Professional Development while in Grad School (and beyond...)

You may be thinking that this is a slightly redundant page. After all, isn't the whole point of being in graduate school to prepare for a professional career? True, but...

In the rapidly changing world of information science "keeping up" takes more than just completing 42 credits. What can you do to stay on top of current and developing topics?

Join a Professional Organization

To begin with, check out and join the student chapters of the national and state organizations. Student memberships are relatively inexpensive and come with a host of benefits.

This year's (2007-2008) officers for SIS chapters are:

ALA (American Library Association:)

President - Sarah Hilker, shilker@utk.edu,

Vice President - Krishna Adams, Krishna.adams@gmail.com

Secretary - Josh Hogan, jhogan7@utk.edu

Treasurer - Emily Kramer, ekramer1@utk.edu,

Faculty Advisor - Dr. Bharat Mehra

SIS Page: www.sis.utk.edu/organizations/ala

ASIS&T (American Society for Information Science & Technology:)

Chair - Allison Bassett, abassett@utk.edu

Vice Chair - Bo Link, jlink2@utk.edu

Treasurer - Melanie Taylor, mtaylo43@utk.edu

Faculty Advisor – Dr. Dania Bilal

SLA (Special Libraries Association:)

President: Cheryl Cranick, ccranick@gmail.com

Vice President: Jason Roberts, jsroberts@gmail.com

Secretary: Erin Dominick, edominic@utk.edu

Treasurer: Melissa Rawlston, melissarawlston@yahoo.com

Faculty Advisor - Dr. Pemberton

TLA (Tennessee Library Association):

President - Jamie Osborn, josbor10@utk.edu

Vice President - Anna Leah Keene, akeene1@utk.edu

Secretary - Jackie Porter, jporte13@utk.edu

Treasurer - Sammy Owens, sowens@utk.edu

DE liason - Robbi De Peri, rdeperi@utk.edu

Faculty Advisor –Dr. Bill Robinson

Don't forget: If you live in another state, feel free to join your own state's library association.

Attend a Conference

Participate in a Practicum

Take Advantage of the Mentoring Program

Professional Blogs, RSS Feeds and Journals

Enroll in a CEU Class

Listen to Related Podcasts

Bookmark (and share via Del.icio.us perhaps?) interesting and relevant articles and websites

Take part in a "Five Weeks to a Social Library" learning experience.