Practice Self-Promotion

Mary Ellen Bates showed this slide in a presentation at SLA 2011.

Take a look at this cool project called Show Me the Awesome on the Stacked blog. It's all about "30 days of self-promotion." 

According to the project's full details, "During the month of May, library/librarian type bloggers are being welcomed to join in by posting about anything relating to self-promotion, be it a project they've worked on ... or be it talking about the topic of self-promotion itself." So there are 30 different posts you can read, all described and linked from this main page.

Here at The M Word, we believe in promoting ourselves, our work, our books, and our presentations. What good are they if nobody knows about them or reads about them or shares links to them? There is absolutely nothing wrong with doing this, but I'm sad to say that most librarians are not in the habit of promoting themselves, their expertise, their libraries, or their profession. Hopefully, reading what others have been doing will spur you to share something good about your own work.

Some easy ways to do this:

* Post a paper, article, or presentation you did.

* Post photos of your work, a conference trip, or even a before-and-after set of something you accomplished.

* Tell a non-librarian friend about something you did or a challenge you overcame.

* Write a note to your boss about something you're proud of.

From the Library Advocacy Store

* Wear a t-shirt that proclaims your pride in librarianship.

* Share fun library memes outside of your library world (or create your own). 

* Tell people about an award you've been nominated for.

* When you manage to increase attendance or circulation or usage of any sort, shout about it.

* After you've helped someone with a reference question, say so. I know one librarian on Facebook who posts things that always end with the same line. Example: "Patron new in town needed to find local social services offices. I printed a map and pointed him to each office he needed, as well as the Post Office and coffee shops. He left more happy and less stressed. Yes, libraries do that!"

There is no sense in toiling in obscurity. And you don't need to win some big award before speaking up. Just share some of your everyday awesome-ness!