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Once
upon a time a patron taught me a very important rule – if it’s not on
the Internet, it must be by midnight. In other words, if you’re
searching for something that doesn’t seem to exist, it becomes your
responsibility to create it. The same is true for sharing knowledge in a
professional context, whether by publishing in academic journals, writing for a
blog, or presenting at conferences.
When
you’re new to a role, a job, or even an entire discipline, you naturally have a
lot of questions and all the answers are out there as long as you know where to
look – professional publications, textbooks, conference sessions, social media,
colleagues, etc. But as you gain experience, your questions get more
complicated, the answers are harder to find, and you begin to notice that
you’re on level ground with the people who used to have all the answers.
This
is when you start creating your own solutions to the problems you’re
encountering, and it’s also an optimal time to start thinking about publishing
or otherwise sharing these experiences.
The
first time I realized I had valuable things to share with my peers was at an
academic library conference. I went to a session on utilizing iPads in the
library – my school had been circulating iPads to faculty for some time and I hoped
to learn new and better ways to facilitate learning on the tablets. The
presentation was instead geared toward audience members looking to institute an
iPad program - I was an advanced student listening in on a beginner’s lesson.
Finding
yourself with more talking points than the presenter (or knowing the
frustration that sets in after an intense and fruitless Google search) can
signal a responsibility to start producing your own answers. But putting
yourself out there for the first time, either in writing or quite literally by
getting up in front of a crowd at a professional conference, can be a daunting
or downright terrifying idea. The fear of public speaking, of potential
embarrassment, of giving a 50 minute presentation on an idea that’s obvious to
everyone else, may stop some from pursuing publication and sharing the valuable
experiences they’ve gained on the job.
Many
in academia – including librarians – are pushed to “publish or perish”, but
librarians typically identify as information curators rather than creators.
Besides, the courage and motivation to
share can be difficult to find. You may shy away from writing for publication
out of the concern that your work is not groundbreaking enough to be worthy of
an audience, because you’re not one of the ‘rock star librarians’ who regularly
make the conference rounds and enjoy name recognition, or because what you want
to say doesn’t have mass appeal, or even because you’re skittish about publicly
disagreeing with a big name librarian.
But all you really need to do in order to
publish or present or share your ideas is say, “I had a thought and I believe
some of my peers would benefit from hearing it.” It’s not a matter of
revolutionizing the profession or synthesizing entirely new ideas – just do
what librarians do best and make the answers you’ve found accessible. Gather,
organize, create, and put it out there for everyone who might have the same
questions you did before you created your
own answers.
Share
those answers.
And
there’s no reason you can’t dip your toes slowly into the water before taking
the plunge. If you have something you want to share and you’re not sure where
to start, think small and let the idea snowball:
- Talk about your topic with your colleagues or on Twitter;
- Write a few blog posts for others in the field who accept submissions [editor’s note: Like this blog!];
- Start your own blog if the spirit moves you;
- Turn your idea into a poster session for a professional conference, then stand back and let your work speak for itself (bonus: fielding questions about a poster is a great ice breaker to help you work up to the idea of presenting a session);
- Join a committee or professional organization and be active in it – having friendly faces and connections always makes sharing your ideas easier;
- Partner with a colleague to present a session together – share both the work and the spotlight.
Just
get your ideas out there so they’re not stuck in your head, benefiting no one
but yourself. If nothing else, it’s your responsibility as a citizen of
the Internet.
Kaylin Tristano is a writer and solo librarian/technology guru for a small career college in Akron, Ohio. She is the webmaster for ALAO and has written and presented on a variety of topics from library instruction to using Twitter as a networking tool. Her student worker provides the following testimonial: “Kaylin is not as funny as she thinks she is.”
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