My recent research into finding additional cost-free alternatives for earning continuing education credits has lead me quite unexpectedly back to libraryjournal.com itself. Although, I have certain personal issues with this particular publication and probably would have never discovered it by simply visiting their homepage, a meandering google search eventually revealed Library Journal's relatively new online offerings called Webcasts. These 'webcasts' as they are referred to are essentially no different from other webinars or virtual conferences most people have already participated in at one point or another. They run roughly an hour long in length and concentrate on a variety of relevant issues pertaining to libraries and librarianship.
Upon my discovery of this resource, to test the waters I quickly registered for their program, Data for a Downturn Economy, which basically offered a crash course into the myriad uses and inner workings of the US Bureau of Economic Analysis' site, bea.gov/, the old statistical workhorse, fedstats.gov, and the newly launched as of May 2009, data.gov, set to serve as fedstats' more sophisticated and comprehensive future replacement.
For those of us who missed their previous offerings, well over a dozen past webcasts have also been archived and can be registered for the same way that their upcoming live webcasts are offered. During the short registration process, you will notice a line immediately following the contact information fields to be checked off if you're interested in receiving "confirmation of participation for professional development hours". This confirmation comes in the form of a pdf certificate delivered to your inbox the following day which officially documents your participation in that Webcast. However, this option might only be applicable to the live webcasts, since my successful participation in an archived event has not yet resulted in me receiving a certificate. The other advantage of attending the live webcasts is the option to actually participate in the webcast by way of either making comments or posing questions via an embedded chat box resembling an instant messaging console.
To view LJ's current list of upcoming and archived webcasts, check out:
http://www.libraryjournal.com/webcasts
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