1. My Personal
Learning
Network
By Elaine Hall

2. A New Culture of
Learning
A personal learning network (PLN)
can be defined as a group of people
with whom you connect to interact
and exchange information and
resource; share knowledge,
experience and ideas, collecting and
creating an informed guide to
professional development
opportunities and continual learning”
(Howlett, 2011, p. 2)
Image source: http://edudemic.com/wp-
content/uploads/2012/09/headthink.jpg

3. No One Learns Alone
“We define the activity of professional
networking as the act of making
connections with other professionals,
with or without the intention of making
long–term ties with them”
- Rajagopal, 2012

4. Value of A
Personal Learning Network
 Enables and provides support for learning
 Increases access and effectiveness of
learning
 Connects with people in spite of geographical
distances
 Complements face to face communication
 Contributes to professional development
 Fosters transformative learning

5. Planning my
Personal
Learning
Network
In a physical world where
we aim to separate our
professional and personal
endeavors in an effort to
find balance, my PLN allows
the blending of all my
interests to come together
in one place where
exploration, networking,
and fun will be unlimited.

6. Mission Statement
My PLN will…
 be transparent and open for others to view,
to participate, and to learn from
 foster lifelong learning for myself and others
 permit both creativity and curiosity
 be used to share ideas, to play, to have fun,
and to continuously explore.

7. Goal
"Establishing a personal learning network is an approach to meet
constantly evolving professional goals, learning needs, and
objectives" (Howlett, 2011, p. 1)
 Commit to lifelong learning
 Constantly add to my skillset
 Develop professional identity
 Curate information
 Find a mentor – be a mentor
 Foster balance between
professional and personal life
Photo source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/k12cornerstones/6606146535/sizes/m/in/photostream/

8. Scope
Academic Libraries
Information Literacy
Information Technology
Research Methodology
Reference Services
Online Learning
Assessment
Learning Environments
Social/Hyperlinked Media
The scope of my PLN is to focus on issues and trends relating
to academic librarianship and will include a strong focus on
the following areas:

9. Objectives
 Connect
 Contribute
 Converse
 Request

10. Connect
 Meet new people
 Join communities
 Find a mentor – be a mentor
 Follow leading experts
 Follow colleagues

11. Contribute
 Join a conversation
 Start a conversation
 Ask a question
 Share experiences
 Share projects
 Share knowledge

12. Converse
 Explore and reconcile ideas
 Solve problems
 Learn with others
 Respond to questions
 Participate in conversations
 Connect by sharing personal
interests

13. Request
“In circles of educators who connect online, making a request is
acceptable and welcome. You’ll find that you’ll receive much
higher quality answers and support by asking your network, than
you will by simply searching online.”
Wagner, 2012
 Learn from leaders and experts
 Access wide range of opinions
 Prompt Reflection
 Drive professional growth

14. Twitter
Who I’m
Following
(the short list)
@maureenala
@janholmquist
@charbooth
@pollallda
@sabram
@rdlankes
@mstephens7
@sjsuslis
@libwardrobe
@ARLnews
@pewinternet
@hacklibschool
@marc_crompton
@nancy-pear
@TheLIB
@theviewTV
@libraryjournal
@zenbrarian
@librarianbyday
@edudemic
Photo Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kelleys/2755588297/sizes/o/in/photostream/
Purpose:
To engage To share
To discover To learn
To retweet To comment
To contribute To reflect
To reflect To inquire
To advise To support
To collaborate To engage
“I know my work and
perception of my role has been
transformed since I joined
Twitter and other networks, and
it has been because I wanted it
to.” (David Hopkins, 2013)
@ElaineBurkeHall

15. Purpose:
To explore
To categorize
To focus on key areas
- Literacy
- PLNs
- Assessment
- Libraries
- Learning
- Research
Pinterest
Sample of My Boards
I have used Pinterest for
personal interests for the
past year, but only recently
did I discover the value of
academic, library-related
connectedness through this
network.

