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Presentation by Rebecca K. Miller (Virginia Tech Libraries) for the Virginia Library Association Conference 2010. October 22, 2010, Portsmouth, VA
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PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN CHALLENGING TIMES: TOOLS & TECHNIQUES FOR KEEPING CURRENT WITH LIMITED RESOURCES
Rebecca K. Miller, Virginia Tech Libraries
VLA 2010Portsmouth, VA
“Professional Development”
New knowledge New skills Increase professional capabilities Personal development Learning activities Maintain or enhance one’s competence Work with a mentor Social networking
A whole new world…
Professional development has always been an important consideration for the information professional
The dynamic “library” environment magnifies this importance
Areas of Development
Service skills Reference techniques Outreach Technology Subject specific topics Human resources/staff relations Instruction aids and ideas Hot topics and issues (copyright, privacy,
etc.)
Responsibility
Professional development is an organizational, and an individual, responsibility
You need to know about the tools that will get you where you want to be, regardless of how much money or time you currently have
Additionally, we now need to consider different types of professional development opportunities
We spend how much?!
A recent survey (Primary Research Group’s Survey of Academic Librarians) indicates that U.S. academic librarians spend an average of $1,484 on costs associated with library conferences, per year
This number, coupled with many universities’ shrinking travel budgets presents a major issue
A few solutions…
The American Library Association now offers committee seats to “virtual members,” and committees often meet via ALAConnect or Skype rather than attending the costly meetings
ACRL and other groups now offer “webinars” rather than in-person seminars, in order to bring the content to the professionals
Better solutions?
BUT: $0 >
How do we achieve $0—And gain the skills we need to be
competitive and thrive in the current library environment?
More research
The same Primary Research Group report indicates that librarians spend about 20 minutes a day reading print publications and blogs: is this professional development?
YES! Let’s consider a few nontraditional tools that are extremely relevant to your professional development needs…
Various Tools
Webinars Organizational websites Blogs Twitter, Facebook, other social networks Free, online university courses “Shared” Presentations (Slideshare, YouTube,
Facebook) Often include specific “how-to’s”
Old-fashioned tools: Books and journals People (you and your colleagues)
Websites—still relevant!
Nebraska STAR Reference Manual http://www.nlc.state.ne.us/Ref/star/star.html
Internet Library for Librarians http://itcompany.com/inforetriever/
Answering Reference Questions Using the Internet http://www.bcpl.gov.bc.ca/lsb/cltp/Courses/Appendices/InternetRef.
htm
Dewey and the Alien http://library.thinkquest.org/5002/Alien/alien.h
tmThanks to Stephanie Wilkes, Ouachita Parish PL
Webinars & Online Courses
Five Weeks to a Social Library: http://www.sociallibraries.com/course/
W3C Schools Online Tutorials: http://www.w3schools.com/
More Webinars…
VLA Blog/Continuing Education:http://www.vla.org/wordpress/
NEFLIN: http://neflin2.blogspot.com/
Organizational courses/publications EDUCAUSE: www.educause.edu
Certification, Education, Training,
and Tutorials 7 Things You Should Know Horizon Report
(Annual)
LOC Web Guide
www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/libsci/guides.html
Check out the “current awareness” pages
Blogs
Examples: librarian.net theshiftedlibrarian The Travelin’ Librarian Confessions of a Science Librarian Annoyed Librarian Mashable Arts & Letters Daily Chronicle of Higher Education Library Garden
Let the information come to you RSS
Send blog posts, and other “updates” to your email
Use Feed Readers Google Bloglines FeedReader Ping.fm Gist
Twitter feeds
Be a Twitter voyeur, regardless of your desire to tweet
(A few) top library-related accounts: LISNews Library Journal ALANews SLJournal LISWire
Twitter “managers” HootSuite (http://hootsuite.com) TweetDeck (http://www.tweetdeck.com)
Interesting example…
Earlier this month, Bobbi Newman (librarianbyday.net) posted about using Twitter on her blog:
HootSuite The different accounts I manage
All of the accounts that “VT Libraries” follows:
•ALA accounts•Database accounts•Organizational accounts
Our stream
Facebook pages
Be a Facebook voyeur, regardless of your desire to “connect”
Many organizations and library leaders post things in FB that don’t appear other places Internet Librarian American Libraries Magazine Library Journal Library & Information Technology Association Library programs/schools Specific leaders (Joe Murphy, Lisa Carlucci
Thomas, etc.)
My FB “learning network”
Conferences, library leaders, library organizations, and libraries all use FB as a marketing tool—
It’s free, easy to use (relatively), and extremely pervasive.
University (and other) courses For librarians interested in gaining
subject-specific knowledge without investing in a new degree, that goal has never been easier to attain
Free, online courses: MIT (http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm) Yale (http://oyc.yale.edu/)
Podcasts (iTunes U): over 250,000 free coures, videos
Library of Congress Software Languages Much, much more
“Shared” presentations
Many professionals upload instruction sessions, how-to’s and other presentations to sites that allow them to share their knowledge Slideshare
Search for “library management” or “gaming in libraries”
YouTube YouTube EDU, search for specific how-to’s
Facebook Tutorials hosted in FB:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Houston-TX/LSC-North-Harris-Library/75136419361
Wikis
Libraries have truly embraced wiki technology
Create your own, or
collaborate withother institutions
using PBWorks MediaWiki Wikispaces Wetpaint
Collaboration
http://www.libsuccess.org/index.php?title=Library_Success:_A_Best_Practices_Wiki
Professional Reading
Goodreads
Open Access Journals DOAJ: Library & Information Science titles (doaj.org) Current Cites (lists.webjunction.org) LibDex (libdex.com) BUBL Journals (bubl.ac.uk/journals) E-Prints in Library & Information Science (eprints.rclis.org)
My “professional” bookshelf, shared with others and linked to other, related books
Other ways of sharing
Social bookmarking Delicious Digg StumbleUpon Reddit
Reading groups Have monthly meetings Rotate leadership/instruction responsibilities Select a reading for each meet-up
A different perspective
Chances are, you are an expert on some topic How can you share your knowledge in a way
that might help develop others professionally? Write, or co-write a blog or other type of publication Create or contribute to a Delicious, Twitter, or
Facebook account Facilitate a reading group or series of sessions Write and distribute an internal “newsletter”on
relevant issues or topics Create a collaborative site on Ning or with wiki
software for sharing ideas
Pulling it all together…
The choices for free professional development are overwhelming
You need a management plan What do you regularly look at/subscribe to? How often? What will you use as reference resources?
Roundtable Discussion
Let’s share tips and ideas for taking control of our own professional development and continuing education…
Consider, even money saving tips that you use while attending conferences (such as VLA)
Questions?
Thank you!Rebecca K. Millermillerrk@vt.edu
www.slideshare.net/millerrktwitter.com/vtlibrariesSearch for “Virginia Tech Libraries” on
FacebookSearch for “VT Sci-Tech Lib Team” on Facebook
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