For new librarians, the internet can be a powerful tool for creating both a professional network and self-advocating individual publications and successes. Using social media and digital portfolios to build a professional online persona is a skill often ignored in LIS education and can be difficult to learn on the job as a new librarian. When practiced effectively, online engagement enables scholarly conversation and can make meaningful connections beyond a librarian’s local community. Social media in particular provides a public access point to promote scholarship and accomplishments while listening and learning from peers and mentors. Digital portfolios, or e-portfolios, supplement the curriculum vitae and resume, track academic and professional activities, and relay the new librarian’s skills with emerging technology and design. While there are many platforms online to create these portfolios, existing institutional platforms like BePress can connect librarians to the university domain and other local content creators.
In this session, attendees will learn the basic skills to develop an online persona for professional development including social media engagement and e-portfolios. While examining social media examples of current information workers, attendees will learn strategies to build an online, professional network, discuss the healthy balance between professional and personal life, learn tools to measure the impact of one’s scholarship  and learn the analytics used to gauge professional interest from others within the profession. By examining different tools to build a digital portfolio and professional online persona, new librarians can harness the power of the internet to develop a network, self-promote, and contribute to critical conversations within the field.
Any questions? Please contact Elizabeth Borges:Â elizabeth.kelly@sjsu.edu. This event will be recorded and posted on our website.Â