16. MY Groups:
• American Library
Association
• Library 2.0
• New Academic Librarians:
Neworking to Success
• Social Media for Libraries
• Digital Libraries
• INALJ
• LIS Career Options
SJSU ALASC
• SLISConnect
• Washington Library
Association
• WebJunction
• Internet Librarian
LinkedIn
Photo source:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/janello/558
6238169/sizes/m/in/photostream/
Purpose:
• To develop professional
networks
• To merge prior career to future
career
• To build upon experience
• To explore new opportunities
• For job searching
• For connecting and learning
• To promote scholastic and
professional achievements
• To highlight professional interests
• To engage in community

17. Google+
Purpose:
• To develop professional
networks
• To participate in topic-focused
communities
• For connecting and learning
• To organize contacts into
circles and distribute
information accordingly

18. Netvibes
Bringing it all
together!
Purpose
• Netvibes is a platform
that allows you bring
it all together!
• Dashboards for
curating the latest on
areas of interest
• Social dashboard
allows you to view all
your social feeds in
one place
• Quickly link directly
to relevant and timely
information
My Information Technology Dashboard
My Academic Libraries Dashboard

19. Netvibes
RSS Aggregator
Netvibes is a great resource for RSS aggregation. Not only can
you setup a dashboard to view all your rss feeds one place, you
can also add specific feeds to your dedicated dashboards.
I found the flexibility of Netvibes as an attractive way to adjust
when, where and how I access my information.

20. Blogs I Follow
Brazen Careerist
SJSU SLIS Career Blog
Hack Library School -
Tame the Web
Librarian in Black
Mashbable:
Pop Goes the Librarian
Library History Bluff Blog
The Practical Librarian
The Ubiquitous Librarian
Free Range Librarian
Technology Enhanced
Learning Blog
Digibook Librarian
David Lee King
Unshelved
LIS News:
Adventures in Library
Librarian by Day
"Blogs by their very nature are
tentative works in progress.
They have the character of
playfulness, which is core to the
new culture of learning. They
can be experimental in nature,
used to test and refine ideas.
But at their base, they serve as
a means to kick-start a
collective around
conversations about ideas that
spring from the personal"
(ebook loc. 806).

21. My New Blog
Purpose:
• Share my ideas and
understanding
• Reflect on my
learning
• Start conversations
• Share LIS News
• Talk about
Research
http://inquisitivelearning.wordpress.com/

22. A Well Developed Network…

23. Its like having the world
in your hands!

24. Fine Tuning
the PLN
Essential Tools For
Immersion & Success!

25. Tools for Sharing
 Slideshare – for sharing presentations
 Flickr – for sharing photos
 Google Docs –for sharing documents
 You Tube – for sharing videos and
presentations
-

26. Tools for Searching
 Netvibes
 Scoop It
 Pinterest
 King Library Databases
 LibGuides
 Google Scholar

27. Tools for Organizing
 Netvibes (dashboards)
 Mindmeister (mindmaps)
 Delicious (bookmarking)

28. Maintaining My
Personal Learning
Network
“It is well worth the
investment to one
day have a 24/7
global network to
tap into whenever
you’re in need – or
simply want to learn
something new”
(Wagner, 2012).

29. Maintaining My Network
 Contribute at least one blog post per week
 Participate in at least 3 discussions per week
 Connect/follow those I meet in discussions
 Tweet and re-tweet daily
 Connect by sharing personal interests as well
as professional interests

30. Maintaining My Network
 Re-evaluate dashboards and collections at
each life milestone
 Review blogs every six months – weed out
inactive ones
 Network at live events, receptions,
conferences
 Introduce others within my network and ask
to be introduced

31. Be Patient
 Building a PLN doesn’t happen quickly
 It takes time to make connections
 It takes time to build relationships
 It takes participation to determine the
value of a community
 It takes perseverance when you
receive no comments or replies
 It requires patience to build your social
presence

32. Be Authentic
“Don’t try to game the system, worry to much about your
online “brand,” or in any way cajole people into following
you or responding to you The more you reveal your humanity
the more people will trust you, identify with you, and respond
to your reflections and appeals. More importantly, the more
you seek out the humanity in others, the more they will want
to connect with you – and share with you.”
Wagner, 2012

33. Real Results
From My PLN:
Inquired about favorite tools and
resources from graduate students in
a MLIS program via Facebook SLIS
Students group
Result: over 13 responses with
over 20 suggestions. Not only
resulted as a tremendous
resource for my project, but also
resulted in shared file for future
students to access the
recommendations.
PLN in Action

34. Real Results From My PLN:
Used Pinterest to do a search on PLN’s. Received numerous
resources, suggestions, presentations, mindmap, etc. to reflect
upon for my own PLN development.
PLN in Action
Result:
This led to
developing my
own Pinterest PLN
board which has
since been
followed by others

35. Real results from my PLN:
Shared a project idea with a colleague via Twitter
who forwarded the idea to a leading professional
who is working on a similar project.
Result: Received an invite to connect, shared
ideas, and am now following each other and
each other’s project.
PLN in Action

36. Elaine Hall
MLIS Graduate Student
San Jose State University
Blog: http://inquisitivelearning.wordpress.com
Twitter: @ElaineBurkeHall
LinkedIn: Elaine Hall
Google+: laynhall@gmail.com