From looking at Utecht’s 5 stages of PLN adoption I think I am currently in the Immersion stage of climbing this mountain. I feel at this stage in my career as a library technician I haven’t embraced the community as much as I should be doing. By choosing to start this course to become a qualified librarian it has got me thinking that with the few years I have left in this position how can I get the most out of it. Coming from a workplace where I am the only library technician, I haven’t had the opportunity to learn and develop my skills from people at the same level as me.
A key aspect for developing a PLN seems to be joining groups and associations where you can lean, meet up and extend your knowledge base. The driving factor behind all of that is having an online presence combined with face to face meetings. Miriam Clifford outlines in her article 20 Tips for Creating a Professional Learning Network that in this day and age networking is the key to unlocking global learning potential. She provides good tips and tools that you can use to start to develop a base of your network. Collaboration of any kind is important in the workplace today and as I am in a position where those opportunities are limited, I need to think of ways of how I can bring those to me.
As PLN stands for Personal Learning Network, it is up to me to be able to develop a network in which can best benefit my knowledge and learning. Ultimately, we all have the same goal in furthering our own knowledge within our field and by developing this system around us it can amplify our learning. By writing this post it has made me aware that after nearly 5 years as a library technician it is time to start developing this network around me. There are so many opportunities that I could have been embracing but haven’t, so as a start I have joined a Facebook group for school librarians/library technicians and I have made the decision to join ALIA so I can connect with other people in my field.
Starting off small is the key but hopefully this will lead to a well-developed PLN in the coming future!
References
Clifford, M. (2013). 20 Tips for creating a professional learning network. In informED. Retrieved from https://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/features/20-tips-for-creating-a-professional-learning-network/
National Library of NZ
The National Library of New Zealand has quite an active feed, posting regularly a number of times most days. They post quite a variety of things from highlighting content that they offer within their collection, retweeting interesting things that are happening in libraries around the country, current news, New Zealand publishers…really anything that has to do literature, books and learning within New Zealand. The thing I like most about their feed is when they are highlighting their collection, they are posting about images they have. These are such a great thing to post about because it is giving people a snapshot into what life was like in the past. They post such diverse pictures like Swimming pool, Oasis Motel, Taupo, which depicts a summer in the 60s. But then they also post a watercolour image that was painted roughly around 1840 when an artist travelled to Ngamotu (New Plymouth).
Swimming pool https://natlib.govt.nz/records/23254325
Ngamotu (New Plymouth) https://natlib.govt.nz/records/23173901
What I also like about the NLNZ is that they retweet things that people will want to read and know about. They recently retweeted a tweet that provided a list of great new books that you can read over summer. Making this information available is so helpful to really any person that is looking at their feed because it gives people another tool to consult when they need something to read. But then they also are retweeting posts from clients of the library that mention them commending them on their new interlibrary loans process.
Their target audience is really anyone in New Zealand. They are providing information that anyone can use or be interested in, but I think their main goal is providing an online community around the library.
Across industries, social media is going from a “nice to have” to an essential component of any business strategy
Working within an independent school in a fairly affluent area is it common for all these sorts of schools to have a strong positive presence on social media. I know within my workplace there are 5 people working within the media coms department and a few more helping out down in marketing. Everything has to be approved and then blog posts from staff, news about upcoming events and reflections on present events are all posted on either Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Having this presence on these outlets can impact on whether or not someone chooses to send their child to our school. It may seem like a small thing, but parents take into consideration how often the school is posting and the content on which they are posting about. With the ability to rate and comment on the organisation on Facebook, these all add up to overall reputation of the school and can impact potential members of the school community.
Having these teams dedicate specific time on using and posting to these social networking sites is only becoming more important to the school. Its not longer word of mouth that is taken into consideration, but it is being able to see what kind of place the school is before you even see it in person.
Social media is changing how we govern and are governed
In recent years Twitter has become the platform for government officials to get across their views and support of certain things. I know the Twitter account for the City of Parramatta is very active about updating people in the community about not only events that are happening, e.g. the 60th anniversary for the library but also providing key information about what resident are entitled to and calling out for people views on certain issues. It is very important for local governments to be connected with their community and open about information. Looking through their Twitter feed it is clear that the community is being made aware on every major thing that is happening. In a tweet only 4 day ago they are calling out to the people who might be interested in joining the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Committee. This shows that they are willing to get the community involved in decisions that may have signification impact back on the community itself. This form of social networking provides openness and breaks down the lines in communication between the Councils and the people of the community and in turn it makes them more accountable as to what is happening and the services they provide.