#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!

#CPD23 Thing 6: Online Networking

I have been neglecting CPD23 due to participating in the Library Day in the Life project, but I'm glad I chose to participate again. I always learn new things about myself by going through the discipline of blogging regularly (something I haven't been very good at over the years).

At any rate, I'm behind on my "things." Thing 6 is all about networking online. I wrote during Thing 3 about the Library Society of the World (LSW). This amazing group of people have helped me to build a network of librarians for both my Friend Feed, Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus accounts. If you haven't checked out the Friend Feed room for the LSW, do it! Do it now! You won't regret it!

CPD's thing 6 write-up by Helen Murphy discusses the reasons and advantages as to why we should be networking online. Murphy concludes that reasons fall under 3 general areas including:
-Becoming Better Known
-Becoming Better Connected
-Becoming Better Equipped
I tend to agree with these categories, and from personal experience, each social network that I am a part of each play a key roll in the above areas. Through each network, I have been able to make a name for myself (I'm still working on this area ... ), I've become connected with talented people in the library world, and have become better equipped to do my job by gleaning information from my networks. The digital age is GREAT!

Thing 6 specifically discusses LinkedIn and Facebook as the mega social networks. My thoughts are below:

LinkedIn
I don't remember exactly when I joined LinkedIn, but it's been a place for me to keep my resume (when I remember to update it), and to also find other librarians. When I have looked for jobs, I have searched LinkedIn for positions that are similar to what I'm applying for. This gives me a starting point to be able to get a feel for the type of position I may be entering into (VERY helpful!).

I am a member of groups on LinkedIn as well, but I don't stay very active with them. Groups include ALA, ASIS&T, LSW, Webjunction, and Librarians in For-Profit Educational Institutions.

Facebook
I have been an avid Facebook user for many years now, and have enjoyed networking with professionals, friends, and family. I'm even the Facebook administrator for my campus' Facebook page, so I'm heavily utilizing this tool for information and networking purposes.


Google +
I've joined this network already and have built a librarian network of 100+, but I'm forgetting to use it. There really needs to be a streamlined process for updating all of the sites you want to use all at once, as well as for reading and keeping up with posts from multiple networks. There are workarounds, but they need mega improvements.

The other sites mentioned in thing 6's post were sites that I'm not familiar with. I will be investigating them further to decide if they have a place in my networked world.

So how are you using online networks? Are they working for you? What are you gaining from them?
Stay tuned for thing 7, 8, 9 and 10 this week (man I have a lot of writing to do!).