As many people know, I have ankle that sometimes gives me a hard time. I slipped a few years back and found myself unable to walk for 6 weeks. With a little care, a fantastic doctor, and a relentless physical therapist I began walking. After 6 months I was walking pretty well, but I still had a limp. I had to struggle to keep up with others who were simply walking at the pace of the world around them and often found myself falling behind.

Things are better now. I can keep up pretty well most of the time. First there was physical therapy. I really disliked it; it’s painful and I had to go 3 times a week for an hour each time. At the end, though, I was walking. Some time later, when I realized I wasn’t seeing much progress, I joined a gym. I’d go at least 3 times a week and do exercises to strengthen my ankle and improve its flexibility. Soon I walking in 5K’s and walking without a limp. I could keep up again.

Sometimes I think that keeping up with changes in technology and library services can be like it was when I still had that limp. There are times I feel like we are struggling to keep up with the pace of the library world. We are regularly facing the implementation of new technologies and new ways to provide services. How do we keep up with the pace and NOT fall behind? Someone asked me that question just the other day. My answer? It’s like joining a gym. This time, though, it’s not about my ankle or other physical health, it’s about the health of my career.

My career physical therapy includes:

1. Journal articles: I use the EBSCO Alert to send me library-related articles in my areas of interest. When the alert arrives each month, I look at the titles and abstracts, then save/print the articles I want to read completely in a folder. I take this folder with me to read through articles when I travel or when I know I will have some downtime (waiting rooms, lines, jury duty, airports, etc.). It is not usually a very big folder; I’m selective about what I save since I know time is limited.

2. Library Weblogs: I use RSS to feed my favorite library-related blogs to a newsreader. Once a day I will scan through the headlines of new posts to those blogs (my RSS reader shows the headlines so I can easily scan through all).

3. Professional Journals/Organizations: It is my personal opinion that membership in professional organizations is a must. I participate in activities, when possible, of the associations and their divisions that pertain to my professional interests. I put their newsletters in my “read” folder (see item #1) and scan through them.

My goal in reading and reviewing the sources outlined above is not to understand every bit of information. It is, instead, to be aware. By keeping aware, I will have a head start later on in case it is something that does require I learn about it in more depth. The advantage is that I am not then starting from scratch; I’ve already had the heads-up on the issue from earlier scanning.

Doing these things, I believe, is like going to the gym. It takes a small amount of time, but it is necessary if I want to keep up with those around me.