PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR THE UNDERFUNDED LIBRARY STAFF MEMBER

Presented by Rebecca Miller and Stephanie Wilkes

LLA 2010Baton Rouge, LA

“Professional Development”

New knowledge New skills Increase professional capabilities Personal development Learning activities Maintain or enhance one’s competence Work with a mentor/master 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

Various Tools

Webinars Organizational websites Blogs Twitter feeds 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)

No $$, more problems…

According to the State Library of Louisiana Strategic Plan, most public libraries do not have a continuing education line item in their budgets.

In the past 14 months, Governor Bobby Jindal has cut more that $2M in education budgets, limiting academic and school library funding.

Is anything free anymore?

Luckily, there are many free programs and applications available for our library staff members to further their education without costing a dime.

WebJunction

Example of upcoming webinar Libraries Go Boom! Library Service to Older Adults

and Baby BoomersWhen: Tuesday, April 06, 2010 - 2:00 PMWhere: WebJunction

Douglas C. Lord, of the Connecticut State Library and active WebJunction contributor will share best practices related to services to older adults with a special emphasis on the baby boom generation. We'll discuss the characteristics and needs of boomers, and share ideas on how library programming can respond to those needs. We'll also look at what the future holds as boomers continue to age and the next generation enters seniority.

Example of upcoming webinar Library Images and Video: Engage, Inspire and Tell your

StoryWhen: Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - 2:00 PMWhere: WebJunction

In this entertaining and heartwarming presentation you will learn how two librarians teamed up to advocate more effectively (and boldly) while staying true to the personality of the communities, the libraries and the staff they serve. You and your library really can market your services and engage more effectively, and images, video and authenticity can be a key! Learn how you too can use images and video creatively and effectively to inspire Libraryland, engage the communities you serve boost staff morale and get more enjoyment from your job. The stories and lessons in this session will be presented by Jeff Dawson from the Lester Public Library in Two Rivers Wisconsin and by Michael Porter from WebJunction.

Ohio Library Council

Nebraska STAR Reference Manual

Websites of Interest

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.htm

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 or nonexistent 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…

Webinars & Courses: Examples Five Weeks to a

Social Library: http://www.sociallibraries.com/course/

W3C Schools Online Tutorials: http://www.w3schools.com/

Organizational courses/publications EDUCAUSE

Certification, Education, Training, and Tutorials

7 Things You Should Know Horizon Report

(Annual)

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

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)

For example…HootSuite The different accounts I manage

All of the accounts that “lsulibraries” follows:

•ALA accounts•Database accounts•Organizational accounts

Retw

eets!

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

with a few otherinstitutions using PBWorks MediaWiki Wikispaces

Collaboration

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/add 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

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 LLA)