Thing #5 - Reflective Practice

Twenty-three Things for Professional Development, has been an experience so far.  This crash course in updating myself with changing technologies is an excellent source of information.  I feel that in my field and in my position here at the library alot of tasks are dealt with trial and error.  Alot of my work here in the library is learning new technologies and then being able to apply them in the library or to teach them to others.

This program has definetely reminded me of things to work on like blogging, branding, and Twitter.  I really enjoyed the activity on branding, but I feel that this may involve several different attempts.  I agree with Deirdre when she blogs about thinking that reflection is easy.  It's not, but it definetely needs to done to assess your previous work and therefore to improve it.

Twitter has been my biggest challenge thus far.  I have been fighting with myself about the question of "is Twitter right for our library?".  Many librarians have noted that no it's not very useful.  Unless you have a ton of activites that are going to capture the attention of many followers it may not be right for you, but I am going to continue to make the effort of using Twitter as a marketing tool.  I am going to let everyone know about every possible detail of the library that I can get my hands on and make this work. 

Thing 4: Current Awareness-Twitter, RSS and Pushnote

Thing 4 has opened a new door for me....I have used RSS feeds, my business computer is not able to use a different browser, so Pushnote is out of the question for me, but I did create a Twitter Account!  I have always been a little sceptical of Twitter, because yes I believe it's all about everyone saying that they are walking to work, or they just woke up, or they just had a tuna sandwich for lunch.  I think I could spend my time a little more wisely, but I stepped outside of my box and created a Twitter account for our Library.  One thing I definetely didn't know, but I think is a great concept are the hashtags!  It can group all one common subject, and this is great.  i am going to keep using Twitter to get the full affect, but so far it's not bad!

Thing #3: Consider your personal brand

Aaaaaaaa, personal branding!  I love trying.......attempting to find myself on Google!  With a name like Sarah Brown, there are millions of us!  Sarah Joy Brown is an actress on General Hosptial, As the world Turns, Cold Case, Without a Trace......and the list goes on.  What a presence!  HAHA!  If I localize my search a little more to my hometown, I still come up with a 73 year old woman in my home town.  I am not 73 years old or anywhere near close to this age, but about the third one down is officially me!  It shows my position here at Northeast Community College Library and contact information.  Thumbs up to this!  The next thing that shows up is not my personal facebook page, but the very active facebook page which I have created for the Library, and last but not least my graduating highschool class alumi shows up.  Overall I think that my image online shows some wonderful achievements, but is very much in connection with a professional image.

I am not to keen about using a photograph online of myself, but I definetely see the positive side to doing so.  I really like the idea of branding myself in a way though.  Instead of posting pictures of myself all over the place, I need to stick with certain color schemes or a certain character like the penguin.  (very cute by the way)

Overall Great Thing #3 and always a good reminder to keep up on your own identity.

23 Things Week 1

Hi there,
I am so excited to be a part of this program!  I have been participating in Nebraska Learns 2.0 for about 9 months now and have definetly gotten a lot of great and fun ideas to use here in the library at Northeast Community College.  I am a library assistant at Northeast Community College  Library and absolutely love my job.  I hope to get more great and useful ideas out of the CPD23 Things, as I have from Nebraska Learns 2.0.  Hope to hear some great feedback and wonderful ideas from everyone.  :)