You Are Not Alone. 3 Ways to Expand Your PLN.

Do you find yourself feeling a bit lonely or isolated being the only librarian at your school?   If you work in a small district, you may be the only elementary, middle or high school librarian for the entire district.  Even if you get together, your schools have different needs which make it challenging to share strategies.  Here are three strategies to help you reach out and find librarians to help expand your Personal Learning Network or PLN. 

Connect Locally
Make it a point to reach out to others in your district, the public library or to those in neighboring districts.  Fantastic resources can be found in your own back yard if you take the time to call or email them and make that connection.  More often than not, the person you are reaching out to is just as interested in forming a partnership as you are.

Social Media
One of the best ways to expand your PLN is to take advantage of social media tools like Twitter.  Start by using the search feature to follow hashtags.  Two of my favorites for school librarians are #aasl and #tlchat.  Groups that have a hashtag often host Twitter chats on a regular basis.  See my post on Understanding Twitter Chats to learn how to make the most of this resource.
As you read through the posts you'll be able to find other school librarians to follow.  You can gain a wealth of information by reading the posts under each hashtag, but you gain more by following the others in the group and interacting.  Don't be afraid to like, retweet or reply to your favorite posts.

Conferences
Attending conferences run by your local or state media and technology organizations bring you a wealth of knowledge as well as new contacts to add to your PLN.  It may take a little initiative on your part to strike up a conversation, but meeting people from across the state can prove an invaluable resource.  Be sure to read my post of Making the Most of Attending a Conference to learn how to make the most of any conference experience. 

My Favorite PLN Success Story
Several years ago while attending a session at the North Carolina Technology in Education Society's (NCTIES) annual conference the presenter spoke about keeping the conversation going.  During that session I set up a Skype chat and added the people in the room.  Over the next few years, the chat grew to have over 100 active members.  They were librarians, technology facilitators, Chief Technology Offices, Media and Tech supervisors and teachers.  These people became my "go-tos" for nearly 4 years when I had a question, needed feedback or needed to know how to do something tech related.  It was an amazing resource.  As we each moved to different roles or districts the chat slowly came to an end. 

I tell you this story because it wasn't something formal that brought us together.  It was just a group of people who saw the value in having such a resource.  Skype was the tool of choice at that time, but now there are so many more vehicles to host groups these days.  Don't be afraid to create a Facebook group, Google Group or whatever will best fit your needs. 


The main thing is to reach out and make those connections.  You don't have to go at it alone.