#CPD23 Thing 5: I Think, Therefore I Am

Creative Commons License  http://www.flickr.com/photos/kubina/1497679352/

This week's assignment is all about reflection. Programs such as 23 Things for Professional Development truly are beneficial for all of us, in part because of the reflection aspect. So often we jump into web 2.0 tools without really knowing the usefulness of the tool up front (maybe not all of us, but I know I've been guilty myself). It's kind of like the public library motto that I adopted as IT manager that stated something along the lines of, the purpose of adopting new technologies is to directly benefit the community at large. In other words, if you're adopting just for the sake of doing or having the cool thing on the market, you're doing a disservice to your community. 

With that in mind, the 23 things program has been a good ride so far, enabling me to really step back and see my online presence in a new light. Because I am in an industry that is heavily focused on technology, and because I have grown up in the digital age (although my first computer in my home came about during my Junior year of High School), I have a pretty hefty digital presence. That's all fine, well, and good... but what am I doing with it? I would like to think that it has helped me to build a professional network, and to some degree it has...but I'm needing to step it up a bit (although I'm still not sure what direction to take).

Thing 3 has been the week that has hit home the most. I wrote about my personal branding that week, in terms of what I was already doing. Since that week, I have made a slew of changes to this blog and have begun thinking about the possibility of a personal domain. So far, I have:

* Very loosely designed a logo that reflects my title/username/online presence. I've thought long and hard about whether to change my brand to something more accurate, but this is what I've made a name with, so it's staying for now.
* Completely moved my non-library posts over to a 2nd blog. Read if you want, but my thinking is that this personal area will be what family and friends will want to keep up with. They don't care much about library stuff, and those of you reading here won't care much about recipes, travels, and the rotten Dit dog.
* Added additional pages to the blog, displaying them in link form just above my posts
* Gone on an embedding joy ride on the curriculum vitae and instructional presentations/projects pages. And for that matter, I have...
* Added the curriculum vitae and instructional presentations/projects pages.
The above are an effort to display a professional portfolio of sorts, in hopes that future employers will be able see my work and thoughts on librarianship as a whole. I'm pretty pleased with the direction this has taken, and I do hope you will comment and let me know what you like or don't like about the current format.

From here, I'm looking forward to the remainder of the 23 Things program, and the design of my own program design for faculty development.