When I think about being a reflective practitioner, which was the first workshop of this semester, I immediately think of learning. Library and Information Science is definitely a learning profession and anyone who says it isn’t is lying! As a new student to LIS, it is intimidating to learn that the whole profession is constantly changing and that keeping current most important job for a professional. The amount of information I need to process as a student is overwhelming but I understand that it is important to learn and to continue learning.
The guest speakers in this workshop were really candid and provided great tips for being a learning professional. Some of the advice they gave was seemingly obvious, but at the same time I think needed to be said out loud in order to be fully understood. I really connected with the idea of taking advantage of the situation at hand and do not rest on being ‘comfortable’. I think a great part of learning is to challenge oneself to be better. I like the idea of a challenge and I think in the LIS professionals need to really push themselves to remain on the cutting edge of knowledge and technology.
I also identified with the more tangible ways of learning, ie. reading a wide range of sources including journal articles, social media, etc. The idea of networking and using the people around me to learn from and in turn teach is a fantastic way of staying connected and aware. I was interested to learn about the professional development program with ALIA as well.
The biggest lesson I took from this workshop was that professional development and becoming a learning practitioner is a largely self-driven process. This requires motivation and determination, which I know I have in spades.
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