Thing #51: Keeping up with RSS

I've been using RSS for a long time and really don't know if I could live without it. I really like how easy it makes it to track the blogs I like. I did set the new feed for NE Learns 2.0.

I find I use RSS more these days for tracking professional content related to my job. My tracking of personal interests has been migrating to Facebook "Likes".

We don't have anyone blogging at our library to set up as a RSS feed. We use Facebook.

Thing #49.5: Google+ Pages

I created a place page for Sump Memorial Library and added the NLC and ALA to its Following circle.

NE Learns 2.0 - Thing #49: Google+

I set up my Google+ account a while back. I do like it better than Facebook but very few of my Facebook friends are on Google+ and that's the problem. Google has got to come up with a much stronger incentive to get people to migrate from Facebook to Google+ than a slightly better  user experience. Also, Google is going to have to market the heck out of Google+ old school (TV, radio & print) in addition to the web and provide some kind of Facebook integration/migration tool to have any luck getting folks to switch. However, I'm not sure how Google+ can build such a tool when Facebook will obviously not allow it. I know I don't want to waste time maintaining two separate social networking interfaces that do the same thing and I'm sure most others don't want to either. I would like to see Google+ be a success, but I don't see that happening with the current state of things.

My Google+ profile is Andrew Sherman - Sump Memorial Library.

CPD23: Week 17 - Final reflection - What next?

I had enjoyed participating in this and even learned some new techie things. I think this has been my favorite Nebraska Learns activity so far. For me, "what's next" is to take what I've learned and continue to apply it going forward. I definitely have a lot more to learn of the library world and I hope this program, future job experiences and a MLS education will help to fill the gaps in my knowledge and make me a well rounded librarian.

CPD23: Week 16: Promoting yourself and Volunteering

The "capitalising on your interests" definitely resonated with me. I hated my corporate IT management job where every day was like a Dilbert cartoon. When I decided to get out, I pursed jobs in "beer" and "books" which are two things that I'm very passionate about. I got the "beer" job first and when that got dull I sought out the "book" job. I love my "book" job as the IT Coordinator at Sump Memorial Library. It has been very personally rewarding for me. I really enjoy helping our patrons with technology.

I sought a "book" job that required IT skills since that was my strength. When I interviewed, I made sure the interviewer knew that I wanted to learn as many library skills/tasks as I could and not just be the computer guy. I also made it clear that I wanted to pursue my MLS since I wanted a library career.

Always make sure you have solid references that are prepared to talk positively and in detail about you. I like to have at least three with one from each of my previous employers. You should stay in regular contact with these people! They should not only hear from you when your searching for a job. Let them know when you've found a job and thank them for their support.

I have never done any volunteering in pursuit of a job. I've heard that's a very common practice when looking to get on board with non-profit organizations. I have done a lot volunteering at beer fests and tastings, but that didn't help me in landing my "beer" job. My strong IT skills and experience got me the interview and my knowledge of beer was a plus when I interviewed. For my "book" job, my strong IT skills and my experience as an IT instructor got me the interview. The 2nd interview with the previous IT Coordinator and the library's IT consultant where I had to  successfully answer their technical questions got me the job.

CPD23: Week 15 - Careers

I spent 20 years in corporate IT and climbed the ladder to senior management. The money was great, but the job was stressful, all-consuming and unfulfilling. They always say to do what you love and my two loves are good books and good beer so I decided to take my IT skills to a job involving one or the other. I found the beer job first and became the IT Coordinator for the local Budweiser distributor. It wasn't a bad job, but once I got their technology up to date it became a very dull maintenance gig. Bored at my beer job, I decided to look for a book job. I did some research on libraries and was impressed with their track record of being the early adopters of a lot of technology and how they educate the public in how to use it. I also thought it was the kind of environment where change and new things would keep coming. Though I've only been the IT Coordinator at Sump Memorial (the City of Papillion, NE's public library) for just less than a year, I now know that a librarian is what I want to be when I grow up. I started working on my MLIS this fall with a 21st Century Librarian Scholarship from the NLC and hope to have a long and satisfying career in the library world.

CPD23: Week 14 - Extra catch-up week and Thing 17

I really liked the zoom in & out visuals of Prezi. Much more dramatic then just flipping to the next PowerPoint slide. I also liked that you can download your presentation so you can use it even when your offline from the web though there are some limitations. Very cool tool. I'm going to try using it for a presentation. It would nice if people could view my online Prezi presentation without having to be registered.

I'm not as excited with Slideshare after seeing Prezi. I would rather Prezi my PowerPoint then put it out on Slideshare. Being able to put a Prezi on Slideshare would be very cool. My presentations have always been prepared for a specific audience. I don't think any of them would be useful to share openly. The only convenience I see with Slideshare would be providing your audience with the link to your presentation that they could access immediately instead of having to download a large PowerPoint file at some point. It looks another mass marketing platform to me.