#CPD23 Thing 12: Social Media for Professional Development

Thing 12 for the 23 Things for Professional Development program discusses social media as a means for professional development.  The post asks several questions, but there's one that I will attempt to answer below:

*Are there any other advantages to social networking in the context of professional development?
Thing 12 discusses the idea that social networking can build communities of people that may not have been possible pre-interactive technology. I have experienced this via twitter and Facebook. I have "attended" conferences that I couldn't physically attend, just by following the designated hashtag on Twitter. Via Facebook, I have able to connect with librarian groups and pages as well. In reality, librarians have overrun my social networking profiles so that any time I open one, I get a whole slew of information that is immediately useful to my job or research interests. This is professional development at its best!

The next question asked whether I see any disadvantages to social networking as a professional development too.  Because it has been such an important tool for me, I've not seen any negatives to jumping into social media!

I truly feel that social networking has provided an amazing tool for professionals of all fields to be able to connect, share ideas, and get super fast information on a variety of topics. The networking opportunities are tripled due to the nature of the online interactive technology, and for new professionals, this is huge!

Here's to many more years of online communities!

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!