Continuing Education

Technology and media are the ways that a media specialist stays connected in today’s world. Through conferences, social media, and list-servs, there is a wealth of information to review and join.  As much as school media and technology changes, it would be helpful to take continuing education hours geared towards specific subjects at conferences and/or workshops.  As a former ELA Pre-AP teacher, annual conferences were invaluable to adding new materials and strengthening ideas.  I can see how this idea would be applicable to the Texas Library Association Conference that has been recommended to me.  The TLAC is held annual rotating between Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio.  Due to COVID-19, this year’s meeting was cancelled and moved to an online platform.  They will offer continuing education hours virtually, and once your fee is paid, you can attend the classes on your own time over a set number of days.  I have done several continuing education classes hosted online through the American Library Association.  There classes are 1 CE credit, and they email out a word document before the class goes live.

Networking with other local librarians would also be an additional way of understanding the needs of the community.  The email listserv: http://www.lm-net.info/ serves as a resource to school librarians with over 11,000 members from 64 countries. Therefore, you will get a wide variety of views and help. The list-serv has a population spanning globally.  Sometimes it is necessary to come back to local issues, and contacting local ISD librarians and media specialists may be of better service in those regards.

Twitter is another means of connecting with other professionals.  Several librarians are available to follow and send out interesting articles and new procedures as COVID-19 is leading to changes in how we manage libraries.  I love Tweet Deck and will continue to use it to follow specific hashtags for information.