Submitted by admin on Thu, 05/23/2013 - 9:07am
Finding Inspiration from Within: Harnessing Your Library’s Knowledge for Professional Development Programming
Carissa Tomlinson, First Year Experience Librarian, Towson University- Albert S. Cook Library, Towson, MD
- Internal professional development is necessary to keep up with new technologies & changes within the library field
- Librarian roles are shifting; we’re going from primarily “reference librarian” to a multitude of other job descriptions & duties
- How do we stay current as our jobs & responsibilities change?
- The presenters propose an internal professional development program utilizing the peer learning model (reciprocal helping relationship between individuals of comparable status; we’re teaching each other & learning from each other)
- The transfer of institutional memory & knowledge management are very important
- What could an internal program look like?
- Workshops, seminars, directed reading, journal clubs, peer mentoring
- “Teach Around”: 2-3 librarians teach for 20-30 minutes each
- This program is held 2 times during the semester and monthly during the summer
- Topics are decided upon by librarians
- All librarians at Cook University considered this program to be beneficial to their professional development
- This program builds collegiality & improves communication
- Cook University began a Staff Development Committee at their library; it is focused on librarians
