Thing 3: Online Communities and Personal Learning Networks

I heard about the importance Personal Learning Networks a lot during grad school and one of my professors actually had us start to create our own. We explored different blogs and websites dedicated to school librarianship. Through this, I discovered Jennifer La Garde, AKA Library Girl, Buffy Hamilton, the Unquiet Librarian, Tiffany Whitehead, the Mighty Little Librarian, and many others. I also make sure to maintain a network of local librarians as well, especially my friends from grad school who are new to this game just like me! I find the input from my mentors to be invaluable, and it is nice to know that they are there if I have any questions or need to bounce some ideas off of.

During our exploration in class though, I never thought to look at Twitter. To be honest, Twitter always has confused me. I have other social media accounts but have steered clear of Twitter. So I figured I should start with learning a bit more about it before jumping in full steam. I started by looking at Jennifer La Garde's "Twitter: A 140 Day Love Story". She provides many good resources for people who are just getting started! I really liked her idea of doing a 20-day Twitter Challenge. It looks like a great way to get started and in the habit of using Twitter!

I then went to Twitter itself to explore some of the hashtags that were suggested in the CoolTools post. I liked seeing how others were using it to collect ideas and get advice from others in the field. I also found that there were many interesting links and articles shared. I also think it's a great place to get updates from people in your personal network quickly!


I can see using Twitter as a way to stay connected to a PLN. It seems like a great way to share information, and also get advice from around the world. I am not sure that using it as a means of communication with our school community would be as successful. While many of my students have digital devices, they are a bit young for most means of social media (although I am sure they use it more than I know!). I also am unsure about how many of our parents would be on Twitter. A few of them do use our Facebook page as a way of getting information... I would like to see that increase first! I did ask the board for permission to create a library Facebook page and never heard back. I think my next step will be to follow up on that first!! Then perhaps I will explore the world of Twitter a bit more... :)