Comments on: Déformation Professionnelle

By: Hilary Davis

Hilary Davis — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 10:43:04 +0000

Good point, Emily. It's an uncomfortable thought, but my sense is that much of our professional development is going to be borne by ourselves. Most of us have already experienced the aftermath of reduced budgets and rejected travel support requests. Just yesterday, a bunch of us where I work pitched in our own funds to support a webinar that our library couldn't fund on our behalf. I think that creative justification for seeking funds to attend non-library conferences (in person or virtual), seeking external funding (conference scholarships/grants) and out-of-pocket expenses are what we're looking at. The 2009 Taiga Forum predicts this fate as well (see statement #1).

By: Emily Ford

Emily Ford — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 18:37:40 +0000

thanks so much for a great post, Hilary!
I was thinking about what you wrote and I wonder how much people are able to attend completely different professional development opportunities. For example, if a professional is employed by a large bureaucratic system that only allows professional development to happen within their field, how can one make the case to have to support to reach outside of what they know?

I am guessing this kind of situation would happen more in public libraries, but I don’t know. How can we urge for this kind development in seemingly inflexible environments?

While I’m sure you might not have the answer, I hope that someone could comment about it… what have the experiences been?

By: Hilary Davis

Hilary Davis — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 13:26:19 +0000

Thanks for your comments, Hana! You reminded me of another source that I use to keep up with things outside of library-land: Boy Genius Report. It's great for keeping up with the latest improvements, critiques and rumors of the mobile tech landscape (e.g., they reported on Monday that Verizon will be getting the iPhone) including Kindles and other devices that libraries have started integrating into their loan and collection programs.

By: Hilary Davis

Hilary Davis — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 13:19:52 +0000

Hi Steven – thanks for pointing out your work on this topic!

By: Hana

Hana — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 21:25:42 +0000

I keep my professional mind open by conversing with people who don’t work in libraries, by following people who don’t work in libraries on Twitter, and trying to think outside the square more often. Keeping an open mind to the possibilities is so important in any field of discipline, otherwise it’s like you’re talking to yourself in the dark… in a room full of mirrors…

By: Hilary Davis

Hilary Davis — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 12:07:01 +0000

Hi Miranda – Thanks for your comments! I realize that some of the alternate conference opportunities may have missed deadlines for this year, however in some cases there are videos of sessions posted online (or there will be soon). If I come across other similar opportunities, I’ll add them to the Comments for this post. Likewise, if you or others come across upcoming opportunities that sound intriguing, feel free to post them here too.

By: Veronica

Veronica — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 22:26:11 +0000

Nice post. Librarians tend to be a pretty insular bunch easily caught up in library-land trends and issues. Thanks for not only urging us to gain some perspective, but for giving us some practical suggestions and resources on how to do so.

By: Miranda

Miranda — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 16:48:20 +0000

Especially relevant post since some of my colleagues just got back from #sxsw. So jealous.
However, it’s too bad this post wasn’t published a couple days earlier, as readers would have been able to snag the THATcamp deadline. (Looks like I’ll have to postpone to a future year.) Thanks though for pointing us in a new professional direction.

By: Hilary Davis

Hilary Davis — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 02:08:48 +0000

Ellie – thanks for pointing to Kenley’s post. Lots of great ideas that seem so obviously useful – love the idea of photos to help match names with faces at conferences and the interactive conference scheduling tool where you can see who else is planning on attending a particular session, get notifications for changes in an event, send your schedule to Google Calendar, etc. Sooooo much better compared to the current online conference planner that SLA is running for the upcoming SLA conference in New Orleans in June.

By: Hilary Davis

Hilary Davis — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 01:57:23 +0000

Brett – thanks for sharing these great examples!