Ten Ways To Keep Learning

Professional development and continuing education are two of the most often repeated terms I hear on the lips of library technicians. Regardless of the type of library or information centre in which we work, sharp skills and fresh knowledge are the coin of our profession. Our careers require that we continue learning – and it is a passion for learning that brought many of us to the jobs we now work.
I am a huge fan of self-led learning, and I think that ultimately all learning we engage in is by necessity self-led. So I have compiled a list of 10 things (tools, resources and strategies) that have been meaningful and useful to me as I continue to learn beyond my technician’s diploma. I’m sure some of them will be familiar to you, but hopefully some of them will be useful also. Explore them at your own leisure.

Twitter

I love Twitter. It’s a marriage of Facebook’s status updates with the abbreviated news feature of RSS feeds. Here I get my most interesting library news links alongside hilarious personal updates from friends and colleagues. If you are looking for a library-related foothold to get a grip on Twitter, Bobbi Newman (aka @librarianbyday) runs the Library Day in the Life project twice annually. Read up on it at the library day in the life wiki and check out the Twitter profiles of past participants.

CBC’s Spark Podcast

Spark is the finest technology and culture podcast online. It’s also Canadian! If you haven’t already tuned in then now is the time: cbc.ca/spark/ . If you want a starting point, check out The Future of Public Library Design featuring Gerry Meek of the Calgary Public Library. Over the summer they run full-length interviews from the previous year, so try loading up the mp3 player with some of the shows and their complimentary full-length interviews.

Inbox Zero

You wouldn’t leave your fridge full of expired food, so stop littering your inbox with little email corpses. Consider how much time and mental energy go into wading through an inbox with 534 emails. Go check out Merlin Mann over at 43 folders, where you will be illuminated you on why and how you need to clear your inbox. Productivity? It starts right here.

Blogging

We take in an alarming amount of new information daily. Newspapers, RSS feeds, articles our colleagues send us, email newsletters, 20 new tweets a minute… and most of us take in far more than we put out. Writing is a great way to filter all this new input. You don’t have to sum up the internet – just pick a thread you are interested in and write about it. The best way to deepen your own understanding is by explaining to others, and what better way to make sense of all this new input? Start a blog and take back the internet!

TechSoup for Libraries

TechSoup for Libraries is a wonderful little portal to self-guided learning and professional development: Profiles of libraries, projects, and the people who make it all happen, and access to webinars and online courses. A lot of the webinars are links to others’ content (e.g., ALA webinars), but it is immensely helpful to have a go-to place to help with the reminders. They are also FREE! Follow TechSoup for Libraries on Twitter for even more convenient delivery.

Continuing Education for Library Technicians

My alma mater, the University of the Fraser Valley, is offering a series of short credit courses that build towards a post-diploma certificate for library technicians. Ongoing professional development is on the top of the wish list for most of the techs I know, and this is a great opportunity to learn with other Canadian library techs in a structured setting. Regardless which province you call home, you can find out more about the classes at the website.

TED Talks

The TED Talks website is a great conference-away-from-conference tool which brings together three great joys for me: Intelligent commentary, audio delivery, and professional speakers. The intelligent commentary piece is something I get also from blogs, periodicals, and books, but TED Talks gives it to me in audio. I love audio narration – it frees up my hands for cooking dinner or filing papers, and I’m then able to take in some professional development time while getting real world stuff done. The third bonus is watching competent and professional speakers do their thing: Learning what works, what doesn’t, and various presentation tricks. It’s a good study in public speaking – a skill we all need sooner or later.

Newsletters

There are not enough opportunities to step away from the computer, and my local library association’s newsletter grants a beautiful respite from the fast pace of the internet. I think most of us in libraries and information intuitively understand the value of print. To quote McLuhan, the medium is the message, and the comparatively slower pace of print’s delivery gives our brains and bodies a rest from all the electronics. Print can still go places with us we would never take our ereaders and iPhones, and the newsletter lets you connect with your colleagues and association without wireless.

Play

My favourite way to keep current with new sites, software and technologies is to make or fake a project. Projects are how I play with technology – finding some excuse to use the technology so I can navigate my way around in a low-stakes circumstance. When I first heard about wikis I kept watch for any project or collaboration I could justify wikifying until something came along. Make an account on LibraryThing, or a profile on LinkedIn and see how you like it. Remember, you don’t have to show anyone until you want to.

Be Willing To Say Goodbye

Not every new technology is worth the effort. Some of my library mentors value tools I can’t be bothered with. Remember that learning is not one-size-fits-all, and you get to throw away the junk that doesn’t work for you. This list is my list, and it works for me. Maybe you will find a passion instead for Second Life library services. Whatever it is, enjoy it.

