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CPD 23 Thing 3: Personal Branding

Beccalovesbooks - I remember the day I created an e-mail account with that phrase. I had no idea at the time though that it would morph into being my "brand" for every social platform I joined, and prophetic into my librarian career.

I was working on my undergrad degree in piano performance at the University of Louisiana at Monroe and remember sitting in the basement computer lab of my dorm the night I created my online entity. I needed to get away from my former e-mail alias, sweet_beccalee (although I'm not sure beccalovesbooks is much better), and beccalovesbooks is what I came up with. So, in creating this new account around the year 2001, it was as if I had a predisposition to my library career...but of course at the time, librarianship wasn't even on my radar, and I was most certainly one of the idiots that thought we of the profession became a librarian because we love books. **shakes head at my own stupidity**

Fast forward to years later where I now have identities on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Blogger, FriendFeed, Ravelry, Flickr and probably more that I can't remember...all with this new handle and with a new found sense of what librarianship really is about (it's not all books people!). In fact, doing a simple google search of my name with the word librarian behind it (beccalovesbooks librarian) brings up pages of search results where people have retweeted information of mine, as well as providing access to some of my online identities. For now I'm ok with this, but privacy concerns are also a key topic. All of this is to say that I have begun to make a name for myself in the library community, mostly with thanks to the Library Society of the World (LSW for short).

*********LSW Plug*********
I don't remember the exact time frame that the LSW came about (I think I joined around 2008), but since the original gathering, there have been many branches and avenues of the LSW that have morphed. From this original site, the LSW is said to be:
"A world-spanning group of library professionals and library advocates, dedicated to furthering the role of librarians, archivists, information professionals, and information educators through communication and collaboration. The LSW is about people, not buildings (although some of us think architecture is sexy). It's about friendship, not organization. It's about creating and fostering opportunities, not building barriers and divisions."
It truly is a fantastic free organization that I have learned so much from, and I've met a lot of amazing people along the way. If you're interested in joining this group of people, take a look at the following links:
There are other areas of the LSW too, but these are the one's that I am most familiar with and have used. So I do hope that you take a look at a few of these areas (especially the FriendFeed group) and join up with a great group of library peeps.

*********End of LSW Plug*********

So I guess for me, branding just sort of happened. I hope to continue finding my "voice" and I'm really enjoying the reflection aspect of this CPD23 Program.
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Weekly Library Links (weekly)

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CPD23 Thing 2: Meet The Other Participants

As part of the 23 Things for Professional Development program, Thing 2 requires all participants to write about the networking and blog perusing that has been done this week. Many of the participants were not bloggers before cpd23 began, so it has been fun to see others in the library profession (and those in other areas too) jumping on the 2.0 bandwagon. I'm hoping for all of us that this program will open up networking opportunities that will be beneficial to our careers within librarianship.

A few blogs that I visited are below:

  • Raptorunner in Cyberspace
    I loved the comment this participant made that stated: "I have developed information-overload-induced ADD, and thought this program might be brief enough for me to absorb in small doses." Exactly!

  • Melanie of Librarianinanutshell
    Melanie has a goal with this 23 Things program to "be more organized & focused in [her] work and goals, and active in [her] professional community; not just a conference-goer, but a presenter, a publisher, a participator." She continues by saying: "I want to be a leader in my library, improving user services through innovative and effective uses of technology. And of course, I am keen on keeping my work fresh and exciting, by exploring new things, improving my skills, & building on my accomplishments."
    These thoughts are exactly in line with my goals as a new member of this professional community of people. I have a presentation lined up for this year, and hope to work on a publication in the coming year as well.
    Additionally, Melanie mentioned in her Thing 2 post that she is hoping to stay connected through this program with people outside of her normal library niche. Brilliant!

  • Cathy from Cathy | Library
    Cathy is looking at the 23 Things program as being a way to go from “that’s cool, I should do that” to “hey, look at what I did.” I really like that thinking...it's exactly my way of thinking about my own version of 23 Things that I want to implement for the faculty and staff where I work.

I am already excited by what I'm reading from others, and I am hopeful that this program will give me fresh ideas that I can use for implementation purposes. Also, if you're interested in other good library reads, I have a list of good reads here on the blog. There's a whole slew of bloggers that will keep you reading and thinking for hours!
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Professional Development with CPD23

The long awaited start date for cpd23 is here! I have been a long time fan of the 23 Things program since the inaugural program launched, so when I saw this opportunity to go through a 23 Things for professional development, I knew I wanted to be a part of it. Much of what will be discussed/learned are items that I am already very familiar with, so hopefully I can help to offer insight into these areas for others that may not be as familiar. For me, this program is really about 2 things:

  1. I'm working on formulating a 23 Things program for my faculty and staff where I am currently employed. Much of the faculty are not web 2.0 savvy, so this program is perfect for them with hopes of bringing new ideas that they can use in their classrooms.
  2. I'm hoping this will help me to be diligent with blogging. I've tried before and he never been able to remain consistent with my posts.
I certainly don't feel as though I have a ton to contribute, but possibly I can offer something insightful even still. Additionally, this program will hopefully help me to take a step back from my day to day responsibilities in order to reflect on librarianship as a whole. I don't do this enough - mostly because I just don't have the time. I'm swamped with work projects and teaching - but I can still make time to keep abreast with what's going on outside my bubble.

