{"id":34930,"date":"2014-08-22T12:30:17","date_gmt":"2014-08-22T17:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=34930"},"modified":"2014-08-22T12:22:33","modified_gmt":"2014-08-22T17:22:33","slug":"7-of-my-favorite-professional-development-websites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=34930","title":{"rendered":"7 of My Favorite Professional Development Websites"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Sean O’Brien, former Head Editor, INALJ Colorado<\/a>
\npreviously published 8\/6\/13<\/em><\/p>\n

7 of My Favorite Professional Development Websites<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"seano1\"<\/a>Summer is here, and that means we\u2019ve probably all got a little bit of extra free time.\u00a0 You could spend that time outside, but why would you want to do that?\u00a0 It\u2019s hot out there, and there are bugs.\u00a0 Enormous, angry bugs.<\/p>\n

Okay, fine, I suppose getting out and seeing some light that didn\u2019t come from an incandescent bulb isn\u2019t the worst thing in the world.\u00a0 Still, I\u2019d like to share some of my favorite free professional development and educational websites that I like to browse when I find myself indoors.\u00a0 Well, indoors and not wasting my time on Reddit, anyway.<\/p>\n

I should note that I\u2019m not going to mention INALJ, simply because I assume you already know about it.<\/p>\n

#7. Prezi<\/strong> (www.prezi.com<\/a>)
\nTired of the same old boring PowerPoint presentations?\u00a0 Well, so is everyone else.\u00a0 Prezi gives you a much greater toolkit than PowerPoint, allowing you to add a little more pizazz to your presentation.\u00a0 I know, presentations as a rule aren\u2019t the most exciting thing in the world, but chances are good that over the lifetime of your career, you\u2019re going to have to make at least one more.\u00a0 Do your audience a favor and spice it up a little.<\/p>\n

#6. WordPress<\/strong> (www.wordpress.org<\/a>)
\nWordPress is a free website creation\/blogging platform that allows you to\u2026 create websites and blogs.\u00a0 Cough<\/i>.\u00a0 Seriously though, it\u2019s a clean, easy-to-use web publishing tool that allows you to set up your own website, blog, or portfolio.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t require any knowledge of HTML or CSS, but you have the option to dig into to the code if you really want to.\u00a0 INALJ runs off WordPress, so there you have it.\u00a0 I\u2019d show you mine but, ah\u2026 it\u2019s not finished yet.<\/p>\n

#5. r\/libraries<\/strong> (http:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/Libraries<\/a>)
\nHa-ha!\u00a0 Just kidding, I\u2019m going to talk about Reddit after all.\u00a0 For those unfamiliar with Reddit, suffice it to say that it is a news and content site driven by user submitted material, links, and posts.\u00a0 The library community, or subreddit, isn\u2019t terribly large, but is still a good place for discussion on library current issues, technologies, and job hunting.\u00a0 Be forewarned if you\u2019re new to the site, however; wandering the other subreddits is not always for the faint of heart.<\/p>\n

#4. TED Talks<\/strong> (www.ted.com<\/a>)
\nOkay, while not strictly related to librarianship or professional development, the TED talks are still something you want to check out.\u00a0 This site is a collection of talks from the annual TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference made freely available online.\u00a0 These talks are interesting, engaging, and professionally made. They cover any topic you can think of, and a number you probably can\u2019t.\u00a0 The other day I watched a talk over why we should build skyscrapers out of wood, so there you go.\u00a0 If you\u2019re looking for an engaging new topic to fuel your imagination or give you something to sound smart in front of your friends, TED is where you need to go.<\/p>\n

#3. Zotero<\/strong> (www.zotero.org<\/a>)
\nZotero!\u00a0 Zotero, Zotero, Zotero.\u00a0 Zotero is a free online tool that helps you keep track of all of your citations.\u00a0 Available as a web plugin, Zotero lets you save any article or website you find online, and allows you to easily create citations within your writing.\u00a0 You can save your citations from anywhere, sync it to the cloud, and share it with colleagues.\u00a0 I have to say, this product has been a huge timesaver over the course of my graduate program.\u00a0 And as an aside, the word \u201cZotero\u201d has now lost all meaning to me.\u00a0 Great.<\/p>\n

#2. LinkedIn<\/strong> (www.linkedin.com<\/a>)
\nI know the phrase \u201csocial networking\u201d gets thrown around a lot, to the point where it joins \u201cZotero\u201d in my personal junkyard of victims to semantic saturation.\u00a0 That being said, social networking, when used properly, can be an extremely useful tool.\u00a0 LinkedIn is my personal professional networking tool of choice, as you can make contacts, join groups, and participate in discussions.\u00a0 The profile is filled out like a resume, and can give out information more useful to employers than your favorite food or band.\u00a0 Be careful about how much information you give out, though, or you may find yourself getting more spam than usual.<\/p>\n

#1. Codecademy<\/strong> (www.codecademy.com<\/a>)
\nI think I may have mentioned Codecademy in a previous post, but I\u2019m bringing it up again.\u00a0 If you\u2019re rusty on HTML and CSS, or you don\u2019t know what those are in the first place, give Codecademy a visit.\u00a0 It offers free online tutorials in all levels of website building, and presents them in a way that is fun and non-intimidating.\u00a0 Plus, it gives you actual projects to work on after you\u2019re finished with the courses, so you can add one more thing to your portfolio.<\/p>\n

There you go!\u00a0 These are just a small offering of the wealth of fantastic free web resources available, and should give you something to do if you\u2019re stuck inside and tired of looking at pictures of cats.\u00a0 Which I, for one, am not and never will be.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Sean O’Brien, former Head Editor, INALJ Colorado previously published 8\/6\/13 7 of My Favorite Professional Development Websites Summer is here, and that means we\u2019ve probably all got a little bit of extra free time.\u00a0 You could spend that time outside, but why would you want to do that?\u00a0 It\u2019s hot out there, and there…<\/p>\n

Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13731,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[145],"tags":[69,3592,3630,6469],"class_list":["post-34930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-article","tag-blog","tag-inalj-colorado","tag-sean-obrein"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/seano1.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1WoMK-95o","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}