A Long December (lessons in web service)

This blog post has been in the works for quite a while, I must say. It has been too long, though I made it my excuse that I was recharging my batteries having finished what was simultaneously the most productive and most exhausting semester of my career in higher education. Instead of boring you with a laundry list, I want to detail practicum experience that I had that was quite broadening for my education. Two weeks of public library work for an aspiring health/academic librarian was quite a feat. The point of this post, then, is to reposition myself digitally as I prepare to finish my degree and move out into the wild world of librarianship.

First, I experienced the distinct pleasure of being hosted by Meg Canada at Hennepin County Library for two weeks as part of a practicum placement. Ostensibly there to learn the ins and outs of a healthy social media presence maintained across a large public library system, I was actually allowed much more than a glimpse into their web services department, and subsequently the heartbeat of library services in Hennepin County. We did do social media, and connected with folks on Twitter and Facebook on behalf of the library, responding to blog comments as well. I had had it in my head that this was the type of thing I would like to be involved in with my work as a librarian, and was not surprised when I enjoyed this aspect of the work quite a bit.