By J. David Midyette
Well, RUSA Voices has launched and has been getting quite a few looks by interested folks. I want to thank all of the folks behind the scenes (you know who you are) for getting things started with our posts about the ALA meetings in San Francisco. I wanted to go, but couldn’t make it this year. However, the posts by our diligent ALA correspondents certainly brought home some of the information and flavor of a successful conference. Following on that success, I want to put a call out to all RUSA and non-RUSA folks to contribute to RUSA Voices. This is YOUR blog for YOUR ideas and concerns, so Raise Your Voice and speak to your fellow librarians!
Writing a blog post can be as simple or as complex as you’d like it to be. Your colleagues want to hear from you about your trials and tribulations, your successes and challenges, but mostly, they just want to hear what’s important to you in your professional lives. While RUSA is focused on reference and user services, that is still an incredibly broad category, and provides innumerable options for sharing of information. How is your transition to LibGuides 2.0 coming? What are your challenges in collecting quantitative and qualitative data to prove your worth? What new reference services are red hot topics? How are old concepts and techniques being applied in new and novel ways? Is Google still putting us out of business or is it just reshaping how we help people connect to information?
Still not convinced? Send me an email or give me a call! I’ll help you work through the process of putting fingers to keys. It really can be as simple as sitting down and typing out your string of consciousness about a topic. We can work from there to refine and shape your writing. Heck, it may be perfect the way it is! The point is that you have a Voice and it needs to be heard. You may think to yourself that you have nothing interesting or novel to say (I know I listened to my inner voice saying that for far too long), but in truth, you have a lot to say and it WILL interest people. While many of us live at the bleeding edge of technology, others bide their time and wait to see how these new technologies express themselves through patron usage. Twitter is an awesome tool, but it has changed immensely from the beginning. Think about what you do on a daily basis and simply report on some of the unique things, even if they seem mundane.
I love editing people’s writing and helping them shape their ideas. Send me something and let me help you get started. Write a blog post for RUSA Voices and put it in your resume. Posts can be more academic or more practical in orientation; it’s up to you and your interests. You don’t have to agonize over things, just get something down and send it in; we will go from there together . . . We will make sure that your colleagues hear your Voice and share what you have to say! I look forward to working with you, now sit down and write something!
David (dmidyette@roseman.edu)
Editor, RUSA Voices