cpd23: Things 10, 11, and 12
If I’m really going to catch up on the Continuing Professional Development 23 Things, cpd23, during this reflection week, then I’d better hop to it. The next Thing shows up tomorrow.
I’m going to ignore Thing 10 – Graduate traineeships, Masters Degrees, Chartership, Accreditation which is mostly about advancement for librarians in the UK. I could translate it to the US experience or, if I were feeling really creative, to book blogging or writing, but since I’m feeling rather behind on this, I think skipping it is the best bet.
Next up, Thing 11: Mentoring. I’m not very inclined at this stage of life or in the midst of an ill-defined career transition to seek out formal mentors. However, I love the informal kind and find myself making good use of models in both the blogging world and the book-writing world. Some of these people wouldn’t know me from Eve, others would be flabbergasted to know that I am emulating them. I’ve discovered in the last few years that it can be really helpful to pay attention to the twenty-something set especially in the area of establishing an on-line persona. They communicate comfortably and naturally, have that profersonal thing down pat, and accomplish an astounding amount of creative work while also holding down full-time jobs and/or going to school and/or tending small children. So, don’t forget to look down the age range as well as up for potential mentors, especially as the Net Generation grows into adulthood. Perhaps there are opportunities for mutual mentoring across the generations. You tell me when I come across too square in digital media and I’ll tell you the secret to a happy marriage (celebrating our 20th anniversary later this year).
This week was about reflection, but came with a long and interesting piece to reflect upon Thing 12 – Putting the social into social media. There’s some good material there about why and how to build a social network for career development. The homework is to add at least one new contact. I’m going to mine the #cpd23 tag on Twitter to find someone. And the winner is Nicole Brock, a new librarian who had a fascinating path to librarianship described in her Thing 10 post, Information Problems vs. Emotion Problems – Or, Why I Became a Librarian. She shares with me a passion for learning and an appreciation for librarianship as a career where you get paid to learn. And, she is in Indianapolis, a place I’m holding close in my heart today since many of my cousins and more distant relatives have spent lots of rewarding hours at the State Fair there over the years. I’m adding Nicole’s blog, Odd Librarian Out (cool name), to my Google Reader and following her on Twitter.