While I was completing my professional placement in a public library, a primary school-aged child came to see me at the circulation desk and asked whether we had any Harry Potter books. “It looks like they are all out on loan at the moment,” I replied. “Would you like me to reserve one for you?”
They sighed and, while turning away, said, “No, I just wanted to look at one now.”
Later, I reflected that this would have been the ideal opportunity for me to find something else that they would have enjoyed browsing through while waiting for their parents to choose books. However, it has been a long time since I was in primary school and knew which children’s books were popular; indeed, it seems that the more that I learn about the information profession, the more inadequacies in myself I discover. I find the diversity of needs within the children and young adult user group to be particularly challenging. This sentiment is expressed by many recent graduates, who feel ill-prepared to meet the gap between their level of training and what is expected of them (Luo & Hostetler, 2020).
The Australian Library and Information Association (2019) states that to be able to anticipate and meet the needs of users, which are constantly changing, information professionals must engage in relevant and varied professional learning. That said, access to professional development opportunities may be limited due to geography and lack of funding (Luo & Hostetler, 2020). In my own case, time is a major limiting factor due to caring responsibilities. My understanding of what constitutes professional development has changed over the course of this session; the process of producing a professional development blog has shown me that I can engage in professional learning outside of a formal setting. The last stage in the Framework of Skills for Inquiry Learning (FOSIL) is Reflect, whereby students assess their successes and challenges and consider what they want to learn next (FOSIL Group, n.d.). Similarly, professional blogging forces you to articulate your ideas and helps you to identify their strengths and weaknesses (Barnes, 2016). Indeed, there is growing recognition of social media – including blogs – as a valuable tool for professional development (Luo & Hostetler, 2020).
I felt that one disadvantage of blogging was the lack of immediate engagement with colleagues. Although blogging can generate valuable feedback from readers (Barnes, 2016), this depends on people being aware of the blog and having the time to respond. Of course, this may change towards the end of the session when students enrolled in this unit have more time to comment on each other’s blog posts. Going forward, I plan to connect with other information professionals via social media to share knowledge about working with children and young adults.
Featured image “A suited businesswoman working on her laptop indoors with a teapot by side” by shixart1985 is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
References
Australian Library and Information Association. (2019). Professional development for library and information professionals. https://read.alia.org.au/file/1261/download?token=gVKFHGkA
Barnes, N. (2016, September 19). How I blog for personal professional development: You can do it too. EduResearch Matters. https://www.aare.edu.au/blog/?p=1770
FOSIL Group. (n.d.). Reflect: Evaluating how you have worked and what you have produced. https://fosil.org.uk/fosil-cycle/reflect/
Luo, T. & Hostetler, K. (2020). Making professional development more social: A systematic review of librarians’ professional development through social media. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 46(5), 102193. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2020.102193