Building your Library Career with Web 2.0

Citation

Fourie, I. (2012), "Building your Library Career with Web 2.0", The Electronic Library, Vol. 30 No. 4, pp. 558-559. https://doi.org/10.1108/02640471211252256

Building your Library Career with Web 2.0 is one of those rare books you review when you wish that you were the author. It was a pleasure to read, and I think it will offer even more insight and inspiration with a second read! Julie Gross certainly succeeds in encouraging LIS career development in the Web 2.0 era: “developing your online presence, staying relevant, and building networks to survive in the competitive marketplace” (p. 11).

The tone of the book is set with the detailed, clear and well‐structured table of contents. For me, this is an important indication of what I can expect. The good first impression is further enforced with a table portraying the structure (p. 10). The sub‐heading that struck me most was “I store my knowledge in my friends” (p. 147) – certainly something to ponder on and further exploit.

Apart from the preface, list of references and index (reasonably good), there are 10 chapters, each with a detailed list of sub‐headings. Chapter 1 starts with the concept of Web 2.0 and its potential for library careers. This is followed by Chapter 2 on social networking sites with an emphasis on the value of LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Chapter 3 aligns the use of Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter more explicitly with the building of a career. Personal marketing of a career is addressed in Chapter 4, with Chapter 5 exploring issues of privacy. Guidelines on marketing are especially important as “LIS professionals and librarians are not good at marketing, particularly self‐marketing and promotion” (p. 56).

Lifelong learning can easily become a cliché; Chapter 6 therefore argues for various means to stay abreast of developments, e.g. RSS feeds, start pages, Netvibes, Yahoo! Pipes and other useful Web resources. “We need to practice what we preach and embrace lifelong learning for career development” (p. 115). Web 2.0 professional development and library careers are explored in Chapter 7, where issues such as new methods of professional development, post‐conferences, the list of 23 things from the University of Cambridge, webinars, and the unconference are explored. Networking is very important in promoting a career. This is the focus of Chapter 8, exploring wikis, Google Groups, Yammer and the well‐known LinkedIn. Career development can greatly benefit from mentoring; e‐mentoring is therefore explored in Chapter 9. The final chapter, Chapter 10 comments on the importance of keeping up to date and being competent.

From the chapter contents it is clear that Building your Library Career with Web 2.0 covers a variety of issues to get any library and information (LIS) professional interested in using Web 2.0 in promoting his/her career, and that it covers a full spectrum of what needs to be known. What is, however, not reflected in this, is Julia Gross's ability through choice of words, or perhaps a sincere belief in the value of her topic, to get the reader really enthusiastic about the possibilities. My head is buzzing with ideas on getting students set on this road, and also to explore this on a more theoretical level in studies of information behaviour.

Building your Library Career with Web 2.0 is what I would call both a nice and informative read. Although it has academic and theoretical undertones, it is written in a very accessible style and tone. It can be read “once off” as I have done, or one can dip into it as necessary. I highly recommend Building your Library Career with Web 2.0 to LIS professionals from all levels and all types of libraries and information services. It offers the infusion needed to take careers and LIS expertise to the next level. Academics can certainly recommend it to under‐graduate students, and if it was less expensive, it could be the perfect Faculty gift to LIS students who are graduating. (Perhaps the Publisher can consider special discounts, or such a gift can be sponsored by industry.)