I have high hopes for cpd23... have you taken the challenge yet??
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Tech Tools For Teachers

I have been formulating ideas for incorporating a 23 Things program for my campus, and many of the tools outlined in the document below would fit right into what I've been brainstorming. My thoughts are still in the beginning stages, but I hope to have this info ready to go for the Fall Quarter. That means I have all summer to work on it with a wonderful colleague of mine!

I hope you find the info below to be as useful to you as it has been/will be for me!
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Weekly Library Links (weekly)

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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Weekly Library Links (weekly)

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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Teaching and Learning Conference: Empowering Students With Necessary Tools

Today, I was able to attend a teaching and learning conference along with other instructors and librarians across the campuses of the community college where I am employed. Much of what I took away from the conference are concepts that I have already been toying with - the idea that educators need to be empowering students with necessary technology tools that will enhance learning outcomes and instill a sense of pride and success in the classroom and beyond. As a librarian, many of the technology tools discussed are tools that I'm already using daily, but there were definitely ideas that I have taken with me that I can implement very soon.

I must preface the list that I am about to give with the fact that I am not an advocate of using technology just for the sake of using technology. Working in the public library systems of my past, I saw technology adopted often that maybe wasn't the best technology for that particular community of people. In the education sector though, I do feel that students should be exposed to technology (and many different forms of technology), not because it's cool (it is!), but rather because it will enhance the curriculum. The challenge, therefore, is finding the right technology for those participatory classroom sessions.

The session I attended today that was most intriguing was conducted by Corinne Hoisington, a professor at Central Virginia Community College in Lynchburg, VA. Again, many of the technologies I am either currently using as a librarian, or I am teaching to my information literacy students - but you may find a few here that you didn't know about. So read on!

Actually, before I get into the list of technologies, I want to share a video with you. Corinne shared one that was similar, but this will get the point across even still:

She talked about the future of technology that is coming down the pike faster than we think. Much of the mobile technologies we're currently seeing are already headed in this direction - no keyboards, no mouse, finger swipes, etc... This video is indicative yet again of the fact that information is everywhere. How our students are accessing information is changing daily, and now more than ever, we as instructors need to continue finding ways to meet students where they are in the online social realm. But enough about that... on to the list:

Wolfram Alpha
This search engine is unique in the sense that it gives statistical information, as well as mathematical equations that can be beneficial to the research process. This is one search engine that I cover with my students when we look at online resources, but I now have a few more examples that I can use when searching for next quarter. Examples include:
  • Algebra equations - Can be used when checking work
  • Mortgage calculations - Determine monthly payments
  • Nutrition information - Find restaurant nutrition information
There are so many more uses for this search engine, but these are a few that I may add to my own sch-peel.

Join.Me
If you haven't ever used join.me, it's one technology that you have to see to believe. Students are always amazed when I use this with them, mostly during chat or phone reference conversations when I need to see their computer screen to get a better idea of their problem. It really is the coolest thing since sliced bread!

Xtranormal.com
I was first exposed to this technology when a few librarian videos began circulating the twittersphere. I'm not sure that I will use this one often...but since I am the administrator for our campus Facebook page, I may dapple with a few videos to promote campus events. I can't see me using it much for the classroom setting...but it's still fun.

Docs.com
This is one that I really need to ponder more. Microsoft and Facebook have partnered together to provide word, excel, and powerpoint web capabilities - right in the Facebook platform. I've been thinking for a while now that Facebook could very well be the next LMS. With tools like join.me and docs.com, it's moving even quicker towards that possibility of creating a classroom setting right inside the walls of Facebook. This quarter, I created a class website with Google Sites. It was effective, but I'm going to now be researching docs.com further to decide whether Facebook could be a more useful avenue for sharing class documents, etc...

Qik.com
This is the last tool that I want to touch on, and it's one that I do think is a neat concept, but I'm not sure how I would use it in the classroom either. To me, it seems it's just an alternative to youtube - capture video and upload directly from your portable device to the qik server. There's a location feature that is kinda cool... but I'm just not sure it will work for my classes.

In addition to this session that I've referenced here, I also attended a session on Turnitin, the plagiarism checker widely used in academia. This session was presented by 2 of my librarian colleagues, and they did a fine job! Much of the information I knew and have used, but it is always nice to be able to support your fellow colleagues and friends in their professional development endeavors.

That's it for now. If you have found something here that you haven't used before, please let me know if and how you plan to use it. And if you have any other cool technology tools, pass those along as well!
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Library Links 06/02/2011

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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