Personal Learning Network

For my Instructional Role of the Information Professional class we were to make a video about our Personal Learning Network as well as write a paper about it. My papers and video are below!

Online Professional Learning Network: 

Goals, Scope, Maintenance, In Action

Goal Statements

    Staying flexible and on top of current ideas in the library world is essential due to the drastically changing environments in which libraries exist. My professional learning network will include frequently updated digital resources as well as time honored digital resources of merit.  The learning I hope to accomplish with my professional learning network is three-fold: first and foremost the focus is young adults learning in the library. Teens are a complex mixture of adult and child, with their own set of unique needs from a public library. I will learn more about best practices for teaching teens and how teens interact with the public library environment through professional, peer reviewed journal articles as well as various audio-visual materials. Second, my professional learning network will help me stay up to the minute with library trends happening not just locally but outside my city too, especially in places with similar size and social environment as the one in which I will work. Finally, I have included resources for helping perfect my professional image and finding jobs.  The following four goals are what I hope to achieve with my PLN:

    (1) My PLN will provide not only ideas and guidance to better understand the learning needs of teenagers but also what teens need from the public library.

    (2) My PLN will promote my ability to network with other professionals across interactive online platforms, such as blogs, Twitter, and discussion boards to keep up with library trends and changes.

    (3) My PLN will allow me to peek into the lives of other libraries in similar cities to mine, to see what they are doing to serve their teens.

    (4) My PLN will help me develop professionally and keep my eyes on the job prize.

Defined Scope

    My hope is to attain a job as a public librarian at a New Orleans metro area library, specifically working with teens and/or children. This is why I am enrolled in the MSI program and working toward the Graduate Certificate in Youth Services as well. I also have an MFA in creative writing and a BA in English, so I hope that potential recruiters will recognize my strong work ethic and ability to succeed in degrees requiring intense reading and writing. There are two large library systems in the New Orleans metro area: New Orleans Public Library (NOPL) and Jefferson Parish Library (JPL). Previously, I have worked for JPL as a library associate one, but I left that job for a higher paying manager position at an academic library. I believe I left on good terms with JPL, and my former supervisors and administration would not be surprised I have attained my MSI and am looking to be a public librarian. NOPL is my other viable option. Serving my own community is very high on my wish list! 

    I know that the process of becoming a public servant can be long with many hurdles, so I am already keeping my eyes open on jobs available at both JPL and NOPL even though my graduation date is a year away. Due to my husband’s employment and the fact that we have a house with no mortgage, we are unwilling to relocate. I know this means I may have to be patient for job openings with JPL or NOPL to become available.

Resource Network

    Here is my Professional Learning Network via PearlTrees.com. In the past I have used Pinterest as a repository and resource for story time materials. For this assignment, I chose Pearl Trees over Pinterest because I believe it is neater and easier to use; Pearl Trees is also more accepting of a range of different types of materials and not so focused on images.

http://www.pearltrees.com/emilybufford

Maintenance Plan

Type of Maintenance

    I am not much of one for deleting materials; I never know when I might need an older resource. Rather, I will keep and grow this particular Pearl Tree for my teaching teens in the public library needs; as my needs change and morph, I will create new Pearl Trees to capture those new needs. I will create an “old materials” collection to keep out of date or no longer needed digital sources.

Current Maintenance

    For the current shape of the Pearl Tree, I will review the resources in the “Similar Libraries to Follow” and “Interactive Library Discussion” collections weekly. I will pay special attention to any blogs that may be abandoned. If the older blog posts are still available to read, those blogs will be moved out of their current category into another collection of “old materials.” If the blog and all its contents have completely been lost, the item will be deleted. Similarly, for Twitter hashtags that are no longer used or accounts that have been deleted, I will either move them to the “old materials” collection or delete them altogether if they are no longer accessible. Further, should any new digital materials like hashtags or blogs come into my line of sight, I shall add those to the appropriate collection.

    Developments in the world of library science and teaching theory do not come and go as fast as hashtags, but I will need to keep on top of current topics and trends in both those areas to add to my “Teens in the Public Library” and “Teaching Teens” journal article collections. This will be a monthly search of only the newest journal articles available through relevant databases to see if any new information has emerged on the topics of teens in the library or teaching teens. If new items are available, they will be added to the appropriate collection to be read and studied. I do not foresee deleting many journal articles from the collections unless a particular theory has been disproven or revoked.

Future Overhaul

    Once I attain a job in a public library (NOPL or JPL) I will move the “Professional Preparation” collection into the “old materials” collection as I will no longer be job searching. I will add a “Professional Development” collection to replace it. While I want to work with teens and/or children as a public librarian, there is no guarantee that will happen immediately in my future job. This is where flexibility in the face of change really comes into play; the best laid plans need updating. Rather than give up, I must simply shift my focus! Because of this, my entire Pearl Tree may need an overhaul once I attain my job. I may need to concentrate on other types of users or another kind of work altogether, which means my “Teaching Teens” and “Teens in the Public Library” collections may be moved to the “old materials” collection (to hopefully be saved and accessed at a later date). 

    Once I know what community I am working in, I would like to add a Pearl Tree collection to keep up with current affairs in that community; this may be neighborhood message boards, Facebook groups, local news tags, and other digital resources to keep me informed about the community in which I work. If I am working with teens and children, I could create a collection of the websites associated with nearby schools and their school libraries. I will also need to start using databases to research any new areas of work I may be involved in, like teaching digital literacy to older adults, cataloging, or building surveys of the users. Whatever my new work is, I need to collect and organize my digital resources with Pearl Trees.

PLN in Action

I have had a Twitter account for several years and primarily used it for library related activity in the past. My attendance at the ALA Annual Conference in 2016 inspired me to join library Twitter. However, once I left the library profession to birth my son in early 2018, I lost track of Twitter. This PLN assignment brought me back to library Twitter, and I was even able to find the Library Twitter Discord—Discord is a private message board system, with separate areas for specific topics (like Library School, School Librarians, Graphic Novels, etc). I still struggle with the fast pace of Twitter at times now, but I am learning and connecting with many librarians across this country right from my cellular phone. I would not have rejoined Twitter and realized its helpfulness in keeping up with library trends if it were not for my PLN.

My PLN is also helping to inform my work on the Lesson Plan assignment. In the “Audio-Visual Materials” collection I have a series of video lessons entitled “Teaching the Adolescent Brain.” I am able to access this series through FSU libraries, and I have found it enlightening about the science behind teen brains and how to best teach them. This series has made me think about how best to provide one shot classes to teens in a public library setting, which is the focus of my Lesson Plan assignment. I hope in the next years to be able to use this PLN much more once I am working as a librarian for teens and children.