As it happens, I've been considering these issues quite a bit with regard to my sideline in handmade jewellery, but it's quite different when it comes to libraries. I have to admit that I tend to avoid putting photos of myself on my profile in social networking sites for reasons of privacy, but in a professional context I can see that it's useful for people to be able to recognize your face. To that end, I've updated my LinkedIn profile and added a recent photo (we've just had staff ones done for the website, so I've just used one of those). I've also changed my name to Beth Paton to match my current email. I tend to keep my professional and personal stuff separate, but I try not to make the professional profile sound contrived so it still sounds like me.
Looking myself up on Google was a bit interesting - my Google profile came up straight away, and my entry on Libguides came up quite early on the list. When I looked up my full name, Elizabeth Paton, however, it came up with information about a servant of the famous poet Robert Burns! I may have to investigate the connection in case my husband is actually descended from those Patons...
But I digress - I think I could be more active on Twitter and LinkedIn to make myself more visible, and to attend more networking events organized by groups like CILIP. Networking online is good, but you can improve your connections with people by meeting them face to face as well and then keeping in touch online.
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