughly the same, but I always feel it comes out wrong for me on the E/I scale. I usually come up as ‘extroverted’, which I’m sure people observing me would agree with, but when I read the descriptions, I identify MUCH more strongly with ‘introverted’. I’m not shy, I’m definitely outgoing, but I do need A Awful Lot of time on my own to regroup and recharge and that’s where I feel I draw my energy. And introverted doesn’t have to mean shy!
I think you’re right about psychological tests, they’re a bit pigeon-holing, but they can be useful to help me think about my strengths and weaknesses, needs and preferences. And I like your idea of them as a way to challenge ourselves a bit as well.