Creating and Sustaining a Professional Learning Network

 Professional Learning Networks, or PLNs, are a great way for educational and library professionals to create their own community of learning and interaction that aligns with their career needs. Any field can benefit greatly from use of a PLN, as it empowers one to take control of the learning in their career that they'd like to see. In personal experience, I've used social networking tools such as email lists to connect with other librarians in career or work related issues. A recent example of this is my reaching out to other programming librarians in the area to see which outside performers are good to hire for youth programs, and if there are any that someone could recommend. Without this network of fellow librarians, the job of finding performers for our next programming slate would have been far more difficult!

In an effort to create a more robust PLN for myself, I started a Twitter account (@librarykatie123). My hope with this was that I could find other librarians to follow and trade ideas with about our shared career. However, as I began my search, I found that there were more school librarians than public librarians using Twitter as a space to connect with others professionally. It was very difficult for me to find any public librarians regularly using their Twitter account for professional purposes, specifically learning purposes. With that in mind, I followed 16 accounts. Some of these, like the American Library Association account, were potential avenues for me to connect with other librarians, or to learn information about the organization that could benefit me professionally. Others were school librarians regularly posting resources and hosting Twitter chats. Below is the list:

1. @ALALibrary
2. @LibraryJournal
3. @amlibraries
4. @librarycongress
5. @lousylibrarian
6. @yalsa
7. @sljournal
8. @ALA_PLA
9. @wearealsc
10. @FTRF
11. @UABookBans
12. @SchoolLibLN
13. @IllLibraryAssoc
14. @LemanskyRachel
15. @Mrs_Bongi
16. @ALA_Booklist

Now that I had begun to follow some fellow professionals, it was time for me to participate in my first Twitter chat. I found one under the #teachpos tag which I thought would align with my interests. The Twitter chat was run by Craig Shapiro (@Shapiro_WTHS). This week's chat was about soft skills and teaching them to students. I liked the style of this Twitter chat as each question was posted as an image, and the moderator would retweet or respond to certain answers.

Image source: Craig Shapiro / Twitter

I responded to this first question as follows:

Image source: Katie Steffensen / Twitter

I liked the question posed as it was a concept I had never considered teaching. I like to think that as educators, we are teaching these skills as role models and figures in students' lives. However, it's a subconscious effort to teach these skills, not something I'm actively considering as I'm dealing with these younger patrons. 

A lot of the responses from other participants were thought-provoking and made me understand why using a Twitter chat in a PLN could be very useful. I did not get much of the social aspect personally, as no other participants replied to me, and I didn't receive any followers. I have a feeling that the more effort I put into this account in the future, the more I can expect that social aspect to show itself. It's definitely a promising start to a PLN, and I could see myself using it more if I could find more public librarians or youth services librarians to connect with.