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Acquire New Skills & Grow Professionally – All On a Shoe-String
Budget!
By
Deidra Payne,
Librarian Relations Consultant
As you know,
librarianship has experienced a rapid change in the workplace over
the last decade. As a profession we are constantly being asked to
learn new information resources, to streamline emerging services,
and continue to meet the increasing expectations of our users.
Therefore, we must participate in constant and continuous
professional development programs, just to keep up in today’s
workplace.
In last month’s
column, Librarian Relations Consultant Raul Lopez provided great
tips to aid you in your pursuit of a promotion. His first tip asked
you to identify which new skills you had acquired to better position
yourself for a promotion. I would go further and ask you:
-
How did you obtain
that new skill?
-
Were you able to
attend a professional development program during the last year?
-
Did you find the
time to read about a new feature in an Association publication?
I suspect that many of
you are fortunate enough to involve yourself in several professional
development or continuing education programs throughout the year.
However, I know there are just as many of you who simply feel
fortunate when you win the yearly battle to have your organization
pay for your annual association membership fees. For you, the
concept of attending professional development or continuing
education programs is a pipe-dream, and you feel limited in your
opportunities to acquire and develop new skills and/or network
within your profession.
I have five suggestions to assist those of you on a shoe-string
budget in attaining your professional development goals.
1. Carefully design a professional
development plan and share it with your manager.
Once you have a plan created, you will notice you are viewed as a
“top-notch” employee and thus more valuable in the eyes of your
organization. Here are a few questions to consider when devising this
plan:
Today, with so many
organizations running on reduced resources, there are numerous
occasions where you can take on more assignments. Seek out the
professional responsibilities and positions that are aligned with
your personal goals. Once you have been given more responsibilities,
take ownership of these assignments. They will help you establish a
foothold in your organization and further build your experience and
skills. Capitalize on any and all opportunities.
2. Gather up all those professional trade
journals, newsletters and emails that pile up in your in-box and
make time to read them.
They usually contain really helpful information about
trends, products, and other business issues and will help you stay
informed.
3. Develop and facilitate internal training
classes on topics and issues that are relevant to you and your
peers.
As much as you may dread the thought of making presentations, it is
often a wonderful opportunity to showcase the expertise or specialty
knowledge that you, and you alone, possess.
If you have found
yourself teaching more and more research classes or you anticipate
teaching classes in the future, I would highly recommend you
consider applying to attend
one of the
specialized programs the LexisNexis Librarian Relations Group
develops and presents on a bi-annual basis. (See the
Continuing Education Programs
page for more information.)
There is no
registration fee to attend these programs. LexisNexis covers all
conference materials, meals, lodging, and transportation to and from
the airport. As an attendee you would only be responsible for
airfare and any personal incidental charges.
In 2006, we will be
be presenting the Teaching Research in Private Law Libraries (TRIPLL)
program in April. In fact, the application for the TRIPLL program is now open!
For more details, please go
here.
The deadline for application submission is December 9, 2005.
4. Take the time to attend as many Web
Seminar programs as possible.
Take advantage of the technology available to you. The
LexisNexis Librarian Relations Group offers FREE Web Seminar
programs. In 2005, we offered six seminars discussing current “hot”
professional development topics, also highlighting relevant
LexisNexis sources.
Recordings for
some of the seminars are available for you to view as often as you
like, whenever you like.
5. Participate in as many certification
programs as possible.
The completion of a certification program can only
enhance your status within your organization and improve your ‘end
of the year performance appraisal review’. Plus, having and
displaying the certificate sends a message that you value education
and maintaining a certain level of competency and expertise in a
specialized subject matter.
The LexisNexis
Librarian Certificate of Mastery program is FREE to LexisNexis Law
Librarian users in the United States. To learn more about the
program, please see our Web page or
contact your LexisNexis Librarian Relations Consultant.
The Librarian
Certificate of Mastery Courses available are:
Core Courses
-
Primary Law
Research on lexis.com®
-
Analytical
Resources on lexis.com®
-
News and Business
Research on lexis.com®
-
Discovery Research
on CourtLink®
Area of Law
Specialty Courses
-
LexisNexis®
CourtLink® for Client Development
-
Federal
Legislative Research
-
Federal Securities
Research
-
Global Law, News &
Business Information on the LexisNexis® Services
-
Patent Research
-
Tax Resources on
the LexisNexis® Services
-
Labor & Employment
Law Research (Releasing January 2006)
On a final note I
want to leave you with two questions. First, what are you currently
doing to advance, promote, and or market yourself within your
organization? Second, what will you actively commit to do in 2006
that can significantly enhance your skill set as an experienced and
valuable professional?
I hope that even if
you don’t have the budget to travel and attend professional
development programs, you can still stay abreast of new developments
in the profession by following some of the suggestions above.
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