TechEssence.info

On my other blog, Information Wants to Be Free, I recently wrote about what library school doesn’t (but should) teach students to prepare them for 21st century librarianship. One of the things I brought up was the importance of keeping up with new technologies and developments in our field and related fields.

Keeping up with new technology is often not an explicitly listed part of one’s basic weekly job duties, but its importance can’t be stressed enough. Five years ago, few people were talking about blogs and IM in libraries, but now so many libraries are using these tools to provide services to patrons. We need to be able to keep up with what’s new in technology and what libraries are (or could be) doing with it. And we need to be able to keep up in the shortest time possible because we are busy.

Our field is changing at an almost bewildering speed. Libraries all over the world are coming up with new technologies, new ways to adapt technologies for libraries, and new ways to provide services to patrons every day. The knowledge we came out of library school with is not enough to keep up with changing technologies and changing patron populations. We have to continue to learn, to grow, to expand our views of libraries and technologies. Learning should happen every day, every week, and every year that we are on the job. And it should be encouraged by administrators as an integral part of our work.

Learning doesn’t have to cost a fortune. You don’t have to go back to school to learn about OPACs or social software. You don’t have to attend expensive conferences or pay lots of money for expensive Webinars. There are plenty of ways that you can keep up with the profession without spending any additional money. Here are just a few:

Professional Literature: There are dozens of excellent scholarly and trade journals in library science, technology, education, and other related fields that would benefit librarians. If your library doesn’t subscribe to professional journals in print, you might be able to find them in the databases your library subscribes to for patrons. There are many journals freely available online that would benefit librarians such as Ariadne, D-Lib, College and Research Libraries, Cites and Insights, Library Journal, School Library Journal and Educause Review. In addition, some librarians place copies of professional articles they’ve written in repositories such as DLIST and E-LIS.

Blogs: Chances are good that if you are reading this, you already know that blogs can be excellent learning tools for librarians. While some blogs are written primarily for entertainment purposes, there are many professional library blogs (like this one!) that exist to inform readers about developments in the profession. Bloggers act as filters, highlighting the best information out there so that you don’t have to scour the literature yourself. Bloggers often try out new technologies and report on them as well, saving you the time and effort of trying every new thing that comes out. The nice thing about blogs is that there is no editorial delay. Bloggers can report on events or information as they hear about it. With professional literature, you may hear about interesting technologies, ideas or trends months after they first came on the scene. While my colleague was really excited about what NCSU had done with their catalog after reading what Roy had written in Library Journal last month, I had known about it for more than six months because people blogged about it. With library blogs too, you can often comment or ask questions on people’s blogs, allowing you to become part of the professional dialogue. In addition to library blogs, there are many blogs in education and technology that would also be useful to librarians’ continuing education.

Listservs and other online communities: I know library blogger Steven Cohen would say that listservs are so 5 minutes ago, but when I have a library-related question that I and my colleagues can’t easily answer, that is the first place I think to ask it. Online communities, like listservs and forums, exist to benefit their members. When someone asks a question in an online community, they benefit from the collective knowledge of its members. Each person helps others with the expectation that when they need help, they can expect the same from other members. There are library listservs on every topic and for every library sub-culture imaginable, so find the ones that best meet your needs and subscribe. But be judicious about those you subscribe to or you may risk being inundated with listserv messages in your Inbox.

Webcasts: Online learning has become quite popular over the past few years for its convenience and cost-effectiveness. While librarians used to have to pay to virtually attend Webcasts (online synchronous presentations incorporating audio, video, and interaction between presenter and attendees), there are a growing number of organizations that are offering free access to Webcasts. Most of these free opportunities allow users to interact in real-time with notable speakers in the field. Others only offer an archive of past Webcasts for free, but still these are quite valuable for people trying to learn about the subject covered. While many of these e-learning opportunities may not be as structured as the for-pay classes, they offer valuable knowledge at a price anyone can afford. Providers of free Webcasts (either live or archived) include OPAL, the SirsiDynix Institute, the Blended Librarian community, and InfoPeople.

Podcasts: Most librarians have some sort of a commute to get to work. What if you could get your daily dose of professional development while riding the train or driving to work? Podcasts are an excellent and convenient tool for learning and are particularly useful for auditory learners. A podcast is an audio broadcast that is syndicated so that users can subscribe to the content and play it on any media player capable of playing MP3s. Therefore, you can download a podcast to your iPod or burn it to a CD and listen to it on your commute. Unfortunately, few librarians are using podcasts, as they do blogs, to inform and educate their colleagues. Podcasts relevant to librarians include IT Conversations, Open Stacks, and Talking with Talis. OPAL and the SirsiDynix Institute also make their Webcasts available in podcast format.

Here’s how you can encourage continuing education in your library without breaking the bank:

• Give librarians time during work to attend Webcasts. Most Webcasts are scheduled during the work week. Just as you would give an employee time during the work week to attend a talk outside of the library, you should give them time to attend Webcasts.
• Make Webcasts a real event at your library. Invite colleagues to the library’s meeting room and set up a computer, projector and speakers so that a group of people can take part in the Webcast and can discuss what they learned afterwards. Talk about economical!
• Subscribe to professional journals and give librarians time during work to read them. So many times I have wanted to read the professional literature I had piling up on my desk, but I feel like a slacker sitting and reading when I could be doing a million other things. Learning is just as valuable as anything else we do because it gives us new ideas that we can implement in our library.
• Have monthly professional development meetings. These events can include talks by people in the library, people from other local libraries or people in the community who discuss issues that affect the library. These can be held during lunch or during a time when the library isn’t usually too busy. At the University of Vermont, the librarians have monthly professional development meetings where they either have staff give presentations or invite someone from outside of the University. In September, I’ll be speaking to them about social software. Fun!
• Have a yearly professional development event with notable speakers in the library field. Many libraries already do this, like the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County and the Dartmouth Biomedical Library.
• At staff meetings, set aside some time to discuss interesting articles colleagues have read or interesting developments in the library/technology world. Or, better yet, spearhead a group that discusses articles in the professional literature. Since we all can’t read everything out there, it would be great for people to share some of the articles and ideas they found particularly interesting.

Administrators should encourage all employees to continue developing their skills and knowledge in this rapidly changing field. It should be just as much a part of our job as attending meetings, serving on committees, and other basic responsibilities.