Blog Every Day in June Day 15: What have you done for me lately?

We're half way through Blog June already!
In today's post, Lauren reflects on PD after finishing her Diploma.

Well, it's been six months now since I completed my Diploma, and I enjoyed my graduation last week, along with a couple of drinks afterwards. It was great catching up with all my former classmates, and hearing about their journey since I last saw them. But as I looked at my diploma, I couldn't help remembering how enthusiastic I was throughout my course, and how frequently new ideas caught my attention, and I wondered, well, what have I done lately for my PD?

I've been seeing and saving blog posts that I follow, but have been actually reading precious few. I joined a MOOC, but wasn't able to keep up with the work, and let it slide. I've got three archived webinars that I haven't viewed. On reflection, the biggest lack is that I haven't taken up any new idea and been excited to go further with it and I feel this is something that needs to be addressed.

It is hard to carve out time in busy schedules of work, family, sport, and friends, and sometimes it just isn't possible, and I accept that. At my graduation I saw a classmate receive the prize for Readers Advisory, and I remembered that she had undertaken the whole course while working part time, and caring for three primary school aged boys ( Hats off to you, Donna Cattana!) so it's not impossible. I just need something to motivate me. I'm working in my first job in a library, as a casual on the Customer Service desk. I enjoy it, and I'm still finding my way, it's a great foot in the door and what I want right now, however, it's not generating a lot of motivation for further self directed PD. I wonder if this will only get worse if I don't act, and I think about how others maintain this constant renewal over an entire career.

I mentioned this to a group of librarians I meet up with, and Diana Richards, the NSW and ACT ALIA rep reminded me about the ALIA PD scheme. It's definitely something to look into now that I am eligible to join. I enjoy their PD Posting that comes out each  month and have saved many of them to read later.

Finally getting my act together in the smallest possible way, I found this blog post from Hack Library School Things I Miss About Library School which touches on this topic.

I'm looking forward to NLS7 next month and I hope it will be a good kick to get me back on the right track.

Lauren Castan
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