Thing # 3

It's embarrassing to admit, but PLN's are something that I do a terrible job keeping up on. Well, at least technology wise. I keep up on my professional journals, collaborate with other librarians, attend workshops, talk with colleagues, but I can't seem to get in the habit of tapping into all the great PLN's on the Internet. I do take webinars and this class but not much more.

The last time I took one of Polly's classes I tried twitter. I was instantly intrigued and tried all of the hash tags she recommended, but I really couldn't figure out how to tweet (I know it's basic, but for some reason I struggled and still do). Then to be honest I never went back and checked it out. So for the sake of this assignment and to build my PLN I decided to give it one more try. I have to say I still feel uncomfortable with and have no idea what I am really doing. I am not sure why this is. I think if I just keep going back to it then I will become more comfortable and hopefully catch on. So, I added the App to my phone so it would be readily available to me. That way when I am bored in the doctors office I can check it.

When I was exploring on my twitter page, I didn't create my own tweet, but I did retweet one new tech tool I learned, which I am sharing here http://oedb.org/ilibrarian/10-cool-ways-libraries-can-use-vine/ (an App for creating 6 second video clips) and I retweeted a cute idea for the library. Maybe you guys could follow me. It would be fun to have a follower! I can't promise I will tweet much myself, but I will keep retweeting. If you are looking for people to follow I highly recommend Shannon Miller. She shares a lot of great resources!

I tried to check out Google Reader for my second PLN, but it has been discontinued. For some reason I have no interest in joining LinkedIn and I really don't want to start too mant PLN's because there is no way I will be able to maintain them. So, I decided to build upon my fb account and expand upon my professional "friends". I joined the NYLA group, which will be great for staying updated on things going on here in NY. From what I could tell there are lots of posting for jobs, but a lot of great resource sharing as well. I joined Children's Literature Connection and at first was a little hesitant because there seemed to be a lot of posts with pictures, but then I dug back into previous posts and found some good information about upcoming conferences and book titles I was interested in. I also liked the ALA page but as far as I could tell it wasn't an open page so I don't think that I could join it??? They had a lot of great information on it though. The New York State Reading Association was a group I joined within the last few weeks and I have to say I have already received great resources from things that have been shared. If anyone hasn't joined that group I would highly recommend it.

I am happy to say that after spending a few hours playing around with twitter and fb I am excited. I know for sure that fb is going to be great for me. I am on everyday and it is is natural to my daily routine. I am not sure why I didn't think to tap into this resource sooner. As for Twitter, I am going to make it my mission to stick with it for a month. Hopefully, that will give me enough time to feel comfortable with it. Who knows maybe I will be creating my own tweets by then.

I look forward to reading all of your posts and hopefully I can start following some of you!