Creating an Online Presence

One of the things I've been beat over the head with over the last couple of years is the idea that in order to get anywhere you want career-wise in life, anywhere at all, you must create and maintain an online presence for yourself. There's a lot of wisdom in this assertion, and it's something I'm in the process of trying to do for sure. However, coming from a girl who has been halfheartedly trying to fill up the same paper journal since her 18th birthday - to be fair, I'm about 80% of the way there now - the idea of creating and maintaining a niche for yourself online that is creative, innovative, flattering, and professional yet full of your own personality is an almost insurmountable challenge. Even keeping this blog regularly has proved, at least over the last brutal quarter or two, to be more than I can handle.

When I check out the personal websites of people in professional positions I covet, at first glance, it doesn't look like it'd be too difficult at all to set up something similarly streamlined and professional-looking for myself! Minimalist webpage with my name as the URL, buttons to all my other social networking sites readily available (Facebook, Twitter, blog, my as-yet-non-existent Tumblr, the LinkedIn profile I haven't updated in at least a year, etc.), my resume and contact info, a mission statement, quirky About Me section, and what will hopefully eventually be a long list of projects I've worked on and/or contributed to in some significant way. But then, after thinking about it a little more, I realize that creating this online presence is kind of like getting in shape: the initial uphill struggle of setting everything up is a total bitch, while maintaining it comes more easily with a lot of time and practice, neither of which I've given much thought to over the past couple years.

I think part of it stems from the topic I addressed in my last post. I don't really know yet where I'd specifically like to end up. I know without a doubt that my primary goal is to work with people - my greatest joy in a workplace environment comes with bringing diverse people and personalities together and helping their creative gears turn smoothly by anticipating and filling needs. I'm not creative in the way that encourages individual creation of art or music or a product, but I'm a creative interpersonal problem-solver, and I also really enjoy finding people the information they need at any given time. I'd like to work with people who create, and who are passionate about what they do, since I am passionate about working with people like that. Only problem with this? I've never been in a position to do any kind of project management, and thus don't have a sexy Projects or Professional Involvement list to include on my resume.

So why not network, you say! Use the influence you gain via Twitter or other online media to create those kinds of opportunities for yourself! Easier said than done, I reply. At the moment, I am following 266 people on Twitter and have 171 followers myself (@katie_westlake). I've got this blog, which I try and update at least once every month or so, and there's always the myriad of other more subtle social networking methods you can use, like interacting with people over Facebook or Google+. And many of the networking opportunities I've participated in in the past (the lovely #libchat discussion that goes on every Wednesday on Twitter, for example) aren't as open to me as they once were because my focus is shifting further and further away from library work and more into...unknown territory. Much of the networking available to me right now is library-centric, and I feel a bit unsure as to how to proceed when I see questions geared around "In your library...", or when networking or professional development events pop up in my school email that are designed for job searching in the library world.

All that being said, I'm going to try and work a lot harder on developing and maintaining a solid online presence for myself. I'll recruit all the help I need to build an awesome website to showcase my accomplishments, whatever they'll eventually be, and I'll be posting a lot more on this blog, Twitter, and Google+. Might even start up a Tumblr, if it wouldn't be too hipster-y of me. The danger of doing this, of course, is figuring out how much of myself I can include in these things without being seen as unprofessional, but that's for another post. Right now, it's off to check the discussion boards for 580 and do some reading for INFX 543.

What a weekend

Before I sink into an episode or two of Dr. Who, ladies and gentlemen, my weekend:

I started my weekend off with a late-night show at the Funhouse. One of my cohort members is in The Lights, a pretty rad Seattle band, and they were playing a "last show for a very long time" set Friday night. I've never been to the Funhouse before, so I recruited a couple friends to come with me and spent the night alternately rocking out to The Lights, making fun of their crazy opening act (PartMan PartHorse - just...you know what? Google them. The pictures will explain everything.), and trying to avoid creepy drunken men.

After a restful 4 hours of sleep, I headed to Lake WA Technical College for Day One of my motorcycle certification course. The riding was a lot of fun, but would probably have gone better had it not been snowing the entire time we were out there. Trying to do anything more complicated with my hands than opening them and closing them turned out to be pretty hard, and over 24 hours later I still haven't regained full sensation in a few of my fingertips. Hoping that goes away eventually...

