For Self-learning Librarians

Legal or corporate, medical or special, academic or public . . .If there's one thing that unites all librarians, it is our passion for lifelong learning.
And that is why Self Made Scholar, at http://selfmadescholar.com/b/ is one of my favorite destinations on the Web. The bibliography on lifelong learning is extensive, as are the lists of hyperlinks to free courses, free books, and learning communities.

Innovation Watch

As librarians, we are often called upon to keep up with the accelerating pace of business, cultural, and technological innovation. David Forrest has come to the rescue with Innovation Watch. Innovation Watch is one of my favorite websites, because Forrest's collection of book reviews, articles, blogs and other resources is a treasure trove of information on the most creative innovations and innovators of our era. The website is http://innovationwatch.com

Networking Event

On October 20, 2009, I attended a presentation by Liz Lynch of the Center for Networking Excellence. She has some great ideas for successful job hunting in this challenging economic environment. The key qualities for success that she cites are: be creative, be resourceful, and be persistent. As an underemployed job hunter in search of a full time position, I have had to draw on each of these qualities to move from being unemployed to underemployed. Now, I'm drawing on Liz Lynch's expertise in my quest for a full-time job.

Her top three strategies for networking success are: using LinkedIn, raising your profile online by starting a blog and commenting on other professional blogs, and building reciprocal relationships through conversations that convey your interest in helping the other person; as well as exploring how she may be of help to you. As a novice blogger, I especially appreciated her suggestion to start out by finding interesting items to blog about and by writing two or three sentences about them. Although some of my blog postings are longer now, starting with two or three sentences helped me to overcome my fear that blogging would be too overwhelming a task to pursue in addition to other job seeking strategies. In her 180 page book, Smart Networking: Attract a Following in Person and Online,

(New York: The McGraw Hill Companies, 2009)
she covers blogging and social networking in great detail. Her section on blog content, "A Baker's Dozen of Content Sources and Ideas," features 13 ideas for bloggers who are looking for new strategies.

Although some of her suggestions are more relevant to well-established business owners who are expanding their range of contacts than to unemployed job seekers, she provides workable suggestions for job seekers as well. The book includes a bibliography, and there are two sources that have especially sparked my interest:

Alba, Jason. I'm on LinkedIn--Now What???: A Guide to Getting the Most OUT of LinkedIn (Cuperton, CA:Happy About,2007)

Leeds, Dorothy. The 7 Powers of Questions: Secrets to Successful Communication in Life and at Work (New York: Perigee Trade, 2000)

Liz Lynch's Center for Networking Excellence website includes videos, a blog, and other resources to help you refine your networking skills. Her networking quiz will help you to evaluate your current level of networking competence and point to directions for further development.
 http://www.networkingexcellence.com/

National Forum on Information Literacy

Information literacy is getting the high level of attention it deserves at the National Forum on Information Literacy:
http://www.infolit.org

Mystified by Metadata?

The University of Queensland has "An Introduction to Metadata" that explains metadata schemas at: http://www.library.uq.edu.au/iad/ctmetar.html

Panoramic Visions

The International Telecommunications Union highlights the global dimensions of information policy with its project on "Visions of the Information Society" at: http://www.itu.int/osg/spu/visions

Planning Your Escape

Some people work inside of Corporate America, some people work outside of Corporate America, and some people wonder which option is right for them. Escape from Corporate America: A Practical Guide to Creating the Career of Your Dreams, by Pamela Skillings has something to offer anyone with a creative approach to career development. Her website is at: http://www.escapefromcorporate.com