Presented at the Fintel Library Staff Training Day, July 13, 2011.

1. Fintel Library
Staff Training
July 13, 2011

2. A few things
(1) This presentation will be available on my
SlideShare site: http://www.slideshare.net/millerrk
(2) There will be a discussion component at the end.
Go ahead and access this form to start
contributing:
http://tinyurl.com/sharingresources

3. Professional development
(defined)
0 New knowledge
0 New skills
0 Increase professional capabilities
0 Personal development
0 Learning activities
0 Maintain or enhance one’s competence
0 Work with a mentor
0 Social networking
0 Personal branding (online identity)

4. For librarians and library
staff?
0 Service skills
0 Reference techniques
0 Outreach
0 Collections and technical services
0 Technology
0 Subject specific topics
0 Human resources/staff relations
0 Teaching and learning
0 Hot topics and issues (copyright, privacy, etc.)
0 General current awareness

5. Challenges (defined)
0 Money
0 Time
0 Definition of purpose
0 Information overload
0 Priorities

6. 0 “It seems to me that reading these publications
should be a daily habit for every academic
librarian—it’s like brushing your teeth or taking a
shower before work…”
--Steven Bell*
0 “The information literate student…uses a variety of
methods and emerging technologies for keeping
current in the field”
--ACRL Information Literacy Standards for Science and
Engineering/Technology**
*Bell, S. (2011). Hey, new academic librarian: You need to keep up, too. Library
Journal. Retrieved from http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/home/891021-
264/hey_new_academic__librarian.html.csp
**ACRL. Information Literacy Standards for Science and Engineering/Technology.
Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/standards/infolitscitech.cfm

7. Professional development =
professional responsibility
0 Professional development is an organizational and
an individual responsibility
0 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
0 Engaging in, and contributing to, professional
development opportunities can keep your job
exciting, and help you continually improve your
service to your community

8. What we spend ($$)
0 As reported in The Chronicle of Higher Education*, U.S.
academic librarians spend an average of $1,484 on costs
associated with conferences (travel, lodging, food)
*Laster, J. (2010). Report measures librarians’ time reading job-related materials. The Chronicle
of Higher Education. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/report-measures-
librarians-time-reading-job-related-materials/21641

9. What we spend (time)
0 The same article reports that academic librarians
spend an average of 22 minutes a day reading
print publications and 10 minutes a day reading
library themed blogs:
0 Librarians 60 or older spent an average of 31 minutes
a day reading print material
0 Librarians 30 or younger spent an average of 19
minutes a day reading library-related blogs

10. Where we spend it
0 WebJunction annually surveys its users (library
staff) on their use of online tools and resources.
The poll asks for users to report their behavior both
professionally and personally.
0 The 2011 report* was just released, and had a few
interesting findings…
*SharonS. (2011, July 6). Library staff report use of online tools (again). Retrieved from
http://blog.webjunctionworks.org/index.php/2011/07/06/library-staff-report-use-of-online-
tools-again/

13. Summary
0 WebJunction received a total of 1039 responses to
this survey. Although 70% were from public
libraries, the results may have implications for all of
us:
0 Professional use of social networks lags behind
personal use of social networks
0 Email listservs continue to be a main source of
information and discussion
0 There seems to be a low level of use of RSS feeds
among library staff (48% have never used them
professionally??)
0 Extremely low use of webinars and professional
(online) periodicals.

14. The tools…
0 Structured webinars or courses
0 Organizational websites
0 Blogs
0 Social networks
0 Free, online university courses (podcasts)
0 Shared presentation sites
0 Scholarly identity tools
0 Organizational and management tools
0 Old-fashioned tools:
0 Books and journals
0 People (you and your colleagues)

15. Self-paced courses (just a
few)
 Five Weeks to a Social Library:
http://www.sociallibraries.com/cour
se/
 23 Things Programs
http://www.cpd23.blogspot.com
http://neflins23things.blogspot.com
 W3C Schools Online Tutorials:
http://www.w3schools.com/

16. Webinars
0 NEFLIN: http://neflin2.blogspot.com/
0 VLA Blog: http://www.vla.org/
0 Georgia Library Association Carterette Series:
http://gla.georgialibraries.org/mediawiki/index.php/Carterette_
Series_Webinars
0 ALA TechSource: http://www.alatechsource.org/
0 WebJunction: http://www.webjunction.org/events/webinars
0 EDUCAUSE Live!:
http://net.educause.edu/content.asp?SECTION_ID=34&bhcp=1
0 TechSoup for Libraries: http://www.techsoupforlibraries.org/

17. Other sites (institutions,
organizations)
0 EDUCAUSE: www.educause.edu
0 Certification, Education, Training,
and Tutorials
0 7 Things You Should Know
0 Horizon Report
(Annual)
 LOC Web Guide
www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/libsci/guides.html
Check out the “current awareness” pages

18. Blogs
0 Examples:
0 librarian.net
0 theshiftedlibrarian
0 The Travelin’ Librarian
0 Confessions of a
Science Librarian
0 Annoyed Librarian
0 Mashable
0 Arts & Letters Daily
0 Chronicle of Higher Education
0 Library Garden
0 The Kept Up Librarian

19. Microblogging
These tools allow for short updates or pieces of
information:
0 Twitter
0 LISNews
0 Library Journal
0 ALANews
0 SLJournal
0 LISWire
0 Tumblr

20. Facebook
0 Many organizations and library leaders post
things in FB that don’t appear in other places
0 Consider these options when you’re “liking” pages
0 Internet Librarian
0 Virginia Library Association
0 VLACRL
0 American Libraries Magazine
0 Library Journal
0 Library & Information Technology Association
0 Library programs/schools
0 Specific leaders (Joe Murphy, Lisa Carlucci Thomas,
etc.)