The cold, my overall comfort level going into Day Two, and my now phlegmtastic head cold all contributed to my decision earlier this morning to head to the college but defer my test to another time. I was starting to really get the basic maneuvering towards the end of yesterday's riding session (and I aced the written test), but I didn't feel quite comfortable with my skills to dive into the more complicated maneuvers like swerving we would have done today, so I think I'll wait and practice on my own a bit more before heading into the test. Still planning on financing a bike or buying one outright on CL in the semi-near future though, so I'm not too disappointed. I just like learning at my own pace - especially when it comes to any sort of brain --> basic motor skills task. As my cohort members might say, I'm definitely not a bodily/kinesthetic learner. *rimshot*

Speaking of school, I'm actually starting to see a light at the end of the long, dark, scary tunnel that has been this quarter! My 520 group put together and turned in a kick-ass Top Ten Reference Sources for Independent Filmmakers list earlier today, and despite several technological snafus, I was able to record and post my Twittorial for 560! Here's a link to it if anyone's interested. I was really bummed about a couple glitches in my slides. In the 2nd slide, I'd successfully embedded a hyperlink, but forgot it probably wouldn't translate when using a screen capture recording program. I had also recorded a short video that was designed to play during one of my slides, but for whatever reason, it wasn't working when I tried to play the slide show. I managed to execute a last-minute solution, but I was still sad that I'd figured out something cool, but my system wouldn't allow it to happen.

Okay, time to go. Theraflu and Dr. Who are beckoning me towards a much needed break.

I like lists

Observations of the evening:

1. Cranberry juice mixed with ginger ale is a glorious beverage.
2. Reading an article that outlines a particular information seeking model through the use of diagrams becomes slightly more difficult when the diagrams refuse to load on the page.
3. While HTML tagging makes the little OCD gremlin in my brain insanely happy, figuring out how to write a web page mostly from scratch (Thanks, Selena!) and making sure every link I input does its job makes me a little dizzy. But hey. At least there's one more exceedingly classy website out there with my name on it. ^_^
4. There is an incredible sense of pride in finishing a website design project on time. There is an incredible sense of confusion when the online drop-box for said project does not exist.
5. I love folding laundry. Especially when it allows me to put off doing homework.
6. I'm sensing a bit of a disconnect between what I seize on for discussion in the articles I read for 510, and what everyone else in my discussion group wants to talk about.
7. Having the librarians who agreed to be interviewed for a massive information behavior project email me to volunteer a good time and place is great. That their proposed interview date is November 24th (a whole five days before the entire project is due) is not great. Time to regroup.
8. The heater in our apartment works great until the apartment is heated. Then the angry fan clanking noises start.
9. Cats don't like candles.
10. I still need to put together my Halloween costume. Crap.
11. Skype has taken over the internet.
12. I don't actually have a twelfth observation. I just don't like ending lists on odd numbers.

That is all!

Phew.

Weeeeeeeell, as expected, it only took a couple of days for the first mild panic attack to set in. I decided tonight that I was going to make my first real attempt at productivity and jump headfirst into the discussion boards for LIS 500, and oh lordy did I feel like a fish out of water.

I think the root of my problem lies in the fact that thus far, I've tried to do everything digitally to cut down on the reams of paper I'd otherwise be going through. Reading the PDFs online and taking notes via Microsoft Word, as it turns out, just doesn't have the same impact as the studying and review I did all through undergrad, because I couldn't turn to the articles while brainstorming discussion question answers. I hadn't marked them up with underlining and highlighting like I normally do, so when searching for relevant points, I got kinda lost. And trying to decipher the paragraph long comments people kept leaving definitely didn't help the confusion, so I wound up having my first real "What in holy hell have I gotten myself into?" moment. I started feeling a little better after sitting back and taking a few deep breaths, and put together a pretty awesome Introductory Powerpoint for LIS 510 (albeit slightly over the 5 minute limit), then when I decided to upload it to Screencast via Camtasia Relay, I find that Screencast has randomly crashed. *insert hyperventilating here*

At this point in the evening, I'm tired, I'm grumpy, I'm confused, and I'm really hoping a good night's sleep will help clear my head. I may have to rethink my strategy a bit when it comes to how I'll be doing my reading from now on. We've been told time and time again that this quarter will be the hardest, since we'll have to readjust our way of thinking and doing things quite a bit, and I certainly hope that's true. If not, I'm just going to have to suck it up and step it up. Can't take over the library world with online stage fright, right?

But for now, sleep sounds pretty great.

P.S. I've been doing laundry all evening, and I just noticed for the first time that there's a setting on our dryer for "Optimum Dry". But for whatever reason, there's an option right above it for "More Dry". Why is that there? Wouldn't "Optimum Dry" be the optimum option? I am confused.