How professional networks can help us

When I came across the term "professional network" years ago, I didn't pay too much attention to it. In my previous life as a journalist, I had taken for granted the contacts that I had built up - in fact, they sort of built up themselves. Starting a new career in the media centre, however, I quickly realised that I needed a new network of professionals. Fortunately, I was able to join Infolink, which meant in an instance, I had a connection to many librarians around the country. And closer to home, our Midlands group of librarians meets once a term at different school each time, so we get to visit each other's libraries and share knowledge, support and advice. At our meeting this term, we:

• discussed next year's library conference, 
• shared our schools' professional development structures, 
• watched a video on an Australian school's new learning hub, 
• swapped books,
• vented about our library computer systems, and 
• and shared our strategies on how to get students to return books!

Often working on our own or not being part of a larger department, being a librarian can be a lonely job. Some of us like it like that! But still, it's good to know we have people to turn to, even if it is just to moan about computer systems...