Keeping Busy – Professional Development

As in-person training, events, conferences will not be able to go ahead for the foreseeable future, below are links to free, online things you can do to keep up your professional development.

Catch up on your professional reading – our guide to accessing research from the LIS field easily and for free

Articles and Essays from the Association for Scottish Literary Studies – an index of articles, essays, conference papers and other material on Scottish literature and language.

IFLA Continuing Professional Development and Workplace Learning – especially recordings of past webinars

Librarian Support Real-Time sessions – free professional development for librarians during the pandemic. Every Tuesday and Thursday live online (1-2pm UK time) join library professionals from across the world sharing their expertise.

Microsoft Word – brush up on your Microsoft Word skills and discover some new tips you might not have known about.

Microsoft Excel – training on the basics of Microsoft Excel. Additionally, you can find courses on using Excel here. There are free and paid courses but many of the paid ones are not too expensive.

FutureLearn – there are loads of MOOCs available on FutureLearn and you can take the majority of them for free. As well as pursuing anything of interest to you, there are a number of courses that could provide useful professional development for library and information professionals. Below are a few to get you started but explore the website and we are sure you will lots more of interest:

• Introduction to GDPR
• Systematic Literature Review: An Introduction
• Prepare to Run a Code Club
• Build a Makerspace for Young People
• Collaboration, Communication, and Remote Working
• Introduction to Cyber Security
• Creating Digital Content
• Wellbeing and Resilience at Work
• Digital Skills: Social Media

There are also lots of online resources that you can use to improve your social media and other digital skills for example:

• Google Digital Garage – a number of courses on topics ranging from digital marketing and coding to digital wellbeing and improving productivity
• Google Analytics – a number of courses on how to use Google Analytics, Googles measurement tool.
• HubSpot Academy Email Marketing – a free course in email marketing
• HubSpot Video Marketing – a free course on using video to improve engagement
• HubSpot Social Media – a free course on using social media effectively. Also, check out HubSpot’s resources on different social media channels
• edX Courses – a number of free courses available on marketing including on social media and marketing analytics
• Buffer Social Media and Marketing Courses – 37 courses on improving your skills
• Coursera Introduction to User Experience Design – learn about creating an interface that is user centred
• Coursera Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) Fundamentals – learn about search engine algorithms and how to create an effective SEO strategy

Learning resources from Scottish Book Trust – help for educators