21. Examples from my FB
network

22. 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): podcasts from over 400
universities
 Open University
 Beyond Campus
 Library of Congress
 Software
 Languages
 Much, much more

23. Shared presentations
Many professionals upload instruction sessions, how-to’s
and other presentations to sites that allow them to share
their knowledge
0 SlideShare: http://www.slideshare.net/
0 authorSTREAM: http://www.authorstream.com/
0 Scribd: http://www.scribd.com/
0 Slideboom: http://www.slideboom.com/

24. Wikis
Libraries have truly
embraced wiki
technology
Collaboration
Create your own, or
collaborate with
other institutions using
 PBWorks
 MediaWiki
 Wikispaces http://www.libsuccess.org
 Wetpaint

25. Social bookmarking
Social bookmarking allows you to store, organize, and
share items that you find on the web. You can also see
what sites/items are popular, and create collaborative
resources
0 Delicious: http://www.delicious.com/
0 Digg: http://digg.com/
0 StumbleUpon: http://www.stumbleupon.com/
0 Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/

26. Professional Reading
0 Goodreads
My “professional”
bookshelf, shared
with others and
linked to other,
related books
0 Open Access Journals
0 DOAJ: Library & Information Science titles (doaj.org)
0 Current Cites (lists.webjunction.org)
0 LibDex (libdex.com)
0 BUBL Journals (bubl.ac.uk/journals)
0 E-Prints in Library & Information Science (eprints.rclis.org)

27. Scholarly identity and
collaboration
An essential part of professional development is
cultivating your own scholarly identity and connecting
with others in your network
0 Academia.edu: http://academia.edu/
0 LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/
0 Mendeley: http://www.mendeley.com/
0 ResearcherID: http://www.researcherid.com/
0 Scholar Universe: http://www.scholaruniverse.com/
0 Nature Network: http://network.nature.com/
0 About.me: https://about.me/

28. Purpose-Driven
Management
0 The tools and resources falling under the
“professional development” umbrella are
overwhelming and chaotic
0 You need a purpose-driven management plan to
stay sane. Consider:
0 What is (are) your goal(s)?
0 How much time do you have?
0 What is realistic for you?
0 How do you prefer to receive information?

29. Management
(Organizational) Tools
Take advantage of tools specifically designed to help
you manage all of these bits and pieces of your
professional development plan
Using these management tools, combined with a
specific purpose (learn a new skill, stay up to date
on a particular issue, take a self-paced class), can
help you succeed in accomplishing your
professional development goal

30. RSS
Send blog posts, and other new items from dynamic sites to
your email
0 Use Feed Readers
0 Google Reader: http://www.google.com/reader/
0 Bloglines: http://www.bloglines.com/
0 FeedReader:
http://www.feedreader.com/

31. Social networking managers
Use one, single tool to manage multiple social
networking accounts. You can both consume and
push out information with these managers!
0 HootSuite: http://hootsuite.com/
0 TweetDeck: http://www.tweetdeck.com/
0 SocialOomph: http://www.socialoomph.com/
0 Ping.fm: http://ping.fm/

32. HootSuite (example)
The different
accounts I
manage
Our All of the
stream accounts that
“VT Libraries”
follows:
•ALA accounts
•Database
accounts
•Organizational
accounts

33. Website Management
Creating a personal homepage that houses your RSS
reader, social networking sites, and other pages that
you may visit frequently can make current awareness
much easier
0 iGoogle: http://igoogle.com
0 Symbaloo: http://www.symabloo.com

34. Task Management &
Organization
Use these tools to plan, organize, and strategize your
professional development and the resources that you
use to do so!
0 EverNote: http://www.evernote.com
0 Toodledoo: http://www.toodledo.com/
0 Remember the Milk:
http://www.rememberthemilk.com/

35. Don’t be a freeloader
0 Chances are, you are an expert on some topic
0 How can you share your knowledge in a way that
might help develop others professionally?
0 Write, or co-write a blog or other type of publication
0 Create or contribute to a Delicious, Twitter, or
Facebook account
0 Facilitate a reading group or series of sessions
0 Write and distribute an internal “newsletter”on
relevant issues or topics
0 Create a collaborative site on Ning or with wiki
software for sharing ideas

36. Discussion
0 So, what’s your advice?
0 How do you manage your professional development?
What online tools do you use that you’d like to share?
And now, your ideas:
0 http://tinyurl.com/sharingresources

37. Questions?
Thank you!
Rebecca K. Miller
millerrk@vt.edu
www.rebeccakatemiller.com