Thing 1: Blogs and Blogging

I started 23 things for Professional Development last Summer but stopped due to my Final year in Library School and my many volunteering activities. So now that I have some free time again I am continuing the program. I decided to create a new blog that would incorporate what I said before with some new reflection. Last time I finished up to Thing 7. I am looking forward to finishing all the things this time around! The program is great and gets us involved in many new and popular web and non web tools and resources.

Before the program I had very little knowledge/experience with web tools and resources (beyond Facebook and Linked-In) and really wanted to get into the action! Since I started last year I have gone beyond the program and have started to get to know and experiment with more web stuff. I find web technologies very interesting and have become quite addicted to trying and learning new web tools/resources. However, it can be daunting at times due to the massive amounts of tools and resources available on the web, but never fear! I have learned just to try things and if its not right for you to move on to the next. While nothing is perfect, there are many alternatives to choose from to get what you want.

I think the areas that will be most difficult for me will be Thing 15 (Attending, presenting at and organising seminars, conferences and other events) and 16 (Advocacy, speaking up for the profession and getting published) as those make much use of public speaking, an area I'm already working on! This area is definitely my weak point. But I have gotten a lot better and am looking forward to benchmarking these "Things" as personal milestones to professional development.

I'm most looking forward to Thing 4, 14, 17,  and 18. Basically all the tech stuff to make my life easier!