16 free chances to learn something new in June!

Arm your professional development arsenal!  Check out the Open Education Database (OEDb) website, which has posted 16 free webinars relevant to librarians.  All the listed webinars are hosted by a variety of organizations throughout the month of June.  Topic selections include:

• MOOCs (massively open online courses)
• Data-driven decision making
• E-books
• Customer service
• Digital collection development

This is just a taste of the course offerings, so if you don't see anything interesting above, please peruse the comprehensive list here.

NLM Professional Development Awards

Are you interested in attending a conference or workshop that you may not have attended before?  The National Libraries of Medicine, Mid-Continental Region, is giving out four professional development awards of up to $1,500 each for the 2013-2014 year.  These awards are geared toward librarians' continued education in the field and proposals must meet some basic requirements:

• Before you apply for the Professional Development Award, please work with your administration to determine, 1) what would be applicable for your position, 2) how it can benefit your institution, and 3) your responsibility within your institution to share your experiences with higher level administration. Document these items in your application. (Question #6)
• Attendance at the conference must take place before April 30, 2014.
• Funds can be used for registration and/or travel.
• This award is intended for educational purposes only, and not for use with professional organization officer/committee commitments.
• Your responsibility to the Mid-Continental Region will be to share your experiences through a newsletter article, presentation, or a way mutually agreed upon with the NN/LM MCR.
• Recipients for the 2013-2014 year will be targeted toward four librarians.
• The applicant's institution must be a Full Network member of the Mid-Continental Region and the applicant must hold a health science library position.

For more information and to see past years' winners, go here.

Interested in applying?  Then, go forth and good luck!

Update from PD Budget team! Read carefully!

The Professional Development Budget Team (Stacey and Rachel G.) would like to make a few important announcements:

•  If you are planning to request funds between now and June 30 (for travel, mileage reimbursements, workshops, etc.), please get those requests to us no later than Monday, May 6.  To make a request, follow this link and select “add a new request". It is very important we get an accurate assessment of all anticipated expenses coming due before the end of the fiscal year.

• We have requested a slot on the agenda for the May 14 all-staff meeting, and will be contacting some of you to provide a brief update on your recent professional development activities. 

•  Stacey is working on a wiki page to outline some details regarding the Book Club, in part to help us determine how much money to set aside for this popular activity in the new fiscal year (which starts July 1st, 2013!).  Page is still under development but the underlying guidelines should stay the same so please take a moment to visit it and familiarize yourself with the process if you are interested in leading a book club session.

If you have any feedback or questions, please let us know.  Thanks!