I also really like the idea of Professional Learning Networks (PLNs). As a soon-to-be librarian, learning from peers has been a large part of my existence. I have benefited from the PLNs of SI students, co-workers at the Clark and the Kresge, even patrons and internet comrads. It is like nice to know once I leave the protective bubble that is SI, there will be people who can function in this role.
I’m already involved in some PLNs. I’m a member of ALA BRASS and am on a committee focused on reference marketing called “Just Ask!”. We’ve met once via webinar and it was an awkward but fascinating experience. I also am the BRASS student award recipient this year and am traveling to ALA Conference to become more involved. I am also going to SLA this year as part of the Business & Finance Division. I’m very excited about this because B&F is much more corporate-focused than BRASS, and I am interested interacting more with private sector business librarians to see what sort of stuff they do. The webinar I watched was B&F webinar about benchmarking for corporations, and it peaked my interest in the business side of business. I’m hoping to become more involved there as well.
I can remember the first time I stepped into a BRASS discussion last ALA Annual. I’d seen business librarians in one to fours before. Having a full room of excited, passionate business librarians was a whole together different story. It was very heartening to find people that were into the same nerdy things I was into. There were people in library land who also wanted to find the perfect marketing report or complain about database inaccuracies about ReferenceUSA. It affect me as librarian for the better.
This last week’s class was about also about how to use twitter better. I found it really useful but for the past couple of months I have only been using twitter from the main page and have found it to be a little underwhelming in features and overwhelming in sheer amounts of tweets. I installed TweetDeck during class and really thought it helps with some of the overloaded. I liked being able to add filters. That way I could throw all my orgs (SAA, ALA, local libraries) into one filter. I also liked the idea of scheduling tweets. Scheduling tweets seems like a great way of cutting down on some of the involved with tweeting (one of my main concerns).
Ilana Barnes' Totally Excellent si643 Blog 
I installed HootSuite, which I think works similarly to TweetDeck, and had the opposite reaction–suddenly there was too much to see. I like Twitter as something to dip into… trying to actually organize it or keep track of it seems overwhelming.
I also found the conversation about Professional Learning Networks really interesting. I’ve never been an active member within one, but I currently subscribe to a number of listservs related to public libraries. The ideas that these individuals come up with are really cool and are not necessarily things I would have thought of on my own. I just feel like I learn so much from those around me. The webinar is actually a really good example: I never would have thought of doing a GIS and Census related one, but because of you, I now know a little bit about them. By creating a structured organization that allows for that kind of innovative interaction, I just feel like my capacity to grow as a professional increases.
I really don’t like Tweetdeck and such. Seeing more tweets at once actually stresses me out, and I already use the list function on twitter to separate people I actually know from the random celebs and associations I follow. Maybe that’s just me being an old lady, I don’t know.
I’m glad you found so many business librarians who are into what you’re into! PLNs are definitely a valuable part of the job world (aka “real life”) and I hope to have a great group of people in my PLN! I’m assuming that everyone at SI will go on to do awesome things, so it’s like having a pre-packaged PLN. So fun!