Thing 7: Face-to-face networks and professional organisations

This will be a short post! I’m a member of CILIP and I’ve joined LISNPN, but I’ve not used either of them for face to face networking.  As with online networks, I do wonder how people find the time to fit them in! Maybe I just need to be better organised! 

Another reason for my lack of networking is shyness, so it doesn’t come naturally to me: I admire the people who make it look easy!  However, I do feel that since graduating and beginning my new job that I am gaining in confidence, so perhaps in the future this will change! I get the impression from reading a few blogs that there are people out there who feel the same, so this does make me feel better about my lack of networking.  

Also, as I’m currently a library assistant rather than fully fledged librarian I do wonder if this networking and attending conferences lark is for me: I feel as if at this stage in my career I don’t have a lot to contribute and would be out of my depth. I know there must be some advantage to it, so I will have to make more of an effort – easier said than done though!

Thing 6: Online networks

Facebook used to be my social network of choice; although I still use it, I spend much more time on Twitter these days. However, this programme is inspiring me to explore alternatives, so here are my thoughts…

  

Linkedin

I signed up to this a while ago, but to be honest I’ve not used it and hadn’t added much to my profile. So last week I took another look and added some more information. However, I’m not sure how useful it will be: it seems to be primarily a self-promotion tool, and as I’m not looking for a job I can’t see its relevance.  Also, as I’m newly qualified, I don’t feel I have much in the way of specialities to add. Hopefully this will change… I have joined a couple of groups, and keep receiving lots of emails so I’m wondering if this will result in my having even more information that I can’t keep up to date with. As with so many of these social networks, I think I need time to gauge its usefulness, so for now I think I’ll reserve my judgement.

Facebook

I’ve used Facebook for a while.  In my opinion, it’s a more personal, social space and I don’t use it for professional networking. I use it to stay in touch with friends and share photos. However, I did find it helpful to stay in touch with other students while doing my MA.  As I studied by distance learning, it was a good way to see how everyone was doing.

LISNPN

I joined LISNPN earlier this year. I have found some of the resources useful, such as advice on interviews. Although I haven’t used it at all for networking, this is something I can see myself using much more in the future.

Librarians as Teachers network

I don’t teach in my job, so at the moment this isn’t really relevant to me.  However I may revisit it in the future.

CILIP communities

Although I’m a member of CILIP, I have to admit I didn’t know this existed! I haven’t had time to explore it fully yet, so I may go back to it at some point. 

Google+

I’ve recently joined, but I think for me it’s still early days.  It seems to be popular with librarians, so I think I’ll definitely keep my eye on this one.

I’ve come to the conclusion that there are too many networks out there and it’s impossible to keep up with them all. So I think for now I’m going to stick with Twitter and hope I’m not missing out on anything…