Monday, January 9, 2017

Getting Involved



Sometimes I feel a little disconnected from other librarians because I’m a solo-librarian at a law firm.  Sure, I can connect through ALA or AALL or PLLIP…I mean, there are ways.  And I am members of these.  But online connections lack a little familiarity I miss from my time interning at an academic library.  Now, I am trying to work out ways to connect regardless of my electronic v. physical limitations.  Here are some of the ways I am considering/have already begun:

1) Volunteering for committees in various organizations.  They like the time you offer, you get the benefit of meeting and talking with like-minded strangers.

2) Attending committees, meetings, and webinars.  So far, I have only attended webinars due to time constraints, but I am trying to plan to go to the annual AALL meeting in Dallas this year.  It’s an awesome networking experience, and judging by the information from last year it was a lot of fun.  As for webinars – it’s a wonderful way to stay current in your field and the speakers tend to be very informational and organized.  Even if you don’t get to meet anyone personally, it’s nice to enjoy a quick learning session with peers.

3) Spending time in local libraries/museums/similar institutes.  Like I said, I’m a solo-librarian.  It gets lonely and the only people here who have somewhat-similar backgrounds are members of the IT team.  Still, I can’t talk to them about the best ways to catalog or physically organize the library.  (Although, I did get a wonderful amount of help setting up the online library catalog and intranet.)  So I’ve been attending events at the local museums and libraries.  The librarians and I may not cross paths in our given fields every day, but it is nice to know them.

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