From Deborah L. Lauseng, 2009 Midwest Chapter President
Health Sciences Libraries, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Are you excited about the prospect of sandy beaches, brilliant sunrises and tropical flowers? Or are you thankful for spring in the Midwest and saving your travel funds for the chapter meeting in Columbus? Regardless of whether you'll be landing in Honolulu soon or waiting to see colleagues across the region in October, the opportunities for staying informed abound. We have the MLA News, MLA Connections, MIDLINE, ConnectMidwest, state organizations, topical blogs... and the list continues. How do you stay connected? How do you sort through all the information coming at you? What technologies do you use to stay informed? Sometimes it all seems overwhelming.
This last week is a good example of the deluge of information and the use of social technologies as librarians worked quickly to distribute key emergency planning resources in light of the H1N1 swine flu. Our colleagues, and maybe even you yourself, worked with iGoogle tabs, Delicious tagging, wikis, blogs, widgets and more to share timely and vital information. Not only was the topic of interest, the use of technology was fascinating.
At the spring board meeting, we tried out Dimdim as a web-conferencing tool with video and audio options plus desktop and document sharing. The MLA Board has also experimented with video conferencing . These alternative meeting tools are likely to be integrated into how we conduct business from here on out. How do we go about learning these tools beyond "knowing about" them?
Some of us are using Camtasia and Captivate to convert our face-to-face instructional content so our users can learn the basics of Endnote in the middle of the night, for example. Still others in our profession have figured out that creating a quick Jing video is an easier method of answering a how-to question than explaining the step-by-step process over the phone. This is not to mention all the uses of sharing documents and calendars that Google offers. There are numerous technologies to learn and potentials for incorporating them into all we do. How do we, I, stay on top of it all?
Time and learning are the keys. And permission! Whose permission, you ask? Our own, I reply. We actively promote new resources and tools to our users; we spend time showing them betters ways to pull information together and stay current. But do we really take time to equip ourselves with the experience of new technologies and tools? Yes, some of us do. Others of us just briefly scratch the surface. We need to give ourselves permission and time to really explore and learn. How many of you participated in MLA's Dig Deeper with Social Media free CE sessions? How many of you completed the sessions you signed up for? I'll be honest: my goal was to do all four sessions. In the end, I only completed one. I had good intentions but did not give myself permission to take the time to complete the other three sessions. Even in the midst of other deadlines, I did not block out dedicated time. Do you sometimes have the same problem?
I encourage each of you over the next three months to take time to participate in a CE course even if it isn't technology-based or take three to four hours to explore a new technology or even one that has been around awhile that have yet to really learn. Delicious and Google Calendar are on my list. Give yourself time to be informed; give yourself permission to be equipped. Then put that new skill into practice benefiting yourself, your colleagues and potentially your users. And should you be one that quickly picks up and uses new technologies, thank you for patiently sharing and teaching the rest of us! Staying informed also means staying equipped.