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2006Goal II: Education
1 Comment | Posted by Dave in Library Literature, News, Professional Development
With the latest issue of American Libraries comes ALA’s strategic plan, entitled ALA Ahead to 2010. The plan is comprised of six goals, each supplied with a goal statement and strategic objectives.
Here’s goal number two:
Goal Statement: Through its leadership, ALA ensures the highest quality graduate and continuing education opportunities for librarians and library staff.
Strategic Objectives:
- Ensure that accreditation standards reflect the needs and core values of the profession.
- Increase availability of and access to continuing education and continuous learning opportunities for librarians and library staff.
- Make ALA continuing education programs and publications affordable and accessible in a wide variety of media and formats.
- Establish standards for educational programs for library support staff.
I wonder if we all believe that we’re getting the amount of continuing education that we need to stay competent in our jobs. Since we all come from such different angles, I wonder if everyone could chime in about their educational opportunities (or lack there of), and how they measure up to ALA’s goal.
1 Comment for Goal II: Education
Author comment by Dave | February 10, 2006 at 6:25 pm
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I think I’ll piggyback on my own post here.
ALA, as our professional organization, can do two useful things for us trench librarians: 1) create programs and publications themselves, and 2) encourage libraries to act similarly, to create educational opportunities, forums, and publications for their own librarians.
The more crucial of these two is the second. Our workplaces are – 52 weeks of the year – accessible to us, and we will learn more at work than we ever did in our LIS programs. The availability of workshops, training sessions, brown bag discussions, and book talks directly reflects a library’s commitment to educating its employees (be they librarians or “library support staff”). Maybe, too, it reflects their budget.
Even more, we benefit from our colleagues’ knowledge. I’ve given a brown bag presentation, and I’ve attended presentations by others. This tic-tac give-and-take of information among coworkers creates a sense of purpose and cohort that isn’t found in attending conference presentations. And I personally enjoy learning from other librarians more than I enjoy reading an article.