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Keeping Current As a New Professional
by Céline Carty
When I was in library school, I regularly read the professional literature and latest research, subscribed to mailing lists, attended lectures and discussed major issues in class. My professors and classmates acted as a support system that helped me keep current with professional issues.
When I graduated and got my first professional post (with all the responsibilities and pressures that entailed) I realized that keeping current was going to require a lot more self-motivation. Some weeks, it can be a challenge to keep current with grocery shopping and laundry -- never mind anything else!
This year, however, I enrolled as a candidate for chartership of the UK Library Association (a post-MLIS certificate of professional development). One of the requirements of chartership is maintaining a broad overview of current professional issues and of legislation affecting libraries, which forced me to examine how to keep current as a new professional. In the process, I discovered that there are some excellent online resources for the new (or not-so-new!) librarian with a busy schedule.
A Helping Hand
Librarians are helpful people. It's in their blood -- they want to share information. It is not surprising, therefore, that there is a vibrant, active library "community" on the web. The most dynamic area of growth is in library-related weblogs (or 'blogs): regularly updated logs of links to interesting, useful, quirky or fun sites, stories and articles.
Two recent articles, Walt Crawford's 3-part "E-Files" (American Libraries, Oct., Nov. and Dec. 2001) and Marylaine Block's "Communicating Off the Page" (Library Journal, September 15 2001), describe weblogs in more detail, providing links to many of the best. Weblogs have the advantage of being up-to-the-minute, often updated daily, if not more frequently. Also, each has its own character or focus, so there is something there to suit everyone's interests. They are the perfect current awareness service.
One of the reasons I like weblogs is the element of serendipity: I never know quite what I'm going to find there. The specific interests or enthusiasms of the blogger can lead me to things I would never intentionally have sought out. Weblogs also mix serious, academic resources with informal, humorous ones. They have proved an excellent way to maintain a real breadth in my awareness of library news and issues.
Keeping Afloat While Keeping Current
When I first entered this online library universe, I was quickly overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information. I got carried away, following link after link until I had hundreds of pages bookmarked and a pile of unfinished work building up on my desk. I had to develop a strategy that would make current awareness work for me. Every person has to find his or her own way of managing time, and I am certainly no expert. Here, however, are a few tips on how to fit current awareness into a busy schedule -- based on my experience as a new professional.
First, and most importantly, accept that you cannot do it all. There is simply too much out there for one person to keep up with everything. This is the beauty of weblogs, since they allow others to do a lot of the hard work for you. It also applies to the best mailing lists, which can be a real treasure trove of useful information -- as long as they don't swamp you with irrelevant mail. I have kept my list subscriptions to a minimum: Autocat (heavy traffic, but an essential resource for catalogers) and Newlib-l (an excellent list for new professionals, with moderate traffic).
If you have to be selective, then it makes sense to select those sources or sites that you like the most. This will make them much more enjoyable to visit regularly. You can afford to skip those sites that you find badly designed, whose tone you find dull or whose font size is too small. I drew up a shortlist of my favorite five sites and put them on my "to-do" list. Each morning, after checking my e-mail, I take 5-10 minutes to visit all of these sites and explore what's new. This means I can choose whether or not to follow interesting links, depending on how much time I have that particular day.
From time to time, I find it useful to revert to "old school" tactics and print out an article from the web to read during my coffee break, over lunch or even in bed. It is not something I would want to do every day, but once in a while it's a great way to keep up-to-date with reading. Also, setting a realistic goal -- "I will read this one article" -- leads to a greater sense of achievement than keeping a huge folder of "things to read" that you never get around to.
This leads to another important tip: be ruthless. If you don't get to something by the end of the week, then trash it. When in doubt, trash it. Clear out your bookmarks periodically and delete anything that you have not used in the past month.
What Are You Waiting For?
The best advice I can give, though, is to get online and explore current awareness resources for yourself. There is no room here for an exhaustive set of links, but the articles mentioned above provide a good starting point. [Ed.: see "Recommended Resources" and "Online Tools To Help You Stay Current" in this issue for additional links.] With minimal exploration, you should be able to construct a tailor-made set of resources that will keep you current on the areas of library and information work that you find particularly interesting. It takes very little time out of your day and offers great rewards.
I am probably more current with professional issues now than I was as a library student, and, perhaps most importantly, I have extended my network of colleagues through the online library community. If only the other requirements of chartership were as much fun to fulfill!
Céline Carty graduated from library school in the UK in 2000 and promptly headed for the sunshine, getting a job as a cataloger at Stanford University. She also enjoys contributing stories to LISNews. Her "to-do" list is currently comprised of LISNews, NewBreed Librarian, library_geek, Librarian.net and Ex Libris.