Nothin but a Ning!

I literally had no idea what I wanted to discuss this week for my blog. Last week, I attempted to request the email delivery of two articles that were never emailed to me. One of the articles focused on Black Librarianship, and as an African American woman, I was very interested to read it. Since that idea fell through, I decided to just Google Black Librarians. I ended up finding a Ning that was pretty cool. The name of the Ning is Black Librarian Nation and it has been created to give African American Librarians a place to network, and share their experiences in the field.

Ning is one example of a growing number of sites that allow you to create a social network for a specific audience around practically any interest, group, or activity (Rosenfield, 2008). Ning has great potential value as an educational tool, especially for professional development and building professional connections (Rosenfield, 2008).

For my Library Administration & Management course we we’re required to join a Ning. While I appreciate my professor introducing us to Nings, I wish she would have required us to use it more. Once I set the page up, I never went back to add friends or really make the most of it and as a result I no longer remember my username or password! I am not blaming my professor, as my lack of motivation/interest for the Ning is the direct result of my forgetting the login info.

The Outcome: I signed up for Black Librarian Nation and was impressed that I wasn’t accepted right away. I had to wait until I was approved by the creator of the Ning itself which was surprising. When I think back on it, my professor had to add/ or invite us to her Ning before we could join it. Now that I am an official member of the Black Librarian Nation Ning, my initial excitement has decreased. I became a member Monday evening, today is Wednesday and I haven’t been to the BLN Ning since then. Does this mean that the Ning is bad, NO; I just have a very short attention span in regards to networking sites.

Reference

Rosenfield, E. (2008). Expanding your professional network with nings. Teacher Librarian, 35 (3), 1-2.