Thing 4

Check out thewikiman and The Great Library Stereotypometer!

I must finally be popular or I really belong in the UK (gin and knitting). This was just one of the gems I discovered on my path to current awareness, defined as "to network and share ideas or interesting things they have seen around the web" (cpd23 blog).  

Twitter as professional tool...never used it much.  My first posting was actually a bid for more memory for my DropBox account.  I did decide to keep Twitter professional at the time, but then immediately followed a slew of folks I was personally interested in (knitting, Firefly, SyFy, Ellen) on top of a slew of professional organizations and bloggers. In the meantime, being a public profile, I was immediately followed by folks I never heard of and most I could care less about.  Overwhelmed, I caved and backed away from Twitter.  Until now.  I began by reading what others had to say about using Twitter.  Zenhabits let me know I wasn't all alone in being overwhelmed and had great tips to cut through Twitter clutter.  Lifehacker had some gems and gave me more ideas about what to actually do with Twitter. I looked up Librarian By Day and hit the motherload of Twitter insights and how I can use Twitter professionally, effectively, and still have fun.  I'm learning, but 63 tweets later, I'm officially using Twitter professionally.  Well, trying anyway.

Thing 4 did not mention Google+, but now that it is in widespread Beta, I thought I'd comment.  I'm in and have circles. First impression, I really like it's ease of use and clean, uncluttered look.  However, as with all social tools, it's not much fun when you are all alone.  Reaching out to find other Google+ users has been slow.  Many of those I want to connect with are on FB and don't want to add yet another social network. I dream of circles with local librarians I know personally, broader circles of professionals around the world, and then small social circles that I can connect with online.  I don't use FB chat, but can totally see myself using Hangouts on Google+.

I've enjoyed my rss feeds in Google Reader for quite some time now, but like Twitter, never used them for networking until now.  Keeping up with the cpd23 bloggers has been fun and informative. I've also discovered a few other professional blogs along the way.  Reader makes it easy to organize and follow both my much loved personal bloggers and my new professional feeds.

Love the pushnote default avatar smiley face--don't know if I'll use it much as I'm hitting overload right now.  I have an account.  Withholding comment until later.

Most of all I've learned that current awareness is an ongoing habit.  Leaping from professional print journals into the digital world is not such a stretch, though it can be very overwhelming.  For me, it will be important to learn which tools work best and can be easily integrated into a busy life.  I'm very thankful I've had these summer days to catch up with the 23 Things for Professional Development, and also looking forward to slowing down my pace as I catch up.  I've learned that I gain more by interacting than by simply reading.  I guess I am very social at heart.