#CPD23 Thing 7: Professional Organizations

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As part of the 23 Things for Professional Development program, Thing 7 discusses the benefits of joining professional organizations in order to broaden networking circles.

I have been a member of ALA for 3 straight years now, and during that time, have had the opportunity to attend the annual ALA conference in Chicago (year 2008). It was a great experience - in part because of the networking options it opened up. Also, as I have mentioned in a previous post, I have been active in the Library Society of the World (LSW) for many years now.

One area I would like to consider joining is ACRL, a subdivision of ALA that focuses on research in an academic setting. I am most intrigued by the mentoring program being offered, and am seriously considering applying since I am now teaching an Information Literacy course.
Additionally, myself and a few of my colleagues that are interested the mentoring program have partnered to form a research society (yes... we're calling it a research society) with the intent to gain feedback on pieces being written for potential publication purposes. I am so thankful to be able to work with  such a great group of people - there is trust amongst us, and we know that we will have nothing but support from each other in whatever we pursue.

Finally, I know listservs weren't mentioned in the original cpd23 thing 7 posting, but I feel that listservs are also a way to network and gain feedback from peers. I am a member of a handful of listservs (I don't always keep up with them the way I have in the past due to information overload), and below are a few of my favorites:
-Information Literacy Instruction Discussion (ili-l)
-College Libraries Section (collib-l)
-Library and Information Technology (lita-l)
-Reference Librarianship (LIBREF-l)

That's it for today, but stay tuned for tomorrow's Thing 8 post!