And Tara, if you’re out there: I’m sorry I never liked Zotoro.

misconception 1: “it must be great to work at the library. don’t you just sit around and read books all day?”

this week i worked 29 hours, during which time i:

answered approximately 80 reference and information questions,

this includes things like teaching ipad users to access ebooks through the library, helping readers of all ages find novels they will enjoy, researching information on the valley light rail proposal, explaining how to assess a website for authority, and, of course, pointing out the bathroom.

interacted with approximately 200 kids coming in for summer reading club,

that means a friendly talk, encouraging words about their reading, excitement about which sticker they are picking next, and even posing for a photo with one of the colouring contest winners.

developed and delivered a half-hour family storytime program,

that means finding new books we haven’t read recently and which are appropriate for storytime, writing up and presenting a fractured version of the billy goats gruff with puppets, tying the stories and activities back into literacy skills and kindergarten readiness, and then controlling a room of 50 kids for half an hour.

and i also organised for a mad science event, did printer troubleshooting, kept track of statistics, made new signage for the world languages collection, reordered hundreds of books (“shelf reading”), and shifted the entire picture book collection (more than 1000 books). not to mention the countless other mundanities of any job (i.e., email).

yes, it is great to work at the library. no, i don’t get to sit around reading all day. most of what i read is for work, and i often do that in my own, unpaid, time.

misconception 2: “you went to school for this? really?!?”

to be a librarian you need to have a master’s degree in library and/or information science. i am a library technician; i went to university for two years and dropped about $12,000 just on tuition and books for the privilege of my job. i was taught classification and cataloguing so i can retrieve the books you come looking for, i took computer science courses to be proficient enough in technology to deal with ILS software (which runs the library) and so i can teach you computers and tech, and i studied ‘the reference interview’ so i could help you find what you are looking for. in addition to this i took classes in children’s literature and literacy so i can help your children prepare to learn to read — which will help determine how successful they will be in life.

the point here is not just that i went to school for this job, but that i devoted a full-time 24 months to preparing myself to start this job. i am constantly learning new things so i can better help you. check out some of the other library day in a life bloggers, and read about the complex and widely various tasks we perform in the library — this isn’t the sort of work you can just ‘google’ into existence.

i suspect that those who comment on the obsolescence of libraries probably haven’t stepped into a library for quite some time. when i get asked, somewhat rhetorically, whether i don’t agree that libraries are a dead and unnecessary institution, i feel like asking whether the internet also made doctors unnecessary since we now have Web MD? watching MIT lectures online doesn’t make me a physicist anymore than Web MD makes you a doctor.

libraries don’t claim to be the world of knowledge and information — that is just another misconception. libraries, and library workers, are here to help you learn to access and navigate your own way in the world of information. and really, if google is so smart then how come i am still helping 20+ people a day in my one branch, and at my one desk?

the libday project is now in it’s seventh round(!), but i was first clued in back in january 2010 for round four. i’ve kept up on twitter with the other rounds, and even managed to squeeze in a post for round five, but libday seven comes at an auspiscious time for me and i wanted to grab hold.

next week, at the beginning of august, i start my first full-time permanent position. it’s a big deal! while the hours are more than i would like, i am pretty excited that i will be working in a brand new and beautiful library, doing youth services, working with amazing colleagues, and serving a lively, urban centre! there is a lot that is still undefined since so much is so new, but it’s going to keep me busy learning and working (which i what i like) and i intend to make the job my own.

back to the present — this libday week is the eve of a new chapter for my daily work life. currently i’m hip-deep in summer reading club. i have been covering a month in one of the smaller branches in the system, and this usually-sleepy branch has been transformed into a whirlwind of activity. i’ve been run off my feet for most of july to the point where patrons are apologising (no! don’t apologise!) for asking me questions. yesterday (monday) featured a brief medical emergency when one of our pages fell unconscious while shelving picture books, a heartbreaking four year old who had been terrified into believing she may be banned from the library for loosing a book (no! it’s fine! it happens to us all!), a colouring contest winner so excited it actually brought me to tears, and then the usual bunch of eclectic crazies who make up ‘the public’ (i would count myself here too).

tonight (tuesday) i’m working the evening shift from 1.30-9.00, but my morning is still library-filled. in about 15 minutes i’m teleconferencing into a mentoring working group meeting with some other bcla‘ers. aside this, i’m halfway through a report for the technicians’ and assistants’ sub-group of association — the results of which will determine positions for election at our october agm. yes, i do get away from ‘the library’ sometimes — but not much.

i intend to check back in here during the week — as well as cram in some tasty reading of other libday bloggers — but in the meantime i’ll be on twitter following the hashtag.