Building Your Library Career with Web 2.0

Citation

Genoni, P. (2012), "Building Your Library Career with Web 2.0", Library Management, Vol. 33 No. 8/9, pp. 571-573. https://doi.org/10.1108/01435121211279920

The literature of the information professions over recent years has, understandably, been dominated by key meta‐narrative of our time – the way in which digital technologies have revolutionised virtually all aspects of professional practice. It is, however, also understandable that this attention has not been equally devoted to each element of the workplace or the profession. The exigencies involved in delivering state‐of‐the‐art content and services have meant that some not‐so‐immediately pressing aspects of professional practice have received less attention than previously. One of these, arguably, is that of career development. Despite ongoing pockets of interest the related areas of career development and continuing professional development have struggled to maintain the profile they enjoyed in previous years, and they have not been fully reconceptualised to incorporate new, digitally enabled possibilities.

In Building Your Library Career with Web 2.0 Julia Gross sets out to update career development practice for a web‐based world. It is a task Gross is extremely well placed to perform, having worked for over three decades in public, special and academic libraries, and with long‐established interests in both information technologies and career development. As the book's title indicates, the focus is on the benefits (and occasional hazards) of web‐based social networking (web 2.0), and the way in which it can be used by individuals to enhance their professional profile and career prospects. Gross does not argue that the fundamentals of career development have radically changed – as she notes in the Preface “professional development, networking and marketing – [remain] the cornerstones of career development” (p. xvi) – but she does stress that the ways in which these “cornerstones” are built upon has been permanently changed by the advent of social networking.

The scope of the book and the nature of the discussion are such that it would make a useful introduction to web 2.0 (or library 2.0) and social networking generally, irrespective of a reader's interest in career development. Very little is taken for granted, with all key concepts being carefully described and/or defined, and with clear accounts of the uses that are likely to be made of social networking services by both libraries and individuals. The same is also true of the important elements of career development, with the book providing concise introductions to the principles and benefits of marketing, networking, mentoring, lifelong learning and other established pathways to career development. These two elements of the book are in turn brought together through each of the nine chapters, as Gross explains the ways in which information professionals can exploit social networking to open up far richer career development opportunities than was possible in a pre‐web 2.0 world. She makes full use of her own experiences to provide tips and guidelines on how users can optimise the benefits of various web‐based services to establish networks and build a profile.

If the book goes into any new territory in its nexus between career development and web technologies it is in the area of “personal branding”. The emphasis Gross develops is on the career aspirant creating a marketable identity for him/herself, and this entails building a personal brand that can be promoted in cyberspace. This concept of the personal brand helps us understand the approach to career development favoured by Gross – it is about taking a proactive approach to developing and broadcasting a professional identity, and in the web 2.0 world this means using a “brand” to represent the individual to the world through the myriad social networking opportunities. Gross acknowledges that this is a process that not everyone will be comfortable with. As she writes, “In my experience LIS professionals and librarians are not good at marketing, particularly self‐marketing and promotion” (p. 56), but her encouragement is to lose the modesty that was encapsulated in the traditional, static CV or resume, and instead hawk a more dynamic, ambitious self to the global marketplace.

It probably goes without saying – why else write the book? – that Gross is an advocate of the benefits of the technologically enhanced approach to career building. The only serious downside to which she gives much attention comes in a chapter on privacy. While Gross does not dismiss the privacy risks associated with personal promotion in cyberspace, she argues that these risks need to be understood in the context of a world in which near ubiquitous access to digital networks has already changed the way individuals understand and approach privacy. She goes on to explore the concept of the “digital footprint” and explain various means by which privacy issues can be managed or mitigated.

While it requires a degree of “buy‐in” in terms of the general approach to self‐promotion that is being advocated, this is nonetheless a straightforward and commonsense book that provides a wealth of useful information. One of its virtues lies in the very direct and concise style of the writing and presentation that will be welcomed by readers looking for guidance on how they might embark upon a new phase in their career. Building Your Library Career with Web 2.0 is recommended, not only to the digital natives with an open mind to the possibilities of personal branding and virtual career building, but also to more established and possibly timid mid‐career practitioners looking to renovate their professional presence.