Building Your Personal Learning Network (PLN): 21st-Century School Librarians Seek Self-Regulated Professional Development Online

For school librarians, being part of a "connected" community provides support for getting specific needs met, solving personally relevant and meaningful problems, and developing professional expertise. AASL provides many avenues for members of the profession to learn with and from one another. These include AASL and subgroup electronic discussion lists, eCOLLAB for webinars <www.ala.org/aasl/ecollab>, the recently launched blog on the "Knowledge Quest" website <http://knowledgequest.aasl.org>, and the Twitter hashtag #aasl. State-level, university-based, and independent groups of school librarians have also formed communities of practice (CoP) in the online environment (Wenger 1998). Through regular contact with one another, participants in these CoPs learn from one another, develop shared meanings through exchanging ideas and information, and enculturate one another into the ever-evolving profession of school librarianship. This article describes how school librarians can use electronic discussion lists, webinars, blogs, and social media networks such as Twitter to share ideas and information and connect with colleagues. Further, the author briefly discusses findings from a study that aimed to determine whether venues such as Twitter groups offer information that can help professors keep their fingers on the pulse of the profession and practice lifelong learning.