Putting these two together as it gives me an opportunity to look at the various networks to which I do belong and evaluate these in the light of other suggestions.
Of the online variety I am on Facebook, but have made the decision to keep this for catching up with friends. Although I have noticed some great library pages. It seems to work really well when there is a project going on (such as a refurbishment) as it creates a fun way for the users to stay in touch with developments, so I'll keep it in mind.
I'm a little wary of putting quite so much information on a profile such as LinkedIn, although I can see the benefits, especially in finding like minded people and possibly jobs, so will maybe save this one to look at in the future.
I will definitely revisit and update my very short profile on CILIP communities though. I joined it a fair time ago and didn't find much to interest me then, but it seems to have developed, especially the "hot topics" and the blogs so I'll keep it in mind. (Along with the blogs and Twitter too).
I hadn't heard of LAT Network before and thought the sharing of resources for information sessions and other teaching topics is a brilliant use of collaborative network. My current post doesn't demand that much intensive tuition but I'll follow them on Twitter to begin with as I'm feeling my way with time commitments for this way of working and need to keep things manageable. This could be very useful as job roles change all the time.
In considering face to face networks I immediately thought about "networking" as very scary navigating a room full of strangers "pitching your wares". I hadn't really considered going to courses, although the breaks are always full of chatter and laughter, and belonging to professional bodies. I do belong to CILIP and find my special interest groups are a mixture of previous and present interests. I love the cross-pollination of ideas from one type of work to another, so try to skim through articles primarily about different sectors from my current post, probably out of curiosity as much as anything else to see what possibilities are out there. If there is a local cpd 23 meeting I may find enough courage to attend and find out face to face what other folk think about networking.
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