Leveling the Professional Development Playing Field

Tribal college librarians comprise a unique group of library professionals who typically serve in a dual role as both academic librarians and public librarians. Most tribal college libraries are the only library in their respective tribal community, and thus they serve the information needs of both their academic clientele and those of the general public. Additionally, their location in tribal communities necessitates that these library professionals have a deep cultural understanding and appreciation in order to work effectively with their largely Native clientele, whether they themselves are Native or not. This chapter describes the unique professional development needs of tribal college librarians and successful efforts to meet these needs. Advice on grant writing, tips and information on grant seeking with a look towards future trends is also provided.

Professional Development Needs and Resources for Government Document Librarians

Few accredited library science programs offer more than one class on government resources or librarianship. As a result, government documents librarians often receive limited formal education focused on federal, state, or local government resources. The majority of professionals working with these materials drew from a number of additional resources, including networking, listserves, conferences, and webinars, to supplement their knowledge, stay abreast of changes in the field, and contribute to the professional community. As with other areas of librarianship, access to these options is limited by economic factors. Individuals working with government materials face reduced budgets for travel, registration, and lodging. Limited staffing makes taking time off for conferences difficult, and additional duties make it challenging for many librarians to find time to engage in classes or webinars. This chapter looks at previous surveys and the results of a new survey to determine the current obstacles, needs, and opportunities for government documents librarians.

What Do Library Workers Want From Professional Conferences?

What do library workers want from professional conferences? This question was the subject of a nationwide online survey administered to a randomly selected audience of library workers. Survey results showed that most library workers attend conferences, and their preferences were for face-to-face, topical events. The primary consideration for event attendance according those responding to the survey was the content presented. Issues of cost were also highly important to respondents, although funding for professional development was reported to be generally stable or even increasing. Of lesser interest to potential conference attendees were issues of location, vendor interaction, or the opportunity to perform committee work. Some future trends predicted include a growing acceptance of virtual events, a declining importance on location-based events like state library association conferences, and a need to review the roles of vendors and exhibitors in conferences.

Contrasting Professional Development and Continuing Education Opportunities for Library Professionals

By design or not, most librarians restrict their professional organization involvement to professional librarian organizations. Limiting professional involvement to only library related organizations will not provide the depth of professional knowledge that today’s librarian needs to have in order to keep up with the requirements of the profession. Library budgets and funding have been slashed due to economic downturns, and patrons are turning to libraries for assistance with a variety of concerns that libraries did not have to address in previous times. Reaching beyond the scope of the profession, librarians can broaden their knowledge base and use that broader knowledge base to benefit their patrons and communities.

Free or Externally Funded Professional Development for Frugal Librarians

Librarians need professional development opportunities even during difficult economic times with limited library budgets. Fortunately, creative and frugal librarians are finding external funding for professional development, and benefiting from free or low-cost professional development tools and opportunities. Many of these frugal solutions are online. Social media, bookmarking services, e-learning platforms like WebJunction and Lyrasis, listservs, and webinars are all explored as such online solutions. Conference scholarships, interdepartmental cooperation, and community partnerships are also ways to provide free or externally funded professional development.

Moving Beyond the One-Shot for Professional Development

Conference presentations and vendor demonstrations are valuable, and these options often seem more economical as well. However, the benefits that can be gained for an individual and the institution from attending an intensive institute cannot be underestimated. Among the benefits of an intensive institute are gaining more in-depth knowledge about the topic, learning and collaborating more through the extended schedule, greatly enhanced opportunities for networking and learning from peers, and taking part in a learning community. This chapter will discuss these benefits and others. Just as research shows that semester-long courses can be more effective for developing information literacy skills than one-shot library instruction sessions, intensive institutes can provide a much richer professional development opportunity than an hour-long conference presentation. For adult learners, this type of environment can be much more valuable for short-term and long-term benefits.

Shifting to a Needs-Based Continuing Education Model

This chapter details how the South Central Kansas Library System (SCKLS) moved from a traditional continuing education model toward a needs-based model. The needs assessment process is detailed, as well as the process for implementing and managing this major change in professional development delivery. Analysis and assessment of the change in model will be presented. Practicalities and future directions will be discussed in order to provide direction to other interested institutions.

International Library Conferences

This chapter provides information on international conferences and the reasons librarians should consider attending and presenting at professional conferences outside of their home countries. There are significant benefits for libraries and librarians who choose to venture abroad for professional development opportunities. Professional rejuvenation, networking opportunities, dissemination of information and the ability to see new perspectives on librarianship are just a few of the reasons librarians choose to attend international conferences. Methods and tools for selecting conferences focusing on librarianship and other disciplines are discussed in detail. The difficulties of attending conferences in distant lands is examined, including ways to mitigate costs, get buy-in and support from colleagues and administrators, receive funding, and the planning needed to make any international conference venture satisfying, rewarding, and memorable.

Assessing a Statewide Professional Development Effort

State library associations across the country spend a considerable amount of time and effort providing professional development events and activities for library staffs within their realm of influence. Most of the activities are assessed as to attendee satisfaction, venue attributes or speaker(s) effectiveness. Assessment activities related to these types of outcomes are typically aimed at providing satisfaction of effort for a very diverse set of employees with a wide range of interests. Making programming decisions based on these assessments is critical to receiving ongoing support for future and potential events and activities. This chapter covers techniques for assessing a range of professional development activities on a statewide level in order to plan effectively for future development opportunities and needs.

Professional Development Opportunities Provided by Consortia

Continuing education for librarians and library staff is a need all libraries must consider for the effective professional development of their human resources and the functioning of their libraries. Similar concerns regarding the needs and barriers to obtaining ongoing continuing education are found across different types of libraries and in different regions of the country. Although studied separately and in different regions of the country, among concerns of library school media specialists documented in studies, results are similar to those revealed in a survey of Inland Northwest Library Council (INCOL) librarians in public, academic, and special libraries. Consortia offering continuing education are not well documented in the literature, but examples that exist reveal a feasible, collaborative, effective resource as a means to provide for these needs in member libraries. The history of these consortia is not only important as a means of documentation of their existence, but more so of their value and usefulness proven over a long time period. INCOL, in the Inland Northwest region of the Pacific Northwest of the United States, is a model of such a consortium that continues to be relevant after more than 30 years of offering ongoing continuing education to its constituency.